>> she left office with her dignity intact. >> it is our job to figure out what happened. >> hillary has a lot of grit. takes a licking and keeps on ticking. >> i am running for president of the united states. good evening, i'm chris matthews. she's waited a long time for this. building a world class resumé as two-term first lady, u.s. senator from new york, secretary of state, and with it all a record that has weathered partisan attack. this time she announced on youtube. >> i'm getting ready for a lot of things. a lot of things. >> i'm getting ready to do something, too. i'm running for president. >> it was a bit unorthodox of a venue, but the message was pure democrat, with a big "d." the deck was still stacked in favor of those at the top. >> thank you! >> her friends told me she would wake up every other morning with a different decision. i can't go through that all over again. then the next day she'd get up and say, but look what i could do. i can't let that chance go away. >> oh, my gosh, i love yoga. >> so hillary clinton took off for iowa and new hampshire. >> great to see you. >> since you lost iowa in 2008, how do you win this time? what's your strategy? >> i'm having a great time. can't look forward to any more than i am. >> she set out to connect with voters, something she had struggled with in the past. >> let me hop in and say hello. >> she was now all on board full tilt. and there wasn't anybody else in her way. >> republicans started attacking her right away. >> what else don't we know? >> if she gets in office, it's 25 or 30 trillion when she leaves. >> when hillary clinton travels, there's going to need to be two planes. one for her and her entourage and one for her baggage. >> the republicans seem to be talking only about me. >> summer 2015 polls showed clinton with a huge lead, but in august bernie sanders began to rise while clinton began to dip. >> thank you all so much. >> bernie sanders had a message. wall street's bad. we need to do something about these big campaign donors buying influence. and hillary's message was kind of fuzzy. i'll fight for you. i'm a woman. >> october brought the first debate on cnn where senator sanders surprised many. >> enough of the e-mails. let's talk about the real issues facing america. >> he chose not to focus on the controversy surrounding secretary clinton's use of her private e-mail server while she was secretary of state. >> traditional operative will say you can never -- you should never have taken away a potential arrow from your arsenal, but i think the mistake in people looking at it that way is they underestimate how effective that was for him and his supporters in reinforcing his authenticity. >> soon after the debate, hillary clinton faced more questions about her previous job. she was called to testify before the house select committee on benghazi. >> well, we'll have more time, i'm sure, to talk about this because that's not a view that i will ascribe to. >> after 11 hours of testimony, most observers thought she came off looking poised and presidential. >> the most important political thing she had to do was to make sure those hearings were public and to make sure those guys had the opportunity to be as mean and nasty as they wanted to be. >> things seemed to be going clinton's way except sanders' support continued to rise. >> sanders highlighted the fact of the dependence of the democratic establishment on wall street money. they're supposed to be the party of the people. and yet they're as bought office -- bought off as the republicans are.off as the republicans are. >> in september donald trump said she had a penchant for sexism. trump responded. >> there was certainly a lot of abuse of women, and you look at whether it's monica lewinsky or paula jones or many of them. >> something happened to pull her back down, and i've been wondering whether it's trump surfacing all that stuff again. hillary clinton is all during this campaign going to have a very complicated relationship with the past, with the clinton past. when we return, the girl who would run for president. >> hearing dr. king for herself really awakened her to the idea that there was a revolution happening in the country. no... you want someon toeave you alone, you etend li you're sleeping it'shat u do. if y want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurce, you switch to geico. it's what you do. tv character: taking selfies the kitchen do not make you a model. ifou have dete toevere plue pasis, it's a pill that treats plaqu. introdjection or a cream.ast). isn't it time to let the real y shine through with otezla, 75% wi ruced redness,chievable d scaliness of plaques. has reqrement for route b monitori.mation don't take otezla if y a allergic otezla may increase to athe sk of deprsion.ts. don't take otezla if y tell your ctor if youave a history of depression or scidal thoughts, or if these feelgs develop. some rerted weight lo. your doctor should monitor your wt and may stop treatment. si effects mayinclude d, na, upper respiraand headac infection, and you'r ntr ll your doctdermologist abou medicinotezlaay.g tbe asyo ow me of you.a. i have a cold th this annoying runny se. better take something. i hdayquil liquidels thidoesn't treat a nny se. it'? alkaeler plus coldldand us fight your worst cold sympms including your runny ne. oh, what a relieit is! hillary rodham was born in 1947 in