https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2020/01/25/Hillary-Clinton-says-she-was-humbled-by-docuseries/9891579893920/
Former Secretary of State and former first lady Hillary Clinton sat down with documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein for 35 hours of interviews. Clinton called the resulting four-part Hulu docuseries, Hillary, humbling.
Clinton and Burstein first spoke with reporters of the Television Critics Association on Jan. 17.
"There were a lot of humbling moments," Clinton said. "One was the recognition that I have been often, in my view, obviously, mischaracterized, misperceived, and I have to bear a lot of the responsibility for that."
Hillary chronicles Clinton's education, during which time she met Bill Clinton, and her career in politics. Looking back gave her some insight into how the public viewed her over the years.
"I became a kind of Rorschach test for women and women's roles as soon as I burst onto the public scene when Bill was running for president," Clinton said. "I'd lived more than 40 years before that, and I had no real understanding of what it meant to be thrust into this highest, brightest platform."
As the first lady of Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor, Clinton led statewide political initiatives. She also practiced law in the state before entering politics.
"When Bill asked me to lead our efforts on universal healthcare, it seemed pretty standard to me because I had done similar things in Arkansas on education," Clinton said. "Little did I know that it would create the most extraordinary backlash that the first lady would be involved in trying to make sure everybody had quality, affordable healthcare in our country."
The docuseries brought back some painful memories for Clinton. Burstein found footage of protesters burning Clinton in effigy over her healthcare policy. Clinton believes timing played a role in negative perceptions of her that began brewing during President Clinton's two terms from 1993 to 2001.
"I was the sort of 'first first lady' of my generation and had been working ever since I was a young woman in the professional workforce," Clinton said. "I'm sure there were personal reactions, but I think it was even more rooted in the time we were in and the kind of challenging impression that people had of me at that time."
Revisiting the 2016 election was painful, too. Clinton acknowledged that negative feelings toward her had grown strong enough to cost her votes.
"Whatever the combination of reasons might be, I certainly didn't do a good enough job to break through a lot of the perceptions that were out there," Clinton said. "Perhaps I could have and should have found ways to better present myself or deal with some of the misperceptions that were out there."
Asked what she could have done differently, Clinton had no answer.
"I don't know," she said. "That's a very good question. I don't know."