Hillary Clinton for President?; Clinton "Wrestling" With Idea of a Run
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. Now, it's time for the politics lead. In Hillary Clinton's first interview since leaving the State Department, she is finally coming clean. Yes, she admits she's wrestling with the idea of running for president. Now, it's taken awhile for her to get there. Let's recap. In 2011, the question got an emphatic no.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you run for president in 2016?</s>HILLARY CLINTON, THEN-SECRETARY OF STATE: No.</s>TAPPER: Then in 2012, a slight tweak in the verbiage.</s>CLINTON: You know, I've said I really don't believe that that's something I will do again.</s>TAPPER: Finally, this year, in an interview with CNN --</s>CLINTON: I am not thinking about anything like that right now.</s>TAPPER: But now, in an interview with "New York" magazine's Joe Hagan, Clinton says this: "I will just continue to weigh what the factors are that would influence me making a decision one way or the other." I'll translate that in my Hillary Clinton to English, English to Hillary dictionary. She is thinking about it. THE LEAD's Erin McPike is here to break this down. Erin, she also said this is a decision she doesn't want to make too soon, or too lightly.</s>ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, there's a good reason for that, Jake, because not only is there this big story out with this Clinton interview, there is another story out today, 13 pages long, dripping with characters and anecdotes for Clinton world. So, she's opened the flood gates and her supporters can start to try to get some bundlers to get some donors. I'm sure they're very happy about that. But I think some of her supporters may not be happy about the attacks.</s>CLINTON: We will some day launch a woman into the White House.</s>MCPIKE (voice-over): The Ready for Hillary super PAC will release this video on Wednesday, a sort of celebration for the group as Hillary Clinton confirmed what they have been hoping for. She's considering a second run for the White House. (on camera): Does this have the effect of really shutting down Democratic donors in terms of other potential candidates?</s>PAUL BEGALA, FORMER BILL CLINTON STRATEGIST: The honest answer is I don't know. It might. There's enormous support for any potential Hillary candidacy. Enormous.</s>MCPIKE (voice-over): Of course, now she'll have to gird herself for another onslaught of attacks. In a brand new interview with "New York" magazine to discuss her intentions, she and her associates are already pressing the case that she's more prepared than ever to be commander in chief. "I've had a unique, close and personal front row seat and I think these last four years have certainly deepened and broadened my understanding of the challenges and the opportunities that we face in the world today," she says. Because as secretary of state, she gained experience she didn't get as a first lady or a senator, like pushing to overthrow Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, strengthening sanctions on Iran and cutting a deal between Israel and Hamas. There is also the experience of facing congressional heat over the death of four Americans in Benghazi.</s>BEGALA: This kind of scrutiny, some of it fair, some unfair, goes with the territory.</s>MCPIKE: But not everyone in Clinton's orbit is happy that the wheels are in motion so soon. Here's a glaring example why. Another magazine cover making news, this one detailing how a single long-time aide to Bill Clinton, Doug Band, creates headaches for the family because the firm he founded, Teneo Holdings, is rife with conflicts of interest. The former president was a paid advisor to Teneo and has since stepped down. Clinton's Republican critics say it's politics as usual for the once and maybe future first family.</s>TIM MILLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ,AMERICA RISING PAC "STOP HILLARY 2016": "The New Republic" article points to two trends that have followed the Clintons as long as they have been in politics. The first is that they are addicted to drama and have internal campaign dysfunction and in-fighting, and the second is they just can't help themselves but give political favors to their cronies.</s>MCPIKE: Clinton world is sprawling. There's no shortage of people or issues to probe and now that Hillary Clinton may return to the political arena, Republican super PACs like America Rising aren't waiting for her to announce before they attack.</s>MILLER: What that has done is given people like us in the Republican Party and on the right an opening to discuss her record and to discuss her deficiencies on issues in the news.</s>MCPIKE: There's no denying that. But Clinton aides do have a retort to the complaints of drama and dysfunction. Hillary Clinton doesn't repeat her mistakes.</s>MCPIKE: Now, Jake, there's one other big take-away I think from these two articles and that is Clinton orbit has gotten so huge, there was a really interesting anecdote in the Joe Hagan story this weekend --</s>TAPPER: The "New York" magazine, yes.</s>MCPIKE: "The New York" magazine story -- and that is that Bill and Hillary Clinton were both in Bogota separately last year, they had dinner together and then they went back to separate hotels with their huge entourages.</s>TAPPER: Two huge international celebrities. Erin McPike, thank you so much.