chicago. she was the first child and only daughter of dorothy and hugh rodham. when she was 3 years old, the family moved to the suburb of park ridge. >> hillary's father had a small business and they had a comfortable life but they were decidedly middle class. >> hugh rodham was a tough minded republican and devout methodist. dorothy was a former secretary who dreamt of a brilliant career for her first born. >> when hillary was 5 years old, she went out to the schoolyard and she was playing with a little girl who called her names. and she went back to her mother, and her mother said, you go right back out there and give her what for. and she went back out and punched the girl in the nose. >> they started pushing me around, and i pushed back. it was a particularly good lesson, i think, for a girl in those days to be told you cannot let life do this to you. >> her mother, dorothy's, experience being essentially abandoned by her family, enduring real hardship in her childhood. and she was very close to her mother, and i think it taught her a lot of grit. her relationship with her father more difficult, i think. he was a real old school taskmaster, very toughvery conservative. >> the little girl who rode bicycles and danced grew into a teen who her high school history teacher said was very aware of the changes happening. >> i had made the remark to hillary's mother that she certainly seemed to know her current affairs. her mother then volunteered this information that, well, around the table, we expect our children to talk politics. >> as a teen, hillary rodham was inspired by the youth minister at her family's church. >> he took us to see and hear dr. martin luther king jr. preach in chicago. >> i can do none other but disobey an unjust law. [ applause ] >> hearing dr. king for herself really awakened her to the idea that there was a revolution happening in the country. >> my mother and my church kept pushing open my understanding of the fact that, you know, not everybody looked like me, not everybody was raised like me, not everybody had the opportunities that i had. >> politically, she was still her father's daughter, a republican. >> hillary actually was a goldwater girl, which is what they called the young high school students who would actually canvas for goldwater. >> this was during the '64 year when hillary was a senior and here's hillary's signature in her own handwriting promising to work for barry goldwater. >> hillary rodham was accepted to wellesley, one of the top schools in the country. >> but her father was furious about it because he thought it was this eastern girls school that wasn't at all what he had in mind for her. but she loved it. >> she was actually head of the young republicans at wellesley. she was a more liberal republican. sort of a rockefeller republican. i think what really started to change hillary clinton was the vietnam war. >> it was at the height of the anti-war activity during the war in vietnam, and it was in a period where students were resisting authority famously, not trusting anyone over 30. >> we came of age in the civil rights movement, the vietnam war, the women's movement, and a lot of us have had to really kind of find our way, make sense of the world that we're in. >> by the time she graduated from wellesley, she'd really migrated from being a rockefeller republican to essentially being a democrat. >> i decided that i was much more in the, you know, the camp of people like, you know, president lyndon johnson, trying to promote civil rights, voting rights, ending poverty. >> hillary rodham was chosen to make the first ever commencement speech by a student. >> and she used her senior speech to say young people are dying for nothing, people are being overlooked. >> that was a bold but polite version of speaking truth to power, which was a very important part of the 1960s. >> a lot of her student friends got up and cheered her, and a lot of the faculty was shocked that she created an eruption that had actually brought her a lot of attention. "life" magazine did a story about her. who was this firebrand girl talking about politics? >> after graduation, hillary rodham entered yale law school, one of only 30 women in a class of 140. while studying in the library, she noticed a young man staring at her. >> and she put her books down and walked on across the library. the library was a long skinny building. she said, look, if you're going to keep staring at me and you're going to keep staring back, we should at least be introduced. my name is hillary rodham. what's your name? at the moment, i couldn't remember. >> coming up, hillary rodham has a choice, follow young bill clinton to arkansas or not. coacng means makin tough choices. jim! you're in! buwhen y have high bod presse and need cold dicine that works fast, that gives powerl cold symptom relf withouraing yoblood essu. coridip. the imagon the surce boo transpts you into thworl which is our mn go as animators and you can actually tch the screen.. you can't do that on a m. wh hit00,000 miles.e or her wn yowalked ay wiout a scratch. maybe it was all the tes it got you safelyut there. or all the times it got yoout of there. maybe it washeay your by ur by e. oraybe the dayd was not a babynymore every subaru is built to earn t becae we know at you're trusting us with. subaru. kelley be book's most trusd an beand best overall brand. trusting