Robby Mook, the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, responded Wednesday to controversial comments made by Clinton over the weekend by saying that "2016's over" and Democrats must "move forward" if they want to win in 2018 and 2020.
CNN host Erin Burnett played a clip of Clinton's speech from over the weekend at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai, India.
"I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward, and his whole campaign ‘Make America Great Again,' was looking backwards," Clinton said. "You know, 'you didn't like black people getting rights. You don't like women getting jobs.'"
Burnett, in a clip flagged by Mediaite, said Republicans weren't the only people critical of Clinton's comments, noting several Democrats were upset. Mook was hesitant to criticize his former boss, noting she has been a mentor and he admires her "tremendously," but he went on to say "2016's over" and the Democratic Party needs to focus on the future.
"And as a party, we gotta focus on the future. We gotta focus on the candidates that are running. I love Hillary. I’m gonna let those comments stand by the side," Mook said.
Burnett wasn't satisfied by Mook's comments, pushing him to clarify whether he was happy about her comments.
"We can’t keep re-litigating our last candidate," Mook said. "We gotta to move forward. And I have all the respect in the world for her, but I’m going to let her do her comments, and rest of us are gonna focus on the future."
Mook isn't the first Clinton campaign manager to criticize her comments. Earlier this week, 2008 Clinton presidential campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle called her comments "bad" and "not helpful."
"Look, this was bad. I can’t sugarcoat it," she said. "She was wrong and clearly it’s not helpful to Democrats going into the midterms and certainly not going into 2020. She's put herself in a position where Democrats are going to have to distance themselves from these remarks and distance themselves from her, particularly those Democrats that are running in the states that Donald Trump won."