Clinton: US at the ‘precipice’ of losing democracy

Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday that the U.S. is on the “precipice of losing our democracy.”

“We are standing on the precipice of losing our democracy, and everything that everybody else cares about then goes out the window,” Clinton told interviewer Edward Luce.

Clinton emphasized her belief that the Democratic Party should focus on the issues that “help you win” rather than more controversial issues important primarily to minorities.

“Look, the most important thing is to win the next election,” she said. “The alternative is so frightening that whatever does not help you win should not be a priority.”

Luce brought up the transgender debate as an “activist cause” which he says is “relevant only to a small minority.”

“What sense does it make to depict JK Rowling as a fascist?” Luce asked, referring to the “Harry Potter” author’s anti-transgender views.

Luce said that Clinton agreed with the “premise of his question” and pointed to progressives’ campaign to “defund the police” as a cause that hurt Democrats.

“You need accountable measures. But you also need policing,” Clinton said. “It doesn’t even pass the common-sense politics test not to believe that.”

Clinton added, “Some positions are so extreme on both the right and the left that they retreat to their corners. … Politics should be the art of addition not subtraction.”

Clinton predicted that current Democratic President Biden would run again in 2024, saying, “He certainly intends to run.”

However, she said that the idea that she would run for president after her 2016 loss is “out of the question.”

Democrats are debating whether Biden, 79, is their best candidate to run for president in 2024 considering his age.

“I think it’s too soon to start that speculation,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said of the question on Thursday. “I can’t say at this point what I would recommend.”

Democratic strategists, including David Axelrod, have said that Biden, who would be 81 at the time of the election, would present a “major issue” due to his age, while many lawmakers have expressed their support for whatever Biden chooses.

“I look forward to working hard for Joe Biden’s reelection in 2024,” said Biden ally Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).