us with. love. watergate and the cover-up. >> after graduation from yale law, hillary rodham landed a job on the house judiciary committee then deciding on the impeachment of richard nixon. >> we don't know at the moment. >> to be a young woman right out of law school on a congressional committee that was looking into the impeachment of a president? unthinkable. >> hillary rodham's future looked bright, but that young man she met in law school, bill clinton, wanted her to move to his hometown in arkansas where he was teaching and had political ambitions. >> why in the name of god are you going down to that godforsaken place where you're going to probably marry a country lawyer who is never going to amount to anything. and her answer was a very winning one -- i love him and i want to try it. >> i had some apprehension. bill was really the only person i knew in this state and i was packing up and moving. >> and she told the attorney that she was working with at the time, i'm going out to be with my boyfriend. he's going to be president some day. and this lawyer said, you're crazy. but she knew. >> and in october of 1975, she married bill clinton. >> i had kept my name because i thought that was the right decision at the time. the attitude was you have a job, you have a role, you're a woman. wouldn't it be better off if you were a real wife? >> bill clinton was elected attorney general of arkansas. the next year hillary rodham got a job with the prestigious little rock law firm. >> rose law firm was the white shoe law firm in little rock. very highly placed. no other women. she was the first woman. but she was a rainmaker. >> in 1978 bill clinton ran for governor of arkansas. he was elected to a two-year term and the couple moved from fayetteville to the governor's mansion. >> you still had posters on the wall and bricks holding up your bookcases. we literally moved our belongings that first term in the back of a pickup truck. >> during the first year of bill's governorship, the couple bought into a real estate venture called the whitewater development corporation where arkansas friends. they didn't know at the time how significant this investment would become. on february 27th, 1980, hillary rodham gave birth to their daughter, chelsea. that november, bill clinton lost his re-election to the governorship. >> hillary and i have shed a few tears for our loss of last evening, but we accept the will of our people with humility. >> after his defeat, hillary stepped in and essentially took over his management of his political career. and that was really the start of her involvement in politics. >> to focus on the campaign, hillary took a leave from her law firm. she switched from thick-lensed glasses to contacts and began to use the name "clinton." she was accepting the cosmetic choices of an arkansas first lady. >> i want to avoid any problem and just to put it to rest, i will forever be known as hillary rodham clinton. >> she was the campaign manager. she was the boss. she describes her role as having chelsea in one arm on her hip and going door to door for bill. nonsense, she would sit next to me and we would work on the advertising negatives and positives. >> in 1982, bill clinton was elected governor of arkansas again and hillary clinton assumed an unprecedented role. head of a commission on education reform. the arkansas education standards committee. >> we must hold accountable teachers as well. >> 1988 bill clinton considered a run for the white house but an aide, betsy wright, worried about what he would face. >> betsy wright sat bill clinton down and said, i want the name of every single woman that you've had anything to do with that could be brought up against you as having, you know, sexual relations. >> but hillary clinton fought for issues and her husband, even barging into an opponent's press conference during one of her husband's re-election campaigns. >> he has consistently avoided a debate. >> who is the one person who didn't show up in springdale? give me a break. i think we ought to get the record straight. >> they ran as a partnership, uniquely equitable, both of them supremely political as they looked toward higher office. >> i proudly announce my candidacy for president of the united states of america. >> it was a tough campaign for both bill and hillary clinton with back-to-back scandals. >> one smoked marijuana, no, i didn't inhale. got away with that. he dodged the draft. he got a friend to tell a friend to keep him out of the draft. he got away with that. and the third, which was gennifer flowers, the lounge singer, who sold her story of her romance with bill clinton. >> the story broke in the supermarket tabloid "star" magazine right before the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primaries. the couple went on "60 minutes" after the super bowl to do damage control. >> i'm not sitting here some little woman standing by my man like tammy wynette. >> there was governor clinton with his wife saying, look, like all marriages we've had our problems, but we've gotten beyond it. seemed at first like a pretty definitive answer to questions about sexual infidelity. >> so the next morning, i met her at little rock airport. when we got into a motel room in the lobby and turned on tv, there was gennifer flowers with her slot machine eyes playing these steamy tapes with bill clinton. >> bill? it's gennifer. it