Neera Tanden Tells CNN That Hillary Clinton May Never Run For Office Again

Neera Tanden, the long-time confidante to Hillary Clinton, made an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper on Sunday morning. Amid swirling speculations that the former Secretary of State and first lady was mulling a run for New York City mayor, Tanden made it clear that she does not expect Clinton to ever run for office again. Instead, Tanden said that she expects Clinton to focus on other pursuits, primarily how to help families and children.

“I think she’s going to figure out ways to help kids and families. That’s been what she’s been focused on her whole life, and a lot of issues that are affecting them, over the next couple of years.”

Last week, rumors floated that Clinton was leaving open the option of running for the office of mayor of New York City. A report by the New York Daily News states that local Democrats are “pressing” her to run for office in an effort to eliminate the widely unpopular Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose approval ratings are low.

Clinton would need to make a decision on running for local office soon: New York state law states that candidates must live within the five boroughs of New York City in order to run, and Clinton lives in Chappaqua, a suburb of the city.

Even so, the possibility of Clinton running for the mayor’s office seems unlikely, as she has historically focused on national and international affairs. Although she could have a chance to beat de Blasio in the Democratic primary, even being elected to the office of mayor of an international city like New York would be a step down in her ultimate ambitions.

Despite Clinton’s decisive loss to real estate mogul Donald Trump, it’s hard to imagine her fading quietly into the night. And despite Tanden’s firm proclamation that Clinton may never run for office again, such absolutes are rarely set in stone.

In October, 2009, amid speculation that she was being “marginalized” by the newly-elected President Obama, Hillary Clinton told CNN that she would not run for president again, but that turned out to not be true, just as Neera Tanden’s statement on Sunday may or may not be true.

During that same 2009 interview, Clinton had some interesting words to say about the suggestion that the president was not listening to what she had to say.

“I am not one of these people who feels like I have to have my face in the front of the newspaper … every moment of the day … Now, maybe that is a woman’s thing. Maybe I am totally secure and feel absolutely no need to go running around in order for people to see what I am doing … My goal is to be a very positive force to implement the kind of changes that the president and I believe are in the best interests of our country. But that doesn’t mean it all has to be me, me, me all the time.”

Less than six years later, in April, 2015, Hillary Clinton declared she was running for the office of president again, and she lost one of the easiest races against a real estate mogul with no political experience who was just as unpopular as she was, if not more.

During the 2016 Democratic nomination race against Bernie Sanders, voters were able to get up close and personal with her campaign, thanks in part to WikiLeaks’ DNC Leaks and in-part to her own stance on issues. Savvy voters used the internet to research Hillary Clinton’s positions on issues and discovered that she lacked consistency and moral fortitude on heated issues like same-sex marriage and health care.

In 2016, voters learned via the DNC Leaks that Clinton held a public opinion and a private opinion, which made people question her commitment to vital issues. Voters also watched as she she said young people did not really understand what they’re voting for, which insulted a large number of Millennial voters.

And, as Inquisitr reported, when Clinton demanded transparency from the FBI in October, after having deleted more than 30,000 emails, voters viewed it as a hypocritical move.

Regardless of what Neera Tanden told Jake Tapper, it remains to be seen if Hillary Clinton will run for office ever again. And if she does, whether the public will be receptive to such a run.

[Featured Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]