11 Candid Hillary Clinton Moments Caught on Camera 》

Hillary Clinton has had a lifetime of secrecy. She often had to keep her cards close to the vest as first lady, especially when it came to multiple scandals surrounding her husband Bill Clinton. When she ventured into politics herself, first as a senator and later as Secretary of State, she kept a carefully guarded image. And when she ran for president, she couldn’t afford to tell the world what she really thought of Donald Trump until long after the election was over.

So, who is the real Hillary Clinton? Once we get past the scandals and prepared speeches, what is actually left?

To answer that question, we compiled some amazing candid Hillary Clinton moments. Time to see what she is really like when she lets herself be open and when she doesn’t know the cameras are rolling!

Hillary gets teary about the Monica Lewinsky affair

At the height of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and subsequent scandal, Hillary Clinton was often forced to stand by and play the faithful, dutiful wife. But this clip shows both Hillary and Bill opening up about the Monica Lewinsky scandal for the 2020 Hulu documentary Hillary.

“I was so personally hurt,” Hillary said while holding back tears, a rare moment of letting herself look vulnerable on camera. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you lied,” she said she told Bill.

After Bill told Hillary about the affair, Hillary made him break the news to their daughter Chelsea. “You have to go tell your daughter. That’s worse than me,” Hillary told Bill, according to him.

Hillary practices avoiding a hug from Trump

The 2016 run for president between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was highly contentious, and Trump was a highly unusual candidate. Therefore, Hillary had some odd ways of practicing to debate him on the national stage.

In this strange video from September 2016, shot two days before Hillary and Trump’s first presidential debate, we can see Hillary practicing how to avoid it if Donald Trump tried to give her a hug.

After seeming success, the man playing Trump (Clinton aide Philippe Reines) chases after her and forcibly hugs her, as Hillary laughs audibly, a rare behind-the-scenes jocular moment of her campaign.

Hillary on holiday

This 1997 footage shows Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea Clinton trying to take a relatively quiet vacation in the Virgin Islands. But when locals spot and recognize the famous family, all the Clintons can do is awkwardly wave until they are finally out of sight!

Hillary and Bill dance on vacation

Of course, life with Bill Clinton wasn’t just about navigating scandals. Hillary and her husband at times seemed very happy together, especially in this photo of the two dancing in bathing suits during their Virgin Islands vacation.

While some might assume the Clintons were playing to the cameras, Bill denied he knew they were being photographed.

Associated Press photographer Greg Gibson later confirmed this, saying, “In the six years I’ve covered the Clintons, it was probably the only real, true moment I’ve ever seen” (via The L.A. Times).

The fall that launched a thousand headlines

In the leadup to the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton had to leave a 9/11 event early and stumbled while getting into the car. This led to seemingly endless speculation about whether she was healthy enough to serve as president.

It turns out there was a fairly innocuous reason behind her fall: she simply had pneumonia at the time!

Hillary tears into Obama

These days, we usually view Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as supportive of each other after Obama made Hillary his Secretary of State. But back in 2008, Clinton and Obama were opponents vying for the Democratic nomination for president.

This video captures Hillary during a rally in Cincinnati in what has been described as her angriest moment. She goes off on Obama about his campaign’s mailings, which she claimed included “false and discredited” information about her universal health care plan. She accuses him of “using tactics that are right out of Karl Rove’s playbook” and even says, “Shame on you, Barack Obama!”

Of the candid moment, veteran journalist Howard Wilkinson later wrote, “There was only one time I saw [Hillary] become truly angry, and it was a sight to behold.”

Hillary Clinton busts a move in South Africa

Obviously, a job like Secretary of State involves plenty of hard work. But it allowed Hillary Clinton to travel all around the world, and she knew how to make the most of it.

If you need any proof, check out this 2012 video from South Africa. Hillary was visiting for a party and didn’t hesitate to get her groove on when she hit the dance floor!

Wave it all away

For the most part, Hillary Clinton is an absolute master of the poker face. But this photo was taken in 1996 after she spent four hours testifying to a grand jury about the Whitewater land deal that “landed” her and Bill in hot water.

While the wave is a polite gesture, Hillary’s face shows exactly what she would like to do to the paparazzi around her car!

Hillary shares a laugh with troops

Critics would later try to cast Hillary Clinton in a negative light relative to the military, especially after the loss of lives at Benghazi. But as this 2002 photo shows, she had a good working relationship with the troops whenever she visited the Middle East.

Woman of the woods

After her shocking loss to Donald Trump, many had the same question the day after the 2016 election: where was Hillary Clinton?

As it turns out, she was hiking in the Westchester County woods along with Bill Clinton. A fellow hiker ran into Hillary and requested a picture. It made for a fun, candid moment, though internet comedians had a field day with the notion that Hillary Clinton was hiding in the forest after the election results.

Hillary curses on ‘The Howard Stern Show’

Hillary Clinton was criticized during her 2016 presidential run for not letting her guard down and showing who she really was as a person, and it may have cost her the election.

During her run, she refused to appear on The Howard Stern Show. But when Hillary finally agreed to appear on the shock jock’s radio show for a two-and-a-half-hour interview in December 2019, she surprised everyone with her candid answers, and even let out a curse word, something she never would have done during her campaign.

The unexpected moment came when she was talking about attending Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Sitting next to her in the audience was former president George W. Bush. “Trump started on that speech, which was so bizarre, and that’s when I got really worried,” she said. “And George W. Bush says to me, ‘Well, that was some weird s—.’”