Heitkamp on when Hillary Clinton will leave politics: ‘Not soon enough’

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who’s currently facing a tough reelection bid in a state won by President Trump in the 2016 election, said this week that former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s exit from politics is way past due. 

In an interview Tuesday, KFGO radio host Joel Heitkamp, the senator’s brother, asked when Clinton would “ride off into the sunset,” as he remarked on a recent speech Clinton gave in which she said the U.S. “did not deserve” President Trump’s victory in the 2016 election. 

“I don’t know, not soon enough, I guess,” she responded.

Pressed again by the host, Heidi Heitkamp said: “Not soon enough.”

Clinton in her recent comments said during a trip to India that she won “the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And [Trump’s] whole campaign, ‘Make America Great Again,’ was looking backwards.” She suggested that Trump’s supporters in the parts of the country where he saw the most support had racist and discriminatory attitudes. 

“I mean, she’s bashing the middle of the country and my state again. I don’t need her to do that,” the KFGO host remarked on Tuesday.

“Yeah, I know,” Heitkamp replied.

Clinton said during the campaign that she placed half of Americans into what she called the “basket of deplorables” for their racist and xenophobic views, a comment she later walked back after facing backlash in the media. 

Heidi Heitkamp hails from a deep-red state and has frequently had to walk a thin line pleasing her party on one hand while appealing to constituents that voted for Trump. 

Last year she traveled to her home state with Trump on Air Force One, and later touted his push to improve the country’s infrastructure.