Two-time presidential candidate’s comments come days after Charlie Kirk assassinated
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that white men of a “certain religion” are responsible for “so much damage” just two weeks after the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.
Clinton, 77, made the remarks during a segment Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in which the two-time Democratic presidential candidate said America has yet to achieve the “more perfect union” spoken of by former President Abraham Lincoln.
“We haven’t gotten to the more perfect union, and we fought a Civil War over part of it. And people have been protesting for hundreds of years that things were not as they should be, given our ideals and how we should be moving toward them,” said Clinton.
“So, I think that’s what makes us so special as a country, and the idea that you could turn the clock back and try to recreate a world that never was dominated by, you know, let’s say it, white men of a certain persuasion, a certain religion, a certain point of view, a certain ideology, it’s just doing such damage to what we should be aiming for.”
Earlier in the conversation, Clinton, who is promoting the 20th anniversary of the Clinton Global Initiative, warned that equality and progressive ideology were “in the crosshairs of those on the right.”
“The idea of ‘We The People’ that all men and women are created equal, that seems to be in the crosshairs of those on the right who want to turn the clock back on the progress that has been made,” she said.
While the conversation did not specifically reference Kirk, who was killed Sept. 10 during a Q&A with attendees at TPUSA’s “American Comeback Tour” stop at Utah Valley University, Clinton made repeated references to Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, who was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.
While Clinton has not made any public statement on Kirk, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, said he was “saddened and angered” shortly after Kirk’s death and joined former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush in condemning the shooting. “I hope we all go through some serious introspection and redouble our efforts to engage in debate passionately, yet peacefully,” the former president said in a Sept. 10 social media post.
Nearly a year ago, in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, Secretary Clinton made similarly inflammatory comments following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
Speaking to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, just a day after a second assassination attempt against Trump, Clinton suggested that Americans who promulgate what she described as Russian-backed “propaganda” should face civil or even criminal charges.
Claiming some Americans both wittingly and unwittingly share such “propaganda,” Clinton floated the idea that those who do so should, in some cases, be criminally punished, which would presumably include potential jail time.
“But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda,” she said. “And whether they should be civilly, or even in some cases criminally charged, is something that would be a better deterrence because the Russians are unlikely, except in a very few cases, to ever stand trial in the United States.”
In an October 2023 interview with CNN, Clinton suggested that supporters of then-presidential candidate Trump — whom she described as “MAGA extremists” — are in a “cult” and should undergo “formal deprogramming.”
“Sadly, so many of those extremists, those MAGA extremists, take their marching orders from Donald Trump, who has no credibility left by any measure,” she said. “He’s only in it for himself.”
