CULTURE

Hillary Clinton Gives a Dramatic Reading of the Mueller Report

Her studied Donald Trump impression will prove invaluable.


Hillary Clinton
Paul Morigi/Getty Images

In the absence of socialized medicine in the United States, crowdfunding has proved invaluable for countless individuals facing down five- and six-figure medical costs. It’s helped defray the high toll of the infamous Fyre Festival. And, apparently, it’s also where one might turn to amass $200,000 to get Hillary Clinton to record an audiobook of the Mueller Report, based on a preview clip from former Daily Show correspondent Jordan Klepper’s new Comedy Central series, Klepper.

In the clip, Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, sit down to figure out what GoFundMe initiatives they’d get behind. It ranges from the absurd to the genuinely meaningful; there are goats, saxophones, a Seamless order for falafel, and, as the main event, the Mueller Report audiobook. (It’s only a short leap, after all, from the New York Times Book Review taking it on as a work of literature.) Before they decide whether to back the project, the trio does a little dramatic reading dress rehearsal, in which Clinton reads a short extract from the report.

Though she’s had ample practice—she not only narrated the audiobook for her election-season postmortem What Happened in 2017, but won a Grammy in 1997 for narrating the audiobook of It Takes a Village—she still needs a bit of acting coaching. “Feel it; feel it,” Klepper advises. “Imagine like,” he continues, gesturing, “you have a history with this.” A solid tip.

But the real highlight is Hillary Clinton’s Donald Trump impression, likely honed over the course of many, many long walks in the woods. “The president slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh, my god, this is terrible,’” Clinton says, transitioning into her Trump impression. “‘This is the end of my presidency. I’m f***ed.” (The only thing redacted from this extract, it seems, is a small f-bomb, beeped out by Comedy Central; from the sound Clinton utters before the beep cuts her voice out, it also sounds like she may have self-censored to “f-ed.” So how to deal with all those redactions?) Bill Clinton looks convinced. See the full clip above.

Related: Hillary Clinton Compared Herself to Cersei Lannister in Her Book What Happened