It's safe to say that the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was fraught with anger, tension and slurs relating to gender, reputability, and competency.
However, there's one moment in particular that will go down in history as the most bizarre, intimidating and down-right rude - that stage stalking moment during the second US presidential debate.
During the televised debate, Trump could be seen lurking behind Clinton as she answered questions from the audience regarding the Affordable Care Act during the town hall format.
At the time, social media made fun of the intimidation tactic but for Clinton, it wasn't a surprise that her competitor might attempt to distract her.
'We practised him stalking me, which we thought he would do, and indeed he did,' she recently told ABC News.
Explaining why she didn't pause during her responses and tell Trump to 'back off' as we wish we'd have the courage to do in a similar situation, Clinton said: 'You know, it's not easy for women to be passionate, even angry, in public; you know that.
'We train ourselves to be as, you know, as calm and together as we can and when any woman expresses her feelings and her emotions as you know your former prime minister Julia Gillard memorably did, you know, it produces mixed reactions by people.'
The admission comes weeks after her newly released booked What Happened detailed how uncomfortable she felt being followed by a man during the debate, who two days before had been exposed for his infamous 'pussy-grabbing' statement on tape.
'He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled,' she wrote.
Opening up about the men who she alleges blocked her path to the White House, Clinton says she was 'shivved' by the former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, who handled the investigation of her use of a private email server as former secretary of state.
'He did shiv me, yeah … we also know that opponents of mine, like former mayor Rudy Giuliani, knew something was coming.
'So there was clearly an effort to derail my campaign at the end,' she explained.
The former democratic presidential candidate also spoke of the gut-wrenching moment she was forced to stand and clap during Trump's inauguration in January.
'It was very much an emotional gut punch to be there,' she admitted.
During an appearance at the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival last night, the 69-year-old reportedly also weighed in on recent topics of conversation in the US, most notably the controversial kneeling of NFL players and Trump's threats of nuclear war.
Discussing ways to resist the White House, the former politician explained: 'Kneeling is a reverent position.
'It was to demonstrate in a peaceful way against racism and injustice in our criminal system.'
'I think it would be a grave error for Democrats to recede from those fights, so therefore we have to stand up, fight back, resist.'
Referring to Trump's recent comments about North Korea, threatening he would use 'fire and fury like the world has never seen', Business Insider reports Clinton added:
'A lot of people thought I was probably exaggerating it, but now we are worried and Congress is worried about whether they can take that power away from Trump so that in a moment of pique he doesn't pick up that phone and call whoever is sitting in the control centre today.'
Scary stuff.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
