Hillary Clinton Predicts What Trump Will Do After a Midterm Loss
On The View on Monday, Hillary Clinton said she is optimistic but worried, predicted Election Day intimidation would fail, and warned of a fight over certification — and of a president who feels cornered if Republicans lose Congress.
Hillary Clinton is not on Tuesday's ballot, but she spent Monday morning reading the election like someone who has lived its endings. Appearing on ABC's The View alongside her podcast cohost Kara Swisher, the former secretary of state and presidential candidate described her state of mind in one line: "I'm feeling really optimistic, but I'm an optimist who worries a lot. So until it's actually done and every vote is counted fairly, completely, and the results are in, I'm going to be worried."
Her optimism, as she laid it out, rests on turnout and on movement she said Democrats are seeing in places that could not have been predicted three or six months ago. "If you turn out and vote and vote your conscience and vote your interests," she said, "we're going to get our country back, and then we can fight about how we do things together." Asked by co-host Sunny Hostin whether President Donald Trump would try to interfere with the election, Clinton pointed to the record so far — "he certainly has been trying with all of his legal actions and threats, trying to seize ballots, trying to bring litigation against states" — and predicted that state and local officials, along with legal groups, will hold the line: "It won't go unanswered if they try to mess with people."
She also forecast the pressure points of the next 48 hours and beyond. The administration, she predicted, would use "intimidation" on Election Day — "having ICE or others show up and just be standing there, staring at people, looking threatening to voters" — but, she added, "I do think people are tougher than that." After the voting, she warned, "there is going to be an effort to try to convince certain states not to certify election results, to hold the votes," and possibly investigations launched by an outgoing Republican-led Congress.
Her biggest prediction was about the president himself. If Democrats win both the House and the Senate, Clinton said, "I think he's going to get even more out of control because I think he's going to feel cornered. I think he's going to feel angry. I think he's going to be lashing out. But at least we will have some leverage to try to hold him to account through the Congress, which is what their job should be." New Yorkers will test the turnout half of her argument on Tuesday, when the city's polls open at 6 a.m.
