Folks, I know there’s a hurricane slamming Florida. There’s been immense outpourings of charity and compassion for the people of Texas after Harvey. The issues of DACA, health care, and tax reform are going to be the agenda items on The Hill. Yet, this is the eve of Hillary Clinton’s book, What Happened, and we’re learning more about the former first lady and why she’s a two-time loser. Hillary sat down with CBS News’s Jane Pauley over the weekend, where we found out that it took Clinton ten months to figure out why she’s not living in the White House. We found out what she feels was her most important mistake during the 2016 season, why the Trump inauguration triggered her, and why she doesn’t regret calling Trump supporters deplorable.
Hillary described using personal email as her most important error of the campaign, while admitting that she fumbled the ball many times during the campaign. The email issue devolved into an absolute fiasco about whether she mishandled classified information while serving as secretary of state. In that position, it was revealed by The New York Times that all official business was conducted on that account. It led to a criminal FBI investigation that didn’t recommend charges, a controversial decision that rankled Republicans after then-FBI Director James Comey took Clinton and her staff to the woodshed for being more or less negligent in how they handled sensitive material. While there were no Trump campaign ads that were immediately released over Comey’s remarks at the July 5, 2016 presser, it was, as NBC News’ Chuck Todd noted, an indictment of Hillary’s judgment. The damage was done, though this was solely her fault for not following government regulations concerning storing all communications among public officials.
That whole investigation has been riddled with more controversy after it was discovered that Comey drafted an exoneration statement months before the investigation was formally concluded. Yet, Clinton still blames the FBI and Comey for sowing the seeds of her defeat, even after admitting the email trip up and not being able to tailor a message to an incensed and angry 2016 electorate, among other things. She still bashes Bernie Sanders, but Clinton lost. Period. It’s all on her and she still sees fit to blame Biden, Sanders, sexism, the FBI, while also accepting the defeat, saying the fact she couldn’t seal the deal will live with her for the rest of her life.
She also has zero regrets about calling Trump supporters deplorable, citing Trump’s behavior that was accentuated by the Access Hollywood tape that no one cared about. In the video, there’s a hot mic moment where Trump and then-co-host Billy Bush were making some off-color remarks about women.
Pauley and Clinton exchanged a few words about that moment in the campaign, where the CBS anchor noted that by calling Republicans “deplorable,” as Hillary did in September of 2016, she further energized the GOP base. Clinton disagreed with that, saying they were already energized. This was just another political gift to Trump. You mean it was another instance in which you shot yourself in the face, right? Hillary is obviously still shell-shocked over her loss and it will remain that way. The silver lining with all of this Clinton nonsense is that she has declared that she will never run for office again. She’s finished; so long, loser.
Via CBS News:
"You know, after the first of the year, I had a big decision to make. Was I going to go to the inauguration?" she said.
Defeated candidates don't necessarily attend the inauguration, but Clinton was in a unique position.
"But I'm a former first lady, and former presidents and first ladies show up," she said. "It's part of the demonstration of the continuity of our government. And so there I was, on the platform, you know, feeling like an out-of-body experience. And then his speech, which was a cry from the white nationalist gut."
[…]
"I couldn't get the job done, and I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life," Clinton wrote in the memoir.
[…]
"Oh, I think the-- the most important of the mistakes I made was using personal email," Clinton said. A stream of explanations for her decision to use a private email server while she was secretary of state never satisfied critics or the press.
"I've said it before, I'll say it again, that was my responsibility," she said. "It was presented in such a negative way, and I never could get out from under it. And it never stopped.
[…]
The email investigation appeared to be over -- until late October.
[…]
No new improprieties were discovered. But Clinton believes Comey's 11th-hour intrusion cost her the election.
And then there was the harm she believes was done by Bernie Sanders, her fiery populist primary opponent. Clinton writes: "His attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump's 'Crooked Hillary' campaign."
[…]
There were some memorable verbal gaffes, including when she said at a campaign appearance: "You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables."
"Why do you think that word deplorable had been circulating in your mind?" Pauley asked.
"Well, I thought Trump was behaving in a deplorable manner," Clinton said. "I thought a lot of his appeals to voters were deplorable. I thought his behavior, as we saw on the 'Access Hollywood' tape, was deplorable. And there were a large number of people who didn't care. It did not matter to them. And he turned out to be a very effective reality TV star."
Clinton says she thinks her rival's opponents were "already energized" before her "deplorable" comment but conceded: "I'm sorry I gave him a political gift of any kind."
"It was a gift," Pauley said.
"I don't think that was determinative," Clinton said.
Oh yeah–you saw that part about a second home, right?
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