Where It All Went Wrong

She was so certain she’d be America’s next president that on election night she went for a nice, long nap to be fresh and ready to deliver her victory speech. When Hillary Clinton awoke she found her presidential dream in tatters. In this candid interview she opens up about the crushing disappointment of losing to Donald Trump

- Christina Lamb

FIRST comes a man to switch the chairs. Then a young press officer to arrange their position. Two men in grey suits with telltale earpieces, the Secret Service, hover at the doorway. Stylists flit in, pleased the weather is overcast as it’s “kind for photos”.

It feels like the entourage of a veteran movie star or the forward party of an absolute monarch. “She’s just coming,” I’m repeatedly told, followed by, “She’s held up.” I keep getting my notebook and tape recorder ready for my interview with Hillary Clinton, to no avail.

To kill time I help the photographer set up for the shoot, making angry and devastated faces as I pretend to be Hillary – she did, after all, lose the American election to a womaniser whose candidacy she considered a joke.

And then, abruptly, the real Hillary walks in just as I’m mid-pout. Fortunately she appears not to notice and immediately moves the chairs closer. “I feel like we’ve met,” she says, warmly. This is odd, as she’s the one who’s familiar, if a bit softer, blonder and bluer-eyed in person.

At 70 she’s been on the world stage my entire adult life. First lady, wronged wife, senator, secretary of state, first woman to run for president for a main party. Even her pants suits are familiar; today she wears black trousers and a shiny blue top.

“I’ll bet you know more about my private life than you do about some of your closest friends,” she says in her new book, which is the reason she’s doing this interview. “You’ve read my emails, for heaven’s sake. What more do you need? What could I do to be ‘more real’? Dance on a table? Swear a blue streak? Break down sobbing?”