A year and a day after her defeat, Hillary Clinton explains ‘What Happened,’
She talks about 2016 election, Russia, state’s voter ID law at Riverside Theater
Hillary Clinton still knows how to make an entrance.
A year and a day after being on the losing side of one of America’s greatest political upsets, Clinton came to Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater on Thursday night to explain “What Happened.”
And after receiving a minute-long standing ovation from a near sell-out crowd, she broke the ice with a quick quip: “Well, I should have come back sooner.”
Of course, Clinton never came to Wisconsin during the general election and lost the state and the 2016 race to President Donald Trump.
In her book, “What Happened,” she sought to explain the tumultuous race. And in her 65-minute conversation with Wisconsin native and actor Bradley Whitford, she went over some of the book’s highlights and low lights.
“I couldn’t think of any place I’d rather be than right here to start the year after the year,” Clinton said. “This week has been kind of hard for obvious reasons. It’s not an anniversary I’ve been looking forward to.”
But Clinton said she was buoyed by Tuesday’s election results that saw Democrats win governor races in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as make gains in down ballot contests.
“The fever has broken; America is not going to put up with the political machinations” of the administration and its allies in Congress, she said.
Clinton said writing the book was a cathartic experience and she focused not just on the past, but on lessons learned that can help in the future.
“Everyone gets knocked down in life and what matters is whether you get back up and keep going,” she said.
She said that during the campaign she faced a “perfect storm” of events, zeroing in on Russian interference in the election and former FBI director James Comey, who investigated her use of a
private email server while she was secretary of state.
She said Russian interference in elections “is more than alarming. It is a clear and present danger to western democracy,” and added that the tactics came right out of the playbook of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
She also faced an unconventional candidate, Trump.
“What became clear is that this was the first reality TV campaign,” she said. “He was the first reality TV candidate and I was the candidate of reality.”
She criticized Trump for a “dark and divisive” inaugural address and called him “temperamentally unqualified to be president.”
She also took a dig at Trump over his overseas trip, especially his visit to China to meet President Xi Jinping, Clinton said she imagined that Xi was thinking, “This is going to be easy.”
Clinton said she was hurt in Wisconsin by the state’s voter ID law, which she said suppressed votes among minorities, seniors and students. She urged
“I couldn’t think of any place I’d rather be than right here to start the year after the year. This week has been kind of hard for obvious reasons. It’s not an anniversary I’ve been looking forward to.” Hillary Clinton
the audience to make sure that in 2018 voters get to the polls with the proper identification.
She also gave a shout-out to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, calling her “one of the hardest-working people” in the Senate.
Baldwin faces a tough re-election fight in 2018 and outside groups have already poured millions of dollars into ads criticizing her.
Clinton talked about sexism in politics, saying the only way to remove it is to get more women in office.
She also said the nation needed a comprehensive plan to combat the opioid crisis. And she said it was important to keep the gains made under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
Mary Spicuzza of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this article.