Okay, now this is funny.
In a recent interview, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revisited her 2016 presidential campaign, reflecting on how female voters abandoned and backstabbed her in the final days due to her perceived imperfections.
“Women left me because I was expected to be flawless,” Clinton remarked during an interview with The New Times, published on Saturday. “They hesitated to take a chance on me, whereas they were willing to risk supporting [former President Trump], despite his numerous flaws, because he fit their image of a president and commander in chief.”
Clinton’s perspective on this issue wasn’t isolated during the 2016 election, where she faced off against Trump. Many of her supporters echoed the sentiment of a sexist double standard in politics, arguing that she was subjected to scrutiny and criticisms that her male counterparts were spared.
“Is there a double standard? Absolutely, without a doubt,” stated Tracy Sefl, a Democratic consultant and Clinton supporter, during the campaign. “And heaven forbid if she even coughed.”
More recently, former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley experienced similar sexist challenges before suspending her campaign in March. During a Republican primary debate in Miami last year, fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who later dropped out and endorsed Trump, disparagingly called her “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.”
In her interview with the Times, Clinton also criticized her own party for its long-standing failure to safeguard abortion rights. She argued that Democrats underestimated the influence of anti-abortion advocates until the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which removed the federal right to abortion access.
“We didn’t recognize the seriousness of the threat,” Clinton stated. “Most Democrats and most Americans didn’t realize the existential struggle we are in for the future of our country.”
“We should have fought harder,” she added in the interview, which was originally conducted by the publication in February.