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Hillary Clinton

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Freedom is never granted. It is earned by each generation… in the face of tyranny, cruelty, oppression, extremism, sometimes there is only one choice. When the world looks to America, America looks to you, and you never let her down.

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born 26 October 1947) is a former United States secretary of state, U.S. senator, and First Lady of the United States. From 2009 to 2013, she was the 67th secretary of state, serving under President Barack Obama. She previously represented New York state in the Senate (2001 to 2009). Before that, as the wife of President Bill Clinton, she was First Lady from 1993 to 2001. In the 2008 election, Clinton was a leading candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. In 2016, she became the first female candidate to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. Clinton lost the presidential election to Donald Trump on November 8, 2016.

Quotes

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1970s

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  • Children in early adolescence tend to exaggerate or romanticize sexual experiences and that adolescents with disorganized families, such as the complainant, are even more prone to such behavior.

1980s

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  • He took a lie detector test. I had him take a polygraph, which he passed, which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs (laughter).

Husband's Presidential campaign (1992 – January 19, 1993)

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  • I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life.
    • Response to reporter's questions (16 March 1992), reported on "Making Hillary an Issue" Nightline (26 March 1992). Quoted in Boston Globe.
  • You know, I'm not sitting here like some little woman standing by my man, like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him, and I respect him, and I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together. And you know, if that's not enough for people, then heck, don't vote for him.
    • 60 minutes interview. [1]

White House years (1993–2000)

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We are here to advance the cause of women and to advance the cause of democracy and to make it absolutely clear that the two are inseparable. There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard.
  • You know, everybody has setbacks in their life, and everybody falls short of whatever goals they might set for themselves. That's part of living and coming to terms with who you are as a person.
    • People interview (December 28, 1992) [2]
  • Let us be willing to remold society by redefining what it means to be a human being in the 20th century, moving into a new millennium.
    • From remarks delivered in Austin, Texas, 6 April 1993. Quoted in "Saint Hillary" by Michael Kelly, The New York Times Magazine, 23 May 1993. Accessed 24 April 2019. [3]
  • I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president.
    • Quoted in Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries (p. 368), James B. Stewart, December 1993
  • In the Bible it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said 70 times 7. Well, I want you all to know that I'm keeping a chart.
  • It saddens me that a historic event like this is being misconstrued by a small but vocal group of critics trying to spread the notion that the UN gathering is really the work of radicals and atheists bent on destroying our families.
    • "China, UN Seek to Put Conference Back on Track" (Reuters: September 4, 1995)
  • If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all. (September 5, 1995)
  • They are often the kinds of kids that are called 'super-predators.' No conscience, no empathy, we can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.
  • I don't recognize this new brand of Republicanism that's afoot now, which I consider to be very reactionary, not conservative in many respects. I'm very proud that I was a Goldwater Girl. And then my political beliefs changed over time. But I've always thought that the role of citizen, the role of advocate, were as important in our democracy as running for office. And so it's not anything I've ever, you know, seriously considered.
  • We should remember that just as a positive outlook on life can promote good health, so can everyday acts of kindness.
    • It Takes A Village, January 1996
  • After many years of working with and listening to American adolescents, I don't believe they are ready for sex or its potential consequences – parenthood, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases – and I think we need to do everything in our power to discourage sexual activity and encourage abstinence.
    • It Takes A Village
  • Casual attitudes towards marijuana and minors’ access to cigarettes raise the likelihood that teenagers will make a sad progression to more serious drug use & earlier sexual activity.
    • It Takes A Village
  • Heavens, no! It could get subpoenaed. I can't write anything.
    • Jim Lehrer News Hour, when asked if she keeps a diary, hours before a jury in Little Rock, Arkansas, returned guilty verdicts against Clintons' business partners; May 29, 1996 [5] [6]
  • We are here to advance the cause of women and to advance the cause of democracy and to make it absolutely clear that the two are inseparable. There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives. There cannot be true democracy unless all citizens are able to participate fully in the lives of their country.
    • Keynote Address at the Vital Voices Conference in Vienna, Austria (11 July 1997)
  • From my perspective, this is part of the continuing political campaign against my husband… I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this. They have popped up in other settings. The great story here for anybody willing to find it, write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president.
    • Reacting to the truthful reports that her husband, Bill Clinton, had an affair with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky; Interview with Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show (27 January 1998)
  • I think we're going to find some other things. And I think that when all of this is put into context, and we really look at the people involved here, look at their motivations and look at their backgrounds, look at their past behavior, some folks are going to have a lot to answer for.
  • Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat. Women often have to flee from the only homes they have ever known. Women are often the refugees from conflict and sometimes, more frequently in today’s warfare, victims. Women are often left with the responsibility, alone, of raising the children.
  • Marriage is about a historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been between a man and a woman.

Senate years (2001 – January 19, 2007)

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This is a difficult vote. This is probably the hardest decision I have ever had to make. Any vote that may lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction.
  • We will also stand united behind our President as he and his advisors plan the necessary actions to demonstrate America's resolve and commitment. Not only to seek out and exact punishment on the perpetrators, but to make very clear that not only those who harbor terrorists, but those who in any way aid or comfort them whatsoever will now face the wrath of our country. And I hope that that message has gotten through to everywhere it needs to be heard. You are either with America in our time of need or you are not.
  • In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security. This much is undisputed... This is a difficult vote. This is probably the hardest decision I have ever had to make. Any vote that may lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction.
  • I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic, and we should stand up and say, "We are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration!"
    • April 28, 2003 at the annual Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson-Bailey Day fund raising dinner in Connecticut.
  • Like it or not, women are always subject to criticism if they show too much feeling in public.
    • Living History (June 9, 2003)
  • I was one who supported giving President Bush the authority, if necessary, to use force against Saddam Hussein. I believe that that was the right vote. I have had many disputes and disagreements with the administration over how that authority has been used, but I stand by the vote to provide the authority because I think it was a necessary step in order to maximize the outcome that did occur in the Security Council with the unanimous vote to send in inspectors.
  • I wonder if it's possible to be a Republican and a Christian at the same time.
    • C-SPAN broadcast (21 June 2004)
  • And Israel is not only our ally; it is a beacon of what democracy can and should mean… If the people of the Middle East are not sure what democracy means, let them look to Israel.
  • In defeating terror, Israel’s cause is our cause.
    • Hanukkah dinner speech at Yeshiva University (December 2005)
  • Mexico is such an important problem. The Mexican government's policies are pushing migration north... There isn't any sensible approach except to do what we need to do simultaneously. Secure our border — with technology, personnel, physical barriers if necessary in some places. We need to have tough employer sanctions, incentivize Mexico to do more.
  • I have said publicly no option should be off the table, but I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table.
    • Bloomberg Television (regarding Iran), April 2006 [7]
  • It is time to put policy ahead of politics and success ahead of the status quo. It is time for a new strategy to produce what we need: a stable Iraq government that takes over for its own people so our troops can finish their job.
    • Speech in US Senate (21 June 2006)
  • The lost opportunities of the years since September 11 are the stuff of tragedy. Remember the people rallying in sympathy on the streets of Teheran, the famous headline — "we are all Americans now." Five years later much of the world wonders what America is now. As we face this landscape of failure and disorder, nothing is more urgent than for us to begin again to rebuild a bipartisan consensus to ensure our interests, increase our security and advance our values. It could well start with what our founders had in mind when they pledged "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind" in the Declaration of Independence. I think it's fair to say we are now all internationalists and we are all realists. This Administration's choices were false choices. Internationalism versus unilateralism. Realism versus idealism. Is there really any argument that America must remain a preeminent leader for peace and freedom, and yet we must be more willing to work in concert with other nations and international institutions to reach common goals? The American character is both idealistic and realistic: why can't our government reflect both?
  • At the end of the day, the American people are going to be faced with some very tough judgments, because, at the current course this president is pursuing, I'm afraid that the next president will inherit this situation, with all of its complexity and all of its heartbreak… And let's not kid ourselves. I think this administration is also focused on Iran. And I think we need to send a very strong message that an administration with its track record of failure, of arrogance, of refusal to listen and learn from the disastrous steps that have, unfortunately, been taken should not be rushing off and putting American servicemembers in harm's way and possibly widening the conflict.
  • Look what the Iraq Study Group came up with. You know, that was a totally nonpartisan group of, you know, 10 wise Americans, you know, some of them Republican, some of then Democrats from different, you know, experiences. They came out with a long list of recommendations. Now, you can say well, I wouldn't agree with that one or wouldn't agree with this one, but the fundamental point they made is that there is no military solution. There is only a political resolution and you've got to bring everybody into the game in order to move it forward, you know. And for whatever reason, this administration rejects that. They won't talk to bad people. That means they won't talk to the Iranians and the Syrians… If they're our enemies, then believe me, I think they are, because they certainly don't wish us any well outcome, then we need to know more about them. I think it's a sign of strength to get into a process with people who you are concerned about their motives, who's really calling the shots. This administration won't do that. So, to a certain extent we're flying blind.

Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)

