Hillary Clinton: 'There Have Been Times When I Wanted Never to Leave the House Again'

“I will admit coming here tonight wasn’t the easiest thing for me,” Clinton told the audience in Washington DC. “There have been a few times this past week when all I’ve wanted to do was just to curl up with a good book or our dogs and never leave the house ever again.”

Clinton was scheduled to appear at the event – a gala for the Children’s Defense Fund, where she began her career more than four decades ago – before her stunning defeat. The organization’s founder, Marian Wright Edelman, a longtime friend, introduced Clinton to the predominantly female audience as “the people’s president”, noting that she was leading the popular vote by more than 1 million votes.

“I know that over the past week a lot of people have asked themselves whether America is the country we thought it was,” Clinton said. “The divisions laid bare by this election run deep. But, please, listen to me when I say this: America is worth it. Our children are worth it. Believe in our country and fight for our values and never, ever give up.

In closing, Clinton invoked her late mother, Dorothy Rodham, whose resilience in the face of a difficult childhood was a central part of her message on the campaign trail, The Guardian reported. 

“I dream of going up to her and taking her in my arms and saying: ‘Look, look at me and listen. You will survive. You will have a family of your own – three children. And as hard as it might be to imagine, your daughter will grow up to be a United States senator, represent our country as secretary of state and win more than 62 million votes for president of the United States.’”

Clinton spoke shortly after her rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, vehemently denied claims that he had contributed to her defeat on 8 November.

In a letter to the New York Times, Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology at Harvard University, claimed Clinton’s campaign had been undermined by Sanders during a bruising primary contest: “Mr. Sanders’ refusal to concede in a timely way as Hillary Clinton won many millions more votes and his constant harping that she was ‘corrupt’ furthered Mr. Trump’s message and contributed to the conman’s catastrophic victory.”

The defiant Vermont senator told an audience at a Politics and Prose event at George Washington University on Wednesday night: “My campaign brought millions of people into the process, I suspect the overwhelming majority of whom ended up voting for Hillary Clinton.”