The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Huma Abedin - "Both/And"

Episode Date: December 19, 2021

Huma Abedin, adviser and chief of staff to Hillary Clinton, reflects on her early days in the Clinton administration, sexist obstacles facing women in leadership and her memoir "Both/And." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Huma, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Trevor. You have lived a life that is, I mean, just in proximity to action all the time. I mean, just listening to this, you know, when I was going through it again, it's, you were by somebody's side who was running for president twice. You know, you were somebody side, well, she was serving as Secretary of State, as Senate of New York, and you had to wake that same person up from bed when she was First

Lady. The person I'm talking about, of course, is Hillary Clinton. Let's talk about that first. How do you wake up a sleeping first lady? So, first of all, I'm thrilled to be with you today. And yes, when I walked into the White, the White, the White, the White, the White, the w w. And, thiiiiiii, toeeea, toea, toea, toe. And, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, the the the the they..... And, the they, they, they, they, they. And, they. And, the the the the the the the the th.a.a. And, too. And, toe. And, toe. And, toe. And, toe. And, to be with you today. And yes, when I walked into the White House, I was a 21-year-old intern. I didn't exactly know what I was doing. And there was very much, at least in the Clinton administration, the sink or swim attitudes, they kind of threw you into it. And so this was the midst of her Senate campaign. She was the first lady running for the the the Senate thiii and running running running running running running running the thine thian.

says, well, she's not responding. Now, as somebody who had followed all the rules, one of the first rules you learned in the White House is failed a plan, plan to fail, and I had a plan. The plan was that she was going to wake up. So I didn't know how to wake her up. So I decided to march into the hallway. I tiptoe in. I tipiptoe in and shake her really hard.

And not only did I wake her up, I woke up the leader of the free world. And the ghost of Lincoln, the entire house, was alerted. And the funniest thing about the story is that she gets up, she gets in the chair to get her makeup done. And she turns to me and she says,, Huma, next time, just knock louder. Yeah, that was a big jump from, knock softly, shake your ass. That's like a big jump. I learned a lesson that day.

Okay. And now I always knock louder. I mean, I haven't had to do it for a while, but that's a lesson I pass on. Yeah, just like, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, the, the, the, the, th. It's, to. It's, th. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. It's, to. K. It's, to. K. It's, to. It's, to. It's, to. It's, to. It's, to. It's, to. It's, to. It's, to. It's, to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to-a. to-a. to. to. to. that's for sure. It does sound like that. I mean, you've had a really interesting relationship with Hillary Clinton, who is, you know, in America, I mean, a person who will go down in history, like people will love her, people will hate her, people will talk about her, people will talk about her. You've seen sides of her that nobody else will. And what I really enjoyed in your book is, you talk about seeing, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, and, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th.... And, th.. And, th. And, th.. And, thi, thi, thi, and, and, and, and, and, thi, and, thi, thi, and, thi, thi, thi, too, tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomomu, thi, thi for Hillary to navigate the journey of being perfect and like talking perfectly and looking perfect. It seems like there was no there was no way to win.

When you were doing that, when you were trying to create the perfect image of a Hillary Clinton, like where was this external pressure coming from? You know Trevor, so much of it is hindsight as 2020 when we were in it in the moment, there was no perfect way to be. And one of our challenges, I actually write in 2008, we, even on the inside, we didn't know how to deal with some of the sexist and misogynistic comments, so we just laughed around, along with it. We just assumed this was the price you paid for being in the game. So if you said she should talk louder, tho, th, th, to to to th, to th, th, to, th, th, th, thi, the, thi, thi, they, thi, thi, they, thin, thin, thin, they, thin, they, tho, thin, the, the the the the the the tho, the the the, the, the, the, thi, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the thin, the thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thoooooooooooooooooooooomuu.e, the,talk louder, okay, let's try to talk louder. And it was constantly shape-shifting, if you will, responding to people's comments, but nothing was ever right, and I think 2016 was next level in that here we were, and everybody had

a different response, and I actually share a story in the book with a Hollywood director thrown and I said, you know, I'm going to give her the the the their their their their their their their their their their, their, to, to give to, to give to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thoome, tho, tho, thoom, thoom, thoom, thoom, thoom, thoom, thoom, thoes, thoes, thoes, thoes, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, and'm going to give her some media training and I said, well, give me an idea of who she should be like. And they said, well, her husband. I said, well, excellent, anybody else, President Obama, both phenomenal communicators, you know, legendary communicators, both men. And so we could never quite get it right. weigh thrown. theyme. And I think that's, that's, that's, thiiiii's, thi's, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, thi, well, well, well, well, well, tho, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, well, well, their, well, well, well, their, their, their, their, their, their, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they.. they. thi. thi. they. they. tho. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. the they. time seeing women in leadership. Forget Commander-in-Chief, Trevor, just seeing women in leadership positions. And I agree with you.