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  • I grew up in a middle-class family in the middle of America in the middle of the last century.
    • Economic policy speech, May 29, 2007. [8]
  • …as we do bring our troops home, we cannot lose sight of our very real strategic national interests in this region… I will order specialized units to engage in narrow and targeted operations against al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in the region. They will also provide security for U.S. troops and personnel and train and equip Iraqi security services to keep order and promote stability in the country, but only to the extent we believe such training is actually working. I would also consider, as I have said before, leaving some forces in the Kurdish area to protect the fragile but real democracy and relative peace and security that has developed there.
    • Speech at the Temple for the Performing Arts in Des Moines, July 10, 2007 [9]
  • In two nights you're going to have the Republican candidates here. They all support the war. They all support the president. They all supported the escalation. Each of us is trying in our own way to bring the war to an end.
    • Democratic Presidential Debate, Manchester, New Hampshire, June 3, 2007 [10]
  • …freedom is never granted. It is earned by each generation… in the face of tyranny, cruelty, oppression, extremism, sometimes there is only one choice. When the world looks to America, America looks to you, and you never let her down… I have never lost faith in America's essential goodness and greatness… I have 35 years of experience, fighting for real change… the American people and our American military cannot want freedom and stability for the Iraqis more than they want it for themselves… we should have stayed focused on wiping out the Taliban and finding, killing, capturing bin Laden and his chief lieutenants… I also made a full commitment to martial American power, resources and values in the global fight against these terrorists. That begins with ensuring that America does have the world's strongest and smartest military force. We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Al Anbar province, it's working… We can't be fighting the last war. We have to be preparing to fight the new war… We've got to be prepared to maintain the best fighting force in the world. I propose increasing the size of our Army by 80,000 soldiers, balancing the legacy systems with newer programs to help us keep our technological edge… I'm fighting for a Cold War medal for everyone who served our country during the Cold War, because you were on the front lines of battling communism. Well, now we're on the front lines of battling terrorism, extremism, and we have to win. Our commitment to freedom, to tolerance, to economic opportunity has inspired people around the world… American values are not just about America, but they speak to the human dignity, the God-given spark that resides in each and every person across the world… We are a good and great nation.
    • Remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Kansas City, Missouri, August 20, 2007 [11]
  • I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all.
    • Reply to a question whether her proposals can be implemented without increasing the national debt, October 11, 2007. [12]
  • Our economy has been at risk by investment schemes aimed at making not just a few, but many extra dollars, and we need to start insisting on the right rules and transparency so this doesn't happen again.
    • December 5, 2007
  • It's not easy, it's not easy. And I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I've had so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards - no. So - you know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political, it's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game, they think it's like who's up or who's down. It's about our country, it's about our kids' futures, and it's really about all of us together. You know some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds. And we do it, each one of us, because we care about our country. But some of us are right and some of us are wrong, some of us are ready and some of us are not, some of us know what we will do to do on day one and some of haven't really thought that through enough. And so when we look at the array of problems we have and the potential for it getting - really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections America's ever faced. So as tired as I am - and I am - and as difficult as it is to try to kind of keep up with what I try to do on the road like occasionally exercise and try to eat right - it's tough when the easiest food is pizza - I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation. So I'm going to do everything I can to make my case and, you know, then the voters get to decide.
  • It did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush.
  • You know, there's a great saying in Texas — you've all heard it — all hat and no cattle. Well, after seven years of George Bush, we need a lot less hat and a lot more cattle.
    • Campaign speech in El Paso, TX, February 12, 2008. [14]
  • So nice to be a fashion icon in my day.
    • On a Saturday Night Live skit featuring her in a pantsuit. Rhode Island, February 2008.
  • This is the president that looked in the soul of Putin [see George W. Bush's quote above], and I could have told him, he was a KGB agent. By definition he doesn't have a soul. I mean, this is a waste of time, right? This is nonsense, but this is the world we're living in right now.
  • It's time that we move from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions.
    • Sound bite reported in Time, February 20, 2008. [16]
  • It's not us making this charge. It's the media.
    • Denying that her campaign charged Barack Obama with plagiarism, February 19, 2008 [17]; see quote below, two days later
  • Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in. It's change you can Xerox.
    • Charging Barack Obama with plagiarism at Texas presidential debate, February 21, 2008 [18]; see relevant quote above, two days earlier
  • We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady.
    • Iowa stump speech. [20]
  • They have done so much day in and day out and I want to thank all my friends and family, particularly my mother, who was born before women could vote, and is watching her daughter on this stage tonight.
    • February 5, 2008 Super Tuesday Address [21]
  • I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.... There was no greeting ceremony and we were basically told to run to our cars. That is what happened.
    • March 17, 2008, allegedly misspeaking about her 1996 trip to Bosnia. [22]
  • On a couple of occasions in the last weeks, I just said some things that weren‘t in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book. And you know, I‘m embarrassed by it. I‘m very sorry I said it. I have said that, you know, it just didn‘t jive with what I had written about and knew to be the truth. [citation needed]
  • So I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I'm human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation....I was also told that the greeting ceremony had been moved away from the tarmac but that there was this eight-year-old girl and I said, 'Well, I, I can't, I can't rush by her, I've got to at least greet her.' So I greeted her, I took her stuff and I left. Now that's my memory of it.
    • March 25, 2008, regarding her recent remarks on Bosnia. [23]
  • You know, I have written about this and described it in many different settings, and I did misspeak the other day. This has been a very long campaign.
    • March 24 & 25, 2008, retracting her remarks regarding Bosnia in private interviews. [24]
  • I can tell you that I may be a lot of things but I am not dumb. And I wrote about going to Bosnia in my book in 2004, I laid it all out there. And you’re right, on a couple of occasions in the last weeks I just said some things that weren’t in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book. And you know, I‘m embarrassed by it. I‘m very sorry I said it. I have said that, you know, it just didn‘t jive with what I had written about and knew to be the truth. So I know that it is something that some people have said, “Wait a minute. What happened here?” But I have talked about this and written about it and then, unfortunately, in a few occasions I was not as accurate as I have been in the past.
    • April 16, 2008, Pennsylvania Democratic Presidential Debate, Philadelphia, when asked about her dishonesty concerning her recent comments about Bosnia. [25][26][27]
  • Rich people, God bless us. We deserve all the opportunities to make sure our country and our blessings continue to the next generation.
  • No. 1, I believe strongly that we have to get back to leading on issues like health care and education and women's rights around the world. I have introduced legislation called The Education for All Act. And it's bipartisan. I introduced it first in '04 and then we reintroduced it on a bipartisan basis in '07.
And the work that I would want to do to have the United States lead the world in putting the 77 million kids who aren't in school into school, having us lead when it comes to health care, particularly in malaria, T.B., HIV/AIDS, but also women's health which has been woefully neglected.
  • I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran (if it attacks Israel). In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them. That’s a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that because that perhaps will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish and tragic.
  • I'm not going to put my lot in with economists.
    • on her dismissal of economists' universal opposition to her gas tax holiday proposal [28]
  • Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you're knocked down, get right back up. And never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on.
    • [29], Washington D.C., June 7, 2008
  • Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be.
    • [30], Washington D.C., June 7, 2008
  • Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it.
  • You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the President of the United States. And that is truly remarkable.

Secretary of State (2009–2013)

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We have to position ourselves to lead in a world where security and prosperity are shaped in boardrooms and on trading floors as well as battlefields or diplomatic negotiations.
  • And finally, to my husband, who understands so well the awesome responsibilities resting on the shoulders of President Obama and Vice President Biden and all of us who serve with them. I am so grateful to him for a lifetime of... all kinds of experiences – (audience laughter) – which have given me a – (applause) – which have given me an extraordinary richness that I am absolutely beholden to and grateful for.
  • I have absolutely no interest in running for president again.
    • ABC News TV interview, 2009-10-14. AFP
  • [W]hether I am meant to or not, I challenge assumptions about women. I do make some people uncomfortable, which I'm well aware of, but that's just part of coming to grips with what I believe is still one of the most important pieces of unfinished business in human history -- empowering women to be able to stand up for themselves."
    • Vogue interview (November 21, 2009) [32]
  • On their own, new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for freedom and progress, but the United States does. We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas. [...] The internet can help bridge divides between people of different faiths. As the President said in Cairo, freedom of religion is central to the ability of people to live together. And as we look for ways to expand dialogue, the internet holds out such tremendous promise. [...] We are also supporting the development of new tools that enable citizens to exercise their rights of free expression by circumventing politically motivated censorship. We are providing funds to groups around the world to make sure that those tools get to the people who need them in local languages, and with the training they need to access the internet safely. The United States has been assisting in these efforts for some time, with a focus on implementing these programs as efficiently and effectively as possible. Both the American people and nations that censor the internet should understand that our government is committed to helping promote internet freedom. We want to put these tools in the hands of people who will use them to advance democracy and human rights, to fight climate change and epidemics, to build global support for President Obama's goal of a world without nuclear weapons, to encourage sustainable economic development that lifts the people at the bottom up.
    • "Remarks on Internet Freedom", The Newseum, Washington, DC, January 21, 2010 [33]
  • We had this brilliant idea that we were going to come to Pakistan and create a force of mujaheddin, equip them with Stinger missiles and everything else, to go after the Soviets inside Afghanistan. And we were successful. The Soviets left Afghanistan. And then we said great, goodbye – leaving these trained people who were fanatical in Afghanistan and Pakistan, leaving them well armed, creating a mess, frankly, that at the time we didn’t really recognize. We were just so happy to see the Soviet Union fall and we thought, okay, fine, we’re okay now, everything’s going to be so much better. Now you look back; the people we’re fighting today we were supporting in the fight against the Soviets.
  • Now, we are entering a new phase in our relationship with Iraq, and we are very committed to making a major civilian commitment to Iraq’s future. We’ll be opening, as you know, and running consulates in Irbil and Basra, we’ll have civilian experts available to work with not only Iraqi counterparts, but also Americans and to support American businesses in the years to come, as we do in our diplomatic – especially our commercial diplomatic work all over the world. And so it’s time for the United States to start thinking of Iraq as a business opportunity. And the sacrifice that the Iraqi people have made for your freedom is one that we highly respect.
    • Remarks at the Business Forum Promoting Commercial Opportunities in Iraq, June 3, 2011
  • Well, I have been a strong supporter of ending discrimination, and particularly focusing on hate crimes and workplace bias and the like. And in our country, the issue of same-sex marriage, which is a -- is a matter left to each state, each state sets the rules -- is proceeding on a state-by-state basis. I think that is the best way for it to proceed. I have not supported same-sex marriage. I have supported civil partnerships and contractual relationships
  • Avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail accounts.
    • United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (June 28, 2011) Securing Personal E-mail Accounts, United States Department of State, cable, to: All Diplomatic and Consular Posts.
  • Moderator 1: Okay. Which designers do you prefer?
    Secretary Clinton: What designers of clothes?
    Moderator 1: Yes.
    Secretary Clinton: Would you ever ask a man that question? [Laughter, applause]
    Moderator 1: Probably not. Probably not. [Applause]
  • To LGBT men and women worldwide, let me say this: wherever you live and whatever the circumstances of your life, whether you are connected to a network of support or feel isolated and vulnerable, please know that you are not alone.
    • Remarks in Recognition of International Human Rights Day (December 6, 2011) [34]
  • Gay rights are human rights.
    • Quoted in The Week, 10 December 2011, p. 10
  • We have to position ourselves to lead in a world where security and prosperity are shaped in boardrooms and on trading floors as well as battlefields or diplomatic negotiations.
    • Remarks for the "Global Economic Statecraft Day" (8 June 2012) [35]
  • Among the most striking things that I have learned is how much we have in common. I’ve sat down with people everywhere, discussing what was in their hearts and on their minds. And it doesn’t take long to find commonality, which is often overlooked, ignored, dismissed, and rejected otherwise.
    • Frontlines and Frontiers: Making Human Rights a Human Reality (December 6, 2012) [36]

Interim (2013–2015)

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  • They should be sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are. There are concerns about whether all of them can be sent back, but I think all of them who can be should be reunited with their families…We have to send a clear message: Just because your child gets across the border, that doesn’t mean the child gets to stay. We don’t want to send a message that’s contrary to our laws or will encourage more children to make that dangerous journey.
  • People can judge me for what I’ve done. And I think when somebody’s out in the public eye, that’s what they do. So I’m fully comfortable with who I am, what I stand for, and what I’ve always stood for.
    • From an interview with Gwen Ifill (25 June 2014)
  • It's time to have wage equality one and for all
    • An unequal answer on equal pay (24 February 2015)

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016)

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  • I'm running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.
  • When they talk about legal status, that's code for second-class status.
    • May 5, 2015
  • We can't afford to cede our leadership in developing and deploying the advanced, clean fuels of the future that will grow our economy, lower our energy bills, reduce pollution, and protect the health of our families and communities. And America's farmers and rural communities have to be at the heart of this effort.
    • Cedar Rapids Gazette Guest Column (2015 May 28)
  • I wish [my mother] could have seen the America we’re going to build together. An America, where if you do your part, you reap the rewards. Where we don’t leave anyone out, or anyone behind. An America where a father can tell his daughter: yes, you can be anything you want to be. Even President of the United States.
    • Campaign kickoff speech (June 13, 2015) [37]
  • I did not send classified material, and I did not receive any material that was marked or designated classified.
  • I cannot control what the Republicans leak and what they are contending.
  • That’s what they offered.
    • Speaking at CNN’s Democratic forum, after anchor Anderson Cooper asked Clinton about receiving $650,000 for three speeches to the Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs, The Hill (February 3, 2016)
  • Let’s dispel with this fiction that @POTUS doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
  • Despite what you hear, we don't need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great. But we do need to make America whole again. Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers.
  • I really believe that there are going to be a lot of arguments to make against him that we can look forward to, I’m not going to spill the beans right now. But, suffice it to say that there are many arguments that we can use against him. But, one argument that I am uniquely qualified to bring, because of my service as Secretary of State is what his presidency would mean to our country and our standing in the world. I am already receiving messages from leaders — I’m having foreign leaders ask if they can endorse me to stop Donald Trump.
  • So for example, I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right? And we're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we've got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don't want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.
  • You know, joining a gang is like having a family. It's feeling like you're part of something bigger than yourself. So we're either going to have gangs that murder and rob and do the things that are so destructive to the gang members and to the community. Or, we're going to have positive gangs. We're going to have positive alternatives for young people.
  • Mr. Khan, paid the ultimate sacrifice in his family, didn't he. And what has he heard from Donald Trump? Nothing but insults, degrading comments about Muslims, a total misunderstanding of what made our country great, religious freedom, religious liberty. It's enshrined in our Constitution, as Mr. Khan knows, because he's actually read it.
  • You know, when you run for president, you need to be judged by what you have done. I think the evidence is pretty clear.

