Speculation over a possible third presidential run from Hillary Clinton might not be dead after all.
The former secretary of state said in a Monday interview that she is "not running" for president in 2020, which seemed to put any rumors about another White House bid to rest once and for all. But The New York Times' Maggie Haberman now reports that Clinton actually "wasn't trying to be emphatic and close the door on running" and "was surprised by how definitively it played."
This is according to a source "close with Clinton," who told Haberman it's still "extremely unlikely" that Clinton will run again. But Clinton is reportedly "bothered" that people expect her to definitively rule out another bid and that she's "waiting at least to see the Mueller report" before she does so.
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News of Clinton's Monday comments drew widespread attention and even led President Trump to tweet that she will be "sorely missed," with Clinton responding with a quote from Mean Girls: "Why are you so obsessed with me?"
While Clinton has made similar statements in the past, some of her allies in recent months have floated the idea that she'll run again, and the Times reported last month that she "has given the impression that she harbors a faint hope she could still become president one day" and that "in private conversations, she occasionally muses about an opening." Her saying "I'm not running" sure made it sound like that's not the case, but The Washington Post's Aaron Blake notes that statements like that are "often in the present tense for a reason."
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