Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose name has popped up in recent weeks as a possible 2024 presidential candidate, delivered numerous partisan broadsides at an Aspen Institute event that was meant to serve as a tribute to the late Madeleine Albright, who died in March.
Mrs. Clinton, 74, attacked the Supreme Court, former President Trump and Congressional Republicans after having told CBS News she could not “imagine” running for president a third time, and telling the Financial Times earlier this month it was “out of the question.”
But her name is circulating as a possible Democratic candidate in the event President Biden, 79, does not seek a second term and the party pushes Vice President Kamala Harris, 57, to the sidelines.
Mrs. Clinton spent much of the Aspen forum discussing her time at the State Department, attacking the GOP and condemning the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision overturning the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.
“It’s the most arrogant misreading of history and law that you could ever find,” Mrs. Clinton said of the high court ruling in her speech on Wednesday, reminding the audience she was once a law professor.
“It is so narrow and baseless. But I found that it was not only ignorant, but almost dismissive to the point of contempt for women’s lives and women’s choices and the difficulties that women have, of all backgrounds,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton appeared on the stage alongside Stephen Hadley, who served as a national security advisor for President George W. Bush and the two shared tributes to Mrs. Albright, who was the nation’s first female secretary of state, appointed by President Bill Clinton.
Host Yamiche Alcindor, an NBC reporter, delivered the bulk of the questions to Mrs. Clinton, asking her about claims that the GOP might try to stage a “coup” in 2024 if a GOP president is not elected.
Her question followed six public hearings held this month by a House special committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The hearings presented selective documents and testimony that attempted to incriminate Mr. Trump and some GOP lawmakers in an effort to prevent the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory and of provoking the riot.
Mrs. Clinton tore into Mr. Trump.
“I think we now know there was an attempted coup on Jan. 6,” she said. “Thankfully, it was not successful. Parts of it were stymied or unsuccessful, but make no mistake about it, that’s what this was. You had a sitting president absolutely determined to wrest a second term however he could, despite the fact he lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College.”
Mrs. Clinton referenced her own “painful” defeat in 2016 to Mr. Trump.
“It’s painful enough to win one and lose the other,” Mrs. Clinton said. “So I think that gives you an indication of where at least, the mindset is among a significant portion of the Republican Party nationally, and in the states.”
Mrs. Clinton called the GOP’s electoral laws in some states an effort to win elections using “every technique they can to try to limit the electorate.”
In the CBS News interview, Mrs. Clinton admitted to host Gayle King that she misses day-to-day politics.
“What I can imagine is staying as active and outspoken as I can because I think our country is really on the precipice, Gayle,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I think that we are looking at not only the erosion of these rights, throwing the door open to unfettered, unregulated gun access, but we are also looking at dismantling the federal government, how it protects our air and our water and everything else that goes along with it.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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