Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton talked fashion, student debt, race relations and feminism with “Girls” star Lena Dunham for the first issue of her email newsletter, dubbed “Lenny.”
The set of short interviews published to the Lenny YouTube account helped Clinton reach Dunham’s main audience — millennial women.
Dunham threw soft questions at Clinton, avoiding hot-button topics such as her email controversy or the Benghazi attacks.
On race relations, Clinton said, “I will say what President Obama has eloquently said — we’ve made progress, but not nearly enough. And we can’t continue to make progress if we’re not even honest with ourselves that we still have problems.”
Clinton outlined that the issue of race relations is specifically between communities of color and law enforcement “sworn to protect them.”
In another video of the interview, Clinton told Dunham that she’s a feminist and wants to promote that message.
“I’m always a little puzzled when any women of any age, but particularly a young woman, says something like, ‘Well, I believe in equal rights but I’m not a feminist.’ Well, a feminist is by definition someone who believes in equal rights,” Clinton said. “It just means that we believe women have the same rights as men. Politically, culturally, socially, economically. That’s what it means.”
Additionally, she took time to repeat her platform of cutting back student debt, saying that if she were president, she would help Americans refinance their student loans.
“I want to get more kids in debt, young people with debt, into programs where they pay a percentage of their income instead of a flat rate,” Clinton said.
Perhaps one of the lightest parts of the interview is when Dunham asked Clinton about her notorious “cold-shoulder” dress in 1993 when she was first lady.
“That is one of my favorite dresses,” Clinton said after clapping. “This is what’s called a cold-shoulder dress … Like everything I do, it turned out to be controversial. I’m hardly a fashion icon, I absolutely admit that.”