Hillary Clinton suggests Trump was a victim of Roger Stone, too

Hillary Clinton isn't living her best life, exactly, but she's spending her coronavirus lockdown walking in the woods, playing with her grandchildren, and working to ensure all eligible Americans get a chance to vote in November, she told Trevor Noah on Monday's Daily Show. Clinton said Noah's takeaway from the Hulu documentary about her is correct: She does feel newly unencumbered by a lack of electoral aspiration.

Noah asked Clinton for what she would say to young women following her into public life. "You will be criticized no matter what you do, and so take criticism seriously, because sometimes your critics actually can teach you something — but don't take it personally," she said.

"I have to ask you about Roger Stone," Noah said near the end of the interview, and specifically if Clinton thought presidents should have the power to pardon someone "who's related to them in a case," as President Trump did in commuting Stone's sentence, and whether she thinks Trump set a precedent where a future "president says 'I will pardon anybody who protects me by not snitching'?" "Well, I think you just summed up why Roger Stone was pardoned," Clinton said. "I mean, he basically threatened Trump. You know, he basically said: 'I sure don't want to go to jail, and I sure have a lot more to say,' and 'Boy, I just wish there would be somebody who could stop me from having to go to jail.' And guess what? Trump intervened."

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"The pardon power is supposed to be used for compassionate purposes, to try to right wrongs, to try to make sure that people are not being punished unfairly or have been punished enough," Clinton said. "And in this case, it's a continuation of the cover-up, because the one thing Trump is fearful of, when it comes to him being president, is that finally we will see how illegitimate his victory actually was — and how he was involved in the seeking of foreign help and then the utilization of it, and how Roger Stone was critical to that. But, you know, unless Trump is defeated at the polls in November, we will never really know everything there is to know about this really deep, ongoing dismantling of institutions, and undermining the rule of law, and the original sin of the way that he actually won the election." Watch below. Peter Weber

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