The woman whose question prompted Clinton's tears in 2008 speaks

Record ID: 115615

  • Title: The woman whose question prompted Clinton's tears in 2008 speaks
  • Date: 9th February 2016
  • Summary: PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 8, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARIANNE PERNOLD (PRONOUNCE MAH-REE-AHN PARE-NOLED), NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER WHOSE QUESTION BROUGHT HILLARY CLINTON CLOSE TO TEARS IN 2008, SAYING: "And she was eye to eye with me for a bit and she said I get a lot of help. I eat a lot of pizza. I work out a bit and I love this country.
  • Embargoed: 24th February 2016 00:16
  • Keywords: Clinton Marianne Pernold 2008 primary election Hillary
  • Location: PORTSMOUTH + MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, UNITED STATES
  • City: PORTSMOUTH + MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA00943RNG3R
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The woman who asked a question in 2008 that prompted Hillary Clinton to well up in a moment that may have propelled her to a last minute victory over Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary spoke on Monday (February 8) about Clinton's candidacy then and now, eight years later.
    Marianne Pernold was among the women invited to meet Hillary Clinton at the Cafe Espresso in Portsmouth the day before the 2008 primary.
    Clinton was then entrenched in a battle against candidate Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president and fresh from a loss in Iowa when Pernold asked her an unexpected question.
    "I said Senator Clinton, I would really like to ask you something personal. How do you do it? How do you stay so put together, so informed?," Pernold recalled during an interview at the same table where Clinton had been sitting that day.
    Pernold said she was shocked by the reaction Clinton had.
    "She was eye to eye with me for a bit and she said, I get a lot of help. I eat a lot of pizza. I work out a bit and I love this country. And then she started to feel that she was tearing up. She was not crying. She was kind of...And I feel that she didn't know what to make of that," Pernold said, adding that she was immediately thereafter bombarded by reporters who asked whether she had been planted in the audience to prompt Clinton's emotional response.
    The media attention persisted, Pernold said, with satellite trucks parked outside her home for live shots, crack of dawn phone calls and one reporter even sending a limo to her house to try to lure her to the studio for an interview.
    The day after the emotional moment, Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primary.
    Now, a day away from the 2016 primary, Pernold said she still wants to know how Clinton manages to keep going.
    "Why? Why? To me, she is like Sisyphus always pushing that 2016 election up that hill while she's dragging all of her baggage and all of her controversy behind her and she is going to be torn apart. I just don't get it. I just don't understand why she puts herself out there," she said.
    In New Hampshire, Clinton trails Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by double digits in the polls. But she is fresh off a narrow victory over Sanders in Iowa's caucuses and aides say her performance there, where she became the first woman to win, has left her emboldened and relieved.
    Still, Pernold said the concern she felt for Clinton in 2008 continues today.
    "I'm worried about her. I know she's going to have all kinds of help, but I couldn't do what she's doing. Maybe I am not as committed as she is. Maybe i am not a political nerd. I don't have anything to lose by not doing it. Maybe she does."
    Pernold voted for Obama in 2008 and said she is still undecided in 2016.
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