Hillary Clinton: Biden less ‘constrained’ than Clinton and Obama due to prior administration

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gave her assessment of President Biden’s first 100 days in an interview aired on Sunday where she said Biden was less “constrained” than previous Democratic presidents due to the prior administration. 

While appearing on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” host Fareed Zakaria asked Clinton how she felt about Biden’s wide-reaching proposals so far, noting that her husband, former President Clinton, had once said in a State of the Union address that “the era of big government is over.”

“I really think it’s a new age,” Clinton said. “And in part because what had to happen in the 90’s did happen, there was a lot of, you know, positive economic growth that was aided and abetted by government policy, and huge amounts of advancement for people up and down the income scale.”

Clinton opined that the pandemic had made more people aware that “there’s lots of times when we need the government.” She added that she was “thrilled” that Biden was “taking advantage of this moment” to push progressive policies.

“I think both President Obama and Clinton did too, but they were more constrained given, you know, what the climate was politically during their administrations,” Clinton said. “So yes, I think it builds on a lot of what did happen in prior Democratic administrations, but it also goes further and it can go further because people understand, ‘Guess what, you know, we kind of were failed by our government for four years.’”

Zakaria noted Biden faces a great deal of opposition from GOP lawmakers, particularly when it comes to his proposed infrastructure bill and asked Clinton if she believed in compromise with the possibility of lowering the amount of money spent through the bills.

“Well I think there needs to be a good faith negotiation, and I’m not sure yet, that the Republicans are engaging in a good faith negotiation and that has to be tested,” Clinton replied. “So I’m very confident that, given his years in the legislature legislative body in the Senate, and certainly as vice president, President Biden will test that.”

However, the former secretary of State added that she believed the administration would have to make “a very clear political calculation” at some point if an agreement could not be reached.

She suggested the administration would have to split its proposals into two parts: one they know the GOP agrees and another that have yet to reach a compromise on and determine whether or not negotiations have been made in good faith.