Speech on fighting ISIS (November 20, 2015)

[edit]
Speech at the Council on Foreign Relations (transcript)
  • After a major terrorist attack, every society faces a choice between fear and resolve. The world’s great democracies can’t sacrifice our values or turn our backs on those in need. Therefore, we must choose resolve. And we must lead the world to meet this threat.
  • Our efforts will only succeed if the Arabs and Turks step up in a much bigger way. This is their fight and they need to act like it. So far, however, Turkey has been more focused on the Kurds than on countering ISIS. And to be fair, Turkey has a long and painful history with Kurdish terrorist groups. But the threat from ISIS cannot wait. As difficult as it may be, we need to get Turkey to stop bombing Kurdish fighters in Syria who are battling ISIS and become a full partner of our coalition efforts against ISIS. The United States should also work with our Arab partners to get them more invested in the fight against ISIS. At the moment, they are focused in other areas.
  • Stemming this tide will require much better coordination and information sharing among countries every step of the way. We should not stop pressing until Turkey, where most foreign fighters cross into Syria, finally locks down its border. The United States and our allies need to know and share the identities of every fighter who has traveled to Syria.
  • Once and for all, the Saudis, the Qataris, and others need to stop their citizens from directly funding extremist organizations, as well as schools and mosques around the world that have set too many young people on a path toward radicalization. When it comes to blocking terrorist recruitment, we have to identify the hotspots—the specific neighborhoods and villages, the prisons and schools—where recruitment happens in clusters.
  • Islam itself is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. The obsession in some quarters with a "clash of civilizations" or repeating the specific words "radical Islamic terrorism" is not just a distraction, it gives these criminals, these murderers, more standing than they deserve and it actually plays into their hands by alienating partners we need by our side.
  • I think that the Saudis have a multiple level of responsibilities, first and foremost, stopping their own citizens from continuing the financing for extremists. And, you know, Saudi financing is still a major source of revenue for terrorist groups inside Syria, inside Iraq elsewhere.
  • ISIS has become quite a self-financing terrorist network with their theft of oil, selling it on the black market with their destruction and seizure of antiquities, selling that on the black market, with their taking over Mosul and raiding the banks. They’ve got a source of funding, so I don’t really know. But I know that the — that Saudi individuals have certainly funded other related terrorist groups over time and also exported a lot of Wahhabi radicalism by kicking out or sending out imams and teachers to set up schools and mosques to preach that particularly harsh brand of Islam. So the Saudis have a lot that they can do to both stop and then to help.

Speech about the Orlando Shooting (June 13, 2016)

[edit]
Speech in Cleveland, Ohio after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting (transcript)
  • The Orlando terrorist may be dead, but the virus that poisoned his mind remains very much alive. And we must attack it with clear eyes, steady hands, unwavering determination and pride in our country and our values.
  • I believe weapons of war have no place on our streets and we may have our disagreements about gun safety regulations, but we should all be able to agree on a few essential things. If the FBI is watching you for a suspected terrorist link, you shouldn’t be able to just go buy a gun with no questions asked. And you shouldn’t be able to exploit loopholes and evade criminal background checks by buying online or at a gun show. And yes, if you’re too dangerous to get on a plane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America.
  • We have to make it harder for people who should not have those weapons of war. That might not stop every shooting or terrorist attack. But it will stop some and it will save lives and it will protect our first responders.
  • None of us can close our eyes to the fact that we do face enemies who use their distorted version of Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people.
  • It is long past time for the Saudis, the Qataris and the Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organizations. And they should stop supporting radical schools and mosques around the world that have set too many young people on a path towards extremism.
  • The terrorist in Orlando targeted LGBT Americans out of hatred and bigotry, and an attack on any American is an attack on all Americans.
  • Our open, diverse society is an asset in the struggle against terrorism, not a liability. It makes us stronger and more resistant to radicalization. And this raises a larger point about the future of our country. America is strongest when we all believe that we have a stake in our country and our future. This vision has sustained us from the beginning. The belief that, yes, we are all created equal and the journey we have made to turn that into reality over the course of our history, that we are not a land of winners and losers, that we should all have the opportunity to live up to our God-given potential. And we have a responsibility to help others do so as well.
  • As I look at American history, I see that this has always been a country of “we” not “me.” We stand together because we are stronger together. E pluribus unum. One — out of many, one — has seen us through the darkest chapters of our history. Ever since 13 squabbling colonies put aside their disagreements and united because they realized they were going to rise together or fall separately, generation after generation has fought and marched and organized to widen the circle of dignity and opportunity. Ending slavery. Securing and expanding the right to vote. Throwing open the doors of education. Building the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. And we are stronger when more people can participate in our democracy.

Democratic Presidential Debate in Miami (March 9, 2016)

[edit]
Transcript by The New York Times (March 9, 2016)
  • I am a progressive who likes to get things done.
  • It wasn’t the best choice. I made a mistake. It was not prohibited. It was not in any way disallowed. And as I have said and as now has come out, my predecessors did the same thing and many other people in the government. But here’s the cut to the chase facts. I did not send or receive any emails marked classified at the time. What you are talking about is retroactive classification. And the reason that happens is when somebody asks or when you are asked to make information public, I asked all my emails to be made public. Then all the rest of the government gets to weigh in. ... I think that what we have got here is a case of overclassification. ...
  • I was the first one to call him out. I called him out when he was calling Mexicans rapists. ... His demagoguery, his trafficking in prejudice and paranoia has no place in our political system. Especially from somebody running for president who couldn’t decide whether or not to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke. So people can draw their own conclusions about him. I will just end by saying this. You don’t make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great. I think it’s un-American. I think what he has promoted is not at all in keeping with American values.
  • I have been consistent and committed to comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. I think our best chance was in 2007, when Ted Kennedy led the charge on comprehensive immigration reform. We have Republican support. We had a president willing to sign it. I voted for that bill. Senator Sanders voted against it. Just think, imagine where we would be today is we had achieved comprehensive immigration reform nine years ago. Imagine how much more secure families would be in our country, no longer fearing the deportation of a loved one; no longer fearing that they would be found out. ... In 2006, when Senator Sanders was running for the Senate from Vermont, he voted in the House with hard-line Republicans for indefinite detention for undocumented immigrants, and then he sided with those Republicans to stand with vigilantes known as Minute Men who were taking up outposts along the border to hunt down immigrants. So I think when you were running for the Senate, you made it clear by your vote, Senator, that you were going to stand with the Republicans. When you got to the Senate in 2007, one of the first things you did was vote against Ted Kennedy’s immigration reform which he’d been working on for years before you ever arrived.
  • I’m committed to defending DAPA and DACA. I’m committed to going even further to get more people deferred action, to go as far as I can under the law. And I am committed to introducing comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship in the first 100 days of my presidency.
  • I did say we needed to be very concerned about little children coming to this country — on their own, very often — many of them not making it. And when they got here, they needed, as I have argued for, legal counsel, due process, to make a decision. We need to end private detention, we need to end family detention.
  • My priorities are to deport violent criminals, terrorists, and anyone who threatens our safety. So I do not have the same policy as the current administration does. I think it’s important that we move to our comprehensive immigration reform, but at the same time, stop the raids, stop the round-ups, stop the deporting of people who are living here doing their lives, doing their jobs, and that’s my priority.
  • I would not deport children. I do not want to deport family members either.
  • Asylum is a particular legal process. I’d like to see it changed. I’d like to see us give more support to people who come fleeing the terrible violence that they do. But under our law, we have a process we have to go through which is different. ... The undocumented people living in our country, I do not want to see them deported. I want to see them on a path to citizenship.
  • I think the Congress should support the president’s request to fund programs that would protect people and change the culture of criminality and violence in Central America, helping people be able to stay safely in their homes and countries.
  • The Republicans, the opponents no longer have an argument. And certainly, we hear a lot coming from the Republican side that is absolutely out of touch with reality. We raised money through the congressional appropriations process. We enhanced the border security. That part of the work is done. Everybody that I know has looked at it said, okay, we have a secure border. There’s no need for this rhetoric and demagoguery that’s still —is carried out on the Republican side. You’ve run out of excuses. ... I understand him, he’s (Donald Trump) talking about a very tall wall. Right? A beautiful tall wall. The most beautiful tall wall, better than the Great Wall of China, that would run the entire border. That he would somehow magically get the Mexican government to pay for. And, you know, it’s just fantasy. And in fact, if he cared to know anything about what members of Congress, like the senator and I have done, where it was necessary, we did support some fencing. Where it was necessary, we did add border patrol agents. We have done what by any fair estimate would have to conclude is a good job, quote, “securing the border”. So let’s get about the business of comprehensive immigration reform.
  • It is time to bring families together.
  • I do take responsibility. When you’re in public life, even if you believe that it’s not an opinion that you think is fair or founded, you do have to take responsibility. And I do. And I also have, you know, very much committed to the best of my ability my energies and efforts to helping people. That’s something that I care deeply about. And I will continue to do that, to demonstrate by my past actions and my present levels of commitment and plans that people can count on me.
  • I am not a natural politician, in case you haven’t noticed, like my husband or President Obama. So I have a view that I just have to do the best I can, get the results I can, make a difference in people’s lives, and hope that people see that I’m fighting for them and that I can improve conditions economically and other ways that will benefit them and their families.
  • I do have the toughest, most comprehensive plan to go after Wall Street. And not just the big banks, all the other financial interests that pose a threat to our economy. And I have said no bank is too big to fail and no executive is too powerful to jail, and I will use the powers that have now been passed by the Congress, by President Obama, who, incidentally, took a lot of money from Wall Street, which didn’t stop him from signing into law the toughest regulations on the financial industry since the Great Depression. There are a lot of different powerful interests in Washington. I’ve taken them on. I took on the drug companies. I took on the insurance companies. Before there was something called Obamacare, there was something called Hillarycare, and I worked really hard to get comprehensive health care reform.
  • I guess Senator Sanders, that the Koch brothers, as you said, are sensible with how they use their money. And I agree with you. They stand for things that I find abhorrent, that would be bad for our country, bad for our future. But they did just put up a little video praising you for being the only Democrat who stood with the Republicans to try to eliminate the Export/Import Bank, which has helped hundreds and hundreds of companies here in Florida be able to export their goods and employ more Floridians. So from my perspective, you sided with the Koch brothers.
  • I feel a great deal of sympathy for the families of the four brave Americans that we lost at Benghazi. And I certainly can’t even imagine the grief that she has for losing her son, but she’s wrong. She’s absolutely wrong. I and everybody in the administration, all the people she named, the president, the vice president, Susan Rice, we were scrambling to get information that was changing, literally by the hour. And when we had information, we made it public. But then sometimes we had to go back and say we have new information that contradicts it. So I testified for 11 hours. ... We have captured one of the lead terrorists and he admits it was both a terrorist attack and it was influenced by the video. This was fog of war. This was complicated. The most effective, comprehensive reports and studies demonstrate that. ... I deeply regret that we lost four Americans. And I of course sympathize with members of the families who are still, you know, very much grieving. And I wish that there could be an easy answer at the time, but we learned a lot, and the intelligence kept improving, and we learned enough to say what we think happened at Benghazi.
  • There had already been one independent investigation. There had been seven or eight congressional investigations, mostly led by Republicans who all reached the same conclusions, that there were lessons to be learned. And this is not the first time we lost Americans in a terrorist attack. We lost 3,000 people on 9/11. We lost Americans serving in embassies in Tanzania and Kenya when my husband was president. We lost 250 Americans, both military and civilian, when Ronald Reagan was president in Beirut. And at no other time were those tragedies were they politicized. Instead people said, let’s learn the lessons and save lives.
  • We do have to do more infrastructure spending. That will put many Americans to work. It’s a good job that gets you on the ladder to the middle class. We need to improve the conditions for manufacturing in our country and punish those companies that want to export jobs. We need them to be incentivized to create jobs right here in America.
  • We need more clean energy jobs and we have to do more to help small businesses. You know, the fastest-growing segment of small businesses are minority and women-owned small business, and we need to help businesses get started. We do need to raise the minimum wage and we have to guarantee equal pay for women.
  • Every child deserves a good teacher in a good school, regardless of the zip code that they live in.
  • We’re going to refinance everyone’s existing student debt, 40 million Americans have student debt. ... Under my plan, you will be able to also lower your debt, move into a program to pay it back as a percentage of your income and more than that, my plan for debt-free tuition at public colleges and universities will eventually eliminate any student debt. But for people who have it, I’m going to put a date certain that after a certain number of years, you no longer have to pay anything. The government has to quit making money off of lending money to young people to get their education.
  • We have Dodd-Frank and we will break up banks that pose a systemic threat to our economy.
  • My dad used to say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
  • Between the Republicans trying to repeal the first chance we’ve ever had to get to universal health care, and Senator Sanders wanting to throw us into a contentious debate over single-payer, I think the smart approach is build on and protect the Affordable Care Act. Make it work. Reduce the cost.
  • The clean power plan is something that Senator Sanders has said he would delay implementing, which makes absolutely no sense. We need to implement all of the president’s executive actions and quickly move to make a bridge from coal to natural gas to clean energy. That is the way we will keep the lights on while we are transitioning to a clean energy future. And when I talk about resilience, I think that is an area we can get Republican support on.
  • Along came the Republicans, trickle-down economics — one of the worst ideas since snake oil — was put back into place. And we ended up with the great recession. President Obama had to rescue the economy. And I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves for doing that.
  • I supported the president’s moves. I helped to implement some of them leading up to the announcements when I was secretary of state, expanding travel opportunities, remittances. And I certainly told the president toward the end of my time that I hoped he would be able to move toward diplomatic relations and to make more of an impact by building up the relationship. And there are no better ambassadors for freedom, democracy and economic opportunity than Cuban Americans. So the more that we can have that kind of movement back and forth, the more likely we are to be able to move Cuba toward greater freedom, greater respect for rights. ... I do think meeting with dissidents, meeting with people who have been voices, tribunes of freedom and opportunity is important.
  • The Cuban people deserve to have their human rights respected and upheld, they deserve to be able to move towards democracy where they pick their own leads. And I think both Castros have to be considered authoritarian and dictatorial because they are not freely chosen by the people that are in Cuba. I hope someday there will be leaders who are chosen by the Cuban people, and I hope that democracy will be deeply rooted in Cuban soil and that the people of Cuba will have every opportunity to fulfill their own dreams in their own country. That is my hope.
  • The Congress must give authority to Puerto Rico to restructure its debts. Just like it has enabled states and cities to restructure their debt. And it’s a grave injustice for the Congress, led by the Republicans to be refusing to enact that opportunity within the bankruptcy law. ... Puerto Ricans are citizen of America. They deserve to be treated as citizens and to be given the opportunity to get back on their feet economically.
  • If the values are that you oppress people, you disappear people, you imprison people or even kill people for expressing their opinions, for expressing freedom of speech, that is not the kind of revolution of values that I ever want to see anywhere.

