Hillary Clinton opened her speech before the Democratic Women’s Leadership Forum with a dry jab at the House Republicans who grilled her for 11 hours Thursday.
“As some of you may know, I had a pretty long day yesterday,” she said. “I finally got to answer questions, something I have been pushing for literally a year, and I am just grateful I recovered my voice which I lost a little bit.”
Clinton spoke to a room packed with Democratic women Friday morning and received the loudest and longest sustained applause of the Democratic candidates who addressed the group Friday.
Clinton kept her cool throughout the testimony before the House Benghazi panel Thursday. But she unloaded on Republicans the following morning, noting that they were also putting together a panel to investigate the Planned Parenthood videos.
“I think we all know by now that’s code for a partisan witch hunt. Haven’t we seen enough of that yet?” she said.
Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders also spoke to the women’s group, and Lincoln Chafee, just hours earlier, announced that he was ending his White House bid.
And Clinton even got in a small jab at her Democratic primary opponent Sanders, who had been critical at the last Democratic debate about those who “shout” about changing gun control laws.
“I am not shouting,” Clinton told the audience Friday. “It is just when women talk, some people think we are shouting.”
The crowd of Democratic women roared at Clinton’s one-liners and red meat throughout her speech. It was a stark difference from just a half day earlier, when Clinton plodded through hours of tense exchanges with members of the House Benghazi panel.
After the event, Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said that Clinton proved she can take the hits and not fall down.
“We’ve shown she weathers storms. You can’t knock her down. I mean, you can knock her around, you can take a lot of shots, but I mean, you can’t do it,” Palmieri said. “She is stronger now than she was before. There will be more, a lot of tough moments. I think she will get the nomination, but it will be — a lot of press right now are maybe setting too high expectations.”
Palmieri said the Clinton campaign had its single best hour of fundraising from 9 p.m. – 10 p.m. last night, just after the Benghazi panel finished. Palmieri did not have a specific amount, but said it was more than $100,000 collected in one hour.