ExclusiveHillary Clinton: A Political First Lady

Welcome to American Legends. My name is Tiffany Brannan. Each culture has its legends, and that could be myths or different stories, but here in America, our greatest legends are the wonderful heroes who are right from our history pages. Now, some of these heroes are very famous, and some are obscure. But each person deserves to be discovered, because each man or woman stands as a great example of how we can be better Americans in our daily lives. During the 250 years of American history, there have been many First Ladies who were called the first modern First Lady or the most active First Lady up to her point. But, I would say, without contest, there was only one First Lady in American history who really can be considered a politician in her own right. Many First Ladies are very famous for the active political and social role they played during their husband's presidency. In fact, many First Ladies remained very popular and beloved, even as their husbands were not so popular or so well-liked. However, only one First Lady really has had an active political career completely separate from her husband. That First Lady is Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, in the year 1947, making her, along with her husband, Bill Clinton, the first First Lady to be from the Baby Boomer generation. Whereas other First Ladies before her, at the very latest, had been young women and brides during the World War II era, she wasn't even born until World War II was over. She was from a fairly well-to-do family with a successful businessman father. She went to Wellesley College, which was a female school, and there she became very important in the school's leadership, and she was the first person to give a commencement speech at the college. From there, she went to Yale Law School. She was a year ahead of her future husband, Bill Clinton, because he had gone abroad to study at Oxford University. They met there in law school, and they were instantly attracted to each other. They soon began living together and mapping out their future legal and political careers before eventually getting married in 1995. After their marriage, Hillary Rodham would attempt and fail to pass the District of Columbia Bar Exam, which was a fact she kept hidden for three decades. She later, with her husband, moved to Arkansas, which was his home state, and there they both began their legal and political careers. They both became law professors at the University of Arkansas, and while he then began to pursue politics in the state, first as the attorney general and eventually as governor, she joined the private sector, joining the influential Rose Law Firm, of which she would become a partner in 1979. Their only child, Chelsea, was born in the year 1980. When Bill Clinton became the governor of Arkansas, Hillary was active in his campaign, but she didn't want to take some of the more traditional roles of a gubernatorial first lady. At this point, she wasn't even using her husband's surname, still going by Hillary Rodham. This wasn't viewed very positively by a lot of political commentators or voters. She remained very active in her own legal career, even as she was the first lady. Her husband didn't win re-election as governor, but then he was elected to a second term a few years later. By this time, she realized she needed to be a little bit more of a traditional gubernatorial first lady, so she had accepted his last name, now going by Hillary Rodham Clinton, and softening her appearance a little bit. As the first lady of Arkansas, she was very involved with helping her husband in his main initiative, which was education reform. As early as this point in the 1980s, she had to defend her husband against some rumors of extramarital affairs with an actress. And some of their joint activities with the real estate firm of Whitewater would later be brought up on some charges during their time in the White House. In 1992, Bill Clinton ran for president and ended up winning the Democratic ticket. She campaigned very actively for her husband during this time, and she was compared and contrasted with the incumbent first lady, Barbara Bush. The two women were very different, as Barbara Bush was a very mature, grandmotherly woman from the World War II era, who had never had a career, had always been a stay-at-home mother, was very involved with charity work, but didn't even finish her college degree. In contrast, you had the much younger Hillary Clinton, who still had a 12-year-old daughter, and was a lawyer herself, as well as being very advanced in her own career. It seemed that people were ready for a change for the younger, so the youthful Clinton couple were elected. Mrs. Clinton quickly became one of, if not the most controversial first lady in American history. She was under investigation and scrutiny for a number of issues. For her real estate and charitable work, which had garnered her a lot of profit. For the fact that she had been very involved in this law firm when her husband was governor, perhaps alluding to a conflict of interest and collusion. The fact that her husband put her on his task force immediately. This was seen as perhaps nepotism, because she was not an elected official. She was just the first lady, which isn't an elected position. And the fact that she was the first first lady to have an office in the West Wing, not the East Wing. Many people thought that was overstepping her bounds. Because she began experiencing a lot of criticism and scrutiny from the news during her earliest days in the White House, whereas Rosalyn Carter had been an honorary chair due to the difficult position of the fact that she was the first lady, Hillary Clinton was officially the chair of the task force on national health care reform. But because of her suspicion for the press, most of the activity of this task force was done behind closed doors, and she was not very forthcoming with the press. This was not viewed positively, and as a result, the initiative for this health care reform did not pass. Because of this failure, Hillary decided to take a more traditional position as first lady after this, particularly starting in 1994, and she stepped back a bit from being so aggressive in her political power and her political position. Nevertheless, it wasn't a surprise for the American people that she was acting not just as a personal advisor, as almost every first lady had been since the very beginning of the presidency, but as a very active political advisor to her husband. After all, Bill Clinton had said during his campaign that the American people would be getting two presidents for the price of one, because of his wife's background in law, and the fact that she herself was already being considered as a potential candidate for political positions. When Bill Clinton was first considering running for the president in 1988, the idea was buoyed at one point that as he moved to the presidency, that she would