Hilary Clinton Diane Sawyer Interview - H 2014
Hillary Clinton says she wants to get through this year before she starts assessing whether she should run for president in 2016.
In new clips from the former secretary of state’s interview with Diane Sawyer, set to air Monday night on ABC, Clinton reveals an updated timetable for making her decision.
“I’m going to decide when it feels right for me to decide,” she said in a preview that aired on Sunday’s This Week.
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She added that she won’t make a decision before the end of this year.
“I just want to kind of get through this year, travel around the country, sign books, help in the midterm elections in the fall, and then take a deep breath and kind of go through my pluses and minuses about what I will and will not be thinking about as I make the decision,” she said.
She said she would be “on the way to making a decision by the end of the year” but it’s “probably likely” a decision will not be announced until next year.
Appearing on Good Morning America on Monday, Sawyer teased more of the interview, including asking Clinton whether she could have done anything to make Benghazi safer.
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On that matter, she said, “What I did was give very direct instructions that the people who have the expertise in security applied. … I’m not equipped to sit and look at blueprints to determine where the blast walls need to be or where the reinforcements need to be. That’s why we hire people who have that expertise.”
Clinton also defended the money she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have made from speaking engagements, amounts that have been reported in the millions.
The former first lady noted that they came out of the White House in debt, so they needed to make more money to be able to pay off those debts.
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“We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea‘s education. It was not easy,” Clinton said. “Bill has worked really hard, and it’s been amazing to me. He’s worked very hard. First of all, we had to pay off all our debts … you know, you have to make double the money because of, obviously, taxes and pay off the debts and get us houses and take care of family members.”
Sawyer told GMA that she talked to Clinton about Monica Lewinsky and that Clinton showed her around her house.
Later on Monday’s The View, Sawyer said that Clinton mentioned that the fact that she’s becoming a grandmother might affect her decision on whether to run for president. Sawyer added that she gave Clinton a sideways glance when she said that, “because we know there are grandfathers in the White House all the time and they’re perfectly happy being grandfathers. And she knows it too, but she says she’s got to think it through and know what it means for her as a grandmother.”
With respect to Monica Lewinsky, Sawyer revealed that during their discussion of the former White House intern, she asked Clinton how she feels about these questions, adding that she assumed Clinton didn’t want to be asked, and Clinton said, “I knew you’d ask.”
Clinton also talked about her marriage and what she thinks forgiveness is for and how you get there, Sawyer explained.
As they’re walking around Clinton’s house in Washington, Sawyer said that Clinton mused on how she now gets to choose what she does each day and she’s not sure if she wants to give up that luxury.
One thing she has given up, though, is concern about the scrutiny over her hair and clothes, saying if she does run for president, she’ll run as herself, Sawyer explained.
Sawyer’s full interview with Clinton airs Monday night at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
Watch the clips from This Week and GMA below.
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