Two terms in the White House didn’t get rid of Bill Clinton’s itch to be the president of the United States, his spouse, and Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton said on Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday.
Host Jimmy Kimmel asked Hillary Clinton who would win in a race between her and Bill.
“I think he is a terrific campaigner,” Clinton said. “It would be fascinating if he were eligible to run again. The Constitution says he’s not.”
“He would run again,” she said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody that, but if he could, he would.”
So maybe Bill can’t run again because of the pesky Constitution, but he could return to the White House if Hillary gets elected. Kimmel asked the ubiquitous question, “What would we call him?” if he became the first male presidential spouse.
Some of the options discussed included “first gentleman” and “first dude” but “First mate” seemed to amuse Clinton the most.
Kimmel then pointed out that it is customarily the first lady who selects the new China pattern.
“While you’re actually in China, would he be selecting it?” Kimmel asked.
Clinton was quick to turn the joke into a reminder of what a political asset Bill Clinton is.
“Really I more imagine asking him what’s the best way to create jobs really quickly and get wages up,” Clinton said. “Because he did a really good job.”
When Kimmel asked Clinton about her past friendship with Donald Trump and the nice things he said of her prior to the campaign, Clinton pointed out that he is not the first Republican to speak well of her.
“When I’m not running for something, Republicans actually say nice things about the job I do,” Clinton said. “We have a long list of nice things Republicans have said about me.”
Don’t be surprised if those “nice things” Republican said end up in a Clinton campaign ad. She hinted we would hear more about them “in the months ahead.”
Kimmel tried to coax Clinton into insulting her Republican opponents on several occasions, but Clinton wasn’t taking the bait.
When asked if she felt sorry for Jeb Bush and his beleaguered campaign, she took the high road.
“He is a very accomplished man,” she said. “And he is out there making his case. You know running for president is really hard and some days are better than other days. I know that from personal experience.”
Kimmel asked her opinion of Ben Carson and some of his more controversial statements.
“It really does matter what you say when you are president, and it probably should matter what you say when you are running for president,” Clinton said.
Kimmel then cited a recent Quinnipiac University Poll that shows Carson beating her by 10 points in the general election.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how that turns out,” Clinton said of the poll.
“Maybe you should just start saying some crazy stuff,” Kimmel quipped.
Clinton did show some fire when asked why so many Republicans deny people are driving climate change, which she called an existential crisis.
“I think some are doing it because they have strong supporters, people who maybe are from the fossil fuel industry, for example, and they don’t want to cross them so they adopt that position,” she said.
“Whether they really believe it or it’s just political opportunism I can’t tell.”
In the course of asking her about what it’s like attending all the campaign fundraisers, Kimmel asked Clinton if she ever drank at the events and, “When’s the last time you’ve been good and hammered?”
“A long time ago Jimmy,” she replied. “A long time ago. I have to get up too early.”
“It wouldn’t befit you to do something like that,” Kimmel said.
“At least not in public,” Clinton replied.
Oh, and about that hypothetical race against her husband?
“If I were going to run against him, would I win?”
“Yeah.”