Hillary Clinton says she understands the ‘hard life’

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that she and former President Bill Clinton “fully appreciate how hard life is for so many Americans,” seeking to refine remarks she made about the pair being “dead broke” when they left the White House.

The remarks came amid a series of interviews and Clinton’s book tour throughout which the former secretary of state has dropped hints that she’s seriously considering r unning for president in 2016. She said Republican inquiries over the 2012 attack on Americans in Benghazi gave her “more of a reason” to run. In an interview Monday with ABC News, Clinton said she and husband Bill were “dead broke” at the end of his presidency, with legal bills that dwarfed their income. Republicans pounced, calling her out-of-touch with average Americans who struggle with personal finances.

Clinton’s tour for “Hard Choices” began Tuesday morning in the friendliest possible setting: A sold out autographing event at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan’s Union Square. Around 1,000 people, some of whom slept on the sidewalk the night before, lined up for an autograph and the chance to shake her hand and say hello.

Earlier, she told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she and her hus- band left the White House roughly $12 million in debt at the end of his second term in early 2001. But she also acknowledged that “we’ve continued to be blessed in the last 14 years.”

She said the couple have “gone through some of the same challenges that many people have” and that they “understand what that struggle is.”

“I think she’s been out of touch with average people for a long time,” said Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, pointing to Clinton’s estimated $200,000 -per-speech speaking fees and million-dollar book advances. “Whether she was flat broke or not is not the issue. It’s tone deaf to average people.”