Hillary Clinton Responds to Trust Issue

Clinton lamented the lack of trust in government institutions and her candidacy during her speech on June 26.
Hillary Clinton Responds to Trust Issue
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivers the keynote speech during the Rainbow PUSH Coalition's International Women's Luncheon June 27, 2016 in Chicago Illinois. (Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images)
6/27/2016
Updated:
6/28/2016

At the 50th annual Rainbow PUSH Coalition Convention, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton pushed back at her naysayers as her negative favorability reached 55 percent in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.  

Clinton lamented the lack of trust in government institutions and of her candidacy during her speech on June 26. The only person she’s less favorable than is the Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, who has a 60 percent unfavorable rating. 

“A lot of people tell pollsters they don’t trust me. Now, I don’t like hearing that,” she said. 

“And you know, you hear 25 years’ worth of wild accusations, anyone would start to wonder. And it certainly is true—I’ve made mistakes. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t. So I understand people having questions.”

Clinton didn’t mention any of the specific reasons that people don’t trust her—like the missing classified emails or an FBI probe into her private server—but she wasn’t giving up on changing people’s minds. 

“You can’t just talk someone into trusting you. You’ve got to earn it,” she said.

She then defended the way that she speaks, rebutting a common complaint that she sounds like she’s hiding something. That, Clinton says, isn’t true. 

“So, yes, I could say that the reason I sometimes sound careful with my words is not that I’m hiding something, it’s just that I’m careful with my words,” Clinton said. “I believe what you actually say matters. I think that’s true in life and it’s especially true if you’re president.”

Clinton also pointed to “political opponents and conspiracy theorists” who have spun stories about her and denied any of the conspiracies being true.  

“So, I do think before I speak, and could say that political opponents and conspiracy theorists have accused me of every crime in the book over the years.”

“None of it’s true, never has been,” she said. “But accusations like that never really disappear once they’re out there. And a lot of what people read about me in certain corners of the internet and a lot of what Donald Trump says about me is just that same nonsense. But—I know trust has to be earned.”