Hillary Rodham Clinton Slams Joe Biden’s “Terrible Mistake”—and More
Key takeaways
- That was a long time ago, and it’s not hard to argue that even the starkest early forecasts of the Trump Presidency were too optimistic.
- She also made plain that Trump’s decision to accede to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netantahu’s appeal to go to war against Iran has ended in a strategic defeat for the United States.
- Secretary Clinton, in your book “Something Lost, Something Gained,” you write about your state of mind after the election of Donald Trump.
Photograph by Dominik Bindl / Getty Save this story Save this story Save this story Save this story Less than a year after Hillary Rodham Clinton’s crushing defeat in the 2016 election, I saw her speak at Riverside Church, in Manhattan. The atmosphere in the pews was funereal, as if the news of a Trump Presidency had come just the night before. Her hosts felt compelled to confess their grief and fury. Clinton, for her part, gamely confided that she had been coping with her devastating election loss with a combination of prayer, yoga, and “my fair share of Chardonnay.” But she was still somewhat buttoned up in those early speeches, reluctant to speak out too emotionally, too frankly, about the dark wood into which Donald Trump was leading the country. To do so, she seemed to say, would sap the nation of its meagre reserves of hope and provide Trump, who kept on threatening to “lock her up,” with an even deeper emotional satisfaction.
That was a long time ago, and it’s not hard to argue that even the starkest early forecasts of the Trump Presidency were too optimistic. As the country prepares to celebrate the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the grave realities of authoritarian rule, malevolent rhetoric, grotesque corruption, intensified culture wars, and an over-all assault on the rule of law and foreign alliances are plain to see. As a retired politician who will always carry the weight of 2016, Clinton has gradually allowed herself to be more forthright in her interviews.
When we met on the stage of the 92nd Street Y on June 15th, for a live taping of The New Yorker Radio Hour, she didn’t hesitate to let loose both on Trump, as she has been doing for some time, and on Joe Biden, for the “terrible mistake” of having run for reëlection in 2024. She also made plain that Trump’s decision to accede to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netantahu’s appeal to go to war against Iran has ended in a strategic defeat for the United States. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.