Hillary Clinton Is Back: 'I'm Ready To Help in Any Way I Can' in Biden Administration
Oh, thank goodness.
I was beginning to think Hillary Clinton had finally gone back into the woods, to use that shopworn idiom. Of course, there was that adulating Hulu documentary about her earlier in the year. That dropped on March 6, just before our country and the rest of the world was about to wade into much deeper waters.
But for the most part, the 2016 Democratic standard-bearer and inexplicable icon of the left was absent, at least for what was left of the Democratic Party’s nominating process. After insinuating Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard was a pawn controlled by sinister forces, she had disappeared back into those woods — which is a good way to socially distance, I would assume.
But no. Speaking at The 19th Represents 2020 Virtual Summit on Thursday, Hillary came out of the woods — and just in time to remind voters why they rejected her in 2016.
During a Q&A session, Hillary was asked if she would serve in a role in a Biden administration were he elected.
“I’m ready to help in any way I can,” Clinton said.
“Because I think this will be a moment where every American — I don’t care what party you are, I don’t care what age, race, gender, I don’t care — every American should want to fix our country.
“So if you’re asked to serve, you should certainly consider that.”
I’m sure those looking on swooned. Secretary of Something Hillary Clinton! Secretary of state again? She could be out of the woods and loosed onto the international scene, a position where she acquitted herself so well during the Obama years. The mind reels!
Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk summed up the sentiment outside of the virtual room and the left, however:
Hillary Clinton said she would accept a position in Joe Biden’s White House if he wins
If you didn’t have a reason to vote for Trump before, you do now.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 14, 2020
In case you needed a reminder of why this was, consider that Hillary was in the news for a different reason on Friday, when an appeals court ruled she didn’t have to give a deposition about her private email server.
The deposition was being sought by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch. The legal saga, which has been going on for eight years, involves a “Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records of details about information national security adviser Susan Rice discussed during interviews in 2012 about the deadly attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya,” according to Politico.
In March, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that written answers Clinton had given were “incomplete, unhelpful, or cursory, at best.”
A D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled unanimously, however, that the judge’s ruling was a “clear abuse of discretion.”
Now, if you’re a Clinton apologist, you’ll note that Judicial Watch has been pursuing Clinton for years. You’ll probably say, as D.C. Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins implied in his decision, that this is just some bitter clingers hanging on to their lawsuits and their email servers.
“Secretary Clinton … provided eleven hours of public testimony before the House Select Committee, and has answered countless media inquiries on the matter,” wrote Wilkins, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
“These facts underscore both the impropriety of the District Court’s Order and the appropriateness of turning the page on the issue.”
But that’s the reason I bring this up — if you want Hillary Clinton in a Biden administration, you have a whole new chapter of pages to turn. Clinton has always provided this kind of fodder, and it’s not just because she’s a woman or due to some vast right-wing conspiracy.
She’s a firm believer in the theory that rules are for little people — and ever since her husband took the governor’s mansion in Arkansas, she’s transcended little-person status.
Is this who you want running, say, the Department of State again?
If Biden is elected, heaven forfend, this actually isn’t as likely a possibility as you might think. In March, Axios’ Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen talked to Biden insiders about a potential cabinet, and Hillary’s name didn’t come up. Given that she’s still the highest-profile Democrat alive not named Barack, that should be a sign he’s looking elsewhere.
The rank-and-file also aren’t yearning for the return of Hillary; a New York Times poll that asked the Gray Lady’s readers who they wanted to see in a prospective Biden cabinet didn’t end with Hillary in the top two for any office.
Part of this is likely for the reasons I’ve mentioned. With Hillary, as Roseanne Roseannadanna might have put it, it’s always something.
There’s also the fact that, as Politico reported in a Friday story about the complicated relationship Biden has with both Obama and other members of his administration, the former vice president still bristles at the fact he was passed over by his boss in favor of Clinton when Obama was anointing his successor.
There’s already the impression Biden’s running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, would be assuming some presidential roles if Biden makes it into the White House.
Why would he want to bring into his administration the woman who, as pundits would endlessly note, Obama really wanted to see in the White House?
Oh, but thank goodness, she’s put herself out there! I was thinking she wouldn’t — but she just couldn’t help herself. She could have just said she’d cross that road when she came to it, that it was too early to speculate.
Then she could have rattled off that spiel about how “every American should want to fix our country” without inserting herself into it and called it a day. But no.
I understand politics is a popular career choice for verbose narcissists utterly lacking in self-awareness — but even judging by that yardstick, Hillary Clinton is like the Hank Aaron of unctuous policymakers.
She’s someone who truly believes people should and do view her as she views herself. If they don’t, that’s their problem, not hers.
It was the Democrats’ problem in 2016. Thank heavens, it looks like it might also be their problem in 2020, as well.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
