Hillary Clinton Jokes About Losing Election in Surprise Tonys Appearance
June 17 2024, Published 11:57 a.m. ET
Hillary Clinton joked about her unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign against Donald Trump during a surprise appearance at the Tony Awards in New York City on Sunday, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The former Secretary of State, 76, received a standing ovation from the audience when she came out to introduce a performance from Suffs, the Broadway musical about the women's suffrage movement that she helped produce.
"I have stood on a lot of stages, but this is very special. I know a little bit about how hard it is to make change," the former first lady quipped in a reference to the 2016 election that drew scattered laughter from the crowd.
"I'm extremely proud of this original American musical by Shaina Taub — now a two-time Tony winner," she continued. "And of course, it is about some American originals: the suffragists who fought so valiantly for so long to give women in our country the right to vote."
"It’s almost impossible to think about what a challenge that was, but now it’s an election year, and we need to be reminded about how important it is to vote, so please welcome the company of Suffs."
Clinton received her first Tony nomination as one of producers of Suffs, which lost in the Best Musical category but did take home trophies for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.
She has previously won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary for In Her Hands in 2023 and scored a Best Spoken Word Album Grammy for her It Takes a Village audiobook in 1997.
Despite the warm reception Clinton received from the A-list crowd assembled at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, right-wing commentators had a different opinion about her surprise appearance.
"Democrats were like, 'how do I do something more cringe than Robert De Niro?' Hillary Clinton: 'hold my drink,'" conservative writer and political consultant Ryan Girdusky tweeted, referencing the actor's frequent vocal criticism of Trump.
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Clinton faced criticism from Republicans earlier this month after she seemingly compared Trump to Hitler in a social media post commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
"Eighty years ago today, thousands of brave Americans fought to protect democracy on the shores of Normandy," she wrote on X. "This November, all we have to do is vote."