Has former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton left the door open for a possible 2020 run? She said during a weekend even that even though she doesn’t want to run, “I’d like to be president.”
The comments from the former nominee come as speculation has increased over whether she will launch another campaign after the midterm elections.
“Do you want to run again?” Recode’s Kara Swisher asked during a Friday night Q&A with Clinton.
“No,” Clinton replied quickly, sparking laughter from the audience. But when Swisher pressed her further, she added: “I’d like to be president.”
Clinton went further saying that “there’s going to be so much work to be done” after a Democrat “hopefully” wins the next presidential election.
“The work would be work that I feel very well-prepared for having been in the Senate for eight years, having been a diplomat in the State Department,” she said.
She added that she’s not going to think about a possible run until after the midterm elections next month.
Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, announced this month that they will be starting a 13-city tour over the next year, hosting discussions about current events and politics across the country.
The former nominee in September released a new afterward for her campaign memoir, “What Happened,” criticizing the Trump administration’s policies and expressing concern that the nation’s democracy is “in crisis.”
Clinton has increased her time in the national spotlight, appearing in media interviews criticizing the GOP and the White House administration.
Longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines earlier this month said there is a “not zero” chance that the former secretary of State will run against Trump.
“It’s curious why Hillary Clinton’s name isn’t in the mix—either conversationally or in formal polling—as a 2020 candidate,” Reines said. “She’s younger than Donald Trump by a year. She’s younger than Joe Biden by four years. Is it that she’s run before? This would be [Sen.] Bernie Sanders’s second time, and Biden’s third time. Is it lack of support? She had 65 million people vote for her.”
When asked if she’s running, Reines said, “It’s somewhere between highly unlikely and zero, but it’s not zero.”