Hillary Clinton reiterates she won’t run for president and says Donald Trump guilty of ‘seditious conspiracy’

The former secretary of state has pushed back on the false equivalence drawn between Mar-a-Lago documents and her private email server

Hillary Clinton has once again confirmed she will never run for president again, calling instead on the Republican Party to take responsibility for making sure Donald Trump does not return to the White House.

Ms Clinton, who won the 2016 popular vote by approximately 3 million but lost in the Electoral College after falling short in three key states, reiterated her position in a CBS interview – in which she also declared that Donald Trump was guilty of a major crime against the US government.

Asked at the outset whether she would run again, Ms Clinton put it bluntly: “No. No. But I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure that we have a president who respects our democracy and the rule of law and upholds our institutions.”

Calling on the Republican Party to muster the “backbone” to “stand up to this guy”, she also contrasted the situation around Mr Trump’s hoarding of government documents at Mar-a-Lago with the infamous scandal over her State Department emails.

She made a similar effort to contrast the two debacles in a Twitter thread this week, insisting that she had held “zero” classified emails on her server.

“By contrast, Trump has hundreds of documents clearly marked classified, and the investigation just started,” she wrote. “I’m more tired of talking about this than anyone, but here we are.”

Ms Clinton also appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show this week, giving an interview alongside her daughter Chelsea in which she explained that it is not easy for a president to walk out of the White House with classified materials.

Meanwhile, outlining her views on the 6 January committee, she offered “a shoutout to the witnesses” who have come forward – singling out young women from the Trump White House who have testified publicly despite knowing they would be vilified.

Ms Clinton said that her overriding takeaway from the hearings was that Mr Trump was in fact responsible for the plot to overturn the 2020 election and the riot that resulted.

“I would not be honest if I didn’t say I think there was a seditious conspiracy against the government of the United States, and that’s a crime…led by Donald Trump, encouraged by Donald Trump.”

Seditious conspiracy is among the most serious charges meted out to any of the hundreds of defendants arrested by law enforcement since the attack. Among those facing it are members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, violent militia-style groups who made specific plans for the march on the Capitol and the attempt to disrupt the election certification.