147 minutes with …Huma Abedin

Throughout a public career and marriage, the political confidante has remained poised and silent. She’s ready to change that.

- By Lisa Miller

HUMA ABEDIN AND I have arranged to meet in a West­ Chester parking lot at 10 a.m., and I’m stuck in traffic on the West Side Highway, 31 miles away. Abedin is a lot of things, but first and foremost she has been, for 25 years, the keeper of details, optics, and logistics for Hillary Clinton. She knows it takes 90 min­ utes to do Hillary’s hair and makeup and about ten to walk briskly from Hillary’s old Senate office to the floor. She has wrangled visas, commissioned airplanes, and orga­nized clandestine meetings between Hillary and Barack Obama using decoy cars. No one better comprehends the value of an on­ time arrival than Abedin. Now Siri is recal­culating my arrival time again. East Side, West Side, the roads are a mess. Is it possi­ble that Abedin is stuck in this too?

At 10:01, a text comes through: “Lisa it’s Huma. I’m here in the parking lot.”