Secretary of State Hillary Clinton celebrated the end of her term with a live YouTube townhall filmed at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning.
And according to Clinton herself, the end of her term also marks the end of her political career — for the time being.
This was Clinton’s 59th Internet town hall as Secretary of State. The event were engineered during her first year as Secretary of State as a way for her to connect with young people.
This “townterview” was a combination of town hall and television interview during which Secretary Clinton took questions from six anchors or their small group of young journalists from around the world via on-camera, Twitter, Skype and even a letter from an Antarctic scientist. No Americans actually asked any questions on camera.
Clinton displayed her usual stern demeanor for most of the nearly two-hour event, talking policy in nonspecific terms and how it related to whatever part of the world from the questions came from. She did, however, comment that the lost of American lives in Benghazi was her biggest regret during her tenure, and she is “not inclined” to run for president in 2016.
Perhaps the most controversial remark she made during the townterview was when she compared Republicans to North African terrorists, touting both groups as “extremist.”
Clinton did lighten up and was laughing during her last interview with her pals Hamish and Andy from Melbourne while they were joking with her about how to become a Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State has often relied on technology to connect with her younger audience. She announced that she was running for president in 2008 via an online video.
But for now, Clinton is looking forward to stepping out of the limelight.
“I’m not even posing those questions,” she told National Public Radio about a possible 2016 presidential run. “I am really looking forward to stepping off the fast track that I’ve been on. I’ve been out of politics as Secretary of State. I don’t see myself getting back into politics.”
After her recent health issues, the Secretary received a grilling at the House and Senate Benghazi hearings, albeit not as harsh as it could and perhaps should have been.
Despite her somewhat rocky departure, Clinton is still the favored Democrat for 2016. And her love-fest with President Obama on ‘60 Minutes‘ could be seen as a PR stunt to smooth her transition into the next presidential election season.
