Bill Clinton Opens Up on Marriage, Hillary’s Bid for President

Bill Clinton lifted the veil on America’s most enigmatic political couple—at least slightly. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, which is to air in its entirety on Sunday at 9 a.m., Clinton described the couple’s personal and political relationship, and how they constantly negotiate the two.

The former president admitted that his political aspirations took the front seat during the first two decades of their marriage, and referred to Hillary as his “rock” during politically and personally tumultuous times.

He pointed to his 1980 loss to Republican Frank D. White in the Arkansas gubernatorial election as one such moment.

“I was the youngest former governor in American history in 1980 on election night…My career prospects were not particularly bright,” he said to Tapper. “And she never blinked. She just said, ‘Hey. It’ll turn around. I believe in you. You’ve got this.'”

Bill implied that now was Hillary’s time, echoing sentiments he shared in a 2014 interview with “BBC Newsnight” in India. In that interview, he described their marriage as a 52-year pact.

“We were married a very long time when she was always, in effect, deferring to my political career,” he said. “I told her when she got elected to the Senate from New York that she’d given me 26 years, and so I intended to give her 26 years. Whatever she wanted to do was fine with me. If she wanted to know my opinion, I would tell her, but she had carte blanche to make whatever decisions she wanted, and tell me what I was supposed to do about it.”

Bill has taken a backseat in Hillary’s campaign. Though he plans to be by her side at her first rally of the campaign on Saturday, he has yet to travel or raise money for her. This was not the case in her 2008 bid.

[CNN]