Hillary Clinton Shares The Life Lessons She Learned After The 2016 Election

And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams. That is Hillary Clinton on November 9th, 2016, delivering a concession speech to a group of stunned supporters after losing the presidential election to Donald Trump the night before. Secretary Clinton had not prepared a concession speech until that morning, believing right up until the end she would win and make history as the first woman to be president of the United States. For five years, the victory speech she wrote has been in a drawer, an artifact of what-if history. But now, as part of a new series on resilience, Clinton reads that emotional address for the She gave us an exclusive first look during a wide-ranging conversation about the state of the country since that election. Secretary Clinton and I got together near her home outside of New York City for a special two-part Sunday sit-down. So, part of being resilient, getting outside a little bit? Yes. It has kept me sane. Five years ago, after losing a presidential election that would reshape the country, Hillary Clinton went for a long walk. You talked about after the 2016 election, sort of going into the woods for a while. Yes. And then being ready to come out at some point. I mean, literally, the very first day after the election when I said, OK, I got to go for a walk. This is too overwhelmingly depressing. And I ran into this young woman with her dog and her baby, and she gave me a big hug. And yes, going into the woods, I find deeply restorative. Everybody will be knocked down. The question is, will you get back up? Now, the two-time presidential candidate is sharing the lessons she took from those painful setbacks in a new seminar called The Power of Resilience for the online education platform MasterClass. When they asked me, I said, well, what do you want me to talk about? And they said, basically, we want you to talk about why you have done what you've done throughout your life and how you overcame setbacks and disappointments and really became so resilient. I said, well, I have a lot of experience in that. Clinton has been a historic and polarizing figure over her three decades at the highest reaches of power, as first lady of the United States, as a New York senator, as secretary of state, and while running for president twice. So how did you read and then deal with the criticism that you've received, which includes people calling for you to be locked up during a presidential campaign? What I learned was to take criticism seriously, but not personally. You mentioned lock her up, and what an absurd and in many ways dangerous attack, because we're supposed to live in a society governed by the rule of law. And the people chanting that and yelling it at me, first of all, had no idea what they were talking about, and secondly, were being instigated to do that. So I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff. And I think that if people don't shrink from criticism, but understand where it's coming from, you can go through life and withstand a lot of incoming attacks because you have to. My fellow Americans, today you sent a message to the whole world. I think the moment that is going to stick out to most people in this master class is an extraordinary one where you read what you call the would-be victory speech that was supposed to be delivered at the Javits Center November 8th, 2016. What compelled you to sit down and revisit that speech? I wanted to be as helpful as I could to the viewers and to the process of being in a master class. I didn't, as you know, write a concession speech because even though we had a lot of bumps those last 10 days, I still thought we could pull it out. So I worked on a speech that really was about my journey and had a real emphasis on my mother's life and journey. Clinton's late mother, Dorothy, was abandoned by her parents at eight years old and put on a cross-country train to live with her grandparents. I think about my mother every day. Sometimes I think about her on that train. I wish I could walk down the aisle. So when they asked me to do it, I really had a hard time getting through it. It partly was so emotional because it brought back what to me was a great loss, not just for me, but for our country with somebody like Trump getting elected despite everything. But it was also intensely personal, particularly at the end where I talk about the little girl my mother was when she was put on a train in Chicago. And my whole emphasis, starting when I was in law school going forward, on working for kids was in many ways motivated by the life my mother lived. I dream of going up to her and sitting down next to her, taking her in my arms and saying, look at me, listen to me. You will survive. You will have a good family of your own and three children. And as hard as it might be to imagine, your daughter will grow up and become the president of the United States. I know people who've known you for a long time and say they've never seen that level of public emotion from you. Well, that's probably true. And part of it, Willie, is when you're a woman in public life, you're kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't. I mean, if you show emotion that may connect with some people, but for a lot of people, it's like, ha, told you. A woman shouldn't have these jobs. They're too emotional. It's really hard because you want to convey the emotion you feel because it does connect you with many people. But it can be so mercilessly received by the press and the public. Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans. So how painful was it for you and has it been to watch the country since that day? I hoped for the best from Donald Trump. And then I went to the inauguration and I heard that outrageous speech about carnage in the street. There wasn't one grace note in that inaugural address. There wasn't anything that said, OK, I know some of you didn't vote for me, but I'm your president. But it was what he did and how he abused the office and how he mistreated people, starting, you know, with the Muslim ban, through the outrageous behavior and trying to overturn the election and encouraging an attack on our Capitol. And sadly, the Republican Party has gone along with him. Honestly, they have hung their spines up on the wall as they walk into their offices. They have no conscience. They have no spine. And we are seeing the results of a party that has been taken over by a demagogue. It's a time to decide whether we're going to be a grown-up country or not. Are we going to give in to all these lies and this disinformation and this organized effort to undermine our rule of law and our institutions, or are we going to stand up to it? Things that are important to you, things that are valuable, they're worth fighting for. Even if you don't win all the time, you know, you still have to get up and and care about the world you're in and care about each other and do what you can to make a difference. You think we'll see a woman president soon? Well, I sure hope so, Willie, but you know, we've got to make it happen. Not easy, as I know very well.