hardly sounds like you. >> when i looked at her to see the surprise, all i saw was like a lizard eye blink. and she immediately said to her press secretary, get bill on the phone, get our surrogates on the phone. just right into battle mode. >> and hillary's role as running the counter emerging from her role as the abused wife to the role of campaign manager deflecting the allegation really set up the basis for the whole rest of the campaign. >> bill clinton placed a disappointing third in iowa, but held on to second in the new hampshire primary. he dubbed himself the comeback kid. hillary clinton stayed in the spotlight when she was asked about charges of ethical conflicts when she worked for the rose law firm, which did business with the state of arkansas. >> i suppose i could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what i decided to do was fulfill my profession, which i entered before my husband was in public life. >> she had sounded like she was dissing women who worked at home and cookies and tea became the sort of iconic sound bite of the campaign. >> bill clinton went on to win a majority of the states on super-tuesday on march 5th. three days later "the new york times" ran an article scrutinizing the clintons' investment in the whitewater development corporation. >> the whitewater story in and of itself was so complicated it didn't really stick. but inside the campaign we know that they spent a lot of time and energy on this. >> the clinton campaign rolled on and headed to the convention with a clear majority of delegates. right before the convention, "washington post" reporter michael isikoff discovered that jack paladino, a well-known private eye, was being paid by the campaign through a denver law firm. he called clinton chief of staff betsy wright. >> what are you using paladino for? and she says to me, we're not using him for anything except bimbo eruptions. >> in november, 1992, bill clinton was elected president of the united states. many believe mrs. clinton had a lot to do with it. >> oftentimes the candidate's wife is just barely tolerated by the staff. in hillary's case, she was right there in the inner circle of people who made bill clinton president. coming up -- >> i, william jefferson clinton, do solemnly swear -- thoughtip you st regular caednwted gas. thoughtip not good. you st regular th we ched to mir. ly miriberupportsregularity thailycomfort fiber. and is less likely to cause... unwanted gas. finally. switch to mirafiber. from e makers of miralax. marie stareretcini with chickedh tender wte mchken and fresy-ma pas mixed in e because she kns thmo caboumforfood, isho youe . it's time savor. marie llender's. . hi, i'm richard lui with your top story. donald trump scheduled to speak at any moment in this location in arizona. earlier trump went after hillary clinton and the just announced fbi review of a newly discovered batch of e-mails calling it the biggest scandal since watergate. clinton calling the fbi's announcement unprecedented and deeply troubling. she called for the fbi director to put out all the facts of this new review. for now, back to "hillary clinton, it takes a country." xx january 20th, 1993, hillary rodham clinton's long-ago vision became reality. bill clinton was the 42nd president of the united states. >> i, william jefferson clinton, do solemnly swear. >> what's the first thing they would do in the white house? >> pull the covers over our heads. i think every woman who has been in this position has redefined it to fit her. >> the couple quickly got to work. >> hillary wanted to play a major role, and she was entitled to it. and she and i discussed the possibility of her being chief of staff, and i said that's a bad idea because the owner has to always be able to fire the manager. >> i'm grateful that hillary has agreed to chair this task force not only because it means she'll be sharing some of the heat i expect to generate. >> so bill set up a task force on health care with hillary in charge. >> rosalynn carter had sat in on cabinet meetings, but this is the first time a first lady had had an office in the west wing. >> am i conscious that i could get blamed or be criticized? of course. but i think that it's a risk that my husband believes is worth taking, and i agree with him. we believe if we have everybody in the system, that will give us for the first time a truly competitive health care system. >> the health care initiative met fierce resistance from capitol hill and insurance companies. >> there was a sense among people in congress that she put together this sort of secret committee where they came up with policies and then attempted to shove them down the throats of the congress. that she had an imperial manner in the way that she devised what she called hillary care. and it went over about like a lead balloon. >> while the health care debate raged, the whitewater affair came back and boiled over. in october of 1993, a bank examiner made nine criminal referrals to the justice department. reporter michael isikoff investigated whitewater for "the washington post" and "newsweek." >> republicans seize on this, how can the clinton justice department investigate a land deal and a failed savings and loan owned by the clintons' business partners? what the press was pushing for at the time, and i was a part of it, was to see the clintons' whitewater documents. but hillary