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Hillary Clinton’s big trip to Africa, the message she has for the world she is the Secretary of State, her husband, former President Bill Clinton is not. And she made that point loud and clear during a stop in Congo on Monday. Our senior foreign affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz has the story.
It happened during this town hall meeting in Africa. Secretary Clinton was asked a question that instantly angered her. It wasn’t the topic of the question—Chinese contracts. It was the follow-up.
“What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton, and what does Mr. Mutombo think?”
“Wait, you want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not the Secretary of State, I am. So you ask my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I’m not going to be channeling my husband.”
Her intense irritation, of course follows the highly successful trip Bill Clinton took to North Korea to free two American journalists, a trip that has totally eclipsed her own. And even before that she was battling rumors that she had been marginalized by the White House.
“It’s so ridiculous, you know, there is just no basis to it.”
Hillary Clinton is in a historically uncomfortable spot. She is Secretary of State, but her husband was once the president, a very popular president. She saw that when she was trying to become president. He shows up, the cameras follow. So the Africa question now that she is the top diplomat?
“If you are secretary of state and someone asks you about your husband’s view of something, I think anyone would be likely to be upset.”
Secretary Clinton did try to make up with the questioner after the event, even before she realized that the translator had made a mistake. It wasn’t former President Clinton’s opinion; it was the current president’s opinion.
For Good Morning America, Martha Raddatz, ABC News, Washington.