Hillary Clinton & Kara Swisher On Haley Stevens' Endorsement Flip: 'It's A Sideshow' | The View

It has been 10 years since former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ran for president. Feels like a hundred. Yeah, it does. And it's really hard to process how much has happened in American politics in the decade that followed. Now she has joined forces with journalist Kara Swisher for a limited series podcast leading up to tomorrow's midterms, y'all. Appropriately titled High Stakes. Please welcome Hillary Clinton and Kara Swisher. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is our brand here. I follow her lead. I'm loving it. This is like dynamic symmetry right now. So let's dive in because I've been saying we've all got a date with fate tomorrow's election. Polls look good for Democrats. You we've seen this before, you know, and I don't want to remind, you know, I'm not a big fan of polls because they can do all kinds of stuff, but given the stakes, how are you, how are you feeling about what you're feeling? I I'm feeling really optimistic, but I'm an optimist who worries a lot. So until it's actually done and every vote is counted fairly, completely, and the results are I'm going to be worried. You know, Anne and I were just talking, we're seeing democratic movement in places that we never could have predicted three months, six months ago. And I think if people turn out, and that's really the biggest message that we can all give you, I will say. If you turn out and vote and vote your conscience and vote your interests and vote for the end of what we've been living through in these last years, we're going to get our country back. And then we can fight about how we do things together and not how we point fingers and yell and scream and insult each other, which would be so welcome. Well, I just have to say I'm loving this podcast. It's two of the smartest women and it's a joy to listen to. Michigan, you know this state well. It is a dynamic state. Every single vote counts. Haley Stevens, who had run in the primary, came out and endorsed the Republican Mike Rogers. What do you make of this? Will it have a material impact on the race? And where do you see this going? You know, I listened to all of you and you kind of covered the waterfront about what you thought and what you, you know, believed she was trying to do or trying to say. I think it's a sideshow. I think what really matters is the people of Michigan, you know, don't get caught up in what is a distraction, but stay focused on what's going to make a difference in their lives when they wake up the day after the election. So my goal is to tell people, you know, whatever is happening, you know, on, you know, online, whatever stories, whatever people are saying or doing. Think about yourself and think about your family. And, you know, Mike Rogers supported tariffs until a few weeks ago when he kind of woke up and said, you know, it's not really good for Michigan, 40 60% of all trade goes from Michigan across the border into Canada. So why are we picking this fight, you know, with our closest ally, with our longest border? So you've got to look at what's really at stake, the high stakes in this election, and don't get distracted. I would say there is an online element. You know, you talked about this last week and you sort of underestimated online stuff. And there's a lot going on with the Michigan thing. And it's a distraction in that it's not what the election should be about. But, you know, now a lot of friends of hers are coming. coming out and talking about her fiancé. There's all this stuff happening. It is a distraction, but it doesn't mean people aren't paying attention to it, and that's not what gets happened. You never know. Yeah, but you can do two things at once. You can pay attention, because it is a bit of a soap opera about why she did or said what happened. But don't let that discourage you from voting. Don't say a pox on all these parties. Don't, you know, stay home. Keep in mind what's going to matter When this drama is over, because that's what we need to worry about. Go vote first and then check in on the drama. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So we've seen Trump on a red state blitz. He only goes to red states and he goes over and over again. But among other things, he's bragged about the money that he's making on high gas profits. He's repeatedly been obsessed with men's asses for some reason. He's called El Sayed a jihadist. He's called Talarico a freak. He's defended the horrible ad in Ohio featuring Amy Acton's mother. So, but you, you know, you lived through. Such low attacks, the pizza gate, lock her up, so many other things that he did. And when that was happening, I always thought, OK, how much lower can we go? We've seen it. Yeah. So where are we in American politics? And can it get worse? Well, I hope it doesn't get worse because we are truly at the bottom. And the kinds of things that have been said and done in this campaign, you mentioned a bunch of them. Um, are really outside the pale of any kind of