Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confessed Monday that she was still processing her 2016 presidential election loss and asserted she wasn't alone in doing so.
Clinton sat down for an interview with Hilary Barry of "Seven Sharp," a nationally televised current affairs program in New Zealand, while visiting the country to promote her memoir, What Happened.
Barry began the interview by discussing Clinton's recent meeting with Jacinda Ardern, the newly installed female prime minister of New Zealand, before moving on to rehash the 2016 presidential election.
"How do you deal with the disappointment that is so monumental?" Barry asked. "I mean the rest of us have disappointments from time to time, but certainly not on that scale. How do you deal with that?"
Clinton, who seemed uncomfortable with the line of questioning, expressed that it was crucial to have sources outside of politics that serve to buoy an individual in times of discouragement.
"It's so important that you have more in your life to lift you up and get you going, than whatever the setback happened to have been," Clinton said.
Clinton then seemed to reverse course, saying she had yet to fully make peace with her loss to Trump, which occurred nearly 19 months ago. Clinton admitted part of her distress resulted from over-confident predictions she would cruise to victory, predictions that seemed to only grow louder as the campaign drew to a close.
"It would be inaccurate to say I wasn't devastated, because I was devastated," Clinton said. "I didn't expect it. I wasn't ready for it."
The secretary laid the blame for her inability to accept defeat on the notion there were still "so many unanswered questions" about the election. Clinton contended she wasn't alone, claiming "tens of millions" of individuals had also failed to reconcile their feelings.
"It's still an ongoing process; our country has not yet resolved it," Clinton said. "People ask 'why haven't you moved on?' and I say, 'well, there are tens of millions of people who haven't moved on because there are still so many unanswered questions.'"
Clinton further opined on her belief that the 2016 election was "a perfect storm" of factors that worked against her. She said it was difficult for her campaign to navigate through the waters of "sexism," "misogyny," "Russian interference," and "disinformation."
Since losing the election, Clinton has chosen to remain on the national stage and defend her performance.
Clinton has also been a fierce critic of President Donald Trump and the policies of his administration. In April, Clinton claimed the U.S. was witnessing "an all-out attack on core values of democracy."
When asked by Barry if she would entertain another run for political office, Clinton indicated no ambition for running again. However, she did pledge to campaign for Democrats up and down the ballot in 2018.
"I am going to be active in this upcoming election–in 2018–because that will be the turning point," Clinton said.