Hillary Clinton is taking her beef with Donald Trump international, most recently with an appearance on Britain’s Channel 4 news, where she claimed the president is endangering world peace in dealings with Iran and North Korea.
Clinton – who spent the months since her humiliating defeat last November promoting her new book “What Happened?” – also continued her new campaign to offer excuses for her loss to Trump, and attempted to explain away her ties to disgraced Hollywood producer and major campaign donor Harvey Weinstein.
Channel 4’s Matt Frei offered Clinton the perfect venue to air her grievances.
“You called him during the campaign, and you said this in the book as well, that he was a clear and present danger to the United States and indeed the world,” he told Clinton.
“Do you still believe that?”
“Unfortunately, I do,” Clinton said. “There are some real world examples right now. Um, apparently he’s going to decertify, um, the Iran nuclear deal … and it’s a very major mistake.
“There is no evidence that, on the nuclear program, that Iran has cheated in the agreement that the UK and other powers along with the United States entered into with Iran. So basically, for political reasons or for personal reasons, it’s unclear which, he is basically throwing open the door to Iran nuclear program one more time. I think that is very dangerous.”
Frei cited both North Korea and Iran, and specifically asked Clinton if Trump is “endangering world peace.”
“Well,” Clinton said, “he is certainly behaving in an impulsive way that confuses people, which I think is not good for the stability of the world.
“There could be accidental interpretations of his tweets, and his bellicose statements that I think might prove to be quite dangerous,” she said. “So, yes.”
Clinton said that confronting rouge regimes like Iran and North Korea at the same time is a bad idea.
“The choices he’s making are ones I think are destabilizing and dangerous,” she said.
Frei shifted to the FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of an unsecure email during her time as Secretary of State, which Clinton called “a dumb mistake … but a dumber scandal.”
“The press bought into it hook, line and sinker in the United States, and that’s why it was the most covered story,” she said, adding that the media were trying to make something out of nothing.
Clinton said the campaign thought the issue was behind them last summer, and blamed former FBI Director James Comey for reopening the investigation and ruining the election.
“Everything I said in the beginning turned out to be true in the end but it didn’t matter,” she alleged. “We had put it to rest. There was an investigation, which I knew would lead nowhere, it led nowhere. It was over in July. And then on October 28, it was raised again.
“So of course people, voters are going to say, ‘What is going on?’ And there’s a lot of antidotal, as well as research data, which basically had people saying, ‘I was going to vote for her, but I can’t if, you know, she’s being investigated again.’ Which was nonsense.”
Clinton also addressed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, a “friend” who donated substantial funds to her campaigns and the Democratic Party, who is now embroiled in a scandal involving accusations he used his influence to grope and rape numerous actresses over several decades.
Clinton contends Weinstein donated “I don’t know, $12,000 or $16,000” to her campaign, and said she plans to return the money or donate it to charity sometime in the future.
“How long will it take? Surely, you can just write a check and give the money back, can’t you?” Frei questioned.
“Well,” Clinton said, “it has to come out of our campaign funds so there’s a little more … it will be done.”
Frei pointed out that Clinton is a “beacon for feminism” and pressed her on whether she knew of Weinstein’s salacious behavior, which was the subject of jokes at the Golden Globes and the inspiration for TV characters.
Clinton insisted she had no idea Weinstein allegedly forced himself on young actresses before turning the focus back to Trump.
“No, I did not. I did not know,” she said. “All I can tell you is that I did not hear those things.”
“Look, we just elected a person who admitted to sexual assault to the presidency,” she said, “so there are a lot of other issues swirling around these kinds of behaviors that need to be addressed.
“And I think it’s important we stay focused and shine a bright spotlight and try to get people to understand how damaging this is. And the women coming forward is the only way that story will be told.”
Frei asked Clinton about Charlottesville, and Clinton alleged it’s a product of the Trump campaign, which she contends “embraced” racists like David Duke. She also alleged Trump re-tweeted racist comments from white supremacist groups to drive traffic to their organizations.
“I think what he did was to unleash feelings that were not that far below the surface, but which had been kept in check,” she said.
“Republican leaders in recent times have tried to walk a different line,” she said, pointing to George W. Bush and John McCain. “They did not pander to them.”
“Then along comes Trump, who from the very first day of his campaign, goes against immigrants, goes against Mexicans calling them criminals and rapists and the like, and then he was off to the races.
“Whatever scapegoat you wanted, whatever prejudice you held, was going to be fed by Donald Trump.”
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