On stage Thursday at Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit, Hillary Clinton sat down for her first interview since the election. “She seemed relaxed and comfortable, much less guarded than during the campaign,” wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who interviewed her. Samantha Bee introduced “Hillary Rodham Beyonce Clinton” at the summit, ending with the words, “I’m only gonna say this once, though you deserve to hear it 100 times. It should have been you.”
Ms. Bee also expressed her disappointment with the current administration. “I should be lauding Hillary for making time to be here despite her busy schedule as president,” she said. “I should be talking about how she didn’t just shake Angela Merkel’s hand, but hugged her. Instead, Mr. Trump is nearing his 100th day in office. I assume he’ll mark it the same way all schoolchildren do―by gluing 100 pieces of macaroni to a health care bill.”
Mr. Kristof’s first question was obvious. “How are you doing?” he asked, after mentioning many of his social media followers were wondering the same thing. “The aftermath of the election was so devastating. […] I just had to make up my mind that, yes, I was going to get out of bed, and, yes, I was going to go for a lot of long walks in the woods. And I was going to see my grandchildren a lot and spend time with my family and my friends. They have rallied around me in an amazing way,” she responded. Mrs. Clinton also confessed she had expected to defeat Donald Trump.
“As a person, I’m O.K.,” said Hillary Clinton. “As an American, I’m pretty worried.”
They discussed a lot of issues, including Russia and Syria. Mrs. Clinton advocated attacking Syrian air strips, which Mr. Trump did mere hours later. Mrs. Clinton said she didn’t fully understand how impactful Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election was. “It is something that Putin has used inside Russia, outside Russia to great effect. I’m hopeful that the Congress will pull together and realize that because of the success the Kremlin feels it’s had they’re not going to go away,” she said. Whether there was collusion between the Trump team and the Kremlin is something she does not know, but she urged the formation of an independent commission to investigate.
President Trump’s first 100 days in office have been immensely cruel and Mrs. Clinton does not understand the Trump administration’s “commitment to hurt so many people.” She pointed towards what is probably the most evident example of this inhuman behavior, the Muslim ban. She said that the ban “[had] sent a chilling effect across the world. And not just to Muslims, [but] to all kinds of people, who are saying to themselves, ‘Wait, what happened, don’t you still have Lady Liberty in the New York Harbor?’”
Healthcare is another prime example of the administration’s “commitment to hurt people.” Mr. Kristof asked her what she thought about the infamous photo of Republican men discussing women’s health, to which Clinton started describing her favorite internet meme. (She called it a GIF.) The photo is a group of dogs around a conference table, discussing “feline health care.”
Appreciated joining @POTUS for meeting with the Freedom Caucus again today. This is it. #PassTheBill pic.twitter.com/XG6lQIy5a6
— Vice President Pence (@VP) March 23, 2017
Meanwhile, at today’s meeting on feline healthcare… pic.twitter.com/wApNyFS7jz
— Justin Shanes (@justinshanes) March 24, 2017
“[Regarding healthcare] I will confess to this: having listened to them talk about repeal and replace for seven years now, they had not a clue what that meant. They had no idea. I don’t know that any of them had ever even read the bill, read the law, understood how it worked. It was so obvious. Health care is complicated, right? They don’t know what to do, and I do admit that was somewhat gratifying.”
Mrs. Clinton said. “Like, ‘why do we have to cover maternity care?’ Well, I don’t know, maybe you were dropped by immaculate conception?” Mrs. Clinton said.
The line was met with a round of applause.
“By the time they finished with me, I was Typhoid Mary” -Clinton on her popularity as secretary of state and after https://t.co/8zvmKUw3p0
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 6, 2017
She has stopped caring about the haters, or so she says. “I […] haven’t, for a long time, taken it personally. Because part of the attacks, part of the bullying and part of the name calling—and that has certainly become more pervasive—is to crush your spirit,” she acknowledged. “Certainly misogyny played a role” in her loss, she said. “And that just has to be admitted,” she continued. “Clinton’s staff has conducted autopsies that, she said, suggested that two of the most important factors [of her losing the election] were the release of her campaign emails and the last-minute announcement […] that the investigation into her use of a private email server could be reopened,” reports Nicholas Kristof.
“I am passionate about the unfinished business of the 21st century, the rights and opportunities for women and girls,” Mrs. Clinton said.
She is currently working on a book about her campaign. Mr. Kristof asked whether she would be a candidate again, perhaps in the New York City mayoral race, or would consider running Unicef. “That’s my vote for the best next job for her, allowing her to save millions of children’s lives,” he wrote. Her answer was negative, her plan for now being to help Democrats take back Congress and help more women enter politics.
