Onetime First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down for her first post-election interview with CBS Sunday Morning's Jane Pauley.
The pre-taped Q&A, which aired on Sunday, comes as the former presidential candidate is set to release a tell-all focused on her stunning loss to President Donald Trump. The book, entitled What Happened, will be in stores on Sept. 12.
On attending Trump's inauguration:
Defeated presidential candidates don't typically attend the inauguration, but as Pauley pointed out, Clinton, who was in attendance, is a former First Lady. "Former presidents and first ladies show up. It's part of the demonstration of the continuity of our government," Clinton explained. She then weighed in on Trump's speech, calling it "a cry from the white nationalist gut. What an opportunity to say, 'Ok, I'm proud of my supporters, but I'm the president of all Americans.' That's not what we heard at all."
On whether she'll ever run for office again:
While her career as "an active politician" is "over," Clinton said that she is "not done with politics because I believe our country's future is at stake."
Watch the video. https://youtu.be/tteLMfFDCb4
September 10, 2017
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September 10, 2017
Among the interview's many talking points…
On her failed presidential campaign:
"I started the campaign knowing that I would have to work extra hard to make women and men feel comfortable with the idea of a woman president," she said. "It doesn't fit into the stereotypes we all carry around in our heads. A lot of the sexism and the misogyny was in service of these attitudes." As for her challenger? "[Trump] was quite successful in referencing a nostalgia that would give hope, comfort and settle grievances for millions of [white] people who were upset about gains that were made by others."
On whether she regrets her "basket of deplorables" gaffe:
"I thought Trump was behaving in a deplorable manner," she said, defending her widely criticized campaign statement. "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 didn't matter to them." What's more, she "doesn't buy" into the idea that she offended people who weren't already opposed to her candidacy.
On how she dealt with defeat:
"Off I went into a frenzy of closet cleaning, long walks in the woods, playing with my dogs and, you know, my share of chardonnay," she said. "It was a very hard transition, and I make no bones about it. I really struggled, and for the longest time, I was just totally drained. I couldn't feel, I couldn't think, I was just gobsmacked."
On Vladimir Putin and Russian meddling in the 2016 election:
"The forces that were at work in 2016 were unlike anything that I've ever seen or read about," she said. "It was a perfect storm." But as Pauley pointed out, there were serious "self-inflicted" wounds, too, referring to Clinton's emails. "I think the most important of the mistakes I made was using personal email. I said it before, I'll say it again: It was my responsibility. It was presented in such a negative way, and I could never get out from under it. It never stopped."
On former FBI Director James Comey:
"I don't know quite what audience he was playing to," Clinton remarked. "Maybe some right-wing commentators [and] right-wing members of Congress." She also blames his decision to reveal that emails were found on the laptop of disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner, just 11 days before the election, for stopping her momentum. "It raised the specter that somehow the investigation was being reopened. … At the same time he does that about a closed investigation, there's an open investigation into the Trump campaign and their connections to Russia. You never hear a word about it."
