Hillary Clinton: ‘Congress Has Abdicated Its Responsibility’

The full discussion can be watched on the video box atop this page or on the FP Live podcast this week. What follows here is a lightly edited and condensed transcript.

For the latest episode of FP Live, I sat down with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Doha Forum in Qatar in front of a live audience. We discussed the Trump administration’s just-released national security strategy, the impacts of U.S. foreign policy around the world, women’s rights, how Democrats can revive their fortunes, and a controversy over remarks that Clinton recently made about why young Americans are shifting their views on Israel.

For the latest episode of FP Live, I sat down with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Doha Forum in Qatar in front of a live audience. We discussed the Trump administration’s just-released national security strategy, the impacts of U.S. foreign policy around the world, women’s rights, how Democrats can revive their fortunes, and a controversy over remarks that Clinton recently made about why young Americans are shifting their views on Israel.

The full discussion can be watched on the video box atop this page or on the FP Live podcast this week. What follows here is a lightly edited and condensed transcript.

Ravi Agrawal: The Trump administration just dropped its national security strategy. What do you make of it?

Hillary Rodham Clinton: There is a very clear message from the strategy that the United States is taking a big turn away from the hallmark alliances of our foreign policy and our strength in influencing global events. There’s a very strong indictment of Europe—in particular, its openness and population composition. That is an unnecessary division between us and countries with whom we have a lot in common and are necessary to our security.

Updating President James Monroe’s Monroe Doctrine, which is about dominating the Western Hemisphere, is going to be very difficult to pull off. We’re watching the administration build up and use military power in the region, which raises more questions than answers about what actually will be done to implement the strategy’s broad statements.

RA: What impact has [President Donald] Trump’s second term had on countries around the world?

HRC: I am concerned about the impact because there has been a heavy emphasis on moving away from core American values, though that’s not to say that there haven’t been some successes. For example, the United States has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by rarely criticizing [Russian President Vladimi