political discourse and what it does is coarsen, you know, people's feelings, desensitizes them, you know, that ad in Ohio against, you know, Amy Acton, whom I know, and is just a incredible person. And to see what she overcame, the way her family treated her, the way her mother betrayed her and how she's gone on to help people. I mean, the Republican governor. Mike DeWine put her in charge of the COVID response in the state. That shows you what kind of person she is and how she was valued beyond partisanship and politics. And for Ramaswamy to do that and for Vance to defend it and Trump to defend it, it is not just a financial corruption we're dealing with. We're dealing with a moral corruption. And the moral corruption is deep. But again, I'll stress. One of the reasons they're doing it is because they think it'll work, and it did work with you. Well, that's because when it worked with me, it was kind of unprecedented. You know, it was the first time that we had social media playing such a huge role in a campaign. And so when people saw things on their feeds, on their phones, and, you know, accusing me of all kinds of crazy things, They thought, well, I read it, I saw it on the internet, so why would somebody be saying it if it wasn't true? Then why are they doing it now, then? Because they think it'll work. They're doing it now because they think it'll work, either they think it will work and it will work with some voters, and I think also it's not disqualifying to other voters, right? So they can stand by and listen to the attacks and the bigotry and still vote for that person. But I think that's changed. I mean, if you look at the numbers that... Trump has, he's, you know, what, 30, 32, 33% favorability. I do think people may not be as outspoken, but I hope their votes will speak for them. Yes, that we want to turn the corner. There's plenty to debate about. There's a lot of things I don't agree with, you know, all kinds of folks in politics. But let's have that debate and let's try to put it in the context of, OK, let's look at the evidence. Let's actually believe in facts and let's try to find common ground and get something done for people. That's what we should be talking about. And I think... Trump has become more and more unhinged. And I just want to, you know, Karen and I were talking about this on the podcast. If if we are successful in winning both the House and the Senate, which I hope we will be, then I think he's going to get even more out of control because I think he's going to feel cornered. I think he's going to feel angry. I think he's going to be lashing out. But at least we will have some leverage to try to hold him to account through the Congress, which is what. Their job should be. We need to remind them of that. They're going to serve us a straitjacket. But, Kara, we've got to talk about Elon Musk. He has poured nearly half a billion dollars into the midterms for Republicans. He's now the single largest known political donor in modern history. I think in history. Yeah. Well, that's also. But as someone who's covered Musk for years, why do you think he's funneling so much money into this election? And could it tip the scales? Why oh why would he put money into the election? He wants things. He wants things. And as I've said, Trump's the coin-operated president. You put money in and you get what you want out, whether it's contracts for his companies, whether it's getting out of investigations, of which there were many before Trump got in office, and they're all gone, and he got rid of a lot of them through Doge. And third, he wants a pardon. And Trump mentioned that today because he's going to want a pardon for what they did at Doge. And today I had an interview with Jacob Weisberg and Michael Lewis about what happened during Doge. And there are some questionable things. And so he wants to give him a pardon. And so criminal things? Well, I don't know. We'll see. We don't know. It does sound like Elon wants to lock you up. That's right. Sounds like both of you guys are in good company. Yeah, we're going to have the cell together and run the yard. Because you mentioned, you did mention he's a likely target for investigations over Doge in Ukraine. Yeah, he was under investigation. Yeah, and he tweeted, live by the sword, die by the sword. Sounds like Swisher really wants to go to prison. Right. Does that concern you at all? A little bit. I mean, I don't love being threatened by the world's richest man with swords or prison, so that's not great, although I would beat him in a sword fight, obviously. But here's what. I mean, come on, come on, but he's not fast, he's a little big and slow, but one of the things that Walt Mossberg, my old partner, Hillary's been interviewed by, said, the only way Kara's going to prison is if she interviews Elon Musk there, so, I don't know, that was a good joke, it was a joke, Elon, yeah, exactly, pistols at dawn. Yeah. It would really help if y'all would just gather a little bit of a sense of humor. Yeah. It really would help. It would make everybody's lives so much easier.