'I Am Done With Being a Candidate.' Hillary Clinton Rules Out Another Campaign

Hillary Clinton says she’s ruled out another run for office, but you don’t expect her to leave the political stage entirely.

“As an active politician, it’s over,” Clinton told Jane Pauley in a Sunday interview on CBS Sunday Morning. “I am done with being a candidate. But I am not done with politics because I literally believe that our country’s future is at stake.”

Clinton told Pauley she was so certain of victory over the eventual winner, President Donald Trump, that she had only drafted a victory speech, not a concession speech. She added that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had purchased the home next door to their Chappaqua, New Yrok property as a location for White House staff and security.

“I just felt this enormous letdown, just kind of loss of feeling and direction and sadness,” she told Pauley about her emotions in the election’s immediate aftermath. “It was a very hard transition. I really struggled. I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t think, I was just gob-smacked, wiped out.”

Clinton did not offer further clarity on her future career plans, according to a transcript of the interview. But she has launched “Onward Together,” a Political Action Committee that supports progressive candidates and organizations.

The interview comes two days before the release of Clinton’s memoir, “What Happened,” an account of her electoral loss to President Donald Trump last November. The book officially goes on sale September 12, although Clinton has already released excerpts recalling her experience debating Trump after the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which he discussed groping women.

 

Write to Alana Abramson at Alana.Abramson@time.com.