Clinton looks more presidential
WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton took a celebratory lap around Washington on Friday, reveling in signs Democrats are coalescing around her White House candidacy after an 11-hour grilling by House Republicans.
Joking about her “long day,” Clinton told female supporters gathered for a party breakfast address that she tried to “rise above partisanships and reach for statesmanship” in her testimony before a Republican-led congressional committee investigating Clinton’s handling of the 2012 deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
“Sometimes when a woman talks, some people think it’s shouting,” an energized Clinton told supporters in Northern Virginia later in the day. “I won’t be silenced and I hope you won’t be either. I will keep speaking out.”
Amid questioning that at times bordered on a courtroom-style interrogation, Clinton avoided any major gaffes in her Thursday testimony as she sought to portray herself above the partisan fray as committee members bickered.
The hearing surfaced little new information about the attacks in Benghazi and landed no blows to Clinton’s presidential aspirations, leaving Republicans without a memorable moment to promote as Clinton approaches the first primary contests.
“You ended up having 11 hours of the reason why Hillary Clinton should be the next president of America,” said Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton confident, at a Friday afternoon campaign event. “She looked like a commander in chief yesterday.”
While Clinton’s aides acknowledged the run of good news, they stressed she was not taking anything for granted. But they also noted that her commanding performance in both last week’s debate and her congressional testimony both showed off her foreign policy credentials and command of the issues for a broader audience.
“You cannot knock her down,” said Clinton campaign communications director Jen Palmieri. “People see that and they can easily see that this woman could be our next president.”
