In a speech she said she would have delivered on Election Night in 2016 had she won, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she would have told the world that her election would have proven that, in America, “every boy and every girl can grow up to be whatever they dream — even president of the United States.”
Clinton read the speech as part of a video for MasterClass, a site that offers lessons from prominent people in various fields.
“In this lesson, I’m going to face one of my most public defeats head-on by sharing with you the speech I had hoped to deliver if I had won the 2016 election,” Clinton says at the beginning of the video.
In the speech, Clinton would have challenged the country to come together and would have spoken to her mother about becoming the first woman elected president, according to excerpts of a video made public Wednesday.
“My fellow Americans, today you sent a message to the whole world,” she says. “Our values endure. Our democracy stands strong. And our motto remains: e pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
“We will not be defined only by our differences. We will not be an us versus them country. The American dream is big enough for everyone. Through a long, hard campaign, we were challenged to choose between two very different visions for America. How we grow together, how we live together, and how we face a world full of peril and promise together.
“Fundamentally, this election challenged us to decide what it means to be an American in the 21st century. And for reaching for a unity, decency, and what President Lincoln called ‘the better angels of our nature.’ We met that challenge.”
Clinton gets emotional speaking about her mother, Dorothy Rodham, whose parents abandoned her when she was 8 years old.
“I dream of going up to her, and sitting down next to her, taking her in my arms, and saying, ‘Look at me. Listen to me. You will survive,’” Clinton says. “‘You will have a good family of your own and three children. And as hard as it might be to imagine, your daughter will grow up and become the president of the United States.’”
The video was promoting her MasterClass called “The Power of Resilience.”
Clinton said she had never read the speech to anyone before reading it for her video.
Clinton had planned to deliver the speech at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan during a celebration on election night, Nov. 8, 2016.
She had planned to symbolically break through a glass ceiling at the gala in celebration of her victory.
See the excerpts from Clinton’s video below:
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