On Friday, Hillary Clinton delivered her first official message to the Democratic National Convention since losing the presidential election in 2016, and she had only one message for the gathered, mostly female, officials: you’re not getting rid of me that easy.
In what sounded more like a threat than an announcement, Clinton told the Democratic Women’s Leadership Forum that she’s going to be a foundational part of the anti-Trump “resistance,” whether the “resistance” wants her or not.
“We have to win back the Congress,” Hillary Clinton said Friday at a DNC event. “I’ll be there with you every step of the way because we are going to take back the country we love.”
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) May 18, 2018
She also gave some advice to the gathered crowd, many of whom are competing in the midterm Congressional elections: focus on issues important to Americans, like abortion and “facts.”
“We stand for truth, for evidence and facts,” Clinton said during her speech. “What an incredible thing. … We have kind of an affection for evidence.”
That is, of course, debatable, particularly coming from a woman who has spent the last 18 months hammering on a bevy of excuses for her loss, and failing to acknowledge her own basic shortcomings, particularly in the area of campaign management. As for “abortion,” it seems even women voters aren’t listing it as their top concern; likely Congressional voters say that the economy is their electoral priority.
The DNC is treating Clinton as an invaluable resource, paying her and her former campaign hundreds of thousands for “lists” and voter information repositories that weren’t particularly useful to Clinton’s own campaign. They’re afraid of alienating her, no doubt, because she remains a powerful connection to high-dollar donors. In return, she’s an albatross around their neck: a font of bad advice, bad optics, and bad luck.
But she’s sticking around.