clinton was very much of the camp, no. we don't give in to our political enemies. this is being driven by our political enemies. and as a result, the perception that they were hiding something began to take root. >> her legal friends tried to persuade her to, you know, be more friendly, be forthcoming with information, talk to members of the press you can trust. no. so it was hillary's penchant for secrecy about bill clinton's background, about their affairs, it's none of their business. >> in early 1994, the clinton white house agrees to the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the matter, and that was a fateful moment in the history of the clinton presidency. >> in august of 1994, the clinton health care initiative died on capitol hill. >> the president was willing to compromise and get a major piece of health care legislation through, and hillary said, no, i want the whole thing. and she had a lot of leverage over him for a lot of different reasons, and so he listened to her and he didn't compromise, and they both regretted it. >> i happened to be at a conference where hillary was speaking in 1994 and i followed her into the ladies room. and she knew me. and she let down her hair. it was a rough time for her, and she had been, you know, pushed aside. that was when she began to travel to other countries. >> in september of 1995, hillary clinton went to china and confronted the host government and others about women's rights. >> let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights once and for all. >> she's sort of a kind of feminist icon in a sense that she did open up the possibility of what a first lady could be. >> the whitewater investigation continued and mrs. clinton was called before a grand jury in january of 1996, the first time in history a first lady was subpoenaed before a grand jury and required to testify under oath. >> she wore a flowing black cape with a scary chinese symbol on the back, and looked very defiant. they didn't indict her, of course. >> hillary clinton came out with a book in early 1996 "it takes a village and other lessons children teach us." >> i took the title for my book from an old african proverb, it takes a village to raise a child. >> it was a best-seller, but not everyone was buying it. >> it does not take a village to raise a child. it takes a family to raise a child. >> in november of 1996, bill clinton defeated republican senator robert dole and was re-elected president. the first time a democrat was elected to a second term since fdr. when the first couple returned to the white house, a young woman in a black beret hugged president clinton. the world would not know who she was for another year. >> 40 million americans still lack health insurance. 10 million children still lack health insurance. my balanced budget will extend health coverage to up to 5 million of those children. >> in 1997, president clinton proposed a new initiative to provide coverage up to 5 million children. hillary rodham clinton and her staff worked with congress and succeeded in passing the state children's health insurance program, the largest health care reform in the years of the clinton presidency. but even while moving policy forward as president, clinton was dogged by his past. in may 1997, the supreme court ruled that a former state clerk, paula jones, who claimed clinton sexually harassed her in an arkansas hotel room in 1991, could file a civil suit. the president's attorney, bob bennett, tried to find a settlement. >> and he came very close, but when he took it back to the white house, he ran into resistance from hillary clinton who said, we don't cut a deal on this. we don't give in to our political enemies. because that deal was not struck, the jones lawsuit went forward and that's what gave us monica lewinsky. >> michael isikoff's investigation into the paula jones case led him to a woman named linda tripp. >> she took me aside and said there's a story here but it's not the one you're thinking of. >> she ultimately tape recorded secretly monica telling her story about having an affair with the president in the oval office. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman, miss lewinsky. >> he has described to the american people what this relationship w not in his words. has he described to you what it was? >> yes. and we'll find that out as time goes by, matt. but i think the important thing now is to stand as firmly as i can and say that the president has denied these allegations on all counts. >> but eventually her husband told the country the truth. >> i misled people. >> i asked her how she was, and she said i'd like to stay in bed and pull the covers over my head and have a nervous breakdown, but i really don't have time right now. i'll defer it to later. and she marched on. >> in december 1998, president clinton was impeached by the house of representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. >> his name now will go down in the history books as only the second president in the history of this republic to have been impeached. >> the senate did not convict. and in february of 1999 the impeachment trial was over. >> she left office with her dignity intact despite all that had been done to her, but also with something really important, which is sympathy. >> the public verdict on hillary clinton's conduct was decidedly favorable. her gallup approval