Huma Abedin - "Both/And"

up from bed when she was first Lady. The person I'm talking about, of course, is Hillary Clinton. Let's talk about that first. How do you wake up a sleeping first lady. So, first of all, I'm thrilled to be with you today, and I, um, yes, when I walked into the White House, I was a twenty one year old intern. I didn't exactly know what I was doing, and there was very much at lease in the Clinton administration, the sink or swim attitudes. They kind of threw you

into it. And so this was the midst of her Senate campaign. She was first Lady morning for the Senate, and one morning the White House says, well, she's not responding now as somebody who had followed all the rules. One of the first learned rules you learned the White House is failed a plan, plan to fail. And I had a plan. The plan was that she was going to wake up. So I didn't know how to wake her up. So I decided to march into the hallway. I tiptoe in the back. I knocked on the door

and I say, Mrs Clinton. No response. So finally I opened the door, tiptoe in and shake her really hard. And not only did I wake her up, I woke up the leader of the free world. And the ghost of Lincoln in the entire house was alerted. And the funniest thing about the story is that she gets up, she gets in the chair to get her makeup done, and she turned to me and she says, Huma, next time, just knock louder. Yeah, that was a big jump from

knock softly, shake yours like a big jump. I learned a lesson that day, and now I always knock louder. I mean, I'm not gonna have to do it for a while, but that's a less just like incremental steps. The journey of we had a lot of fun that's for sure. It does sound like that. I mean you You've had a really interesting relationship with Hillary Clinton. Who is you know, in America, I mean a person who will go down in history and like, people will love her,

people will hate her, people will talk about her. You've seen sides of her that nobody else will. And what I really enjoyed in your book is you talk about seeing those sides of Hillary, and you talk about how difficult it was for Hillary to navigate the journey of being perfect and like talking perfectly and looking perfect. It seems like there was no there was no way to win when you were doing that, when you're trying to create the perfect image of a Hillary Clinton, Like, where

was this external pressure coming from? You know, Trevor, So much of it is hindsight. When we were in it in the moment, there was no perfect way to be And one of our challenges, I actually write in two thousand and eight we even on the inside, we didn't know how to deal with some of the sexist and misogynistic comments, so we just laughed around along with it. We just assumed this was the price you paid for being in the game. So if you said she should

wear brown we wear brown. If you said she should talk louder, okay, let's try to talk louder. And it was constantly shape shifting, if you will, responding to people's comments. But nothing was ever right. And I think was next level in that here we were and everybody had a different everyone had a different response. And I actually share a story in the book with a Hollywood director calls me and says, you know, I'm gonna give her some media training and I said, will give me an idea

of who she should be like? And they said, well, her husband, And I said, excellent, anybody else President Obama both phenomenal communicators, you know, legendary communicators, both met and so we could never quite get it right. We kept trying, and I think that it's in part because we have a hard time seeing women in leadership, forget Commander in Chief, Trevor,

just seeing women and leadership positions. And I agree with you, not everyone's going to necessarily agree with everything hillarys, but she is a historic figure for this country and the world, and she tried to pave the way forward. And she's got some cracks in that ceiling, and somebody's gonna step in those shoes. In a we have a vice president who stepped in the ship right right, who's also being criticized for how she laughs or how she doesn't laugh.

You know, there seems to be a fine line that can like no one can really walk perfectly. Um. You you have faced a lot of that criticism. You have faced you know, I think a lot of extra scrutiny because you're not just a woman, but you're also a Muslim woman. You're a Muslim woman who's been working in American government for so long. Reading through the book, there

were things I didn't know about you. I was like, wow, I didn't know that you had your moments of you know, being the terrorists that people were talking about, actual you know, sitting members of Congress saying like, oh, there she is

the member of this organization, the member. Do you think it got better or do you think it just you know, went underground for a little bit because you're seeing this, you know, with Lauren Bobert for instance, now coming and saying il har noma that you know, the backpack in the in the in the elevator. Do you think you've got better as a Muslim person working in government or

do you think it just shifted. Maybe I actually think that what happened to me into that in twelve as you were referring where five Republican members of Congress suggested I was essentially a spy, not a patriot. I was that American, Trevor. That as I traveled to the world as a little girl, and we went everywhere from South Africa to London, to Paris to Asia. Every time we landed, I would turn to my mother and say, is in America? Yet? Why?

Because to me, America wasn't just a place that you could go to movie theater things I didn't have back in Saudi Arabia, or you could wear what you wanted. It was a feeling. It was a sense of choice and optimism and appreciation for, you know, those principles and values. So I've always walked to the great pride as an American. I do think when they accused me of being essentially a spy, it was unleashing. I think it was an appetizer, Trevor to what we were to face in when certainly

Muslims and many brown people became the other. And I'm not just saying my kind of brown. Generally, if you're a person of color you were the other and the six they've been doing, and I think it unleashed I think Donald Trump unleashed permission to have this kind of dialogue and conversation. It's one of the many reasons I wrote this book is to explain to the country what it is to be an American Muslim. It's not just heart wrenching, but it's also really vulnerable. How you share

your story. You know, your name really just rose to prominence in the country with the Anthony Weiner story, your ex husband. And I remember at the time, I mean I wasn't familiar with American politics, but the story was blowing up a lot of the women who I worked with. They were just like, oh, this is so shitty. Like, as women, we we have to deal with the ship that our men do. We have to bear their shame as well. And you, you, you really laid out elegantly

and vulnerably in the book. But what was really surprising to me is at the end of the book you acknowledge and thank your ex husband. And I'd love to know why you did that and and if that was a true feeling that you had or if you thought, no, this is the high road that I need to take um. You know, I do acknowledge Anthony and end of the book, and the reason I do that is two things. The first is he gave me the single most important thing in my life, that's my little boy, UM. And he

gave me that sense of feeling. I know what it is to be loved and if you read the book, to feel like the most special person in the room. I didn't have a lot of experience with men, and before I met Anthony, and I wanted to be seen, not as even though I have a whole chapter in the book called Elephant in the Room and another one called Shame, Shame Go Away, even though I did live with a lot of shame and felt judged for much

of my marriage. I try to make every decision that I thought was right for me and for my little boy. And I've actually been surprised by the number of people who read the book and read to the end, seeing how I made these decisions as a related to my marriage, saying okay, I understand now, I get it. And I think people who have in their life loved ones who deal with addiction or mental health challenges, they understand. For people who don't, it's harder, and so I'm really glad.

I'm I'm very humbled to hear people understand it once they read the story and see that there is another side. There is hope and possibility and optimism. Well, to be honest with you, I think everybody does understand. I just think as human beings, it is easier for us to judge a situation that is happening outside of us, because when we're not in love, or when we don't love somebody, or we're not experiencing a negative thing with a loved one, the answer is obvious, you know, so you go, you

should do this, you shouldn't do that. That's what it's like when we're watching a TV show. You know what all the characters should do, but you're you're the character and your own TV show, and then you never know what to do from episodes. That is so beautifully sad. Yeah, I could not agree more. And you're you're right when you're judging somebody else, if you're in that position, would you actually have the same thing. It's it's so easy

because you're watching it, you know. That's that's what it is. Thank you so much for joining me, Chrevor. Thank you for having Me Alright People. Huma's book both slash and is available wherever books are sold. W's The Daily Show weeknights at eleven Central or on on Comedy Central, and stream food episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. No