Former secretary of state and two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reportedly blames her 2016 presidential election loss on women voters who “abandoned” her.
According to The New York Times, Clinton’s remarks were adapted from an interview from the upcoming book, “The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America," authored byLisa Lerer and In the interview, Clinton claimed that women voters abandoned her “in the final days” leading up to the 2016 election because she was not “perfect” (via NYT):
The interview represented Mrs. Clinton’s most detailed comments on abortion rights since the Supreme Court decision that led to the procedure becoming criminalized or restricted in 21 states. She said not only that her party was complacent but also that if she had been in the Senate at the time she would have worked harder to block confirmation of Trump-appointed justices.
And in a blunt reflection about the role sexism played in her 2016 presidential campaign, she said women were the voters who abandoned her in the final days because she was not “perfect.” Overhanging the interview was the understanding that had she won the White House, Roe most likely would have remained a bedrock feature of American life. She assigned blame for the fall of Roe broadly but pointedly, and notably spared herself from the critique.
With the 2024 election later this year, Clinton said that if Trump wins again, “we may never have another actual election.”
“This election is existential. I mean, if we don’t make the right decision in this election in our country, we may never have another actual election. I will put that out there because I believe it,” she said. “And if we no longer have another actual election, we will be governed by a small minority of right-wing forces that are well organized and well funded and are getting exactly what they want in terms of turning the clock back on women.”
“Authoritarians, whether they be political or religious based, always go after women. It’s just written in the history. And that’s what will happen in this country,” Clinton added.
“More people have got to wake up, because this is the beginning,” she said. “They really want us to just shut up and go home. That’s their goal. And nobody should be in any way deluded. That’s what they will force upon us if they are given the chance.”
The Times noted that if Clinton had won the 2016 election, “history would have turned out very differently” because she would have appointed at least two pro-abortion justices to the United States Supreme Court that would have expanded abortion access.
“It says that we [women] are not equal citizens,” Clinton said, referring to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. “It says that we don’t have autonomy, agency and privacy to make the most personal of decisions. It says that we should be rethinking our lives and our roles in the world.”
“I just think that most of us who support the rights of women and privacy and the right to make these difficult decisions yourself, you know, we just couldn’t believe what was happening. And as a result, they slowly, surely and very effectively got what they wanted,” she said. “Our side was complacent and kind of taking it for granted and thinking it would never go away.”