Hillary Clinton Says Her 'Skin Crawled' When She Was Debating Donald Trump
We’re still a few weeks out from the release of Hillary Clinton‘s election memoir What Happened, due out September 12, but a newly-released excerpt from the book has us revisiting the unprecedented campaign of 2016—specifically, last October’s town hall debate.
On Wednesday morning, MSNBC’s Morning Joe shared a portion of the book in which the former secretary of state described what it was like to stand on stage with an opponent who skulked behind her the entire night. As a quick reminder: This was the second of the presidential debates and was held just days after Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood tape was released and the country heard a presidential candidate brag about grabbing women “by the pussy.” As the two candidates debated one another, Donald Trump spent the evening stalking Clinton on the stage—standing ominously in the background as she answered each of her questions.
“This is not OK, I thought,” Clinton wrote. “It was the second presidential debate, and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage, and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces.”
She continued, saying:
“It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my
neck. My skin crawled. It was one of those moments where you wish you
could hit pause and ask everyone watching, ‘Well, what would you do?’
Do you stay calm, keep smiling, and carry on as if he weren’t
repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye,
and say loudly and clearly, ‘Back up, you creep! Get away from me! I
know you love to intimidate women but you can’t intimidate me, so back
up!’ I chose option A. I kept my cool, aided by a lifetime of dealing
with difficult men trying to throw me off. I did, however, grip the
microphone extra hard. I wonder, though, whether I should have chosen
option B. It certainly would have been better TV. May I have over
learned the lesson of staying calm—biting my tongue, digging my
fingernails into a clenched fist, smiling all the while, determined to
present a composed face to the world.”
Listen to the entire excerpt below: