Bill Clinton chided Democrats for not paying more attention to rural and small-town voters, saying it cost them the 2024 election.
His advice for the Democrats going forward was to “help people who feel left out and left behind in small towns and rural areas.”
The former president is on a book tour for his new book, “Citizen: My Life After the White House,” which was released Tuesday. The memoir covers the past 24 years of his post-presidency life.
Clinton has argued in media interviews for the book why the Democrats lost the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. He also predicted that a conservative would be the first woman in the White House.
But the former president, who won the White House in 1992 by highlighting his small-town roots and pushing for a stronger economy, said Democrats need to change the way they talk to people.
“Politics is the only business where you can prove your authenticity by not knowing anything,” he told MSNBC.
“You know, and I think that’s a problem and we’re going to pay for it unless we get over it, but that’s a problem for Democrats too. We have to learn to talk to people in a way they can identify with. That explains that. That’s why, you know, when I helped — this time I did my best to help. I don’t want to go to big gatherings and big televised events. I just wanted to get into the country.”
Bill Clinton’s advice to Democrats is to “help people who feel left out and left behind in small towns and rural areas.”
Clinton spent his time campaigning for Kamala Harris in rural parts of Georgia and North Carolina, two battleground states that ultimately went to Donald Trump.
He also warned that Democrats are “not playing on the same field” as Republicans and that this will continue to cost them.
“Just get out there and talk to people because I think we’re behind in the sense that a lot of people in small towns and rural areas are now very sophisticated and know how to get their information. And there are countless new websites now all trying to advance their brand of conservative to radical right cause,” he said.
‘And often we don’t play on the same field and we aren’t even heard. So I just said, send me over there and I’ll see if I can’t do anything good. I have no idea if that’s true, but I tried.’
Clinton was elected to the White House as the country emerged from a long conservative era when Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush were in power. He is credited with reviving the Democratic Party in the 1990s after the Reagan Revolution. He won two terms.
He campaigned heavily for Joe Biden and then for Harris. He was a frequent critic of Trump during the campaign, even pointing out that he was younger than him.
But now that Trump has won, he said he believes the newly elected president can find redemption through it faith after the multiple attempts on his life. His comments came amid fears that Trump will wage a retaliatory campaign while in the White House.
Clinton told Stephen Colbert on the “Late Show” that Trump could be like St. Paul, a Roman soldier who became a Christian and an advocate for the poor. He is credited with helping to spread the Christian faith in the Roman world in the first century.
“I grew up in the Baptist church,” Clinton said, “and I believe in deathbed conversions, so I still think President Trump could be like Paul on the road to Tarsus. And just think how amazing that would be.”
Colbert’s audience erupted in laughter.
But the former president insisted he meant it.
‘Real. If he wanted to, he said.
“That would be nice,” Colbert replied.
Clinton expressed optimism about Trump’s second term, saying, “You have to plan for the worst and work for the best.”
Bill Clinton predicted that America’s first female president will be a conservative like the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (above)
And despite Harris’ loss in November, Clinton thinks the country is ready for a female president — but not a Democratic one.
He predicted that a conservative “Margaret Thatcher” type would be the first woman to sit in the Oval Office.
Thatcher was Britain’s first female Prime Minister and the longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century.
As a member of the British Conservative Party, she implemented an economic policy known as Thatcherism. Her nickname was ‘The Iron Lady.’
She was a controversial, polarizing leader, but had a long-lasting effect on British politics.
Bill Clinton said he believed cultural changes in the United States have made it more difficult for a woman to become president. His wife Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
“Well, I think all of these cultural battles that we’re having make it harder in some ways for a woman to run,” he told CBS Sunday Morning.
“I think in some ways we’ve moved to the right in response to all the unrest. And I think if Hillary had been nominated in 2008, she would have gotten in just like (Barack) Obama did,” he said of his wife.
“I think it would probably be easier for a conservative Republican woman to win,” he noted. ‘Because I mean, that’s what Maggie Thatcher did.’
Still, he predicted, “I think we’ll have a female president soon.”
When asked if he was still alive, the 78-year-old laughed and said: ‘Oh yes. Well, I don’t know how long I’ll live. You ask an old man that question!’
‘I hope I’ll be there next time too. But now it’s President Trump’s turn. It depends on what he does and how it plays.”