2016 Democratic National Convention (July 28, 2016)

[edit]
Transcript by Los Angeles Times (July 28, 2016)
  • The man of Hope, Barack Obama. America is stronger because of President Obama's leadership, and I'm better because of his friendship.
  • I want to thank Bernie Sanders. Bernie, your campaign inspired millions of Americans, particularly the young people who threw their hearts and souls into our primary. You've put economic and social justice issues front and center, where they belong. And to all of your supporters here and around the country: I want you to know, I've heard you. Your cause is our cause. Our country needs your ideas, energy, and passion. That's the only way we can turn our progressive platform into real change for America. We wrote it together – now let's go out there and make it happen together.
  • My friends, we've come to Philadelphia – the birthplace of our nation – because what happened in this city 240 years ago still has something to teach us today. We all know the story. But we usually focus on how it turned out - and not enough on how close that story came to never being written at all. When representatives from 13 unruly colonies met just down the road from here, some wanted to stick with the King. Some wanted to stick it to the king, and go their own way. The revolution hung in the balance. Then somehow they began listening to each other … compromising … finding common purpose. And by the time they left Philadelphia, they had begun to see themselves as one nation. That's what made it possible to stand up to a King. That took courage. They had courage. Our Founders embraced the enduring truth that we are stronger together. America is once again at a moment of reckoning. Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. And just as with our founders, there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together.
  • Now we are clear-eyed about what our country is up against. But we are not afraid. We will rise to the challenge, just as we always have. We will not build a wall. Instead, we will build an economy where everyone who wants a good paying job can get one. And we'll build a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are already contributing to our economy! We will not ban a religion. We will work with all Americans and our allies to fight and defeat terrorism.
  • Just look at the strengths we bring as Americans to meet these challenges. We have the most dynamic and diverse people in the world. We have the most tolerant and generous young people we've ever had. We have the most powerful military. The most innovative entrepreneurs. The most enduring values.
  • Freedom and equality, justice and opportunity. We should be so proud that these words are associated with us. I have to tell you, as your Secretary of State, I went to 112 countries, and when people hear those words – they hear America.
  • Don't let anyone tell you that our country is weak. We're not. Don't let anyone tell you we don't have what it takes. We do. And most of all, don't believe anyone who says: “I alone can fix it.”
  • Americans don't say: “I alone can fix it.” We say: “We'll fix it together.”
  • Our Founders fought a revolution and wrote a Constitution so America would never be a nation where one person had all the power. Two hundred and forty years later, we still put our faith in each other.
  • None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community or lift a country totally alone. America needs every one of us to lend our energy, our talents, our ambition to making our nation better and stronger. I believe that with all my heart. That's why “Stronger Together” is not just a lesson from our history. It's not just a slogan for our campaign. It's a guiding principle for the country we've always been and the future we're going to build. A country where the economy works for everyone, not just those at the top. Where you can get a good job and send your kids to a good school, no matter what zip code you live in. A country where all our children can dream, and those dreams are within reach. Where families are strong… communities are safe… And yes, love trumps hate. That's the country we're fighting for. That's the future we're working toward.
  • My job titles only tell you what I've done. They don't tell you why.
  • The truth is, through all these years of public service, the “service” part has always come easier to me than the “public” part.
  • My mother, Dorothy, was abandoned by her parents as a young girl. She ended up on her own at 14, working as a house maid. She was saved by the kindness of others. Her first grade teacher saw she had nothing to eat at lunch, and brought extra food to share. The lesson she passed on to me years later stuck with me: No one gets through life alone. We have to look out for each other and lift each other up.
  • It became clear to me that simply caring is not enough. To drive real progress, you have to change both hearts and laws. You need both understanding and action.
  • Every kid with a disability has the right to go to school.
  • Tonight, we've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union: the first time that a major party has nominated a woman for President. Standing here as my mother's daughter, and my daughter's mother, I'm so happy this day has come. Happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. Happy for boys and men, too – because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit. So let's keep going, until every one of the 161 million women and girls across America has the opportunity she deserves. Because even more important than the history we make tonight, is the history we will write together in the years ahead. Let's begin with what we're going to do to help working people in our country get ahead and stay ahead.
  • I don't think President Obama and Vice President Biden get the credit they deserve for saving us from the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes.
  • None of us can be satisfied with the status quo. Not by a long shot.
  • Americans are willing to work – and work hard. But right now, an awful lot of people feel there is less and less respect for the work they do. And less respect for them, period. Democrats are the party of working people. But we haven't done a good enough job showing that we get what you're going through, and that we're going to do something about it.
  • My primary mission as President will be to create more opportunity and more good jobs with rising wages right here in the United States... From my first day in office to my last! Especially in places that for too long have been left out and left behind.
  • Here's what I believe. I believe America thrives when the middle class thrives. I believe that our economy isn't working the way it should because our democracy isn't working the way it should. That's why we need to appoint Supreme Court justices who will get money out of politics and expand voting rights, not restrict them. And if necessary we'll pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United! I believe American corporations that have gotten so much from our country should be just as patriotic in return. Many of them are. But too many aren't. It's wrong to take tax breaks with one hand and give out pink slips with the other. And I believe Wall Street can never, ever be allowed to wreck Main Street again. I believe in science. I believe that climate change is real and that we can save our planet while creating millions of good-paying clean energy jobs. I believe that when we have millions of hardworking immigrants contributing to our economy, it would be self-defeating and inhumane to try to kick them out. Comprehensive immigration reform will grow our economy and keep families together - and it's the right thing to do.
  • It's just not right that Donald Trump can ignore his debts, but students and families can't refinance theirs.
  • College is crucial, but a four-year degree should not be the only path to a good job. We're going to help more people learn a skill or practice a trade and make a good living doing it. We're going to give small businesses a boost. Make it easier to get credit. Way too many dreams die in the parking lots of banks. In America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it. We're going to help you balance family and work. And you know what, if fighting for affordable child care and paid family leave is playing the “woman card,” then Deal Me In!
  • When more than 90% of the gains have gone to the top 1%, that's where the money is. And we are going to follow the money. And if companies take tax breaks and then ship jobs overseas, we'll make them pay us back. And we'll put that money to work where it belongs … creating jobs here at home!
  • I’ve worked across the aisle to pass laws and treaties and to launch new programs that help millions of people. And if you give me the chance, that’s what I’ll do as President.
  • In Atlantic City, 60 miles from here, you'll find contractors and small businesses who lost everything because Donald Trump refused to pay his bills. Now remember what the President said last night -- don't boo, vote. People who did the work and needed the money, and didn't get it – not because he couldn't pay them, but because he wouldn't pay them. He just stiffed them. That sales pitch he's making to be your president? Put your faith in him – and you'll win big? That's the same sales pitch he made to all those small businesses. Then Trump walked away, and left working people holding the bag.
  • Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again – well, he could start by actually making things in America again.
  • You want a leader who understands we are stronger when we work with our allies around the world and care for our veterans here at home. Keeping our nation safe and honoring the people who do it will be my highest priority.
  • Our military is a national treasure. We entrust our commander-in-chief to make the hardest decisions our nation faces. Decisions about war and peace. Life and death. A president should respect the men and women who risk their lives to serve our country.
  • Does Donald Trump have the temperament to be Commander-in-Chief? Donald Trump can't even handle the rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign. He loses his cool at the slightest provocation. When he's gotten a tough question from a reporter. When he's challenged in a debate. When he sees a protestor at a rally. Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons. I can't put it any better than Jackie Kennedy did after the Cuban Missile Crisis. She said that what worried President Kennedy during that very dangerous time was that a war might be started – not by big men with self-control and restraint, but by little men – the ones moved by fear and pride.
  • America's strength doesn't come from lashing out. Strength relies on smarts, judgment, cool resolve, and the precise and strategic application of power.
  • If we're serious about keeping our country safe, we also can't afford to have a President who's in the pocket of the gun lobby. I'm not here to repeal the 2nd Amendment. I'm not here to take away your guns. I just don't want you to be shot by someone who shouldn't have a gun in the first place. We should be working with responsible gun owners to pass common-sense reforms and keep guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists and all others who would do us harm.
  • We have to heal the divides in our country. Not just on guns. But on race. Immigration. And more. That starts with listening to each other. Hearing each other. Trying, as best we can, to walk in each other's shoes.
  • We will defend all our rights – civil rights, human rights and voting rights… women's rights and workers' rights… LGBT rights and the rights of people with disabilities!
  • We will stand up against mean and divisive rhetoric wherever it comes from. You know, for the past year, many people made the mistake of laughing off Donald Trump's comments – excusing him as an entertainer just putting on a show. They think he couldn't possibly mean all the horrible things he says – like when he called women “pigs.” Or said that an American judge couldn't be fair because of his Mexican heritage. Or when he mocks and mimics a reporter with a disability. Or insults prisoners of war like John McCain –a true hero and patriot who deserves our respect. At first, I admit, I couldn't believe he meant it either. It was just too hard to fathom – that someone who wants to lead our nation could say those things. Could be like that. But here's the sad truth: There is no other Donald Trump. ... This is it. And in the end, it comes down to what Donald Trump doesn't get: that America is great – because America is good.
    • "America is great because America is good" can be found in a contribution by Reverend Clarenca Reynolds to the September 6, 1922 issue of the Herald and Presbyter. The line is sometime falsely attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville.
  • So enough with the bigotry and bombast. Donald Trump's not offering real change. He's offering empty promises.
  • Every generation of Americans has come together to make our country freer, fairer, and stronger. None of us ever have or can do it alone.
  • Progress is possible. I know because I've seen it in the lives of people across America who get knocked down and get right back up. And I know it from my own life.
  • You have to stand up to bullies. You have to keep working to make things better, even when the odds are long and the opposition is fierce.
  • Yes, the world is watching what we do. Yes, America's destiny is ours to choose. So let's be stronger together, my fellow Americans. Let’s look to the future with courage and confidence. Let’s build a better tomorrow for our beloved children and our beloved country. And when we do, America will be greater than ever.

