Partial Transcript: Exclusive Interview With Hillary Clinton

Jan. 31, 2008 — -- On Wednesday, I sat down with Sen. Hillary Clinton in Atlanta. What follows are highlights of our half-hour conversation — covering everything from whether she can control her husband to her relationship with her father.

Cynthia McFadden: Thanks for sitting down to talk Sen. Clinton.

Clinton: My pleasure.

McFadden: So the win last night in Florida — Washington Post called it a political stunt . What do you think? I mean what did the win mean?

Clinton: I think it meant a lot to the people of Florida because they voted — they came out — more than a million democrats to make sure that their voices were heard. You know they've had a really rough time — if you're a democrat in Florida the last two election cycles have not been very easy to take and I think they wanted despite the odds against them to demonstrate they were there, they wanted to be heard and I was thrilled to go down there and thank them for the votes — we couldn't campaign there but I want them to know that if I'm so fortunate to get this nomination, I'll be there a lot. I intend to do everything I can to win Florida and make sure it's in the democratic column in November.

McFadden: Sen. [Barack] Obama's staff says really the result in Florida was 0-0.

Clinton: Well that's what they say because that's what you're supposed to say politically but I think it's pretty significant that I got such a big vote and it was across the board. It was very gratifying to me because what we've got to do is build a strong coalition. We've had 6 contests — I've won four of them. I think that shows that from the snows of New Hampshire to the auto factories in Michigan to the deserts in Nevada to the beaches in Florida — people really want a leader who is ready on day 1 to be their president, to deliver results for them.

McFadden: Your husband has certainly caused a furor in the last few weeks — yes or no — did he go too far on your behalf you think?

Clinton: Well I think he is a very passionate promoter and defender of me and I appreciate that — I think we all have spouses that are committed to our candidacies.

McFadden: But …

Clinton: But this campaign is about me. It's about what kind of president I will be. What I will do as president So I want everyone who is supporting me to be on the same page about that.

McFadden: I guess that's a yes (Clinton laughs) so did you have to push him a little bit and sit him down and say "mm mm"?

Clinton: No — we have a great effort going on that he is an integral part of and he's doing so much good for me —

McFadden: But do you think he thought he went too far senator?

Clinton: I think if whatever he said — which was certainly never intended to cause any kind of offense to anyone — that is the farthest thing from him — you know this is a man who has given his whole life to civil rights and equal rights and everything that we stand for and whose presidency was really a high water mark for helping so many people. And yet if it did take offense, I take responsibility and I'm sorry about that because we have nothing but the best intentions and the most hope about what we can do for our country.

McFadden: So there wasn't a meeting at the kitchen table like "OK, we have to get tough now — you be the mean guy and I'll be the nice guy."

Clinton: No, none of that.

McFadden: So here's what a lot of people want to know: can you control him?

Clinton: Oh, of course. You know there's only one president at a time. Campaigns get a little heated — we all know that — but when you have to make the tough decisions. I have to make the decision, I have to bear the responsibility, I have to look into the eyes of the American people and tell them why we're doing whatever it is we have to do and I am willing to bear that responsibility.

McFadden: Newsweek Magazine this week says flatly if you're elected it will be a co-presidency.

Clinton: Well that is not the case.

McFadden: Well maybe it's a good idea?

Clinton: Well no it's not, it's not. I learned that. I learned that the hard way because it's important for the country to know who they're voting for and everyone in the White House is there only because of their relationship to one person: the president.

McFadden: When your husband was president, you famously and with much controversy didn't have an office in the East Wing, you had it in the West Wing. Your chief of staff went to the senior staff meetings, was called an assistant to the president, not a deputy assistant as it had been in the past. In a Clinton administration 2, somehow you can't imagine Bill Clinton having an East Wing office, isn't he going to be intimately involved?

Clinton: No, because he's going to be running his foundation. You know, his philanthropic work is so important to him and it's also very important I think to our standing in the world. One of the ways I want him to help our country is to continue to travel around the world demonstrating that the U.S. is on the side of people's aspirations, that we want to help cure diseased and put kids in school and do some of the other important work that will demonstrate that we're not just arrogant and big footing ourselves around the globe. So he's gonna continue to do that, but he will also of course be in and out trying to help and be of some assistance. I think what we have found even in the Bush administration is that integrating the work of both the spouses in the White House makes a lot of sense. Because the demands are amazing, you know scheduling demands, other kinds of expectations. So we will have a very clear idea of how we can coordinate and work together, but I don't see a problem with doing that, I think that will be easily taken care of.

McFadden: An awful lot of people want to know if you told your husband to go out and be the attack dog.

Clinton: Oh no, no no. You know my husband gets very passionate about this campaign and about me because he thinks I would be a great president. And I'm honored and really touched that he feels that way so strongly. But I think a lot of what he said was misconstrued and taken out of context.

McFadden: So there wasn't a meeting at the kitchen table like "OK, we have to get tough now — you be the mean guy and I'll be the nice guy."

Clinton: No, none of that.

McFadden: As you know Maureen Dowd wrote a very angry piece in the [New York Times] saying how dare the first viable women candidate for president you know get dragged across the finish line by her husband. Do you understand how there is that sort of disease.

