Reliving the election: We already know 'What Happened,' Hillary
By Adrienne Batra , Toronto Sun Editor
First posted: Sunday, August 27, 2017 09:39 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, August 27, 2017 09:46 PM EDT
A few weeks ago, the title of Hillary Clinton’s book reliving the 2016 Presidential election was revealed. The memoir — What Happened (oddly a statement and not a question) — is yet to be released, but some excerpts were strategically leaked last week.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” obtained an audio of the former Secretary of State reading the book herself. She recounts a specific moment during the second debate against her Republican rival — now President — Donald Trump.
Here is Clinton in her own words:
“‘This is not okay,’ I thought. It was the second presidential debate, and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage, and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled. It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, ‘Well, what would you do?’ Do you stay calm, keep smiling, and carry on as if he weren’t repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye, and say loudly and clearly, ‘Back up you creep. Get away from me. I know you love to intimidate women, but you can’t intimidate me. So back up.’ I chose option A. I kept my cool, aided by a lifetime of dealing with difficult men trying to throw me off. I did, however, grip the microphone extra hard. I wonder, though, whether I should have chosen option B. It certainly would have been better TV. Maybe I have overlearned the lesson of staying calm, biting my tongue, digging my fingernails into a clenched fist, smiling all the while, determined to present a composed face to the world.”
Clinton’s overall observation of that evening once again demonstrates she has still not accepted her shocking defeat to Trump.
As for the GOP nominee “intimidating” her, candidates spend countless hours in debate preparation, planning for every scenario. That she wasn’t prepared to interact with Trump on the stage is her failure and not his.
In 2000 during a presidential debate — in the same town hall style Clinton describes in her excerpt above — former President George W. Bush had his personal space invaded by Vice-President Al Gore.
Bush simply nodded his head to the sudden intrusion, the audience laughed and it became a defining moment in the election. Bush’s instinct was a natural one — it wasn’t calculated or pre-conceived.
Had Clinton chosen her “option B,” akin to Bush, it would have been contrived and inauthentic — exactly how a large swath of the electorate viewed her.
And how about the breathtaking irony of Clinton referring to the president as a “creep”?
As author and political commentator Mark Steyn astutely observed of this excerpt “I thought she was describing her first date with her husband Bill.”
The same woman who said her “skin crawled” being around Trump is married to a man who was allegedly involved in at least three “unwanted sexual encounters” according to a 2015 article in the Washington Post.
The former Democratic nominee for president has been far too quick to blame everyone else for her election loss, rather than reflect on her own failings as a candidate. After she emerged from her post-election hiatus, Clinton said she lost because of: former FBI Director James Comey’s ill-timed letter, Russian hackers, the “bankrupt” Democratic Party, and of course, misogyny.
Her default of playing the victim card has become tiresome, and in part explains why she’s not in the Oval Office.
So please Mrs. Clinton, spare us your sanctimonious revisionist history.
We already know what happened.
Reliving the election: We already know 'What Happened,' Hillary | BATRA | World
By Adrienne Batra , Toronto Sun Editor
First posted: Sunday, August 27, 2017 09:39 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, August 27, 2017 09:46 PM EDT
A few weeks ago, the title of Hillary Clinton’s book reliving the 2016 Presidential election was revealed. The memoir — What Happened (oddly a statement and not a question) — is yet to be released, but some excerpts were strategically leaked last week.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” obtained an audio of the former Secretary of State reading the book herself. She recounts a specific moment during the second debate against her Republican rival — now President — Donald Trump.
Here is Clinton in her own words:
“‘This is not okay,’ I thought. It was the second presidential debate, and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage, and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled. It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, ‘Well, what would you do?’ Do you stay calm, keep smiling, and carry on as if he weren’t repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye, and say loudly and clearly, ‘Back up you creep. Get away from me. I know you love to intimidate women, but you can’t intimidate me. So back up.’ I chose option A. I kept my cool, aided by a lifetime of dealing with difficult men trying to throw me off. I did, however, grip the microphone extra hard. I wonder, though, whether I should have chosen option B. It certainly would have been better TV. Maybe I have overlearned the lesson of staying calm, biting my tongue, digging my fingernails into a clenched fist, smiling all the while, determined to present a composed face to the world.”
Clinton’s overall observation of that evening once again demonstrates she has still not accepted her shocking defeat to Trump.
As for the GOP nominee “intimidating” her, candidates spend countless hours in debate preparation, planning for every scenario. That she wasn’t prepared to interact with Trump on the stage is her failure and not his.
In 2000 during a presidential debate — in the same town hall style Clinton describes in her excerpt above — former President George W. Bush had his personal space invaded by Vice-President Al Gore.
Bush simply nodded his head to the sudden intrusion, the audience laughed and it became a defining moment in the election. Bush’s instinct was a natural one — it wasn’t calculated or pre-conceived.
Had Clinton chosen her “option B,” akin to Bush, it would have been contrived and inauthentic — exactly how a large swath of the electorate viewed her.
And how about the breathtaking irony of Clinton referring to the president as a “creep”?
As author and political commentator Mark Steyn astutely observed of this excerpt “I thought she was describing her first date with her husband Bill.”
The same woman who said her “skin crawled” being around Trump is married to a man who was allegedly involved in at least three “unwanted sexual encounters” according to a 2015 article in the Washington Post.
The former Democratic nominee for president has been far too quick to blame everyone else for her election loss, rather than reflect on her own failings as a candidate. After she emerged from her post-election hiatus, Clinton said she lost because of: former FBI Director James Comey’s ill-timed letter, Russian hackers, the “bankrupt” Democratic Party, and of course, misogyny.
Her default of playing the victim card has become tiresome, and in part explains why she’s not in the Oval Office.
So please Mrs. Clinton, spare us your sanctimonious revisionist history.
We already know what happened.
Reliving the election: We already know 'What Happened,' Hillary | BATRA | World