In 1998, when First Lady Hillary Clinton talked about there being a "vast right-wing conspiracy" against her and her husband, Bill, everyone laughed. It became a huge joke, and if memes were a thing back then, you can just imagine the creativity it would have inspired. Twenty years later, was she wrong? She has always represented something terrifying to the right and astonishingly, that fear has intensified rather than abated.
Even as a private citizen, she continues to be hounded by what seems like the entire right-wing establishment. Clinton visited Rachel Maddow last night and listened to her outline the litany of ways in just the last two years Trump's administration has tried to go after her. First in 2017, he asked then AG Sessions to investigate her. Then in 2018, he asked Don McGahn, his White House counsel to have the DOJ investigate her. And yesterday, when Sen. Kamala Harris gutted current personal boot-licking attorney U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr like a fish with her questioning, Barr refused to answer whether Trump or anyone in the White House has asked him to initiate investigations into other specific people (presumably Hillary Clinton.) Trump's BFF, Sen. Lindsey Graham and others on the Judiciary Committee seem determined to look into the origins of the Mueller report, and by extension, Hillary Clinton role in the Steele Dossier, Barr promising there are already investigations underway.
I mean, seriously, if this is not a vast right-wing conspiracy, either my name is "William J. Barr," or I need a better dictionary.
Maddow asked Clinton what she made of this twisted obsession. As usual, she answered with organized thinking, wry humor, and a depth of character very few in the current Republican party could hope to muster if their lives depended on it. She rightly concluded that she's living rent-free in Trump's tiny brain, and it's a pretty nasty place to be. Furthermore, it's as sure a sign of guilt as you'll find, and any attempts to suggest (yes, Barr, s-u-g-g-e-s-t) otherwise is pathetic and useless.
MADDOW: But now all these Republican senators today echoing it. Senator Graham opening up the hearing today, suggesting you're the one he really wants to go after.
CLINTON: And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace. They know better. But this is part of their whole technique to divert attention from what the real story is. The real story is the Russians interfered in our election. And Trump committed obstruction of justice. That's the real story. That's what they don't want the American people thinking about. So, when in doubt, say something wild about me. Thankfully, you know, there's no there there and there never has been. But it is saddening to me, Rachel, that that is what is happening in our United States Senate and in the White House of this great country of ours.
