Five memorable moments from Hillary Clinton’s newest book
Hillary Clinton’s book on her 2016 election loss, “What Happened,” hits bookshelves on Tuesday.
Clinton has said the book is the story of “what I saw, felt and thought during two of the most intense years I’ve ever experienced.”
Here are five of the most memorable anecdotes shared by Clinton in her book.
Obama urged Clinton to run
President Obama signaled to Clinton early on in 2013 and 2014 that she should run for president.
{mosads}“He made it clear that he believed that I was our party’s best chance to hold the White House and keep our progress going, and he wanted me to move quickly to prepare to run,” Clinton wrote.
She wrote that Obama’s support meant a ton to her.
“I knew President Obama thought the world of his Vice President, Joe Biden, and was close to some other potential candidates, so his vote of confidence meant a great deal to me.”
Clinton sought guidance from Bush on inauguration
As she decided whether to show up for President Trump’s inauguration, Clinton sought advice from a surprising source: former President George W. Bush.
Bush had his own family disagreements with Trump, who had ridiculed his brother Jeb Bush during the GOP primaries.
But he advised Clinton to go to the inauguration, arguing it was for the good of the country.
“That gave me the push I needed,” Clinton wrote. “Bill and I would go.”
Bush was also the first to call Clinton after she delivered her concession speech and waited on the line while she hugged and thanked her supporters.
When Clinton finally came to the phone, the former president “suggested we find time to get burgers together. I think that’s Texan for ‘I feel your pain,’ ” Clinton wrote.
Clinton thought Chaffetz was Priebus
You’d think Hillary Clinton would know what former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) looks like.
The Utah congressman had long sought to make a political issue of Clinton’s handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans.
Yet Clinton wrote that she mistook Chaffetz for Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus when he approached her on Inauguration Day.
Chaffetz captured the moment on Twitter, posting a photo of the two that said: “So pleased she is not the President. I thanked her for her service and wished her luck. The investigation continues.”
Clinton said she didn’t know who Chaffetz was and thought he was Priebus.
After the Chaffetz tweet, she admitted that she “came this close” to tweeting back at the congressman: “To be honest, I thought you were Reince.”
That wasn’t the only awkward encounter with a critical Republican.
During the lunch at the Capitol following the swearing-in ceremony, Clinton also described a scene where Trump’s soon-to-be Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, introduced Clinton to his wife.
Clinton wrote that she was surprised that Zinke would want her to meet his better half, “considering in 2014 he had called me the ‘antichrist.’ ”
“You know Congressman, I’m not actually the anticrist,” she said she told Zinke. He was “taken aback,” Clinton wrote, and “mumbled something about not having meant it.”
Loyalty pays off
After then-FBI Director James Comey said they had reopened an investigation to examine emails found on former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-N.Y.) laptop, Clinton wrote that some people thought she should fire longtime adviser Huma Abedin, Weiner’s wife.
“Not a chance,” wrote Clinton. “She had done nothing wrong and was an invaluable member of my team. I stuck by her the same way she has always stuck by me.”
In the end, it’s Bill and Hill
In the wee hours of the morning on election night, after everyone left the Clinton suite, the former secretary of State wrote that she and her husband were alone.
“I hadn’t cried yet, wasn’t sure if I would. But I felt deeply and thoroughly exhausted, like I hadn’t slept in ten years,” Clinton wrote. “We lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Bill took my hand and we just lay there.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.