In her first appearance on The Howard Stern Show Wednesday, Hillary Clinton delved into numerous topics, one of which included her experience at Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
Clinton begins the clip by saying that attending the inauguration was one of the hardest days of her life. “Obviously I was crushed, I was disappointed and I was really surprised because I couldn’t figure out what had happened,” Clinton said.
She goes on to say that she attended the inauguration in the role of former first lady, agreeing with Stern that she felt a sense of duty to do so. Clinton disregarded warnings from people who advised her not to attend because she hoped that he would be a better president than she thought and that she was going to do everything she could to help him, which she told him directly.
“I said look, you know Donald, I want you to be a good president and I will do whatever I can to help you,” Clinton said. When Stern asks if Trump graciously received the phone call, Clinton says he was so shocked “he could barely talk.”
Clinton said she did her best to put on a strong front but became worried when Trump started on “that speech.”
“I thought: Wait a minute. It’s not rational but it’s also not politics. It’s not what a president does,” said Clinton. She had hoped to hear Trump make an attempt to reach out to non-supporters. “I hoped I would hear a little of that, I didn’t hear any of that. And that carnage in the street and the dark dystopian vision. I was sitting there like just, wow. I couldn’t believe it. And George W. Bush says to me, ‘Well, that was some weird shit,’” she recalled.
Bush’s description of the speech has been lore for some time, after New York magazine published a story in which three people said to have heard Bush make the remark. Turns out, from the mouth of Clinton herself, the rumors are true.
Watch the clip below.
After hearing President Trump’s inauguration speech, @HillaryClinton says she began to get nervous. And it sounds like she wasn’t the only one. “George W. Bush says to me, ‘Well that was some weird sh-t.’” pic.twitter.com/BOlOHaLpER
— Stern Show (@sternshow) December 4, 2019
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