Hillary Clinton said she was surprised Trump was elected based on his demeanor at the presidential debates, and said she purposefully held her tongue on the assumption that voters wanted someone more “composed.”
“You know, I sort of thought at the end of the day people would say, ‘Yeah. We really do want somebody who is calm and composed in the Oval Office,'” she said in a talk about her book at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. Monday night.
“I had believed that it’s better not to show that kind of reaction in the middle a presidential debate,” she added when asked why she kept her own composure. She said she tried to control her expressions for the sake of viewers and voters.
“I was aware of all the different cross currents, but I carried on in a way that I thought was what a president or somebody who wants to be president should do,” she said.
Clinton previously said she was creeped out by Trump standing behind her during the debates.
