Hillary Clinton says that she "beat" Donald Trump—and Bernie Sanders—in a lengthy feature article by New York Magazine.
"I beat both of them," she said, evidently referencing her popular vote win over Trump.
While Clinton did defeat Sanders, who is not a Democrat, in the Democratic primary, she did not defeat Trump, who was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States in January.
In the story, Clinton discussed her post-election status as a member of the "Resistance" to Trump, but she also reflected on the 2016 campaign, which included a harder-than-expected fight against Sanders for the nomination.
Rebecca Traister's story interviewed numerous people from Clinton's orbit, including speechwriter Dan Schwerin, who said Sanders and Trump were better able to reflect voter anger because they were men.
Clinton said she wanted to express her anger at Trump in the second debate but couldn't do it for fear of giving Trump what he wanted:
But was she right that she couldn’t have expressed her anger in that debate? There are plenty of people who yearned for Clinton to get mad; during the campaign, an imagined litany of Clinton’s fury entitled "Let Me Remind You Fuckers Who I Am" went viral. "Oh, I am [pissed]," she says. But as a woman in public life, "you can’t be angry for yourself. You just can’t. You can be indignant, you can be annoyed, you can be frustrated, but you can’t be angry … I don’t think anger’s a strategy."
You mean it’s not a strategy for you, I clarify. "For me, yeah." She pauses. "But I don’t think it’s a good strategy for most people."
But this was an election that was, in many ways, about anger. And Trump and Sanders capitalized on that.
"Yes." Clinton nods. "And I beat both of them."