Hillary Clinton admitted that then-candidate Donald Trump got inside her head and intimidated her during an infamous presidential debate moment in 2016.

During a recent appearance on the “Pivot” podcast hosted by Kara Swisher, Clinton reflected on the October 9, 2016 at Washington University in St. Louis. It occurred two days after the release of the Access Hollywood recording in which Trump made some infamous comments.

In the “Pivot” interview, Clinton discussed a widely circulated image of Trump standing behind her on stage. “I’ve thought about that a hundred,000 times, as you might guess. And it was it I was thinking about it in real time cuz I he’s looming over me and and he’s tall. People don’t realize he’s tall and he’s bulky and you know he’s got a a big, you know, physical presence,” she recalled.

“And so I’m thinking to myself as I’m also trying to answer questions, I’m thinking, okay, if I turn on him and say, ‘What are you doing?’ or back off, does that look like I can’t handle him? Does that look like I am rattled? Does that look like I, you know, am a woman who shouldn’t be in the Oval Office? If I ignore it, how does that, you know, approach, how do people feel that that is communicating? So, I ignored it. I mean, that was what I eventually decided to do because I didn’t want to look either like I was being made to be nervous,” she added.

I think he was trying to actually provoke something out of me.” She added that in retrospect there could have been “some, you know, great good stuff” if she chose to respond.

Hillary Clinton is still grappling with how Donald Trump got in her head in the second 2016 debate:

"I've thought about that 100,000 times."

She didn't know what to do:

"I'm thinking, okay, if I turn on him and say, what are you doing? Or, back off. Does that look like I can't… pic.twitter.com/V4qmOeUskl

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 7, 2026

Clinton previously reflected on the debate moment in her memoir, What Happened. “This is not OK, I thought. It was the second presidential debate and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable,” the former secretary wrote in that account.

“He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled. It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, well, what would you do? Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren’t repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, ‘back up you creep, get away from me. I know you love to intimidate women but you can’t intimidate me, so back up,” she added.

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