“So buckle up.” That was Hillary Clinton’s advice to Democrats on the October 28 episode of the podcast High Stakes with Kara Swisher, a week before the November 3 midterms. Her forecast came with it: if Democrats win Congress, they will investigate “him, his administration, his family, his supporters and allies.”
She did not mean impeachment. In an earlier conversation with Swisher, Clinton called impeaching Trump a “sideshow” unlikely to produce a conviction, though she backed impeachment inquiries into officials such as Pete Hegseth, whom she accused of politicizing the military. What she wants instead is legislation, lawsuits and public pressure. Outrage over a proposed streamed execution, she said, had already pushed officials to back down.
A lame duck, she says, and a dangerous one
Clinton expects Republican losses to make Trump blame others and demand more loyalty from his party. A lame-duck Trump might also become more dangerous, she warned, with possible further attacks on Iran that could endanger American military personnel and civilians. She argued he has held Republicans hostage politically for a decade, and predicted resistance inside the party could grow. Democrats, she added, would still need to show they can govern on affordability and corruption. First they have to win.
Kamala Harris struck a similar note in an October 27 interview with Aaron Parnas. The former vice president said the energy and resources “need to be put into accountability, need to be put into investigations,” arguing the Senate votes to convict Trump were not there. “When I say we should be ruthless, I don’t mean cruel, but we should be uncompromising.” She wants Democrats to stop being “genteel” and to reverse Medicaid cuts and restore checks on the administration’s handling of the war.
Clinton also took a swipe at Matthew McConaughey, who had urged voters to consider independents. It was “really unfortunate,” she said, for an actor with that reach to suggest, two weeks before a midterm “aimed at stopping Trump’s corruption, impunity and extreme damage to the country,” that any independent is a better choice.
A Supreme Court deadline
This week the Supreme Court told Clinton to respond to a petition from Trump seeking to revive his lawsuit. The suit claims she conspired with others before the 2016 election to “weave a false narrative” that his campaign colluded with Russia.
She and her co-defendants had first waived their right to respond. Had the court not asked, that would have all but guaranteed the petition would be denied. Now her brief is due November 27, and the justices will consider the petition at a private conference after that. It takes only one justice to request a response, and such requests do not say why, so the order does not mean review is coming.
Lower courts have thrown the suit out. A conservative appeals court upheld a district judge’s dismissal and imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions on Trump, Alina Habba and her law firm, noting that many of their claims “were indeed frivolous.” Trump’s personal lawyers now call Supreme Court review “necessary to protect the Presidency, and to prevent judicial disagreement from becoming a license to punish its advocates.”
Comey, ten years on
The podcast also had Clinton revisiting 2016. Comey, then FBI director, wrote to Congress on October 28, 2016, saying the bureau would review newly discovered emails potentially related to the investigation of her private email server. “I wish somebody had told me that I needed to take on Jim Comey,” Clinton said. She wished she had challenged “his breaking the Justice Department’s norms of not interfering in elections.” Asked rhetorically whether she had wanted to pick a fight with the FBI director, she answered: “Well, in retrospect, yeah, I did.” She added that she had been “the do-right person for way too long when it comes to not fighting back.”
The remark landed days after the Justice Department filed a two-count criminal information against Comey, alleging he communicated national defense information and conspired to disclose it, in connection with an alleged 2016 disclosure. Prosecutors say the filing preserves the allegations before the statute of limitations expires. Comey calls it an “appalling abuse of the Department of Justice” and says, “I’m still innocent.” His lawyers argue prosecutors need a grand jury indictment first.
Art in Japan, and a gallery in Little Rock
Away from politics, Clinton was in Japan for the 37th Praemium Imperiale ceremony in Tokyo, where she is the US international advisor. From Naoshima, she posted photos with two Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculptures. “In a sometimes dark and chaotic world,” she wrote, “art is an antidote to numbness and incuriosity that reminds us the work of creation is an act of resistance.”
Back in Arkansas, the Clinton Foundation announced a renovation of the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, including a Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton Gallery, a new welcome plaza and a modernized Clinton Administration Gallery.
Sources
- Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton Visits Yayoi Kusama Sculptures on Naoshima Island Ahead of 37th Praemium Imperiale Awards Ceremony
- The Supreme Court wants to hear from Hillary Clinton
- Clinton Presidential Center expansion to include wing dedicated to Hillary Clinton – Arkansas Times
- Hillary Clinton says she regrets not dealing with 'reckless' Jim Comey in 2016
- Hillary Clinton & Kamala Harris Call To Target Trump, His Admin Plus Supporters * The Gateway Pundit * by Drew Hernandez
Photo: U.S. Department of State (Public domain)
