Hillary Clinton on Hulu documentary, email controversy: 'How many times do I have to be cleared?'
NEW YORK — With a resume as long as Hillary Clinton's, it's no wonder it took 35 hours just to unpack it.
In more than 40 years of political life, Clinton, 72, has been a feminist icon and perpetual lightning rod as a two-time presidential candidate, former secretary of state, New York senator, and first lady of Arkansas and the United States alongside President Bill Clinton.
Fortunately, filmmaker Nanette Burstein ("American Teen") did her homework before she sat down for extensive interviews with Clinton for the four-part docuseries "Hillary," which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January and streams on Hulu on Friday.
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"She's a very thorough preparer and comes with stacks of questions, which is probably why it took 35 hours," Clinton affably tells USA TODAY, sitting at her Midtown office with Burstein this month. "Although it was incredibly intense, it was worthwhile because I was being interviewed by somebody who had really digested everything there was to ask me."
The documentary is a warts-and-all look at Clinton's life, from her childhood in a Chicago suburb to the 2016 presidential election, with her tumultuous campaign and shocking loss to Donald Trump serving as the series' through line. USA TODAY spoke with Clinton and Burstein about the film and more.
Question: I imagine throughout your career, many people have been interested in making a documentary about you. Why did you say yes to this one?
Hillary Clinton: People approached me in the past, but I felt like this was the right time. I was out of politics; I wasn't running for anything. The idea originally was to use the 2,000 hours of campaign footage we had to do a film about the campaign. The production company came with that idea and hired Nanette to be the director. But when Nanette came back to me after watching the footage and said, "There's a bigger story here," I thought, "Well, why not? People make up stuff about me all the time. Maybe this is an opportunity not only to talk about my life but to place it within the flow of history."
Q: Were there any misconceptions about her that you wanted to clear up or disprove?
Nanette Burstein: The series was not meant to be a "debunk the various mythologies of Secretary Clinton." It was really to look at why she's this polarizing figure throughout history. And in doing so, you can really show the arc of the women's movement over the last 50 years, where we've come from and where we've gone as far as partisan politics.
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Q: A fair amount of the docuseries is devoted to your email controversy and its detrimental impact on your campaign. Five years later, are you frustrated that it continues to follow you around?
Clinton: Well, I think most fair-minded people don't believe that. But I do think there's a more than cottage industry of people who have their own partisan, political, ideological, commercial reasons to continue to try to defame me. So it's frustrating because there used to be that old saying that a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on. Well, today it's a nanosecond. And when you look at what the internet was used for – by the Trump campaign, by the Russians, by WikiLeaks, by all of the assembled forces that we're trying to defeat me – it's pretty sobering how effective it can be, even though there's no there there. I mean, how many times do I have to be cleared? How many times do we have to hear from Republicans saying, "Boy, did we do a job on her? We took her from 65% approval down to negative by making up stuff about her, and taking a little grain of fact and building it up into a whole conspiracy."
Q: Have any particular conspiracy theories or rumors gotten under your skin?
Clinton: I mean, they all bother me. Obviously, nobody wants to have terrible conspiracy theories and false allegations out there about you, whether you run for office or not. And that's becoming more common, so it's not just about me at all. One academic study that really stuck out to me was Ohio State (University) found people who said they voted for Obama in 2012 and then voted for Trump in 2016. They were questioned, "What changed your mind?" And the vast majority of them had their minds changed by what they saw on the internet: not what was in the news, but what was sent to their Facebook feeds by the Russians, Cambridge Analytica, the Trump campaign, whoever.
The three most prevalent messages that changed people's minds were: Number one, I was dying. And you know, I had pneumonia, I was sick for a few days, but I'm really healthy – healthier than a lot of people running. Number two, I was somehow responsible for getting weapons to ISIS. And Number three, Pope Francis endorsed Trump. All three of those are totally made up, but if you get your news from Facebook, which more than 50% of Americans do, you see it. So it doesn't bother me (personally) anymore, but it bothers me in what it means for democracy. How do you ever get a common base of facts to make any decision if one side is at total liberty to lie and has so much money to be able to sell those lies?
Q: At one point in the docuseries, you say that people should take criticism seriously because you can learn from it, but you should not take it personally. Is there one piece of criticism that you've found most valuable?
Clinton: In general, criticism that somehow I needed to be more forthcoming, more revealing – I never fully understood it, but I respected it because obviously that was the impression being gathered from me. So that was something I thought a lot about.
Q: Watching this, I was reminded of women like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, who receive a similar level of vitriol in the media and online. Do you see any parallels between you and them?
Clinton: Well, I think any woman who sticks her head up and speaks out is, sadly, putting herself out there as a potential target. Some of it is rank misogyny and sexism, but some of it is just to stop (someone) from talking. Greta Thunberg is a perfect example. She has been so steadfast and brave, starting from the age of 15, in speaking out against the lack of climate action. Yet she engenders such vitriol from men in power, in politics and business. What is behind that? Well, it's anger, it's fear, it's resentment that this young woman is saying, "We've got to change the way we produce and use energy."
Instead of saying, "No, no, we're going to keep drilling until we all die from carbon dioxide and our planet is destroyed," they say, "Who does she think she is? She doesn't know anything, let's go after her." So, yeah, there are a lot of similarities. And look, men get criticized as well – don't get me wrong. But the intensity of the criticism of women, especially young women, who speak up and take a stand against vested interests is so much greater. They become these targets online, and it is very threatening.
Q: How do you hope "Hillary" will make people rethink her legacy?
Burstein: Well, it's really fascinating to see (Clinton's) early life and understand, particularly when it comes to the feminist movement, how far we've come in a short amount of time. Now we don't have this overt gender inequality, but we do have an unconscious bias (toward women), which you really see play out in 2016 and is still going on. The numbers are changing, and we are making strides (for women in powerful positions), but to understand what we still have to come up against, you have to see the longevity of it. And when you do that through someone's particular life who's a very well-known historical figure, you personalize it. It hits home more.
Q: Being able to take a step back and look at your career in this way, are there any accomplishments you're most proud of?
Clinton: I feel like, as one of the people says in the documentary, I was at the tip of the spear. I went forward into controversy and political headwinds because I believe in what I was trying to do: I believe in healthcare for everybody, I believe in dealing with gun violence. I mean, I really get up every day and think, "How can we not handle these problems that are undermining equality, equity, safety, freedom in America?" So I'm very proud that I've taken on a lot of controversial issues, even though obviously it garnered a lot of pushback. I believe that when you try something and don't succeed, you regroup and try again.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hillary Clinton on new film, conspiracies and 'frustrating' email flap