Hillary Clinton, during a recent interview promoting her new book, stated that she would not rule out the possibility of challenging the results of the November 2016 election. One day later, she reversed herself saying, “I think no one, including me, is saying we will contest the election.”
While Clinton did walk back the statement, to assert something so provocative, get national publicity, and pull it back just a day later hardly excuses a serious error. Given this unprecedented suggestion, judgment needs to be cast on the former secretary of State for how she has conducted herself, what she has said, and ultimately, who she is personally and politically.
{mosads}I have disagreed with her political stance, and though I disagree vehemently, it is certainly within her right to say that she is a part of the resistance and to blame seemingly everyone but herself for her election defeat. I understand that well.
However, for the past year, I have held that her political tactics and failure to engage in a serious and meaningful way similar to her husband ultimately cost her the election. It is pretty clear that notwithstanding Russian involvement, the Clinton 2016 campaign was doomed.
It is also clear to me now that Clinton calling the election illegitimate, at a time when the United States is facing potential conflict with North Korea, is as destructive of an act as I could imagine a former secretary of State to engage in.
I choose my words carefully. Despite my disagreements with the former secretary of State personally and politically, I have always known and believed her to be strongly patriotic, committed to the United States, and committed to doing what’s right.
But now, I must say that I question her judgment in a fundamental way. In particular, Clinton’s recent refusal to say if she preferred Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin, joking that she “ran against both of them,” is a major setback for unifying the country against the threat posed by Russia.
Regardless of whether you agree with Trump or not, Putin has worked to systemically destabilize the world, and equating our American president with the Russian authoritarian is damaging to the nation.
Given the potential conflicts we are facing globally, the only appropriate thing for Clinton to have done is what I think all right-thinking Americans do. That is to support the administration, and particularly National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as they seek to resolve the intractable problem of the development of the North Korean nuclear program.
We watch seemingly weekly launches of the terrifying weapons in North Korea, including intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the West Coast of the United States, hydrogen and nuclear bombs, as well as provocative action toward Japan and Guam.
What we need from Clinton is support for the broad goals of the administration even if she disagrees with particular policies. The fact that she is potentially questioning the legitimacy of the president of the United States, a man she abhors and a man I disagree with on many issues, raises very serious questions about her timing and her judgment.
It pains me to write this. I really would never have expected the former secretary of State, who in her prior incarnation had been hawkish and acutely aware of the threats we face, to undermine the legitimacy of the president, to undermine whatever unity we have in America, and to further divide and polarize an already weakened country.
Secretary Mattis recently spoke to troops stationed in the Middle East about the problems facing our country, calling on young soldiers to “hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other.”
Mattis is correct. Speaking for myself, I stand with the administration, the president and those right-thinking forces that are working to isolate North Korea economically, socially and politically in order to minimize the threat of conflict.
I can only say that I am now as disappointed with Secretary Clinton as I could be. I say this as a loyal Democrat who spent six years working for her husband’s administration with a level of pride, respect and honor that I do not think I will ever achieve again.
Hopefully the secretary will think through her position again and come to the conclusion that what she said was both ill-conceived and ill-timed. Hopefully.
Douglas E. Schoen (@DouglasESchoen) served as a pollster for President Clinton. A longtime political consultant and pollster, he is also a Fox News contributor and the author of 11 books. His latest book is “Putin’s Master Plan: To Destroy Europe, Divide NATO, and Restore Russian Power and Global Influence.”