Hillary Clinton says she is ‘done with being a candidate’

This file photo taken on April 06, 2017 shows former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking at the Eighth Annual Women in the World Summit at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. (Photo by AFP)

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, says she will not run for president again although she is “not done with politics.”

The 2016 Democratic nominee, whose new book “What Happened” is set to be published on Tuesday, appeared on CBS on Sunday to announce that she would not seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

“I am done with being a candidate,” said the former secretary of state before the release of her 2016 campaign memoir. “But I am not done with politics because I literally believe that our country’s future is at stake.” 

In the 2016 presidential election, the New York billionaire won the electoral college vote necessary to become the president despite losing the popular vote to Clinton by 2.9 million votes.

‘It hurts’

The 69-year-old politician undermined Trump’s presidency, citing his former job as a reality TV star.

“We have a reality show that leads to the election of a president. He ends up in the Oval Office. He says, ‘Boy, it’s so much harder than I thought it would be. This is really tough. I had no idea,’” she said. “Well, yeah, because it’s not a show. It’s real. It’s reality, for sure.”

Clinton further asserted that she had moved on from her 2016 election loss, yet acknowledging that it still “hurts.”

“I am good,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I am complacent or resolved about what happened. It still is very painful. It hurts a lot.”

‘Enormous letdown’

The former first lady, who took part in the new president’s inauguration ceremony after her failure, described the event "like an out-of-body experience," stating that his speech was a "cry from the white nationalist gut."

"But I'm a former first lady, and former presidents and first ladies show up," Clinton said. "It's part of the demonstration of the continuity of our government. And so there I was, on the platform, you know, feeling like an out-of-body experience. And then his speech, which was a cry from the white nationalist gut."

This file photo taken on October 19, 2016 shows former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton departing the stage following the third and final US presidential debate with former Republican nominee Donald Trump (background) at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Elaborating on her loss, she added, "I understood that there were many Americans who, because of the financial crash, there was anger. And there was resentment. I knew that. But I believed that it was my responsibility to try to offer answers to it, not to fan it. I think, Jane, that it was a mistake because a lot of people didn't want to hear my plans. They wanted me to share their anger. And I should've done a better job of demonstrating 'I get it.'"

The former candidate also cited release of a 2005 tape, in which Trump is heard bragging about sexually abusing women.

"Trump was behaving in a deplorable manner," she said. "There were a large number of people who didn't care."

The former secretary of state also recalled the moment she came to terms with her loss.

"I just felt this enormous letdown, just kind of loss of feeling and direction and sadness," Clinton said. "It was a very hard transition. I really struggled. I couldn't feel, I couldn't think. I was just gob-smacked, wiped out.”