Hillary Clinton dropped a number of hints about her expected presidential run in 2016 and laid out what could be the tenets of a potential campaign in front of a women’s conference in Silicon Valley on Tuesday.
The former secretary of state said she is checking the final items off her list of things that must be in place before she officially announces her campaign, saying she will make a decision “in good time."
“I am obviously talking to a lot of people, thinking [it] through,” Clinton told Kara Swisher, the co-executive editor of Re/code, during a question and answer session. “Because here’s my view on this, Kara: I just think that we have so many big issues we have to deal with that unless we can really come together and have a national conversations about those issues, we’re not going to make the progress we need.”
The crowd excitedly applauded when Clinton high-fived Swisher after the journalist said: “I interviewed President Obama last week and I'm eager to interview another president."
The address marked the first time Clinton has spoken to a U.S. crowd this year. While her potential competitors on the Republican side have been active on the campaign trail, Clinton has remained largely out of sight until Tuesday.
She used her address to lay out what could be the core tenets of her presidential run, focusing not only on gender inequality in front of the female audience, but also income equality and economic opportunity for all Americans.
"I think we all cheered at Patricia Arquette's speech at the Oscars—because she’s right, it’s time to have wage equality once and for all ," she said.
Clinton also told the crowd of technology leaders that she would vote for net neutrality, and that “people felt betrayed” by the National Security Agency practices that Edward Snowden brought to light. However, Clinton added that she “could never condone” what Snowden did.
On the growing threat posed by ISIS, which Republicans have suggested she is partially at fault for, Clinton said “a lot of the right moves are being made, but this is really a complicated and long-term problem.” She said American troops on the ground is not a solution.
But the most prevalent message throughout her remarks was the need to update what she described as an economy “operating like 1955” that continues to favor men.
Clinton told the women gathered that they don’t have to run for public office to start bringing about change.
“Although if you do, more power to you,” she added.