Speech in Warren, Michigan (August 11, 2016)

[edit]
Speech in Warren, Michigan. Transcript by Newsweek [39] (August 11, 2016)
  • We have the most dynamic, productive workforce in the world, bar none. We have the most innovative businesses. The top colleges, universities, community colleges, training programs in the world. And the best science and technology. We have enormous capacity for clean energy production. We are resilient, determined, hard-working. There is nothing America can’t do – if we do it together. And I know this because this is how I was raised. And I don’t think Mr. Trump understands any of it. He hasn’t offered any credible solutions for the very real economic challenges we face.
  • There are common-sense things that your government could do that would give Americans more opportunities to succeed. Why don’t we do it? Because powerful special interests and the tendency to put ideology ahead of political progress have led to gridlock in Congress.
  • No matter how far those dreams have taken me, I have always remembered, I’m the daughter of a small-business owner and the granddaughter of a factory worker — and proud of both.
  • If you work hard, you do your part, you should be able to give your children all the opportunities they deserve. That is the basic bargain of America.
  • I believe every American willing to work hard should be able to find a job that provides dignity, pride and decent pay that can support a family.
  • It’s astonishing to me how many places in America, not way, way far away from cities, but in cities and near cities that don’t have access to broadband. And that disadvantages kids who are asked to do homework using the internet. 5 million of them live in homes without access to the internet. So you talk about an achievement gap, it starts right there.
  • Some country is going to be the clean energy superpower of the 21st century and create millions of jobs and businesses. It’s probably going to be either China, Germany, or America. I want it to be us! We invent the technology, we should make it and use it and export it, which will help to grow our economy.
  • A big part of our plan will be unleashing the power of the private sector to create more jobs at higher pay. And that means for us, creating an infrastructure bank to get private funds off the sidelines and complement our private investments.
  • Let’s free entrepreneurs to do what they do best – innovate, grow, and hire.
  • Donald Trump has a different view. He’s made a career out of stiffing small businesses from Atlantic City to Las Vegas. There are companies that were left hanging because he refused to pay their bills. A lot of those companies scraped together what the could to pay their employees, and many of them put their businesses at risk and some of them ended up taking bankruptcy. It wasn’t because Trump couldn’t pay them, it was because he wouldn’t pay them.
  • The people taking care of our children and our parents, they deserve a good wage, good benefits, and a secure retirement. And, it’s crucial that every American have access to the education and skills they need to get the jobs of the future. So we will fight to make college tuition-free for the middle class and debt-free for everyone.
  • It’s just not right that Donald Trump can ignore his debts, but students and families can’t refinance their debt.
  • I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages – including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I oppose it now, I’ll oppose it after the election, and I’ll oppose it as President. ... I will stand up to China and anyone else who tries to take advantage of American workers and companies. And I’m going to ramp up enforcement by appointing, for the first time, a chief trade prosecutor, I will triple the number of enforcement officers, and when countries break the rules, we won't hesitate to impose targeted tariffs.
  • Mr. Trump may talk a big game on trade, but his approach is based on fear, not strength. Fear that we can’t compete with the rest of the world even when the rules are fair. Fear that our country has no choice but to hide behind walls.
  • America isn’t afraid to compete.
  • Let’s remember where Trump makes many of his own products. Because it sure is not America. ... One positive thing Trump could do to make America great again is actually make great things in America again.
  • I believe that every employee, from the CEO suite to the factory floor, contributes to a business’ success, so everybody should share in the rewards – especially those putting in long hours for little pay.
  • Wall Street, corporations, and the super-rich, should finally pay their fair share of taxes. That’s why I support the so-called ‘Buffett Rule,’ because multi-millionaires should not be able to pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries. We should also add a new tax on multi-millionaires, crack down on tax gaming by corporations and close the carried interest loophole.
  • Trump would roll back the tough rules that we have imposed on the Financial Industry. I’ll do the opposite – I think we should strengthen those rules so that Wall Street can never wreck Main Street again.
  • He (Donald Trump) called for a new tax loophole – let’s call it the Trump Loophole – because it would allow him to pay less than half the current tax rate on income from many of his companies. He’d pay a lower rate than millions of middle class families.
  • He’s making a big promise. But his advisors have said, his own advisors have said, he may not stand by them. ... One of the differences between Donald Trump and me is I’m telling you what I will do, I’m laying out my plans, and I will stand by them, and I want you to hold me accountable for delivering results. This all reminds me of that old saying, ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’
  • Guaranteeing equal pay won’t just increase paychecks for women – it will boost family budgets and get incomes rising across the board. And I don’t understand why Trump’s against that. Paid family leave won’t only make life easier for Moms and Dads – it will also keep skilled, talented Americans in the workforce and grow our economy. That’s why every other advanced country already has it. Again, he’s against it. Raising the federal minimum wage won’t just put more money in the pockets of low-income families – it also means they will spend more at the businesses in their neighborhoods. Trump’s against that as well. ... And protecting and expanding Social Security doesn't just help older Americans retire with dignity – it helps to ease burdens on families and communities. And I also believe the same thing about comprehensive immigration reform.
  • I believe they point to a fundamental truth about our economy. It can seem like a zero sum, when you are competing for a job, a promotion, or a contract if someone wins and someone loses, but that is not the full picture. If you step back, you’ll see we’re all in this together. If we can grow together, we can all rise together. Because, you know what I like to say, we are stronger together, and that’s why the fourth question is key.
  • I think I can provide serious, steady leadership that can find common ground and build on it based on hard, but respectful bargaining with the other side. Leadership that rises above personal attacks and name calling, not revels in it. I just don’t think insults and bullying is how we’re going to get things done. And I don’t think that’s the appropriate approach for us. I know it’s hard to imagine, but there was a time when Democrats and Republicans actually worked together.
  • I think there are a lot of great ideas out in America, and I want you to have a say in your government. And that means we have to get unaccountable money out of our politics, overturn Citizens United, and expand voting rights, not restrict them.
  • I’m running for President to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. And based on what we know from the Trump campaign, he wants America to work for him and his friends, at the expense of everyone else.

Speech in Reno, Nevada (August 25, 2016)

[edit]

Speech in Reno, Nevada. Transcript by Vox [40] (August 25, 2016)

  • I believe that in America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it.
  • Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia. He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two major political parties. His disregard for the values that make our country great is profoundly dangerous. In just the past week, under the guise of "outreach" to African Americans, Trump has stood up in front of largely white audiences and described black communities in insulting and ignorant terms.
  • Donald Trump misses so much. He doesn’t see the success of black leaders in every field… The vibrancy of black-owned businesses…Or the strength of the black church… He doesn’t see the excellence of historically black colleges and universities or the pride of black parents watching their children thrive… And he certainly doesn’t have any solutions to take on the reality of systemic racism and create more equity and opportunity in communities of color. It takes a lot of nerve to ask people he’s ignored and mistreated for decades, "What do you have to lose?" The answer is everything!
  • Trump’s lack of knowledge or experience or solutions would be bad enough. But what he’s doing here is more sinister. Trump is reinforcing harmful stereotypes and offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters. It’s a disturbing preview of what kind of President he’d be.
  • A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military. If he doesn’t respect respect all Americans, he can’t serve all Americans! ... There’s no other Donald Trump. This is it.
  • Well, throughout his career and this campaign, Donald Trump has shown us exactly who he is. We should believe him. When Trump was getting his start in business, he was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent apartments to black and Latino tenants. Three years later, the Justice Department took Trump back to court because he hadn’t changed. The pattern continued through the decades.
  • In 2015, Trump launched his own campaign for President with another racist lie. He described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals. And he accused the Mexican government of actively sending them across the border. None of that is true. Oh, and by the way, Mexico’s not paying for his wall either. If it ever gets built, you can be sure that American taxpayers will be stuck with the bill. Since then, there’s been a steady stream of bigotry.
  • Someone detached from reality should never be in charge of making decisions that are as real as they come.
  • Some people will say that his bluster and bigotry is just over-heated campaign rhetoric – an outrageous person saying outrageous things for attention. But look at the policies Trump has proposed. They would put prejudice into practice. And don’t be distracted by his latest attempts to muddy the waters. He may have some new people putting new words in his mouth… but we know where he stands. He would form a deportation force to round up millions of immigrants and kick them out of the country.
  • He’d abolish the bedrock constitutional principle that says if you’re born in the United States, you’re an American citizen. He says that children born in America to undocumented parents are, quote, "anchor babies" and should be deported. Millions of them.
  • He’d ban Muslims around the world – 1.5 billion men, women, and children –from entering our country just because of their religion.
  • Ever since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, America has distinguished itself as a haven for people fleeing religious persecution. Under Donald Trump, America would distinguish itself as the only country in the world to impose a religious test at the border.
  • Trump likes to say he only hires the "best people." But he’s had to fire so many campaign managers it’s like an episode of the Apprentice.
  • The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump Campaign represents a landmark achievement for the "Alt-Right." A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party.
  • No one should have any illusions about what’s really going on here. The names may have changed… Racists now call themselves "racialists." White supremacists now call themselves "white nationalists." The paranoid fringe now calls itself "alt-right." But the hate burns just as bright. And now Trump is trying to rebrand himself as well. Don’t be fooled.
  • This isn’t just about one election. It’s about who we are as a nation.
  • For all Americans. Because I believe we are stronger together. It’s a vision for the future rooted in our values and reflected in a rising generation of young people who are the most open, diverse, and connected we’ve ever seen. ... Let’s keep moving forward together. Let’s stand up against prejudice and paranoia. Let’s prove once again, that America is great because America is good.

