Hillary Clinton talks about Bill Clinton's role in her administration
Should she win the White House in November, Hillary Clinton already knows what she wants him to do. She promised at a campaign event in Kentucky that she'd put her husband Bill Clinton "in charge of revitalizing the economy,...especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have been really left out."
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Though she has talked about Bill Clinton's role in her White House in public before, Hillary Clinton's choice of words on Sunday differed slightly. The topic came up again at another event Monday morning in Paducah County, Kentucky, when she was asked whether or not her comments meant she would appoint him to her cabinet. She shook her head in response and mouthed "no." (Note: Presidential historians and scholare are divided on whether Bill Clinton would be eligible to serve in her cabinet, given either nepotism concerns or questions about presidential succession).
Hillary Clinton's traveling spokesman, Nick Merrill, expanded on what Bill Clinton, also the former governor of Arkansas, could offer to his wife's administration, mentioning that he has "a lot of creativity and knowledge to bring to bear, particularly when it comes to the economy."
"It would be getting ahead of oneself to talk about any sort of formalized role for anyone in [her] administration, which she has said many times with regard to vice presidential speculation and the like, but I think that her point has been...[that] he has a lot to offer," Merrill said, "and it would be foolish not to use that in some capacity. It has not gone any further than that."
But whether Bill Clinton would actually reside at the White House remains to be seen. Merrill had no comment on where Bill Clinton would live if Hillary Clinton is elected in November.
The topic has come up in the past, as something of a joke during an interview Bill Clinton did with then-"Late Show" host David Letterman.
"If she wins the election, the chances are 100 percent I'll move back ... if I'm asked," he said as the audience laughed. "My experience is that since I left the White House, when a president of either party asks, you say yes. So I hope I'll be invited," he said at the time.