Extended interview Hillary Clinton May 8

Secretary Clinton, you have said that Donald Trump is a loose cannon. You've said he's dangerous. Are you suggesting he's not of sound mind? Well, I think that being a loose cannon means saying that other nations should go ahead and acquire nuclear weapons for themselves, when that is the last thing we need in the world today. Being a loose cannon is saying we should pull out of NATO, the strongest military alliance in the history of the world, and something that we really need to modernize but not abandon. I think saying that he's a loose cannon really focuses on some of the statements he's made, which I find concerning. Going back to torture, killing terrorist families, which would be a war crime. And those are just some of the concerns that I hear people talking about, which I think does fit the definition of a loose cannon. But you're not making any claims about his underlying stability. I'm talking about what he has said in this campaign and continues to say, and the kind of agenda he's putting forth for our country, which obviously I think would not be in the best interests. What do you take away from the Republican race now that it's over? Well, I have to say the Republicans themselves are raising questions about their presumptive nominee. And I think that's in large measure, John, because they do understand how hard the job of being president is. When you have former presidents, when you have high-ranking Republican officials in Congress raising questions about their nominee, I don't think it's personal so much as rooted in their respect for the office and their deep concern about what kind of leader he would be. You've said that he should be asked hard questions now that he's in the general election, essentially. Give me three hard questions you think he should be asked. Well, when he says that Americans don't need a raise, and that's why he doesn't believe we should raise the minimum wage, what's that based on? Because if you look at the evidence, and more than evidence, if you listen to the stories, as I have now for more than a year, of so many Americans who haven't had a raise in 15 years, it raises serious issues about how well he understands what's happening in the economy to working people. So his answer would be he wants to create jobs, and those jobs will raise wages, that would be. So he's going to ask that question, and he just has a different view. Well, he doesn't have a view. He has a slogan, and he needs to be really pressed on that. When he says climate change is a Chinese hoax, what does that mean? Has he ever talked to a scientist, or is he just, again, assuming a slogan? When he says women should be punished for having abortions, what does that mean, and how would he go about that? Or rounding up 11, 12 million people, which he again repeated, which would entail the most comprehensive police and military action inside our borders that is imaginable. And you combine that with a lot of what he has said about foreign policy, and then recently economic policy, when he said he'd renegotiate the national debt. Maybe he just doesn't understand that running our government is not the same as making real estate deals, that putting the full faith and credit of the United States of America at risk would be a horrible outcome, and it would raise interest rates, it would wipe away savings, it would cause a financial global meltdown. People need to be pressing him, and I don't think people get, especially in the media at least so far, into other than just the response, which then is not followed up on. One of the things that people said about this race, either with respect to Donald Trump or even with respect to your race against Bernie Sanders, is that specifics and details, voters want what they want, and details sometimes and specifics are brought out there, they're discussed, they're fact-checked, and yet people still want the candidate that they want. Well, I can only tell you in my experience, which has led to my putting out specific plans, saying how I would pay for them, and as we sit here today, I have three million more votes than Senator Sanders and two million more votes than Donald Trump. So clearly there is a constituency for a candidate who says, look, we don't just diagnose the problem, we offer solutions for the problem, because I want to run on an agenda that the people of America can hold me accountable for. And you can go to my website, hillaryclinton.com, and you can read about my plans to make college affordable, to improve the Affordable Care Act, what to do about climate change, how to create more infrastructure and manufacturing and clean energy jobs and everything else that I've laid out, and exactly how I would pay for any new initiative. You see, at the end of the day, John, I really believe that Americans take their vote for president seriously, because they know it's not only the president, but the commander-in-chief who they are selecting. And I have a lot of confidence in the common sense of the American voter. And I'm going to continue to talk specifically about what I will do, draw a contrast with my opponents, and particularly with Donald Trump. When people look at what a general election might be like, and we'll get to the race that you still have going in the Democratic race, but they see Donald Trump has high negatives, high unfavorable numbers. You also have high unfavorable numbers, and they think this is going to be a very ugly race. Why are they wrong? Well, I'm not going to run an ugly race. I'm going to run a race based on issues and what my agenda is for the American people. I don't really feel like I'm running against Donald Trump. I feel like I'm running for my vision of what our country can be and to knock down all the barriers that stand in the way of Americans getting ahead. I've heard about those. I've sat across the table from so many Americans. I've been in large and small crowds. People grab my hand and talk to me about how hard it is to make ends meet. They've got two minimum wage jobs and they can't pay their rent, or their child has an addiction problem, or they can't afford college. I know what is really racking the hearts and minds of Americans. I'm going to stay focused on that. And I hope that that's what the voters will want to hear. Some of your aides talk about something called Republicans for Hillary. They think that with Donald Trump getting the nomination, it opens a certain kind of Republican voter to you that might not have been available before. How do you get that voter, the skeptical voter who's skeptical of Hillary Clinton, but that you might be able to get now? What's the pitch to them? Well, obviously, I'm reaching out to Democrats, Republicans, independents, all voters who want a candidate who is running a campaign based on issues, who has been willing to put out plans and explain those plans and talk about how to pay for those plans, who has a track record of getting results for people, who understands that although we do live in a dangerous world, there's nothing we can't meet in terms of the challenges we face if we put our minds to it. And so I think that for a lot of people, again, who take their vote seriously and who really see this as a crossroads kind of election, I am asking people to come join this campaign. And I've had a lot of outreach from Republicans in the last days who say that they are interested in talking about that. Bernie Sanders, when you've talked recently, you said in 2008, you could have kept going, but you knew Barack Obama was going to win. And so you kind of got