Hillary Clinton hasn’t ruled out a 2020 presidential run.
Although no campaign is underway yet, CNN senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny said on CNN’s “Inside Politics” Sunday that Clinton has started to discuss a third potential presidential bid.
“So Hillary Clinton is telling people that she’s not closing the doors to the idea of running in 2020,” Zeleny said. “Let’s just let that sink in.”
Zeleny said that three people told him that as recently as this week, Clinton was telling people that she hadn’t definitively decided against running in 2020, especially given recent indictments of those close to President Trump, including his longtime adviser Roger Stone. Last week Stone was charged on seven counts in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, including obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering.
Zeleny said Clinton would likely capitalize on the fact that she won the popular vote in 2016 in a contest she lost to President Trump.
“She is still believing that there maybe could be a possibility under the argument of this, ‘I won the popular vote. All of this has sort of vindicated what happened in 2016,’” Zeleny said.
Clinton also ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008.
In recent months, Clinton has hinted at the possibility of another presidential bid. For instance, at an event in October, Clinton was asked by Recode’s Kara Swisher about a 2020 redo, and while she initially said “no,” she later conceded, “Well, I’d like to be president.”
Multiple former advisers to Clinton have also said they expect her to run again.
There is already a sizable stable of Democrats who have entered the 2020 ring, and that group is expected to grow up to a couple dozen. Democrats who’ve already announced they plan to run for president include Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
