The former Democratic presidential candidate spoke candidly to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, saying she believed the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer was detrimental to Joe Biden. The US president’s approval ratings have fallen to their lowest level in recent weeks since he took office. “I do not think it helped, obviously it does,” Clinton, a former New York senator and secretary of state, told host Chuck Todd when asked if he believed Biden’s political problems began with Afghanistan. “But there are many good achievements that we have to put on the board. “Both Democrats in office and away from home need to do a better job of doing the job.” “The best policy is to do the best job you can. And there is a lot that Democrats can talk about in this upcoming by-election. We have a wonderful story to tell. “And we have to go out there and do a better job to say it.” Clinton believes Democrats are holding back on constant introspection, which she said has “always been the chorus in Democratic politics.” “Hand-wringing is part of democratic DNA. This seems to be of style whether we are in or out of power. “We are in power and the deterioration continues,” he said. “But from my point of view, President Biden is doing a very good job; handling Ukraine, passing the American rescue package, the huge infrastructure package. “I’re not sure what the connection is between the achievements of the government and that of Congress, and the understanding of what has been done, and the impact it will have on the American public, and some of the polls and the ongoing hand-wringing.” Clinton was also critical of Republicans, who she said were experiencing “an even greater disengagement” from her own party. Democrats, he said, must “stand up to the other side with their madness and their calls for impunity and the madness we hear coming from them.” “I do not think the average American, honestly, wants to be ruled by people who live in a completely different reality.” Todd asked Clinton about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was hostile to her when he was Barack Obama’s secretary of state and whose support for her 2016 presidential opponent, Donald Trump, some believe was fueled by his hatred for her. “We see very clearly the threat it poses, not only to Ukraine, as we can watch every night on our news, but really to Europe, to democracy and to the global stability we thought we had been building for the last 20 years,” he said. “I would not allow Russia to return to the organizations in which it was a part. There is a G20 event later in the year. “I would not allow Russia to attend and if they insisted on appearing literally, I would hope that there would be a significant, if not total, boycott.”
