Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who famously lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, laughed at news of the latest indictment against her former campaign opponent on Monday night.
“All over the country right now, people are wondering what Hillary Rodham Clinton is thinking, watching things unfold in Georgia,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said Monday night, as Clinton laughed.
A Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury returned a 41-count indictment against Trump (charged with 13 counts) and 18 others Monday night, on charges related to an alleged conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election.
“Madame Secretary, fancy meeting you here,” Maddow quipped.
“I can’t believe this,” Clinton said, breaking into laughter.
“This is not the circumstances in which I expected to be talking to you,” the MSNBC host said.
“Nor me, Rachel,” Clinton said, smiling. “Yet another set of indictments.”
“Do you feel satisfaction in that? You warned the country, essentially, that he was going to try to end democracy,” Maddow said.
“I don’t feel any satisfaction. I feel great, just 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,” Clinton said.
Maddow did not press Clinton on her previous statement that Trump was an “illegitimate president” or her warning 2020 Democratic presidential candidates that “you can have the election stolen from you,” suggesting that she experienced such a theft in 2016.
Hillary Clinton and Rachel Maddow share a laugh about Trump being indicted in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/G7CiY4QLR1
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) August 15, 2023
While Clinton might claim not to have any schadenfreude at seeing Trump indicted and potentially facing prison, her supporters framed the interview as the former secretary of state “getting the last laugh.”
Trump supporters repeatedly chanted “Lock her up!” during 2016 campaign rallies, referring to Clinton’s decision to host classified documents on an insecure email server. While then-FBI Director James Comey decided not to press charges in that case—saying that “no reasonable prosecutor” would do so—Trump now faces charges for allegedly mishandling classified documents after his presidency.
On Monday, Clinton insisted that “the system is working” in the cases against Trump.
She also claimed that President Joe Biden does not get the credit he deserves for a supposedly good economy.
“Joe Biden is overseeing an economy that’s had the lowest peacetime unemployment since World War II,” she said. “The lowest levels of poverty, lowest levels of uninsured—people uninsured in terms of health insurance ever in the history of the country.”
Clinton did not mention inflation or high gas prices. Prices have skyrocketed since January 2021, when Biden took office.
“I don’t think Joe Biden gets credit enough for trying to model responsible leadership, just getting up every day, doing the job,” Clinton added. “We’re trying to, from a legislative perspective, under his leadership, put back into place some of the things that give people a sense perhaps of security and confidence, optimism about the future.”
“What more can a leader do?” she asked.
Clinton did not mention the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, Biden’s speeches condemning “MAGA extremists,” or his divisive social policies. She praised Democratic governors for “making school lunch free,” but did not mention Biden’s policy of holding school lunches hostage to force schools to embrace his transgender agenda.
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