Hillary Rodham Clinton: ‘Trump Has An Affinity For Dictators'

A White House in chaos, an increasingly unpredictable president and a ticking time bomb called the Russia investigation. Who better to talk about the Great Churn in Washington than former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Excerpts from the US Democratic presidential candidate’s interaction with Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-chief of the India Today

Q. It is commonly said that countries deserve the governments they get. Does America deserve Donald Trump? What has gone wrong?

A. No, we didn’t deserve that. But I think, as I mentioned, he ran the first reality TV campaign and he was the first reality TV candidate. What does that mean? If you watch reality TV, you know it means that the person who is the most outrageous, the person who says the most politically incorrect things, the person who is insulting and attacking drives big ratings.

Q. Is Trump the symptom of a deeper malaise in American society today? Or is he the disease, so to say?

A. I think there are several big problems that beset us, and to some extent you are seeing them in Europe. One is the phenomenon of disappointment, of a sense of being left behind in a fast-changing economy. Our immigrants are primarily from Latin America, India and China. They are hardworking, productive and law-abiding. Trump started his campaign attacking immigrants because he knew that in many parts of the country, there weren’t many immigrants. He was able to scapegoat immigrants.

Q. Has Vladimir Putin got something personal against you?

A. Russia’s parliamentary elections in 2011 saw evidence of fraud and manipulation. What I said as Secretary of State of the United States was that the people of Russia deserve free and fair elections and they should not be manipulated and rigged to the benefit of one of the parties and Vladimir Putin. Nothing I said caused this but thousands and thousands of Russians, mostly middle class, young Russians, went out into the streets protesting the elections. Vladimir Putin blamed me for causing the protests on the streets. I wish I had that kind of influence. But I did not.