Speech in Orlando, Florida (September 21, 2016)

[edit]

Speech in Orlando, Florida. Transcript (September 21, 2016)

  • We are safer when communities respect the police and police respect communities.
  • I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know anyone who does. But this is certain: too many people have lost their lives who shouldn’t have.
  • Women who want to work deserve to work. And whenever they are denied that opportunity, it’s not fair to them – and we all lose out. In a competitive 21st century global economy, we cannot afford to leave talent on the sidelines. When we leave people out or write them off, we not only shortchange them and their dreams, we shortchange our country and our own futures.
  • When we leave people out or write them off, we not only shortchange them and their dreams, we shortchange our country and our own futures. That’s one reason why I care so much about supporting working parents. It’s one reason why I’m such a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform. ... It’s also one reason why we’ve got to break down barriers of systemic racism, including under-investment that has held communities of color back for generations. That’s part of building an inclusive economy, too. And it’s why I believe we need to do more to help young people, who are left behind in the wake of the Great Recession, find those strategies and opportunities that will get them moving ahead again. And we’ve got to help older Americans who’ve displaced by automation and outsourcing in our changing economy.
  • Too often, training and retraining doesn’t work as it should. If you don’t have a four-year degree, if you haven’t really had the chance to upgrade your skills over the years, it’s hard to just make a course correction. We need to have apprenticeships and community college and technical programs, starting in high school and moving all the way up to older workers. Whether you’re trying to start your career or you’ve spent decades contributing to our economy, you deserve better.
  • I want to bring us together as a nation to recognize the humanity and support the potential of all of our people.
  • None of us gets through life alone. We all have to look out for each other and lift each other up.
  • We’re going to focus on jobs and incomes. I’m going to fight to give more Americans with disabilities the chance to work alongside those without disabilities and do the same jobs for the same pay and benefits. People with disabilities shouldn’t be isolated. They should be given the chance to work with everyone else. And we’re going to eliminate the subminimum wage, which is a vestige from an ugly, ignorant past. Good work deserves fair pay, no matter who you are. Second, we’re going to work with our colleges and universities to make them more accessible to students with disabilities. To have a truly inclusive economy, we need a truly inclusive education system. So let’s raise our standards. ... Third, we’re going to partner with businesses and other stakeholders to ensure those living with a disability can get hired and stay hired. ... Fourth, let’s build on the success of the Americans with Disabilities Act by finally ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It has the strong backing of leaders across the political spectrum, and it’s a chance to show American values and American leadership.
  • My friends, after years of hard work and treating people right, isn’t that what we all want to hear? Isn’t that America at our best? We don’t thrive on tearing each other apart, or separating ourselves. We know we are stronger together. We believe in equality and dignity for all. And when we fall short, we strive to do better, not to blame and scapegoat but to improve ourselves, to move toward becoming that more perfect union that our founders hoped for. This election is a chance for us to move still closer to that goal, to make sure everyone can contribute to a growing and prospering America, to say loudly and clearly in this country, no one’s worthless, no one’s ‘less than.’ We’re all of value. In the United States of America, the greatest country in the world, we believe everyone is created equal. And you know what else we believe? We all believe love trumps hate.

First presidential debate (September 26, 2016)

[edit]

Transcript, Washington Post

  • We have to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. ... How are we going to do it? We're going to do it by having the wealthy pay their fair share and close the corporate loopholes.
  • The kind of plan that Donald has put forth would be trickle-down economics all over again. In fact, it would be the most extreme version, the biggest tax cuts for the top percent of the people in this country than we've ever had. I call it trumped-up trickle-down, because that's exactly what it would be. That is not how we grow the economy.
  • Let's stop for a second and remember where we were eight years ago. We had the worst financial crisis, the Great Recession, the worst since the 1930s. That was in large part because of tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy, failed to invest in the middle class, took their eyes off of Wall Street, and created a perfect storm. In fact, Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis. He said, back in 2006, "Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money." Well, it did collapse. ... We have come back from that abyss. And it has not been easy. So we're now on the precipice of having a potentially much better economy, but the last thing we need to do is to go back to the policies that failed us in the first place.
  • We can have enough clean energy to power every home.
  • Let's not assume that trade is the only challenge we have in the economy. I think it is a part of it, and I've said what I'm going to do. I'm going to have a special prosecutor. We're going to enforce the trade deals we have, and we're going to hold people accountable.
  • There are different views about what's good for our country, our economy, and our leadership in the world. And I think it's important to look at what we need to do to get the economy going again.
  • We need to have strong growth, fair growth, sustained growth. We also have to look at how we help families balance the responsibilities at home and the responsibilities at business.
  • CLINTON: I have a feeling that by, the end of this evening, I'm going to be blamed for everything that's ever happened.
TRUMP: Why not?
CLINTON: Why not? Yeah, why not?
  • We've looked at your [Trump's] tax proposals. I don't see changes in the corporate tax rates or the kinds of proposals you're referring to that would cause the repatriation, bringing back of money that's stranded overseas. I happen to support that. I happen to support that in a way that will actually work to our benefit. But when I look at what you have proposed, you have what is called now the Trump loophole, because it would so advantage you and the business you do. ... Trumped-up trickle-down. Trickle-down did not work. It got us into the mess we were in, in 2008 and 2009. Slashing taxes on the wealthy hasn't worked. And a lot of really smart, wealthy people know that. And they are saying, hey, we need to do more to make the contributions we should be making to rebuild the middle class. I don't think top-down works in America. I think building the middle class, investing in the middle class, making college debt-free so more young people can get their education, helping people refinance their debt from college at a lower rate. Those are the kinds of things that will really boost the economy. Broad-based, inclusive growth is what we need in America, not more advantages for people at the very top.
  • For 40 years, everyone running for president has released their tax returns. You can go and see nearly, I think, 39, 40 years of our tax returns, but everyone has done it. We know the IRS has made clear there is no prohibition on releasing it when you're under audit. So you've got to ask yourself, why won't he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be. Third, we don't know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax. So if he's paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health. And I think probably he's not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are, because it must be something really important, even terrible, that he's trying to hide. And the financial disclosure statements, they don't give you the tax rate. They don't give you all the details that tax returns would. And it just seems to me that this is something that the American people deserve to see. And I have no reason to believe that he's ever going to release his tax returns, because there's something he's hiding.
  • Everyone should be respected by the law, and everyone should respect the law.
  • The gun epidemic is the leading cause of death of young African-American men, more than the next nine causes put together. So we have to do two things, as I said. We have to restore trust. We have to work with the police. We have to make sure they respect the communities and the communities respect them. And we have to tackle the plague of gun violence, which is a big contributor to a lot of the problems that we're seeing today.
  • There are the right ways of doing it, and then there are ways that are ineffective. Stop-and-frisk was found to be unconstitutional and, in part, because it was ineffective. It did not do what it needed to do.
  • We need to have more second chance programs. I'm glad that we're ending private prisons in the federal system; I want to see them ended in the state system. You shouldn't have a profit motivation to fill prison cells with young Americans. So there are some positive ways we can work on this.
  • I believe strongly that commonsense gun safety measures would assist us. Right now -- and this is something Donald has supported, along with the gun lobby -- right now, we've got too many military- style weapons on the streets. In a lot of places, our police are outgunned. We need comprehensive background checks, and we need to keep guns out of the hands of those who will do harm.
  • We finally need to pass a prohibition on anyone who's on the terrorist watch list from being able to buy a gun in our country. If you're too dangerous to fly, you are too dangerous to buy a gun. So there are things we can do, and we ought to do it in a bipartisan way.
  • I think implicit bias is a problem for everyone, not just police. I think, unfortunately, too many of us in our great country jump to conclusions about each other.
  • I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And, yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president. And I think that's a good thing.
  • He has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president was not an American citizen. There was absolutely no evidence for it, but he persisted, he persisted year after year, because some of his supporters, people that he was trying to bring into his fold, apparently believed it or wanted to believe it. ... The birther lie was a very hurtful one. You know, Barack Obama is a man of great dignity. And I could tell how much it bothered him and annoyed him that this was being touted and used against him.
  • I think cyber security, cyber warfare will be one of the biggest challenges facing the next president, because clearly we're facing at this point two different kinds of adversaries. There are the independent hacking groups that do it mostly for commercial reasons to try to steal information that they can use to make money. But increasingly, we are seeing cyber attacks coming from states, organs of states. The most recent and troubling of these has been Russia. There's no doubt now that Russia has used cyber attacks against all kinds of organizations in our country, and I am deeply concerned about this.
  • We are not going to sit idly by and permit state actors to go after our information, our private-sector information or our public-sector information.
  • We're going to have to make it clear that we don't want to use the kinds of tools that we have. We don't want to engage in a different kind of warfare. But we will defend the citizens of this country.
  • I think we need to do much more with our tech companies to prevent ISIS and their operatives from being able to use the Internet to radicalize, even direct people in our country and Europe and elsewhere. But we also have to intensify our air strikes against ISIS and eventually support our Arab and Kurdish partners to be able to actually take out ISIS in Raqqa, end their claim of being a Caliphate.
  • We have to be cognizant of the fact that they've had foreign fighters coming to volunteer for them, foreign money, foreign weapons, so we have to make this the top priority.
  • We're working with NATO, the longest military alliance in the history of the world, to really turn our attention to terrorism.
  • Donald has consistently insulted Muslims abroad, Muslims at home, when we need to be cooperating with Muslim nations and with the American Muslim community. They're on the front lines. They can provide information to us that we might not get anywhere else. They need to have close working cooperation with law enforcement in these communities, not be alienated and pushed away as some of Donald's rhetoric, unfortunately, has led to.
  • When I became secretary of state, Iran was weeks away from having enough nuclear material to form a bomb. They had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle under the Bush administration. They had built covert facilities. They had stocked them with centrifuges that were whirling away. And we had sanctioned them. I voted for every sanction against Iran when I was in the Senate, but it wasn't enough. So I spent a year-and-a-half putting together a coalition that included Russia and China to impose the toughest sanctions on Iran.
  • My successor, John Kerry, and President Obama got a deal that put a lid on Iran's nuclear program without firing a single shot. That's diplomacy. That's coalition-building. That's working with other nations.
  • His [Trump's] cavalier attitude about nuclear weapons is so deeply troubling. That is the number-one threat we face in the world. And it becomes particularly threatening if terrorists ever get their hands on any nuclear material. So a man who can be provoked by a tweet should not have his fingers anywhere near the nuclear codes, as far as I think anyone with any sense about this should be concerned.
  • Words matter. Words matter when you run for president. And they really matter when you are president.
  • Well, as soon as he [Trump] travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease fire, the release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world, or even spends eleven hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina.
  • There's no doubt that we have other problems with Iran. But personally, I'd rather deal with the other problems having put that lid on their nuclear program than still to be facing that.
  • He says it's a secret plan, but the only secret is that he has no plan.
  • I support our democracy. And sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But I certainly will support the outcome of this election.

