BBC’s Kim Ghattas Asks Hillary: Do You Think ‘America Understands You and Is Ready to Accept You?’

BBC journalist Kim Ghattas asked Hillary Clinton on Monday morning whether “America understands you and is ready to accept you,” after praising the Democratic presidential candidate as “ahead of your time.”

Ghattas, author of the book The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power, asked the flattering question as Clinton’s traveling press pool surrounded her on an airport tarmac in White Plains, New York.

Ghattas gushed: “I’ve observed you over the years, and it seems to me that, over time, you’ve been often ahead of your time, you’ve been sometimes misunderstood, you’ve fought off a lot of prejudice. Do you think that today America understands you and is ready to accept you?”

Clinton smiled broadly as Ghattas asked the question, then responded, “Well, Kim, I think I have some work to do to bring the country together, as I’ve been saying in these speeches in the last few days.

“I really do want to be the president for everybody — people who vote for me, people who vote against me — because I think that these splits, these divides that have been not only exposed but exacerbated by the campaign on the other side are ones that we really do have to bring the country together.”

Ghattas interjected, “Can you do that? Has the journey been worth it?”

Clinton replied, “Absolutely. Absolutely. I love this country and I believe in our people and we have a big agenda ahead of us but I’m excited I think we will get a lot done, and I do think we’ll bring the country together.”

Monday is the last day of campaigning for Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump. The brief scrum that formed before Clinton boarded her campaign jet was one of the last opportunities that reporters had an opportunity to ask her a direct question before election day.

Ghattas has spent a good portion of her career basking in Clinton’s presence. “As BBC correspondent, I travelled over 300,000 miles with then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, interviewing Clinton more than 15 times,” she boasts on her website.