Wednesday night on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissed calls for her to retire from politics as “rank sexism.” She also listed two other reasons why she won’t be “going away” anytime soon.
Noah asked Clinton, “Looking at the Democratic Party now, looking at Hillary Clinton, one thing far too many people say — and I have my own opinions on this — is why won’t you just go away?” Fading from the limelight after a presidential loss, and allowing your party to find a new standard-bearer, is common practice. But Clinton seems uninterested.
“You know, some of it is just rank sexism,” Clinton declared. “Let’s just be honest about it. I never heard anybody say that to Al Gore or John Kerry or John McCain or Mitt Romney, all the men who lost elections in the last 17-18 years.”
[Maybe no one told Gore, Kerry, McCain, or Romney that publicly — because they had the good sense not to return to the spotlight the very next year. When was the last time a defeated presidential candidate hit the stump as quickly as Clinton has done? Perhaps William Jennings Bryan, who ran for president three times…]
To be fair, Noah did set Clinton up. “Honestly, I have my own views, and you know, I relate it to my mom and things people have said to her,” the host led. The sexism angle seems to have been “baked in the cake,” as it were.
Clinton did not only point the finger at sexism, however. “Some of it, I will say, is media guilt,” she added. In this, she actually has a point — more for Trump than against her. In the Republican primary, Trump received a media advantage over $1.9 billion in coverage.
Naturally, the former secretary of State wasn’t talking about that. She attacked the media for refusing to “pay any attention to policies.” She recalled some members of the press saying to her, “They thought I was going to win so they could beat up on me without consequence.” But it gets better. One last charge: “They didn’t really stand up against a lot of the ridiculous lies and accusings against me.” Really? REALLY?
Finally, Clinton got to the real heart of the issue. “I think there are people who are genuinely worried that, you know, we’ve got to make room for new voices,” the former nominee admitted. “That’s why I’m supporting candidates and causes I believe in.”
Here comes the excuse! Three, two, one… “And yet, a lot of these people are primarily young people, just getting started, they’ve got tremendous energy, they’re not going to get on your show — I am.”
So Clinton’s explanation for why she’s still hitting the talk show circuits is that her potential replacements are too young? Why can’t she suggest someone to Trevor Noah? Why doesn’t she bring one of these “young people, just getting started” out on the circuit with her? What better boost could there be on the Left?
Unlike Kerry, Gore, McCain (who is still a senator, after all), and Romney, Clinton seems intent on milking the “leadership” of her party as long as she can. As she told Trevor Noah, “I walked in the woods. That was enough. I’m done with that.”
Don’t expect her to go away anytime soon…
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