take over, or at least attempt to run for the office of governor of Arkansas. In the Clinton's first term in office, Hillary Clinton would become the first first lady to testify before a grand jury, as she had to testify for four hours regarding the Whitewater scandal, the real estate controversy involving the Clintons, back when he was the governor of Arkansas, but they were acquitted. However, this would be nothing compared to the scandal which erupted in 1998, with first the Paula Jones incident, which were rumors of Clinton having an affair with a staff member, Paula Jones, back when he was governor of Arkansas, which then escalated into the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The rumors began in January of 1998 that Clinton had been having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton, of course, refuted this at first, claiming that he did not have any such affair with Lewinsky, and Hillary Clinton said on NBC's Today show that she didn't believe her husband was guilty, and she even insinuated that it was simply a political move on the part of his opponents to besmirch his name. She was quoted as saying, is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. However, these words, along with Clinton's statement that he had not had such an affair, began to ring very false, as it was proven later in the year that he had, in fact, had an affair with Lewinsky. Because of this, the House of Representatives drew up articles of impeachment against Clinton later in the year. Through this very public scrutiny of their marriage and the whole affair, people felt sorry for her because she chose to stick by her husband, despite the humiliation of the mounting evidence that her husband had had an affair. Their relationship was obviously damaged during this time, but she was committed to stick by him because of their joint political aspirations and their mutual strong relationship with their daughter. Like First Lady Eliza Johnson, who had helped her own husband, Andrew Johnson, the other president up to that point who had been impeached, Hillary helped Bill Clinton prepare his defense against the articles of impeachment. And despite the fact that it was generally proven that he had, in fact, had the affair, he was acquitted on the counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, or misuse of his political power. And he was able to complete his second term in office. In the year 2000, the same year that the next presidential election was happening, Hillary Clinton was urged to run for political office herself, and that was New York Senator. This would be the first time that a first lady had run for such a political office. Many people considered her a carpet beggar because she had never lived in New York. She and Bill Clinton had purchased a property there where they intended to live after leaving the White House. Despite that, she won, and she was sworn in as a U.S. Senator early in 2001. So she effectively was both first lady and U.S. Senator for 17 days, making that the only time it's happened in U.S. history. Although she was critical of President George W. Bush's tax cuts, she supported a lot of his military initiatives involving the Middle East. In 2008, she attempted to win the Democratic ticket for presidency. She wasn't able to gain enough support to win the ticket, and instead it went to Barack Obama, who would end up winning. He appointed her as his Secretary of State, and she certainly was not only the first first lady to hold such a political position, but a very early woman to be in a role of that size. She tried again to run for president in 2016, and this time she won the Democratic ticket. This marks the first time in American history that a woman was one of the two major candidates for president. She was defeated by Republican Donald Trump. But it remains a very historic first. It was rumored that she would run again both in 2020 and 2024, but other Democrats have taken the ticket since then. She's written several books throughout her lifetime, the first being in 1994 when she was first lady. As part of her initiative to be a more traditional first lady, as she was facing a lot of criticism, she wrote a book called It Takes a Village, talking about how to raise children and harkening back to her earliest interest in the legal profession, which was support of children legally and family law. After leaving the White House, she's written more books about her time as first lady and her singular role as a pioneer of women in the political realm. She's always been a strong proponent of women's rights, and she's quoted as saying at one point, if there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights once and for all. Although she wasn't as outspokenly in favor of abortion on demand as some later democratic politicians, she has always been very supportive of safe, legal, and rare abortion rights. She's quoted as saying, we should remember that just as a positive outlook on life can promote good health, so can everyday acts of kindness. And this reflects her general views on helping others, civil rights, and charitable activities. Along with her husband, she's been very active in the Clinton Foundation and many other charitable organizations. She served on the board of the New World Organization, and she also was the first woman on the board of Walmart. In her concession speech in 2008, she said, although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it. She frequently has spoken about the glass ceiling in reference to the fact that she's always attempted to break boundaries for women in the political realm. As the only first lady to be a lawyer and a politician, as well as a political candidate in her own right, Hillary Clinton has challenged the traditional standards and customs of what a first lady's role should be. She also has raised the issue of the legality of first ladies serving in very active political roles to which they weren't elected. Whereas women previously were granted status based on roles their husband had, as women are given more and more rights in their own right, it becomes a matter of controversy whether it's fair for women to also just honorarily have rights that their husbands have earned through election or other business prestige. As she almost won a presidency in her own right in 2016, she raised the issue of whether someone who has been in the White House already for two terms is eligible for her own term in office, since other former first ladies have at least been rumored to be possible candidates in the future. Whether you support Hillary Clinton as a strong second wave feminist and a representative of the baby boomer generation, or you dislike Hillary Clinton's criticism and flouting of traditional female roles and moral values, she remains an indisputably strong and important person in American history of the very late 20th and early 21st century. Thank you for watching, and I hope you'll join me next time for more American Legends.