Hillary Clinton visited the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday, where the comedian and talk show host heaped praise on the Democrat presidential frontrunner, calling her “smart,” “qualified” and “everything [she would] want in a president.”
In a preview for the episode released Monday morning, Clinton told DeGeneres that “it still is hard being a woman running for president.”
“I feel like if you’re forceful, you’re too forceful, if you’re not forceful enough, you’re not tough enough,” Clinton told the talk show host. “It’s just a constant evaluation all the time about how you’re being perceived, and so much of the perception is rooted in very ancient feelings that we have about the roles of men and women.”
DeGeneres made no secret of her support for Clinton, telling the Democrat presidential frontrunner that she is “held to a completely different standard than everyone else seems to be held to.”
“You know what a supporter I am. I think that you’re as smart as can be, I think you are qualified, I think you stand for everything that I want in a president,” DeGeneres gushed, to loud audience applause.
Still, the talk show host said that Americans are fearful of widespread gun violence and terrorism, and need to be reassured.
“I know people are scared, and I understand that completely, because we do live in some really complicated and new times where things are happening that just don’t seem to add up,” Clinton replied, adding:
I’ve spent a lot of time around families that have lost kids and loved ones to gun violence, and there’s just no words. And I was so proud of the president the other day, when he said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do something to try to stop all this gun violence…’ So there’s a lot to be afraid of, I think it’s fair for people to feel that, but at the same time, we have to put it into the right context. It is not a pervasive, all-encompassing set of threats, and we have to get together and work together to try to eliminate the threats as much as possible. And we can do that.
During her appearance on the show, Clinton played a game of “Head’s Up” with DeGeneres and Scandal actor Tony Goldwyn, and also discussed the art of taking great-looking selfie photos.
“You must be taking selfies like crazy,” DeGeneres told Clinton before bringing up an image of the candidate’s selfie with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West taken at a Los Angeles fundraiser last year. “[Kardashian] always has the same selfie face, do you have a selfie face now?”
“I don’t,” Clinton replied, before describing her fascination with the reality TV star’s photo-snapping technique.
“She takes out her phone and she presses the button; I’ve never seen this anywhere else – she pulls it out, it has lights all the way around it, like, little tiny, tiny lightbulbs,” Clinton said.
“I saw her phone, it makes you look better,” DeGeneres joked.
“It makes anybody look better!” Clinton agreed. “I have been desperately looking for one of those ever since with no luck, so if anybody knows where you can get one. … I’m gonna get one if it ever comes out.”
Notably, none of the excerpts from the interview feature any questions from DeGeneres about Clinton’s ballooning email scandal, her role in the response to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, or allegations of her quid pro quo financial arrangements with big-money Clinton Foundation donors.
Check out the clips of Clinton’s appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show above.