The ballyhooed favorite among many Democrats looking toward the 2016 presidential election is facing significant backlash as a result of comments she made during an ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer this week.
On Monday, an advance clip of the interview aired in which Hillary Clinton claimed she and her husband were “dead broke” upon leaving the White House as she attempted to justify charging up to $200,000 for a single speech.
The fact that the couple received a $1.7 million loan from current Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and went on to earn more than $100 million between 2000 and 2007 naturally struck many Americans as incongruent with her assertion.
When the entire interview aired, Clinton faced even more criticism – specifically for her allegation that Ambassador Chris Stevens played a part in his own death during the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack. She stated he was at the embassy “of his own choosing” and would not confirm whether there was anything she could have done that might have changed the outcome.
“I take responsibility,” she said of her response as Secretary of State; “but I was not making security decisions.”
To top it off, Clinton claimed the Benghazi ordeal is the primary reason people should vote for her. Beyond that, she had little compelling evidence suggesting she would be an effective president.
Clinton did, however, manage to interject some talking points into the conversation – including her apparent assumption that the world is full of sexist men. She used questions stemming from the fact that she will be a grandmother during the 2016 election cycle as a catalyst for her diatribe.
Suggesting she could have been more effective in combating the supposed hurdles women face in politics, she said that “men have been serving [as president] as fathers and grandfathers since the beginning of the Republic.”
Furthermore, she used the opportunity to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin for comments he made recently that many individuals considered sexist. She concluded that he was “not the first” influential man to make such statements.
Clinton also subtly attacked the belief by some that she is too old for the presidency by seizing on the fact that her interviewer is even older, concluding that it is “good to be our age.”
Sawyer brought up the Monica Lewinsky scandal that ultimately led to impeachment proceedings against her husband. While Clinton said she is “not going to comment on what I did or did not say in the late ‘90s,” she ultimately concluded that she would likely not repeat her claim that the entire controversy was the result of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
She did, however, confirm her suspicion that a “concerted political effort” exists against both her husband and Barack Obama.