- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton read the 2016 victory speech she would've given had she beat Donald Trump.
- Clinton got emotional at times as she read through the speech that she'd never read aloud before.
- Had she won, Clinton would've become the first female president in US history.
Hillary Clinton — for the first time — has shared the shelved victory speech she would have given on election night in 2016 had she not lost the presidency to Donald Trump.
The former first lady, New York senator, secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate read the speech aloud in a video for her new MasterClass lesson called "The Power of Resilience" slated to come out Thursday.
"I'm going to face one of my most public defeats head-on by sharing with you the speech I had hoped to deliver if I had won the 2016 election," Clinton said in the video, according to a clip of her reading an excerpt of the speech published by NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday.
"I've never shared this with anybody. I've never read it out loud," she said. "But it helps to encapsulate who I am, what I believe in, and what my hopes were for the kind of country that I want for my grandchildren, and that I want for the world, that I believe in is America at its best."
Clinton opened her speech with a message to the country.
"My fellow Americans, today you've sent a message to the whole world — our values endure, our democracy stands strong, and our motto remains 'E pluribus unum.' Out of many, one," Clinton read.
"We will not be defined only by our differences. We will not be an us versus them country," she continued. "The American dream is big enough for everyone."
—Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 8, 2021
Clinton grew emotional at times as she read the never-used victory speech, particularly when speaking about her late mother, Dorothy Rodham.
Rodham and her younger sister were abandoned by their parents when they were children, and put on a train to California to live with their grandparents, where they faced harsh treatment. Rodham eventually moved out on her own and worked as a housemaid, Clinton said.
"I think about my mother everyday. Sometimes I think about her on that train. I wish I could walk down the aisle," Clinton said while choking up. "And find the little wooden seats where she sat, holding tight to her even younger sister, alone, terrified. She doesn't yet know how much she will suffer. She doesn't yet know she will find the strength to escape that suffering. That is still a long way off. The whole future is still unknown as she stares out at the vast country moving past her."
"I dream of going up to her, and sitting down next to her, taking her in my arms, and saying: 'Look at me. Listen to me. You will survive. You will have a good family of your own and three children. And as hard as it might be to imagine, your daughter will grow up and become the president of the United States," Clinton continued.
Clinton made history as the first female candidate to win a major party nomination. Had she beat Trump, she would've become the first female president in US history.
"This is a victory for all Americans — men and women, boys and girls," she said in her would-be victory speech. "Because as our country has proven once again, when there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."