Huma Abedin, vice chair of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, has been low-key on the campaign trail thus far. But she broke her silence on Friday, saying that her boss of almost 20 years has been vocal on issues even if they’re not “the thing of the moment.”
“I think that if my boss quit tomorrow, she will go down as one of the greatest American women in the history of the world,” Abedin said in interview with the podcast Call Your Girlfriend. “We’re in the midst of campaigning in New York right now, and we’ve been looking through her record and the things that she did in the Senate and everyone she helped from 9/11 and beyond … I know she’s committed to making people’s lives better. I wish the world could see the Hillary Clinton that I see every day.”
Abedin, the wife of former New York congressman Anthony Weiner, who resigned in 2011 after a sexting scandal, said she chose to play a behind-the-scenes role with the campaign. Clinton’s camp has been pivoting itself towards the general election, in which she is expected to square off with GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
When asked what role a First Husband Bill Clinton would play in the White House, Abedin said there’s nothing “in the world that he can’t do,” while emphasizing that she didn’t want to get ahead of the ongoing primary contest. “I have a feeling, though, that he will not be picking the china out and he will not be picking out the flowers for any of the events.”
She also spoke about her experience in politics as a Muslim-American woman, praising Sen. John McCain, who defended her in 2012 when House Republicans questioned her loyalty to the U.S. and alleged she had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“I think what Sen. McCain did, and for which I will forever be grateful, and I have to say that I felt exactly the same way about our president, President Obama, who then there was an aid reception at the White House, and he also stood up for the Muslim-Americans, including myself, who had been sort of labeled in a way that was so upsetting,” she said.
