Clinton: 'My Skin Crawled' When Trump Stood Behind Me

In memoir, she wonders if she should have said, 'Back up, creep'
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 23, 2017 7:11 AM CDT
Hillary: Maybe I Should Have Said to Trump, 'Back Up, Creep'
Hillary Clinton speaks as Donald Trump listens during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016.   (Rick T. Wilking/Pool via AP)

MSNBC's Morning Joe has gotten an early excerpt from Hillary Clinton's upcoming memoir, and one snippet in particular is already making headlines everywhere from Axios to Breitbart. In it, Clinton recalls an Oct. 9 town-hall debate with Donald Trump during which he stood behind her as she spoke, and you can listen to her narrate it here. The key parts:

  • 'Skin crawled': "'This is not okay,' I thought. It was the second presidential debate, and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage, and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled."
  • 'Creep': "It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, ‘Well, what would you do?’ Do you stay calm, keep smiling, and carry on as if he weren’t repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye, and say loudly and clearly, ‘Back up, you creep. Get away from me. I know you love to intimidate women, but you can’t intimidate me. So back up.'" Clinton, though, says she chose the first option.

In explaining why she was writing the book, called What Happened, Clinton also writes about her own failure as a candidate:

  • "I want to pull back the curtain on an experience that was exhilarating, joyful, infuriating, and just plain humbling. Every day I was a candidate for president, I knew that millions of people were counting on me. And I couldn't bear the idea of letting them down. But I did. I couldn't get the job done."
(More Hillary Clinton stories.)

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