Post Presidential Election

[edit]
  • "She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." So must we all.
  • Attempting to define reality is a core feature of authoritarianism. This is what the Soviets did when they erased political dissidents from historical photos. This is what happens in George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, when a torturer holds up four fingers and delivers electric shocks until his prisoner sees five fingers as ordered. The goal is to make you question logic and reason and to sow mistrust towards exactly the people we need to rely on: our leaders, the press, experts who seek to guide public policy based on evidence, ourselves.

Wellesley Commencement Speech (2017)

[edit]
"Hillary Clinton’s Wellesley commencement speech was a scathing Trump roast", Vox.com (May 26, 2017)
  • You are graduating at a time when there is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason. Just log on to social media for 10 seconds. It will hit you right in the face. People denying science, concocting elaborate, hurtful conspiracies theories about child abuse rings operating out of pizza parlors. Drumming up rampant fear about undocumented immigrants, Muslims, minorities, the poor. Turning neighbor against neighbor and sowing division at a time when we desperately need unity. Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes. Like the size of crowds. And then defending themselves by talking about “alternative facts.”
  • As the history majors among you here today know all too well, when people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society. That is not hyperbole. It is what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done. They attempt to control reality. Not just our laws and our rights and our budgets, but our thoughts and beliefs.
  • Look at the budget that was just proposed in Washington. It is an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us, the youngest, the oldest, the poorest, and hard-working people who need a little help to gain or hang on to a decent middle-class life. It grossly underfunds public education, mental health, and efforts even to combat the opioid epidemic. And in reversing our commitment to fight climate change, it puts the future of our nation and our world at risk. And to top it off, it is shrouded in a trillion-dollar mathematical lie. Let's call it what it is. It's a con. They don't even try to hide it.
  • Here’s what I want you to know: We got through that tumultuous time. We revved up the engine of imagination and innovation. We turned back a tide of intolerance and embraced inclusion. The we who did those things were more than those in power who wanted to change course. It was millions of ordinary citizens, especially young people, who voted, marched, and organized. You may have heard that things didn’t exactly go as planned, but you know what? I’m doing okay. I’ve gotten to spend time with my family, especially my amazing grandchildren. Long walks in the woods. Organizing my closets, right? I won’t lie — Chardonnay helped a little.

Separation of illegally immigrating adults and children (2018)

[edit]
  • What’s happening to families at the border right now is a humanitarian crisis. Every parent who has ever held a child in their arms, every human being with a sense of compassion and decency, should be outraged.

2019

[edit]
  • David Plouffe: “So [Trump’s] gonna try and drive the people not to vote for him but just to say, ‘you know, you can’t vote for them either.’ And that seems to be, I think, to the extent that I can divine a strategy, their key strategy right now.”
    Hillary Clinton: “Well, I think there’s gonna be two parts and I think it’s gonna be the same as 2016: ‘Don’t vote for the other guy. You don’t like me? Don’t vote for the other guy because the other guy is gonna do X, Y and Z or the other guy did such terrible things and I’m gonna show you in these, you know, flashing videos that appear and then disappear and they’re on the dark web, and nobody can find them, but you’re gonna see them and you’re gonna see that person do these horrible things.’
    “They’re also gonna do third party again. And I’m not making any predictions but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party candidate. She’s the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up. Which she might not, ‘cause she’s also a Russian asset.”

2020

[edit]

2021

[edit]

2022–2023

[edit]
  • I don't feel any satisfaction. I feel great profound sadness that we have a former president who has been indicted for so many charges that went right to the heart of whether or not our democracy would survive.
  • The only satisfaction may be that the system is working. That all of the efforts by Donald Trump his allies and his enablers to try to silence the truth, to try to undermine democracy, have been brought into the light and justice is being pursued.


Attributed

[edit]
  • How could you be so damn stupid? How could you do that?
  • You stupid f—ing moron. How could you risk your presidency for this?
  • If you want to remain on this detail, get your fucking ass over here and grab those bags.
    • To an agent, as reported in The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton (1999) by Joyce Milton, p. 259
  • You fucking Jew bastard!
    • To Paul Fray, reported in The Guardian (2000) and State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
  • Fuck off! It's enough that I have to see you shit-kickers every day. I'm not going to talk to you too. Just do your goddamn job and keep your mouth shut.
    • Hillary Clinton's response to a Secret Service agent who greeted her with "Good morning, ma'am," as reported in Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton (2007), p. 84
  • But if everybody's watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.
  • We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.
    • Said to Charles Woods, the father of a Navy SEAL killed in Benghazi, as reported in "The Benghazi patsy" by Rich Lowry, Politico (9 May 2013)
  • My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders.
  • I want to defend fracking under the right circumstances... I want to defend this stuff. And you know, I'm already at odds with the most organized and wildest [of the environmental movement]. They come to my rallies and they yell at me and, you know, all the rest of it. They say, 'Will you promise never to take any fossil fuels out of the earth ever again?' No. I won't promise that. Get a life, you know.


Misattributed

[edit]
  • My accomplishments as Secretary of State? Well, I'm glad you asked. My proudest accomplishment in which I take the most pride, mostly because of the opposition it faced early on, you know. The remnants of prior situations and mindsets that were too narrowly focused in a manner whereby they may have overlooked the bigger picture and we didn't do that. Very proud. I would say that's a major accomplishment.
    • Claimed to be from a 2014-03-11 speech in letter to the editor by Scott Boyer. "Hillary Clinton: A killer public speaker", Missoulian (2014-07-21). There is no record of Hillary Clinton having engaged in a public appearance on this date, nor any news account or transcript recording such a quote, according to snopes.com ("Stating the Oblivious").

Quotes about Hillary Clinton

[edit]
You know we had some protesters last night when we pulled up in San Francisco – and they’re right to protest, they’re absolutely right. ... It’s ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics ~ George Clooney
Hillary Clinton is a clear and present danger to the Constitution, the rule of law, and international peace and security. ~ Bruce Fein
I would never, ever, ever vote for Hillary. We're done if Hillary becomes president, the country is over. ~ Caitlyn Jenner
I disagree with Hillary Clinton on just about everything there is to disagree with a person about. If it comes down to Trump and Hillary, I will put a Hillary Clinton sticker on my fucking car. ~ Penn Jillette
When in public, Hillary smiles and acts graciously. As soon as the cameras are gone, her angry personality, nastiness, and imperiousness become evident … Hillary Clinton can make Richard Nixon look like Mahatma Gandhi. ~ Ronald Kessler
Hillary Clinton, is an extremely talented woman. She is a woman of integrity. She believes in this country deeply. ~ Condoleezza Rice
The time for a woman to serve as our President has come – really, now is the time … I want Hillary to win. ~ Nancy Reagan
Hillary wants to surrender America to globalism. She wants a country without borders. She wants trade deals written for the benefit of foreign corporations. She wants a government that ignores the will of the people. She wants to sell out American security to the Clinton Foundation for a pile of cash. It is hard to tell where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins. ... Hillary Clinton has betrayed her duty to the people. ~ Donald Trump
  • President Trump shows no mercy. Political opponents are wartime opponents, and there should be no clemency. Trump remains fixated on his previous presidential rival years into his tenure, continuously disparaging and demeaning her. It might be a different situation if he expected to face off again with Hillary Clinton, yet she appears to be finished with public office. Don't get me wrong. No one in the Trump White House is a fan of Hillary Clinton, but we started to find the president's chronic animosity toward her to be a little weird. He has tweeted about Clinton hundreds of times since taking office. He has even flirted with using the powers of his office to investigate and prosecute her... Electoral defeat is not enough; Donald Trump wants total defeat of his opponents.
  • The overall volume of the president's sensationalist rhetoric is astounding, and it will be archived for posterity, showing Donald Trump to be the least articulate president of all time. It's not just that his style of communicating is rambling or contentious. It's that he's laid waste to public decency. During the presidential debates, Trump told us not to elect Hillary Clinton- "Such a nasty woman," he said of her. Well, he got his way, and instead we ended up with a nasty man.
  • Hillary Clinton is a centrist Democrat who is more hawkish than President Obama and far more principled and knowledgeable about foreign affairs than Trump, who is too unstable and erratic to be entrusted with the nuclear triad he has never heard of. Even in his prepared foreign policy speech couldn't pronounce "Tanzania." For all her shortcomings (and there are many), Clinton would be far preferable to Trump.
  • The candidate Hillary Clinton had come to St. Louis and told us that "All lives matter," while we chanted and marched in the streets every day demanding justice for Mike Brown Jr.
    • Cori Bush The Forerunner: A Story of Pain and Perseverance in America (2022)
  • Former Secretary Clinton has dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy. These efforts as a citizen, an activist, and a leader have earned Secretary Clinton this year’s Liberty Medal.
    • Jeb Bush, reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer (July 28, 2013).
  • I am watching Hillary Clinton in her victory speech in New Hampshire… they just threw a bunch of college kids behind her, and had her talk about student loans, and had her daughter come out for a long awkward hug… does anyone actually buy it? Surely young people are too media savvy to be fooled by this kind of shit. Do we live in a democracy so we can just keep electing the same families? Barack is the first candidate in my lifetime to strip some of this bullshit away, and I just hope we don't blow this chance. Man if we miss this opportunity we don't deserve it… how bad does it have to get?
  • The cab's idling out front, and she's opening a new bottle of wine.
    • Tucker Carlson, MSNBC host, comparing Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton to "a drunk party guest who won't go home" for her refusal to drop out of the race; May 28, 2008 Time.com
  • Hillary’s 2016 presidential run resembled nothing so much as a counterinsurgency campaign, designed to beat back challenges to existing authority, specifically herself. She collaborated with party bosses to undercut her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, who posed a threat precisely because he was more popular with the party's younger, idealistic voters.
    • Tucker Carlson, Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution (2018)
  • I could tell that she was well prepared to serve as president. I'd never met anyone with deeper knowledge about policy than Hillary, and she seemed unflappable and genuinely interested in using the power of the office to benefit the lives of those who don't often have a strong voice in our democracy. She also had a reputation for being politically cautious.
    • Julian Castro An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream (2018)
  • I can't make her younger, taller, or change her gender. I can't do anything other than to tell you who she is.
  • Yes, I think it's an obscene amount of money. You know we had some protesters last night when we pulled up in San Francisco – and they're right to protest, they're absolutely right, it's an obscene amount of money. The Sanders campaign, when they talk about it, is absolutely right, it's ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics, I agree.
  • As candidate in 2016, now President Donald J. Trump repeatedly asserted his unwillingness to take nuclear first-use threats “off the table” in any conflict, including with ISIS, or in Europe. (He also said that he would be “the last to use nuclear weapons”—unless, evidently, he were the first.) In the first debate of the presidential campaign, he was asked: “On nuclear weapons, President Obama reportedly considered changing the nation’s long-standing policy [i.e., changing it to no-first-use]. Do you support the current policy?” Given two minutes to answer, Trump said, among other things: “I would like everybody to end it, just get rid of it. But I would certainly not do first strike. I think that once the nuclear alternative happens, it’s over. At the same time, we have to be prepared. I can’t take anything off the table.” In her two minutes, Hillary Clinton managed not to repeat Trump’s words about the table, or to respond to the question at all except to “reassure our allies … that we have mutual defense treaties and we will honor them.” But clearly if she had been pressed, the former secretary of state would have given substantially the same answer as Trump did in all his interviews. Our mutual defense treaties have never excluded U.S. first use of nuclear weapons. (As a candidate in 2008, rebuking Senator Barack Obama for saying he would not use nuclear weapons against Pakistan, she said that no president should ever say what weapons he or she would or would not use.)
    • Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner (2017)
  • Thank you Hillary Clinton for possibly becoming the first f— president. I would have said “female” but someone deleted the email.
  • They were urged to assemble that conference call and to speak frankly to Hillary by some of the top strategists around Hillary. … Close associates of hers, friends of hers were saying she really didn't want the vice presidency. She really didn't want it, even though she wouldn't mind being offered it, or talked about it. Some of what we know tonight is that in the vetting [of potential VP candidates] process that's going to be set up, they were going to demand, that is, Jim Johnson and the others looking at her as a possible candidate, that Bill Clinton open up the records of the Clinton Library -- all the donors, the tens of millions of dollars, where they came from? And I think Hillary's reluctance to more fully really consider or give her heart to the notion of the vice presidency is she knew that it would require a legal vetting of her husband, and she he couldn't pass it. … If she wants Obama's fundraising prowess, if she wants contributors to help erase that enormous debt that she's got, she needs to quickly get back in the fold and get with the program, and I think that's what she's doing now. I really don't think it's about the Veep thing because the Obama people have pretty much already said as of today that they're really not interested.
    • Howard Fineman of Newsweek, on another conference call, between Clinton and eight Clinton supporters in the Senate, urging her to concede and endorse Sen. Obama, and her unwillingness to pursue the vice presidency; June 4, 2008; [44]
  • Donald Trump is Hillary Clinton’s Christmas gift wrapped up under a tree. I am the lump of coal in her stocking.
  • It's not a very big thing to say, "I made a mistake" on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can't. She's advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.
  • Clinton had also been silent on the Standing Rock issue but finally issued a statement on October 27, the same day as the 1851 Treaty Camp incident and the Bundy decision. The only reason she said anything at all was because a contingent of Native youth stormed her campaign office in Brooklyn, New York, demanding some kind of acknowledgment.
    • Dina Gilio-Whitaker As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock (2019)
  • Daunasia Yancey asked Clinton, "You and your family have been personally and politically responsible for policies that have caused health and human services disasters in impoverished communities of color through the domestic and international war on drugs that you championed as first lady, senator, and secretary of state. And so I just want to know how you feel about your role in that violence and how you plan to reverse it?" Julius Jones, from the Black Lives Matter movement in Worcester, Massachusetts, also questioned Clinton: "How do you actually feel that's different than you did before? What were the mistakes? And how can those mistakes that you made be lessons for all of America for a moment of reflection on how we treat black people in this country?" Clinton responded: "I don't believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate."
    • Amy Goodman Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America (2017) p 303
  • Some of [Clinton’s] anger was privately aimed at Colin Powell in a personal pique. Talking with reporters in later years, Clinton would often harp on Powell’s role in Somalia, that he had signed on to the partial escalation and yet had accepted none of the blame.
    • David Halberstam in his book "War in a Time of Peace“ quoted in GOP “Never Trumpers” Just Think He’s Bad for the Brand, by William Rivers Pitt, Truthout ( 8 October 2019)
  • The leadership of the party, the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Tom Perez, are creations of corporate America. In an open and democratic political process, one not dominated by party elites and corporate money, these people would not hold political power. They know this. They would rather implode the entire system than give up their positions of privilege. And that, I fear, is what will happen. The idea that the Democratic Party is in any way a bulwark against despotism defies the last three decades of its political activity. It is the guarantor of despotism.
  • Say what you will about the Clintons, you cannot acquit them of having played the race card several times in both directions and of having done so in the most vulgar and unscrupulous fashion. Anyone who thinks that this equals "change" is a fool, and an easily fooled fool at that.
  • What has she done in her life? She was a lousy senator. She was horrible. Look at all the things that are going on in the Middle East, all because of what she did. Benghazi, she lied to us. She's a f---ing liar. She's a political hack. That's all she is. She's done nothing.

