Twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton insists she has no interest in a third run for the White House.
Behind the scenes, the story is very, very different.
Rumors that Hillary is preparing a 2028 run at the Democratic presidential nomination have been building since the start of the year, fueled by a string of high-profile public appearances that look an awful lot like a candidate testing the waters.
In April, she accepted the keynote speaking slot at a New Hampshire political event founded in 1959 by supporters of John F. Kennedy specifically to launch his presidential campaign. It has headlined every Democratic presidential campaign since. Clinton hadn’t spoken in New Hampshire since 2019, when she teased the idea of a “rematch” with Trump.
Since then, Hillary has resumed asking for campaign-style donations through her political PAC Onward Together that she founded nearly 10 years ago. It uses the same Clinton fundraising machinery she has used twice in the past.
And just last week, Hillary publicly attacked former President Joe Biden for the Democrats’ 2024 landslide loss to President Donald Trump. She told supporters that Biden’s decision to seek a second term, and his eventual mid-campaign dropout, cost the party the election.
Conservative critics attacked the statement as a classic Clinton self-serving political attack, used by both Hillary and former President Bill Clinton for decades.
“A Clinton talking out of both sides of their mouth?! What a shocker,” one critic said. Another summarized her flip-flop: “‘Can’t wait for him to run!’ loses ‘He should’ve never run!'”
While Hillary has repeated denied she has ambitions to run again, The Washington Examiner warned the dismissals shouldn’t be taken entirely at face value. Hillary Clinton would be 81 on Election Day 2028, the same age Joe Biden was in 2024. But while her health concerns were a major issue in her failed 2016 election, Hillary has shown little of the cognitive decline that sank Biden’s final year in office.
Washington Examiner senior editor Peter Laffin specifically pointed to her combative appearance at a recent Munich panel, as well as her seven-hour testimony before the House Oversight Committee on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
“After nearly four decades in the public eye, no one would mistake Clinton for a fresh face,” Laffin wrote. “But her sharpness, and her apparent hunger for combat, would make her more plausible than many realize.”
Clinton’s team has not announced any campaign plans, and she has repeatedly said she isn’t running.
The rumors persist anyway.
Because who would actually trust a Clinton?