Leading off today with Clinton's latest comments regarding Planned Parenthood, which continues to be under attack.
New Hampshire Union Leader ran a one-on-one interview with Clinton that covered several issues.
First, Planned Parenthood:
“Planned Parenthood is answering questions and will continue to answer questions. I think there are two points to make,” Clinton said. “One, Planned Parenthood for more than a century has done a lot of really good work for women: cancer screenings, family planning, all kinds of health services. And this raises not questions about Planned Parenthood so much as it raises questions about the whole process, that is, not just involving Planned Parenthood, but many institutions in our country.”
“And if there’s going to be any kind of congressional inquiry, it should look at everything and not just one part of it,” she said.
Clinton went on to note that the current attack on Planned Parenthood is part of a larger, ongoing effort to defund and discredit the organization:
"Well, there is no funding that, you know, would be any more at risk than it already has been for years because this has been an ongoing dispute, and I’m well aware that passions are very high. I have said for more than 22 years that abortion should be legal, safe and rare. And as First Lady, I led an effort to try to lower the number of teen-age pregnancies and we succeeded, and as President I will continue to work toward that so that women are fully empowered, they can afford to make responsible decisions, and I hope that we will be successful with that.”
More highlights from this in-depth interview and other
News & Views after the jump!
For the sake of brevity and fair use, the following quotes are significantly truncated.
Please read the whole interview. It's a good one!
Clinton on her biggest accomplishments as Secretary of State:
I would say, No. 1, putting together the coalition that imposed sanctions on Iran, which I did for the first 18 months that I was Secretary of State, culminating first in the Security Council deciding that, including Russia and China, they would impose sanctions. And then continuing with a persistent effort to actually enforce those sanctions, which made it possible for us to get to the negotiating table to determine whether there was an agreement that we could be behind.
More on her Keystone XL silence, specifically how it has invited attacks from her opponents:
“None of [my opponents] were Secretary of State. They can say with absolute freedom, with no threat of looking like I’m interfering, or maybe even inviting lawsuits over which way it goes. They are in a totally different position. I have taken strong stands on many, many issues and I will continue to do so. This is one, though, because of my prior responsibilities that it is not appropriate for me to do so.”
And finally, on why she refuses to attack Bernie Sanders and keeps her focus on the GOP instead:
“Look, I’m not going to be criticizing my fellow Democrats. I’m going to be criticizing the Republicans. There will be time for all of us to debate during the course of this and let voters pick their own candidate and make their own minds up. But I’m not going to be criticizing any of my Democratic opponents for the sake of doing that. I want to talk about what I’m for and roll out my agenda.”
In
an interview with Iowan newspaper
the Daily Herald, Clinton spoke about...
Dealing with sexism:
I just accept the fact that there’s a double standard in politics, just like there is a double standard in life, and if I’m going to be in the arena, I just have to work extra hard to overcome whatever bias there still may exist, and not to shy away from what I believe, and what I will fight for, including women’s economic opportunities, and particularly equal pay for equal work. I feel really good about where the campaign is, but I know that I seem to be the object of a lot of attention coming from the other side of the aisle and other places out there.
On the Consumer product Safety Commission and its current focus on head trauma:
Let me first say that when I was both first lady and senator, I paid a lot of attention to the Consumer Product Safety Commission because it is a watchdog and we really need it. It has through recalls and drawing attention to a lot of problems over the last 20 years, it has saved so many lives. It sounded the alarm on flammable pajamas.
I will always support the commission and always support people who are doing the right thing by it. I’m glad he’s going after head trauma, because when I was a senator, I became very committed to working with the military on traumatic brain injury. It became the signature injury of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, often invisible to the eye, but profoundly damaging...
It is a really serious problem, because we’ve ignored it for a long time. We’re kind of like “shake it off.” You’re knocked down on the football field, the soccer field. You get an elbow on the basketball floor. You get shook up in an auto accident, everybody’s kind of like, “Well fine, you know, look you don’t have any injuries. Just kind of go home, rest for a day.” But we now know the brain is so much more affected by some of these head injuries than we did before.
I’m a very strong supporter of doing more research and figuring out how we categorize different sorts of head injuries so we can treat them appropriately.
On diversity in Supreme Court nominees, and whether said diversity should include justices from rural areas:
Here’s what I would say: I think our Supreme Court is strongest when it really does represent the broadest possible American experience.
We do have on the district courts, the courts of appeal, a much broader cross-section of people from all different walks of life and geographies.
I don’t know how to answer, other than to say we need the broadest possible experience, and the rural experience is part of being broadly representative of America.
If she's sick of so many people asking to take selfies with her:
It is what they want. It is important to them. Several people (in Carroll Sunday) still found their time to say what they wanted to say and to ask their question. One young woman had $180,000 in student loan debt. Another young woman said, “Thank you for talking about mental health. I’m one of those people who really needs help.” I said, “What’s your problem?” She said, “Depression and anxiety.” I said, “Are you getting help?” And she said, “Well, I’m getting help now, but I worry that I won’t be able to afford ...” I had some really meaningful interactions in and amongst all the selfies.
People who have something they very much want to say, still say it.
This apparently won't be announced officially until Friday, but Politico reports that Clinton will call for an end to the Cuban embargo:
Hillary Clinton plans to urge Congress to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba during a speech on Friday at Florida International University in Miami.
Clinton, according to her presidential campaign, will say that Republican arguments in opposition to more engagement with Cuba represent the “failed policies of the past.”...
Clinton is said to have been pushing to lift the embargo for years...
The venue of Clinton’s speech is noteworthy: It’s the university where Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Clinton’s would-be Republican opponent, has a part-time teaching gig. Rubio is a fierce opponent of Obama’s outreach to Cuba. Earlier this month, Rubio said he would “absolutely” roll back Obama’s Cuba policies if he were elected president.
I always like to end on an upbeat note, so let me share this
hilarious story on
Bustle. A Clinton supporter decided to respond to men bothering her on Tinder by quoting the former Secretary of State:
The beauty of Tinder is that you can swiftly weed out men that you aren’t attracted to, or are obviously creepy — but it’s also important to know which ones share your feminist beliefs before taking the time to meet them in person. No woman wants to be stuck on a horrid date with a male chauvinist — talk about a nightmare come true. So, I decided to use only feminist Hillary Clinton quotes on Tinder for a week to see how men responded to her passionate and pointed comments on gender equality and women’s rights.
The responses of several men can be found in this
slideshow.
My personal favorite exchange:
For more on Hillary Clinton's campaign for the presidency, check out…
The Hillary 2016 Platform Series
Part 1: Criminal Justice Reform
Part 2: Immigration Reform
Part 3: Voting Rights
Unfiltered Hillary: The Transcripts
July 20, 2015: Facebook Q&A
July 17, 2015: Iowa State Democratic Party Hall of Fame Dinner
April 23, 2015: Women in the World Summit
Crossposted at Hillary HQ.com, an independent, progressive blog committed to electing Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States.