  • As secretary of state, Clinton kept her home-brew email server — from which foreign intelligence agencies could hack top secret information — so she could shield the influence peddling that helped make the Clintons several fortunes.

    The Clintons weren't skilled merchants. They weren't traders or manufacturers. The Clintons never produced anything tangible. They had no science, patents or devices to make them millions upon millions of dollars.

    All they had to sell, really, was influence.

  • When in public, Hillary smiles and acts graciously. As soon as the cameras are gone, her angry personality, nastiness, and imperiousness become evident … Hillary Clinton can make Richard Nixon look like Mahatma Gandhi.
  • For me, Hillary Clinton, with her hawkish imperialism and direct responsibility for supporting the Honduran coup was a bitter pill. That coup, and the death squads that acted with impunity in its wake, caused the death of the beloved indigenous environmental leader Berta Cáceres. The lives of Honduran women were made infinitely worse. It made me sick to hear Clinton’s nomination touted as a victory for feminism. But that was because her particular crimes hit close to my heart. And I was clear that I preferred her as a foe to Trump.
  • "When Hillary had the class reunion at the White House, there were 325 of us there," said Catherine S. Gidlow, a lawyer in St. Louis. "I turned to someone and said, 'I think there are 324 of us here who feel like failures,' and she said, 'No, I think there are 325 of us who feel like failures.'"
  • Rather than "strip" millions and millions of people of their health insurance, he wants to be sure millions and millions of people actually get health insurance. This was Sanders' position as far back as 1993 when newly-elected President Bill Clinton put First Lady Hillary Clinton in charge of reforming our disheveled and unjust health care system. Her task force huffed and puffed in secret for months, calling in legions of experts and academics, ultimately producing a plan so complicated and impenetrable – not to mention unexplainable – that it would have collapsed of its own ponderous weight even if the Republicans had not propagandized it into a laughing stock of pretensions and inefficiencies that could only make matters worse.
  • She is one of the most ruthless people we have ever seen in politics and she doesn't belong in the White House—at either end of the building, the president's office or the residence.
    • Dick Morris, former Bill Clinton advisor; Foreword to I've Always Been a Yankees Fan: Hillary Clinton in Her Own Words (2006) by Thomas D. Kuiper, p. xiii
  • Because Defense Secretary Robert Gates was openly cool to the drum beats for war on Libya, Clinton took over and choreographed the NATO ouster of... Muammar al-Gaddafi, long after he had given up his mass destruction weaponry and was working to re-kindle relations with the U.S. government and global energy corporations. Libya is now in a disastrous warlord state-of-chaos...
    Time and again, Hillary Clinton’s belligerence exceeded that of Obama’s Secretaries of Defense. From her seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee to her tenure at the State Department, Hillary Clinton sought to prove that she could be just as tough as the militaristic civilian men whose circle she entered. Throughout her four years it was Generalissima Clinton, expanding the American Empire at large. Here is some of what the candid camera of history will show about her record:
  • Look, I've said how much I admire Hillary's toughness, her smarts, her policy chops, her experience. You've got to admit it, though, Hillary trying to appeal to young voters is a little bit like your relative just signed up for Facebook. "Dear America, did you get my poke? Is it appearing on your wall? I'm not sure I am using this right. Love, Aunt Hillary." It's not entirely persuasive.
  • Of course, you can't buy Hillary Clinton. You can only rent her.
    • P. J. O'Rourke (2017), How the Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, p. 119
  • I endorse Hillary Clinton for President. She is the second worst thing that could happen to America.
    • P. J. O'Rourke (2017), How the Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, p. 165
Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris. ~ Colin Powell
  • Hillary Clinton is an extremely talented woman. She is a woman of integrity. She believes in this country deeply. We've already had a couple of conversations. I know her from the time she brought her freshman daughter to Stanford for the first time when I was Provost. And she's going to do this very well.
  • On Hillary Clinton's watch at the State Department, America's interests were diminished in every corner of the world. She compromised our national secrets, dissembled to the families of the slain, and jettisoned her most profound beliefs to gain presidential power. For the last three decades, the Clintons have lived at the intersection of money and politics, trading their political influence to enrich their personal finances. They embody the term "crony capitalism." It disgusts the American people and causes them to lose faith in our political process.
  • Mort Sahl: [President Bill Clinton's] wife reminds me of Evita Peron.
    Eugene McCarthy: There are Peronist elements. You get along with the bankers, the military, and the major corporations, and let your wife take care of social welfare.
    • "Mort Sahl's America" (1997) (audiobook), Phoenix Books, Inc. (at 37:30)
  • When we talk about efforts to assist immigrants, Secretary Clinton prevailed upon the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who wanted to do the right thing and provide driver’s license to these who were undocumented, she said don’t do it, and New York State still does not do it. In Vermont, by the way, I worked with officials and undocumented people in Vermont do have the ability to get driver’s license. When we talk about immigration, the secretary will remember that one of the great tragedies, human tragedies of recent years is children came from Honduras where there’s probably more violence than almost any place in this country, and they came into this country. And I said welcome those children into this country, Secretary Clinton said send them back. That’s a difference.
  • Honduras and that region of the world may be the most violent region in our hemisphere. Gang lords, vicious people torturing people, doing horrible things to families. Children fled that part of the world to try, try, try, try, maybe, to meet up with their family members in this country, taking a route that was horrific, trying to start a new life. Secretary Clinton did not support those children coming into this country. I did.
  • In 2003, I did everything I could to prevent George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq a war that Clinton supported. In one debate, when Hillary Clinton cited Henry Kissinger as a friend and mentor, I suggested that he was a terrible secretary of state, a war criminal, and would play no role in a Sanders administration.
  • Trump says very scary things—deporting immigrants, massive militarism and, you know, ignoring the climate. Well, Hillary, unfortunately, has a track record for doing all of those things. So, the terrible things that we expect from Donald Trump, we've actually already seen from Hillary Clinton.
  • Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman. I am biased because I have known her for years. I live in New York. She lives in New York. I really like her and her husband both a lot. I think she really works hard. And I think, again, she’s given an agenda, it is not all of her, but I think she really works hard and I think she does a good job. I like her.
  • Well, I think her history is far from being over... I think she's going to go down, at a minimum, as a great Senator. I think she is a great wife to a President. And I think Bill Clinton was a great President. You know, you look at the country then - the economy was doing great. Look at what happened during the Clinton years. I mean, we had no war, the economy was doing great, everybody was happy. A lot of people hated him because they were jealous as hell.
    • Donald Trump, in 2008. Quoted in Dangerous Charisma: The Political Psychology of Donald Trump and His Followers by Jerrold Post (Pegasus Books, 2019)
  • Hillary is so corrupt, she got kicked off the Watergate commission.
  • We are a very rich country, and I believe there are things we can do that we haven't done. We can have free universal health care for everybody-and I don't mean one of these complicated health-care systems like the one Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993, a thousand pages long and designed to keep the insurance companies in the game.
  • Don't get me wrong, Hillary Clinton is, like, a horrible person, but people were and still are really fucking sexist to her. Like, a lot of the shit people throw at Hillary Clinton is because she's a woman. Like, Hillary Clinton is a bad candidate, but she's no worse than, like a ton of candidates. Like, she's not unique in being this, like, grimy, insitutionalist, utilitarian 'I'll do anything to get ahead' ambitious ghoul. There are tons of politicans like that; Trump is far worse than her. But a lot of the shit she gets, she gets for being a woman.
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