Clinton: You know, Bill and I are full partners, we always have been, and if you go back and look at the '92 campaign, the same things were said about me — that I was too outspoken, that I was too passionate in my defense of Bill, that I stood with him that I was there to talk about what needed to be done. But anyone who knows me, or knows him, doesn't believe that I stand on my own two feet, I'm asking to be judged on my own merits, and I'm happy to do that.

McFadden: How much did it hurt to have Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy Schossburg endorse Barack Obama.

Clinton: Well I'm really proud of the people that I have endorsing me.

McFadden: Well I'm not asking you that.

Clinton: No I know, but that's how I feel Cynthia, I really do. People make of their minds to endorse whoever they wish and that is something

McFadden: But you're a human being.

Clinton: But I believe that I have no control over a lot of these decisions that people make. So I'm proud when someone like Maxine Waters endorses me or Sen. Patty Murray endorses me because they know what I've done and what I will do.

McFadden: But they're [the Kennedys] are kind of special. I went back to your book, all right. And I read that part about Jackie Onassis and the friend she became to you and how much you admired her and how much that friendship meant to you. And when her only surviving child and the patriarch of the Kennedy family, I mean you write about how she was an early supporter of your husbands, actually went to the convention, that has to, come on, that has to touch a little part of your heart when they come out and say they're supporting your rival.

Clinton: You know, I respect whatever reasons they made the decisions they made. And I'm proud to have Bobby Kennedy Jr and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

McFadden: You've split the family?

Clinton: Well people you know come to these decisions based on so many factors. Maybe I've just been through this too many years, that I can't worry about something that is out of my control. I can only get up every day and do the best I can to make my case to as many people as possible.

McFadden: OK, the snub! Did you or did you not extend your hand to Barack Obama — ?

Clinton: I reached out my hand in friendship and unity and I'm still reaching it out and I expect we'll shake hands at the debate in California.

McFadden: Was it intentional? Do you think he turned away intentionally?

Clinton: You'll have to ask him, I don't know. But the differences between us are nothing compared to the differences between us and the Republicans. That's what I want people to stay focused on. We'll have a nominee, obviously I hope it will be me, and we'll have a unified Democratic party because we're going to have to take the White House back.

McFadden: This is a big day for the Democrats with John Edwards stepping out of the race.

McFadden: You surprised me today. Someone in the press asked you in Arkansas, we're now in Georgia, whether or not you'd asked him for his support and he said no.

Clinton: I think that when you have to make such a wrenching decision as he did, to leave a race that he has essentially been working towards full time for a number of years, that you should show some respect for the difficulty of that decision. Obviously I would be honored and would love to have his support and the support of his supporters. But it's a little bit unseemly to me, it's kind of you know harsh to say, goodbye hello. I don't want to do that. And maybe that's a mistake, maybe I should swoop in and but that's not how I am, I want to give respect to him and his family.

McFadden: Barack Obama said last night on Nightline that he had asked him to endorse him, he said he'd like to have you endorse him as well so.

Clinton: Well we all want each other's endorsements.

McFadden: I want to talk to you about the whole woman thing. God knows you've been psychoanalyzed by amateurs.

Clinton: You want me to lie down here?

McFadden: … Carl Bernstein wrote a book about you this past year, and in it he says that he believes that you were terrified of humiliation, that you had a really rough father and to understand you is to understand that. Is there any truth to that do you think?

Clinton: Well you know I have a very different memory and I was there. That was part of my life. My father was a very strong, gruff, WWII veteran. He was a chief petty officer in the Navy, he trained thousands of young sailors and sent them off to the South Pacific, many of them never to return. He was a man of his times, he got out of the service and wanted to start a small business and start a family and save enough money to buy a house.

McFadden: Was he tough on you?

Clinton: He had high expectations for me. He wanted me to be the best I could be. And that was good for me. Because as I was growing up, not a lot of fathers expected that of their daughters. That was just at the turning point you know when we didn't yet have a sense that we should encourage our little girls to do will in school and compete athletically. I've seen all that change in my lifetime. I've often believe that part of the reason that I can make this race for the Presidency, that I can withstand all of the incoming fire is because my dad basically believe in me, he encouraged me, he set high standards for me and he said look you have to get out there, you have to stand up for yourself, you have to find your way in the world. And I miss him, I wish he were around, he would be just speechless I think.

McFadden: When you lay awake at night, and I know that you're not getting much sleep these days —

Clinton: No, not much.

McFadden: What, what worries you?

Clinton: It's not the campaign. You know, I have a very easy feeling about that. What keeps me up at night is what's happening to my country, that is what bothers me. I see so much uncertainty and insecurity.

Clinton: When I was sitting there, the president's State of the Union, I was thinking what country is he president of? You know, there was so little recognition of what I've been living with, personally, for a year, as I've gone into people's homes who are being foreclosed on. And you know what their big problem was? They didn't know that if they tried to pay a little bit more on their mortgage they would trigger prepayment penalties and their interest rates would go up. Or when I hold the hand of a mother who is desperately trying to get her child a mental health care that nobody wants to cover these days, that's what keeps me up at night,

I'm thinking, we're better than this, you know, that's not the country that I grew up in. And I lay there thinking, what would I do? What would I do, if it were my child, or my mother, or my home? Well, to whom much is given, much is required. And I just think we've got to do better.

McFadden: Good Methodist goal.

Clinton: It is indeed, who I am.