Hillary Clinton, who lost her bid in 2016 to become the nation's first woman president, said in an interview airing Friday that she believes Vice President Kamala Harris could defeat former President Donald Trump but she must be aware of any "last-minute October surprises" coming from his campaign.
"I think she's much more aware than we were back in 2016 about how important it is to know that what happens on social media, the kind of vicious viral attacks and claims that Trump and his allies make, have to be rebutted, have to be, you know, in some way, knocked down," Clinton, a former secretary of state and senator, told SiriusXM's "Mornings with Zerlina."
Clinton added that she's "very aware" of how close the election is, but also believes Harris has "run a flawless campaign," had a "great convention," and was "absolutely fierce and magnificent in her debate against Trump."
Clinton, however, was running strong against Trump leading into the last weeks of her 2016 campaign until an October surprise hit that political watchers described as being bigger than Watergate, reports NBC News.
That surprise fell on Oct. 28, 2016, just weeks before the election, when then-FBI Director James Comey reported to Congress that his agency found emails in the probe into former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., that appeared to be "pertinent" in the investigation into Clintons' personal email server.
He said that the FBI couldn't assess whether the material was "significant," but Clinton's bid for the presidency did not recover as the headlines grew and Trump seized onto the news.
"She doesn't have a Jim Comey, thankfully, waiting in the wings, you know, a knee-capper," Clinton said in Friday's interview. "But she does have, you know, the combined efforts of the Big Lie machine of Trump and the people who support him that she's going to have to be prepared for."
In addition, Harris will have to deal with the growth of artificial intelligence and "how it can make you look like you've said things that you never said because it's now so much more sophisticated," said Clinton, who also warned of the threat of Russian interference. "So that's what I think she has to be really prepared for. And I believe her campaign is."
Clinton also responded to claims in a new book by Bob Woodward that Trump sent COVID testing machines to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Russia has confirmed but Trump has strongly denied. The COVID machines, said Clinton, were "state-of-the-art" and hospitals in the United States were "begging" for access to them.
"I have to just raise, once again, who is he actually going to be listening to and working for? I don't think it's the American people," she said. "I think it's, you know, dictators — because he wants to be one, like Vladimir Putin."
The Trump campaign issued a statement to Newsmax regarding Clinton's comments.
"Crooked Hillary still can't get over being a sore loser from 2016 and now has let Trump Derangement Syndrome completely take over her life to the point she's appearing on low-rated shows and begging Kamala for a job," Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said. "It's sad."
Clinton also on Friday honored the memory of Ethel Kennedy, who died this week at the age of 86.
"She had a wicked sense of humor," she said. "She was a totally devoted mom, and wife, and friend to so many people … she just had an indomitable spirit. So she lived a long, good, eventful, purpose-filled life and I will miss her."