Hillary Clinton responded to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s concerns about the future of a female president, asserting Sunday that “a woman will become our president at some point.”
“We can’t be bullied into silence or giving up on our own dreams,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. “We have to continue to pursue them and encourage others to do the same.”
The former presidential candidate’s remarks follow an interview wherein Ocasio-Cortez said young girls’ dreams of becoming president “provokes a lot of inner conflict” because she dislikes telling young people what they can and can’t do, but she has also witnessed the “hate” directed toward women and women of color.
“I hold two contradictory things [in mind] at the same time,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with GQ published Sept. 7. “One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible. But at the same time, my experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color.”
While Clinton has certainly experienced the obstacles faced by female presidential candidates, she took a more hopeful view than AOC by saying that “a woman will become our president at some point.”
“I think it’s sad that we have so many people who either seem to resent or oppose women in the public arena, whether it’s politics and government or the media or anything else,” she said. “That’s something we have to keep standing up against and speaking out against.”
For Clinton, these difficulties have not influenced her discussions with young women and girls who would like to run for office, noting that she encourages them to do so “with their eyes wide open about how hard it is.”
The former Secretary of State also pointed to social media, “with all of its misogyny,” as a factor that has made this fight even more difficult.
Clinton has been focused on connecting with trailblazers who provide examples of what it means to be a “gutsy” woman as she releases her new Apple TV+ docuseries “Gutsy,” with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton. The series, which is now streaming on Apple TV+, prompted the mother-daughter duo to travel globally to interview celebrities like Amy Schumer, Wanda Skyes and Kim Kardashian, as well as other changemakers.
