President Donald Trump on Monday jokingly prodded Democrat Hillary Clinton to run against him in 2020 after slamming her for trotting out one “excuse” after another for losing the 2016 White House race to him.
Clinton, however, promptly dismissed the idea, saying she will not run for president again, but making it clear that she will stay involved in politics and continue to speak out against Trump.
“Oh, I hope Hillary runs. Is she going to runIJ I hope. Hillary, please run again!” Trump said in what turned out to be a freewheeling news conference with Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell at the White House Rose Garden.
Clinton, Trump commented, has been busy blaming Russia for her defeat, but this was only an excuse, with one of the real reasons for losing the race was she “wasn’t good at what she did”.
Asserting that there was “absolutely no collusion” between his campaign and Russia, which is the subject of an ongoing probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Trump called for speedy conclusion of the probe, saying: “They ought to get to the end of it because, frankly, I think the American people are sick of it.”
When asked about Clinton’s comments that kneeling by protesting football players instead of standing up during the national anthem did not signify any disrespect for the national flag, Trump retorted that she was wrong. “That’s why she lost the election. I mean, honestly, it’s that thinking,” he said, adding her statement in itself was “very disrespectful to our country”.
Hours before the news conference, Trump had already tweeted: “I was recently asked if ‘Crooked’ Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020. My answer was, ‘I hope so!’”
Clinton, asked about the tweet during an interview to BBC, said: “No, I’m not going to run again.” But she added she would continue to oppose Trump, commenting: “I think I’m in a position where my voice will actually be magnified because I am not running (for office), and there’s a very good basis, as we watch Trump’s support shrink, that people will say, ‘Well, what she said was right and now where do we go from hereIJ’”
Appearing on BBC’s “The Andrew Marr Show”, Clinton sought to obliquely draw parallels between Trump and the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose “disgusting” and “heartbreaking” behaviour, she suggested, was just like the person who was once caught on camera bragging about sexually assaulting women.