Hillary Clinton decided to weigh in on controvery surrounding the United Kingdom’s Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, taking the duchess’s side against members of the media and suggesting that UK tabloids keep close tabs on the biracial royal because they are racist.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Clinton and her daughter Chelsea, who are promoting their children’s book about “gutsy women” agreed that Markle is, indeed, a “gutsy woman,” even if she didn’t make the cut, according to Vanity Fair.
“I’m a huge fan of Meghan Markle,” Hillary Clinton told the Times, gushing over the newly minted royal who has made it her mission to use her office to spread social justice across the globe.
Markle has been pushing a progressive agenda as part of her travels as a member of the royal family and most recently found herself in the midst of controversy over her and her husband, Prince Harry’s, views on climate change. Just days after the prince expressed a desire to limit his family to two children and criticized average UK citizens for over-utilizing commercial air travel, the pair and their young son boarded a private plane to a private European resort, one of several carbon-spewing private flights they took over the summer.
Markle and Prince Harry have also recently found themselves involved in a lawsuit against members of the press who published what she claims were private letters exchanged between her and her father ahead of her royal wedding. Prince Harry even took the unusual step, recently, of lashing out directly at the press, accusing them of treating his new wife like they treated his late mother, who was famously killed in a car crash with press photographers.
Clinton, who has regularly claimed that her 2016 loss to now-President Donald Trump was motivated largely by prejudice (including both sexism and racism on the part of American voters), told the Sunday Times she believes the UK tabloids, and certain members of the media, targeted Markle for embarrassment because of racism.
“I do want to say that the way she’s been treated is inexplicable,” Clinton offered. When asked if she believed Meghan’s race played into her treatment at the hands of the press, Clinton was quick to agree: “It’s certainly part of it. If the explanation is that she’s biracial, then shame on everybody.”
Chelsea Clinton then seemed to compare Markle’s plight to her own mother’s.
“It’s because she proudly had a career first and has a voice that she thankfully continues to use,” Chelsea Clinton said. “Anyone who has the temerity to break the mould of what has previously been established and expected often, unfortunately, receives criticism and bile that I don’t understand. We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly.”
Chelsea added, “I don’t know her, but as someone who respects her, I’m so grateful that she persists, and is unbowed, and is doing work she feels called to do. And also isn’t willing to be bullied.”
Clinton and her daughter Chelsea are in the middle of a media blitz at the moment, promoting their jointly authored children’s book about “gutsy women” and raising speculation that Clinton may jump into the 2020 Democratic primary at the last minute if no clear front-runner emerges from the 15-person race.