out of the way. It sounded very much like you were trying to lead Senator Sanders to the exit. Is that what you're trying to do? Well, I was talking about my experience, because I do think it's a useful reminder that I was much closer to then Senator Obama. We were neck and neck in the popular vote. His lead over me in the pledged delegate numbers was much, much smaller. As I say, I'm three million votes ahead of Senator Sanders, nearly 300 pledged delegates ahead of him. He has to make his own mind up. But I was very heartened to hear him say last week that he's going to work seven days a week to make sure Donald Trump does not become president. And I want to unify the party. I see a great role and opportunity for him and his supporters to be part of that unified party, to move into not just November to win the election against Donald Trump, but to then govern based on the progressive goals that he and I share. We both want to raise the minimum wage. We both understand you've got to rein in bad actors on Wall Street and in corporate America to make sure they don't wreck Main Street. We have a lot of the same goals, and I hope we can unify around them. Let me ask you about developments in the investigation into your email server. Apparently, the FBI has contacted your team in terms of talking to you. What can you tell us about that? No one has reached out to me yet, but last summer, I think last August, I made it clear I'm more than ready to talk to anybody anytime. And I've encouraged all of my assistants to be very forthcoming, and I hope that this is close to being wrapped up. So nobody said, Hillary Clinton, we'd like to sit down and talk to you from the FBI. Not at this point. And if there is this moment where voters are looking now in a general election context, they're thinking of you versus Donald Trump, some voters may be paying attention now in a different kind of way. What's your answer to those people who think, gee, FBI inquiry, that's a big deal. What do you say to them? I say what I've said now for many, many months. It's a security inquiry. I always took classified material seriously. There was never material marked classified that was sent or received by me. And I look forward to this being wrapped up. What about people think, well, she might be president. What does she learn from this whole process? Well, that was a mistake. And I have said that, and I will say it again as often as I need to. It seemed like a convenient idea at the time that certainly wasn't. And so I always take classified material seriously. There's no argument about that that I'm aware of. And I will continue to do so. And within whatever parameters are required for the president, which I know a little bit about having served with President Obama. Is there a broader lesson, though, outside of email, just in terms of just a broader lesson that comes out of this process? Well, look, I think that if you don't keep learning, you're going to stagnate and just not move forward. And I know I've got to do my very best to answer any questions that are raised about me in any context. I've been doing that for 25 years. So I do have a lot of experience with it. But I also think it's fair that anybody who is vying to be president be asked the same hard questions. I've got 33 years of tax returns in the public domain. And Donald Trump won't release his tax returns. And his claim they're being audited just by any analysis doesn't hold up. So what's there? And he owes it to the American people and the press owe it to us to make sure that those kinds of questions are posed to everybody. A general election voter will know when Hillary Clinton's in the office and a convenient option arrives, maybe she'll think twice about it. Well, you know, as I have said many times, you know, that was absolutely permitted. And I did it. And it turned out to be a mistake. It wasn't the best choice. And if you look at, though, the very difficult decisions that I was involved in, even as Secretary of State, putting together the sanctions on Iran that led us to the negotiations that put a lid on their nuclear weapons program, ending one of the conflicts in Gaza by negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. You can look at my record and you can see that, you know, we just passed the fifth anniversary about bin Laden. I have a very serious and very focused approach to taking care of the nation's business. And I did it as senator. I did as Secretary of State. And you'll even find a lot of Republicans who, when I was in those jobs, were saying nice things about me. David Ignatius has a piece in The Washington Post speaking of foreign policy, where he suggests that Donald Trump is pulling away from U.S. commitments abroad. Is part of this campaign going to be you making the case for why the United States has to have a very active role overseas? Well, I will certainly stand up for what I think American values, interests and our security require. I don't see Donald Trump having any kind of coherent foreign policy or theory of national security. He kind of makes statements that I find concerning, whether it's about nuclear weapons or torture or anything else. So I think the burden is really on him to try to make a case why when you've had 70 years of American policy under both Republicans and Democrats trying to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, he is so cavalier, even reckless and dangerous about how he talks when it comes to nuclear weapons. One of the other points he makes is on trade. And Bernie Sanders has made this case, too, in terms of these trade deals that of the kind that you've supported, that the people who write the trade deals just don't understand what they do to regular people. What's your answer to that? Well, you know, I do want to set the record straight because I do believe in trade. We are 5% of the world's population. We have to trade with the other 95%. That has on balance been a net plus for our economy. And we have to be smart, however, about the deals we enter into. And we certainly have to enforce them. That's why I've called for a trade prosecutor to report directly to the president, because I don't want to wait until somebody takes advantage of our markets. We need to be much more affirmative in stopping them from doing that. I voted against the only multi-nation trade agreement when I was a senator. And I raised doubts about NAFTA. I said I would like to renegotiate it when I ran back in 2008. And I oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership in its current form. Finally, a Mother's Day question. When you're out campaigning, are you following the example of your mother or thinking about the example you're setting for your daughter and granddaughter? Well, I think about my mother a lot, because she campaigned with me and for me in 2008. And she was the most formative influence in my life by far. And her encouragement, given her own very difficult life to get back up when you're knocked down, and to serve people, and to think about ways that you can improve the world, I hear that voice all the time. But I also am fortunate to have a daughter who I'm very proud of, who is a wonderful mother, who I talk with about so many matters, personal, policy, political. And I'm very influenced by the fact that my granddaughter will grow up in the world that we are going to shape. And I want to be sure it's a world where not just she, but all of our children and grandchildren have the opportunity to live up to their God-given potential. That would make a very happy Mother's Day. Secretary Clinton, thanks so much.