Hillary Clinton discusses diplomacy and defense at America in One Room/Pennsylvania event in Center City
"So we have a lot that we have to figure out here," Clinton told some 175 voters from all over the state at the Sheraton on 17th Street on the four-day event's final day.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flexed a deep knowledge of world history, global politics, the geography of Taiwan, and even added a touch of humor during a brief Q-and-A with Pennsylvania voters Sunday morning at a Center City hotel.
“Anyway,” she said to laughs after discussing President Donald Trump’s tariffs and their effects on the Chinese and U.S. economies.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, was a guest speaker at America in One Room: Pennsylvania, a four-day event at the Sheraton on North 17th Street hosted by Stanford University’s Deliberative Democracy Lab. Participants, all Pennsylvania residents, were chosen as a representative sample of the state’s voters.
The voters participated in group discussions regarding complicated and often contentious issues meant to foster dialogue between ever-widening political divides in America. Those groups presented the former first lady with a half dozen or so questions, the bulk of them focusing on global conflict, defense versus diplomacy, foreign aid, China, and rare mineral extraction, to name a few.
When asked how a theoretical Chinese invasion of Taiwan could affect imports from the world’s superpower, Clinton said Trump’s tariffs were already stopping those imports.
“We are crippling our economy,” Clinton said. “Our largest port in the country, in Long Beach, is largely empty right now, which means that the impact of these tariffs will be felt over the next months. They haven’t quite kicked in yet.”
Clinton said she believed the United States was underestimating Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s willingness to suffer to win the import battle.
“He has a deep belief that he and his people can endure a lot more suffering than we can,” she said.
The former U.S. senator from New York also discussed the merits of defense and diplomacy and made arguments for America’s involvement overseas. Parties in power, she said, must use both tools.
“You have to invest in defense,” she said. “There should be no argument, but we need smart defense.”
There were a few references to “my husband,” particularly former President Bill Clinton’s role in helping to end two major foreign conflicts: one in Northern Ireland, the other in the Balkans.
“It was diplomacy and it was military force,” she said. “In the Balkans, he had to bomb Serbia.”
Shrinking foreign aid and pulling away from healthcare, diplomacy, and the spread of democracy in other countries could, ultimately, result in a diminished America, Clinton told the audience of about 200.
“So why did we spend 2% of our budget doing things like providing healthcare to people in Africa who were suffering from diseases, or helping to deal with the challenges of climate change in some other country, or promoting democracy? Because we thought it was good for us,” she said. “I mean, this is not all altruistic idealism. If you keep diseases out of your country, that’s good for us.”
Pulling back from diplomacy and taking a hands-off approach, globally, creates a void for “bad actors” to fill the gaps, Clinton said, and she fears the worst-case scenarios.
“You know, there are some people, frankly, who say, ’Let China control Asia’ or ‘Let Russia control Europe. We’ll just stay here.’ That was exactly what was said in the 1930s,” Clinton said. “It did not work out very well.”
America, Clinton said, should remain the leading example for the world, and she commended the voters for taking part in the discussions.
“I know we’re in a big battle in our country right now because other people have a very different view, a view of dominance and a view of power for the sake of power,” she said. “So we have a lot that we have to figure out here.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro kicked off America in One Room: Pennsylvania event on Thursday night.