rating spike to an all-time high. her campaigning in new york for senator chuck schumer in 1998 made the big shots of the big apple aware of her potential as a candidate in her own right. coming up -- >> i want your signature because i think everybody wants to see you signing something that you said you were for. >> it's very dangerous to get physically aggressive even just in appearance toward a female politician, particularly if that politician is as shrewd as hillary clinton. something new . ♪ iquely desd for the driven. introducing the firsever infiniti qx30 crossover. infiniti. emwethe drive. visiyour local i iiti retailer today. at clorotued remongtains into a scien. now pre-trt withlox 2! watch stains disappear righbere yr eyes. removeimes me stains th detergent alone. wh it's tit's te fory train... training underwear! has an all-aroundps. stretchy wstba. and superior protection. soou'll see fewer leaks. and they'll see their t underwr. new pampers easy u. ifoue modetete and you're tkingyodo about yr m. severe rumatoid arthritis, thiss humira. this is mira hpingtoelieve my n and prott my joints from further damage. this is mira hpingtoelieve my n this is mira mira works for many adults. it targets and helpso block a specificoue of inflammation th contributes to ra symptoms. humira haseen clinically studied for over 18 ars. humira can lower yr abily to fight i iections, including tuberculis. humira can lower yr abily to fight i iections, serious, sometimes fal infectnd ncers, idi mphoma, ha happened,. as havblooiver and nervous system problems, seriouallergiceactns and w or wsening hearfailure. befo tatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if yove been to areas bewhere certain ngal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hetitis s are prone to infections, or have flu-like sytoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. retalk to yourheumolist. ths humi at work. july 7th, 1999, hillary clinton traveled to upstate new york to the farm of senator daniel patrick moynihan, who was retiring. >> i care deeply about the issues that are important in this state. >> her husband left office as president with 60% plus approval rating. >> she officially established an exploratory committee to look at running for moynihan's seat. >> hillary played it very smart. she didn't come into new york like i know it all. she came in saying, i'm going to have a listening tour. i'm going to learn what new yorkers really need. and she went right to upstate new york. >> she really listened. and what it was was a classic clinton thing of combining real policy connection with real political chops. >> yes, i intend to run. >> in february of 2000 she formally declared and ran against a formidable foe, rudolph giuliani. it showed real guts. her critics would have loved it if she had lost. but the mayor formally dropped out due to medical problems. >> this is not the right time for me to run for office. >> rick lazio, a little-known republican from long island, ran against hillary clinton. in a debate lazio got aggressive. >> no, i want your signature because i think everybody wants to see you signing something that you said you were for. >> it's very dangerous to get aggressive, physically aggressive even just in appearance toward a female politician, particularly if that politician is as shrewd as hillary clinton. >> and if trump is smart, he will watch the tape of that debate because she won that election when rick lazio tried to crowd her. >> hillary won easily, 55% to lazio's 43%. she was sworn in as january 3rd, 2001, becoming the first first lady to hold elective office. >> she was running at a time the clintons were quite popular. they had withstood the most ferocious attack imaginable. the president had been impeached and he was acquitted and, you know, he was triumphant. >> bill clinton's presidency was over, but there was already talk that hillary clinton was going to be next. >> she began to win over people on the hill, including republicans. >> she actually becomes quite friendly with john mccain and with other republicans who actually find out that they kind of like this clinton. >> lindsey graham, who was on the house impeachment team, has talked about how impressed he was getting along with hillary clinton. >> chelsea was in the city. in fact, she was in lower manhattan with friends. you know, like every other mother and wife, i just frantically made those phone calls and made connections. >> she also held a press conference with other legislators. >> we have a lot of work ahead of us, and that work includes the identifying of those who are responsible for this cowardly and evil act. >> in the days following september 11th, new york's junior senator visited ground zero. >> i actually walked toward ground zero with then-senator clinton, and she -- she struck just the right tone in her supportive conversations with the rescue workers and the others at ground zero. and she also was very sensitive about not politicizing it. >> she then returned to washington and fought for funding for new york. >> so i'm sitting there in the oval office, and bush says to me, what do you need? i said, i need $20 billion to rebuild, you know, new york. he said, you got it. and he was good to his word. >> after that meeting she earned praise from across the senate aisle. >> you have become a senior senator very quickly and you are