Just as with all her previous interviews with the former first lady, Jane Pauley’s sit down with Hillary Clinton for CBS Sunday Morning was a gooey puff piece. This time, however, the specter of President Trump’s possible impeachment loomed large as Pauley teed up the “gutsy woman” to call on Democrats to start an inquiry, and fret for what another four years under Trump would look like.
The interview was about a new book Clinton had written with her daughter, Chelsea called The Book of Gutsy Women. “This is familiar territory for her,” Pauley quipped regarding Clinton’s involvement in the impeachment calls against former President Richard Nixon, and her proximity to her husband’s impeachment.
“You lived through an impeachment as first lady in the Clinton administration. What is your view today on Donald Trump's prospects for impeachment,” Pauley openly wondered. Of course, Clinton called on her fellow Democrats to start the impeachment proceedings:
Given this latest revelation which is such a blatant effort to use his presidential position to advance his personal and political interests. There should be an impeachment inquiry opened.
I don't care who you’re for in the Democratic primary or whether you’re a Republican. When the president of the United States, who has taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and by that, defend the American people and their interests, uses his position to in effect extort a foreign government for his own political purposes, I think that is very much what the founders worried about in high crimes and misdemeanors.
Pauley followed up with an ominous question about, “what could happen if another four years of a Trump administration?” “I don't accept that. I believe that will happen,” Clinton blurted out. Clearly suggesting the Russians were the reason for Trump’s victory, she went on to push the conspiracy theory that “many funny things” happened that caused her to lose. Clinton hoped “that both the public and press understand the way that Trump plays this game.”
Clinton dove deeper into that conspiracy when Pauley again set her up to declare Trump an “illegitimate president” (click “expand”):
PAULEY: Your name doesn't come up much on any campaign except for Donald Trump's. “Lock her up” is still a big popular line.
CLINTON: I believe he knows he's an illegitimate president. He knows. He knows that there were a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out the way it did and I take responsibility for those parts of it I should. But Jane, it's like applying for a job and getting 66 million of letters of recommendation and losing to a corrupt human tornado. And so, I know that he knows that this wasn’t on the level. I don’t know if we'll ever know everything that happened but clearly we know a lot and are learning more every day and history will probably sort it all out. So, of course he's obsessed with me and I believe that it's a guilty conscience in so much as he has a conscience.
Then there was Pauley’s concern about how Clinton was handling her embarrassing 2016 defeat to Trump. “How are you doing now and what are the metrics by which you know how you're doing on any given day?” Pauley asked as though she was a close friend.
“You may say the same about Hillary Rodham Clinton. And, like Eleanor Roosevelt, also loved and loathed. But by any measure, a gutsy woman,” Pauley gushed as she noted that Clinton was not mentioned in the book, but was present “between every line.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Sunday Morning
September 29, 2019
10:17:31 a.m. Eastern(…)
JANE PAULEY: No surprise, three years after the historic election of 2016, she is still grappling with defeat.
How are you doing now and what are the metrics by which you know how you're doing on any given day?
HILLARY CLINTON: Personally, I'm doing well. And having my grandchildren and especially a new 2-month-old grandson has been a gift beyond measure. I feel very blessed. I feel good. But, I can't deny that a big part of me cares deeply about what's happening in the country and what I fear is the damage being done to our future, the damage being done to our values, our institutions and try to think of ways I can help those who are on the frontlines of the fight.
PAULEY: Your name doesn't come up much on any campaign except for Donald Trump's. “Lock her up” is still a big popular line.
CLINTON: I believe he knows he's an illegitimate president. He knows. He knows that there were a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out the way it did and I take responsibility for those parts of it I should. But Jane, it's like applying for a job and getting 66 million of letters of recommendation and losing to a corrupt human tornado. And so, I know that he knows that this wasn’t on the level. I don’t know if we'll ever know everything that happened but clearly we know a lot and are learning more every day and history will probably sort it all out. So, of course he's obsessed with me and I believe that it's a guilty conscience in so much as he has a conscience.
PAULEY: Of course, given the events of the past week, now the question is, how it will end?
SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The President must be held accountable. No one is above the law.
PAULEY: This is familiar territory for her.
WALTER CRONKITE: The House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend the House impeach President Nixon.
PAULEY: In 1974, Hillary Rodham was a young lawyer on the House Judiciary staff looking at the impeachment of Richard Nixon. And of course, 1998, as Hillary Rodham Clinton.
You lived through an impeachment as first lady in the Clinton administration. What is your view today on Donald Trump's prospects for impeachment?
CLINTON: Given this latest revelation which is such a blatant effort to use his presidential position to advance his personal and political interests. There should be an impeachment inquiry opened.
I don't care who you’re for in the Democratic primary or whether you’re a Republican. When the president of the United States, who has taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and by that, defend the American people and their interests, uses his position to in effect extort a foreign government for his own political purposes, I think that is very much what the founders worried about in high crimes and misdemeanors.
PAULEY: Well, what could happen if another four year of a Trump administration?
CLINTON: I don't accept that. I believe that will happen. I believe that there were many funny things that happened in my election that will not happen again and I'm hoping that both the public and press understand the way that Trump plays this game.
[Transition]
[Clinton speaking about First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt] She worked hard to become the person she became.
PAULEY: You may say the same about Hillary Rodham Clinton. And, like Eleanor Roosevelt, also loved and loathed. But by any measure, a gutsy woman.
(…)
