Carlos Bastarache: hillary.jpg

Thursday, 2 November 2017

hillary.jpg

nobody knows I'm unemployed because I've got so much money

Hillary Clinton stopped by The Daily Show on Wednesday to chat with Trevor Noah, not that they really had much to talk about what with the 2016 election being over and all. All jokes aside, Clinton was there to promote her book, What Happened, so naturally the topic of conversation centered on Russia’s ongoing involvement in not just the election, but overall discourse in our country.

Had she won, Clinton said that she would have assigned an independent commission to get to the bottom of Russia’s meddling. “This is cyber warfare,” she explained. “It’s not tanks and planes and ships, but it is a form of war, and we’ve never had an adversary who attacked us with so few consequences, and I think that’s in large measure, because the president is so ambivalent.”

On the lasting effects of Russia’s meddling, Clinton was blunt. “If we don’t get to the bottom of it, we’re not gonna know what to believe, and that plays right into the hands of authoritarians,” she explained. “Because a democracy depends on having some common factual basis on which to make decision, and in the absence of that, people will tear each other apart because they will be living in echo chambers, where what they hear is what they think is the truth … it will be even more difficult to bring our country together.”

Later, Noah asked why Clinton she won’t “just go away,” in the terms of her outspoken critics. She admits that a big part of it is rampant sexism, as no one has ever said that of Al Gore or John McCain or any men who have lost elections in the past couple of decades. Another part, she says, is media guilt, since the media focused not on policy, but the three ring circus that was the Trump campaign — not ever believing that he would actually win the thing.

But the biggest reason she won’t go away, Clinton said, is because she wants to help make room for new voices. “That’s why I’m supporting candidates and causes I believe in, yet a lot of these people, who are primarily young people who are just getting started, they’ve got tremendous energy, they’re not going to get on your show,” she explained.

“I am, so I’m gonna say, we need to stand up for our fundamental values, we need to be promoting and electing people who care about the American public, who are not in it for self enrichment, who are not in it to have a spite match with former President Obama, who did a great job and is now being mistreated by his successor.”

Joking about her viral photo, she finished by saying, “So okay, I can get that voice out there, and I’m going to keep talking, I’m not going anywhere. I walked in the woods, that was enough, I’m done with that.”