Just two months after Hillary Clinton came out with her latest memoir, Bill Clinton is offering his latest book, titled Citizen: My Life After the White House. CBS's Sunday Morning aired a soft-soap Tracy Smith interview to help line his pockets and boost Clinton's reputation as a powerful global citizen and statesman.
Smith began by showing Clinton's final Oval Office speech as president: "In the 24 years since he made the speech, citizen Clinton has accomplished enough to fill several lifetimes in the pages of a new book."
Then she let Clinton explain all the wonderful projects his Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative have funded to make the world a better place: combating HIV/AIDS in South Africa, a "massive clean water project" in Rwanda, and in America, "everything from the energy-saving retrofit of the Empire State Building in New York to fighting drug overdoses in the heartland, to an upgrade of street lights in Los Angeles."
Then came the political questions, starting with the suggestion that Kamala Harris lost because America wasn't "ready" for a female president.
TRACY SMITH: Do you think part of the issue is that America is just not ready for a female president?
BILL CLINTON: Maybe. I think in some ways we've moved to the right as a reaction to all the turmoil. And I think if Hillary had been nominated in 2008, she would've walked in, just like Obama did.
SMITH: Has the country changed?
CLINTON: Well, I think all these cultural battles we're fighting make it harder, in some ways, for a woman to win.
SMITH: So you think it has more to do with party than gender?
CLINTON: No, although I think it would probably be easier for a conservative Republican woman to win --
SMITH: Than a Democrat woman.
CLINTON: Because, I mean, that's what Maggie Thatcher did, but I still think we'll have one female president pretty soon.
SMITH: You do?
CLINTON: I do.
SMITH: How soon? Within your lifetime?
CLINTON: Oh, yes. Well, I don`t know how long I`m going to live. You`re asking an old man that question. I hope I'm around for the next time. But now it`s President Trump's turn in the barrel. It depends on what he does and how it plays.
When it came to the Trump transition, Smith merely asked "Are the guardrails off?"
Clinton answered: "Well, there's no obvious guardrail. The Senate's shown some indigestion about some of these suggested appointments, we will see what happens there. You know, and somewhere along the way he'll have think about whether at this stature [sic] of his life he still thinks the most important thing is to have unquestionable domination, because that's not what a democracy is about."
Smith followed up: "So you're saying President Trump might have a change of heart?"
Clinton replied: "He might. I was raised in a Baptist church, I believe in deathbed conversions."