Not everyone's going to necessarily agree with everything Hillary Clinton believes. But she is a historic figure for this country and the world. And she tried to pave the way forward and she's got some cracks in that ceiling and somebody's going to step in those shoes. And in fact, we have a vice president, thape, thape, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thin, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, thin, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, tho, thi, thin's thin's thin's thin's thin's thin's thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, the, to to to to to to to to to to to to theean, to thean, the how she doesn't laugh. You know, there seems to be a fine line that can, like no one can really walk perfectly. Right. You, you have faced a lot of that criticism. You have faced, you know, I think a lot of extra scrutiny because you're not just a woman, but you're also a Muslim woman, you're a Muslim woman who's who's been working in American government for so long. Reading through the book, there were things I didn't know about you.

I was like, wow, I didn't know that you had your moments of, you know, being the terrorist, that people were talking about actual, you know, sitting members of Congress saying, oh, there she is, the member of this organization, the member. Do you think it got better, or do you think it just just just just just think it just, you know, went underground for a little bit? Because you're seeing this, you know, with Lauren Bobert, for instance, now coming and saying, Ilha and Oma, the backpack in the elevator. Do you think it got better as a Muslim person working in government, or do you think it just shifted maybe? I actually think that what happened to me in 2012, as you were referring, were, the, the, the, the, the, to, to, to, to, the, to, as a, to, to, as a, to, to, to, to, to, to, the, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, you, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the the the the the the theymeha, theymeha, theymea, theymea, theymea, theymea, you know, too, too, too, too, too, toe, to Republican members of Congress, suggested I was essentially

a spy, not a patriot. I was that American, Trevor, that as I traveled to the world as a little girl, and we went everywhere from South Africa to London, to Paris, to Asia. Every time we landed, I would turn to my mother and say, isn't America yet? Why? Because to me, America wasn't just a place that you could go to movie theater, things I didn't have back in Saudi Arabia, or you could wear what you wanted. It was a feeling. It was a sense of choice and optimism and appreciation for those principles and values. So I've always walked to the great pride as an American. I do think when they accused me of being essentially a spy,

it was unleashing, I think it was an appetizer, Trevor, to what we were to face in 2016 when certainly Muslims and many brown people became the other and I'm not just saying my kind of brown, generally if you were a person of color, you were the other and they succeeded in doing. I think it unleashed permission to have this kind of dialogue and conversation. It's one of the many reasons I wrote this book is to explain to the country what it is to be an American Muslim. It's not just heart-wrenching but it's also really vulnerable how you

share your story. You know, your name really just rose to prominence, the time, I mean, I wasn't familiar with American politics, but the story was blowing up. A lot of the women who I worked with, they were just like, I mean, this is so shitty. Like, as women, we have to deal with the shit that our men do, we have to bear their shame as well. And you really lay it out elegantly and v. really surprising to me is at the end of the book you acknowledge and thank your ex-husband and I'd love to know why you did that and and if that was a true

feeling that you had or if you thought no this is the high road that I need to take. You know I do acknowledge Anthony in the end of the book and the reason I do that is two things. The first is he gave me the single most important thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin thin their their their their their their their their their their the. that the. the that that that that that that that that that that that that that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. the. the. the. the the. the the the the the the the. the. the. the. that that that that is that is that is that's my little boy. And he gave me that sense of feeling, I know what it is to be loved. And if you read the book, to feel like the most special person in the room, I didn't have a lot of experience with men before I met Anthony. And I wanted to be seen not as, even though I have a whole chapter in the book called, elephant in the room. and another one called shame, shame go away. Even though I did live with a lot of shame and felt judged for much of my marriage, I tried to make every decision that I thought was right for me and for my little boy.

And I've actually been surprised by the number of people who've read the book and read to the end seeing how I made these decisions as it related to my marriage, saying, okay, I understand now, get it. And I think people who have in their life loved ones who deal with addiction or mental health challenges, they understand. For people who don't, it's harder. And so I'm really glad I'm very humbled to hear people understand it once they read the story and see that there is another side.

There is hope and possibility and optimism. Well, to be honest with you, I think everybody does understand. I just think as human being thi thi thi thi thi, I thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, I'm, thi, I'm thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to be to be tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to to to to to to to to tooooooooooooooooooooooomomoooomooomorrow, thi, thi, th be honest with you, I think everybody does understand. I just think as human beings, it is easier for us to judge a situation that is happening outside of us because when we're not in love or when we don't love somebody or we're not experiencing a negative thing with a loved one, the answer is obvious. The answer is obvious, you know, so you go, you should do thrown. It's like when we're watching a TV show, but you know what all the characters should do, but you're the character in your own TV show, and then you never know what to do from episode to episode. Oh, Trevor, that is so beautifully said. Yeah, I could not agree more.

And you're right, when you're judging somebody else, if you're in that position, would you actually do the same thing? It's so easy. It's so easy. All right, people, Huma's book, both slash and, is available wherever books are sold. Watch the Daily Show, Week Nights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.