a tower of strength. >> she voted to authorize military action in afghanistan, and in october of 2002, voted to authorize the war in iraq. >> 9/11, you know, ripped the heart out of new yorkers, and there was almost no other vote she could have taken but to authorize military force against iraq. >> many of her husband's former foreign policy advisers were cautiously in support of president bush's plans, although privately they all had quite a few doubts, and she cast the vote that has haunted her ever since. >> i've said iraq was a mistake. i've said that what i thought the strategy was, which was to let the inspectors finish and to find out and if necessary to be able to then put pressure of a different kind on saddam hussein wasn't allowed to go forward. >> in 2003, she became the first senator from new york to serve on the armed services committee. a move that may have signaled presidential aspirations. >> would you under any circumstances accept the democratic nomination in 2004? >> tim, i've ruled it out. i'm going to continue to rule it out. >> she won re-election to the senate in 2006. by this time the iraq war was seen by many as a mistake and her vote was not forgotten. soon after announcing her 2008 presidential run, she was asked to clarify her position on voting for the war. >> senator, why can't you say your vote was a mistake? >> well, meredith, i've taken responsibility for my vote, but i've also, as a member of the united states senate, have an obligation to try to figure out what we're going to do now. >> despite this festering issue, senator clinton hit the campaign trail with enthusiasm. >> i'm running for president, and i'm in it to win it. >> you're looking at an open election, a jump ball, which is the most advantageous situation particularly for the opposition party. >> she's the inevitable candidate. she had tremendous support at the organizational level. she had lots of superdelegates. she didn't think she needed to bother with iowa. don't put a lot of money in there, and she lost, third place in iowa. >> for her to come in third behind john edwards in iowa was just devastating. that night was just awful. >> then an emotional moment in the granite state. >> i have so many opportunities from this country. i just don't want to see us fall backwards. >> and she made these women feel like, oh, there is a human being under there. and i could relate to her, i can empathize with her. >> clinton won the 2008 new hampshire primary. >> let's give america the kind of comeback that new hampshire has just given me. >> but on super-tuesday, february 5th, the largest number of states ever held primaries in a single day. barack obama won 13 contests to clinton's 10, but only won 17 more delegates. hillary would not leave the race until june. >> barack obama played a bill clinton kind of role in 2008 as the guy, oh, he'll never get elected president. in one case the governor from arkansas in the other case he's barely been in the senate a couple years. and so it's wrong to say that hillary clinton ran into bill clinton's doppelganger, but she did run into a character who had a lot of her husband's skills. >> the biggest gamble we could take right now is to have the same old cast of characters, playing the same old washington games over and over again. playing the same old washington games over and over again. >> suddenly they were the establishment and he's the change. and they were shocked. he was now challenging her for something the clintons had never, ever questioned, and that's the loyalty of the african-american vote. >> basically the 2008 campaign was a fiasco. >> but on the floor of the convention that august, clinton was the loyal democrat. >> that barack obama is our candidate and he will be our president. >> after barack obama won that fall, he asked hillary clinton to be secretary of state. >> it was a way of turning the clinton family into allies as opposed to enemies. it was a move worthy of bill clinton himself. >> he brought her into the tent, and, you know, nobody questioned her ability to do the job. >> but controversy arose after september 11th, 2012. >> every day all across the world american diplomats and civilians work tirelessly to advance the interests and values of our nation. >> u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans died in an attack in benghazi, libya. >> there were questions all along about the security that chris stevens had while he was there and whether the state department responded the way it should have to the warnings about security in libya at that time. >> the attack in benghazi shadowed secretary clinton with hearing after hearing. >> what difference at this point does it make? it is our job to fige out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again. >> before president obama's reelection, clinton said she would not stay in the state department for a second term. when she left in february 2013, she became a private citizens for the first time in 30 years. she joined her husband and daughter at the clinton foundation. in march 2015, another controversy erupted when there were reports she used a private e-mail server while secretary of state. >> this was an unsecured private e-mail server. the government is supposed to protect the e-mail accounts of senior government officials. so this raised security questions. >> and the creation of this private server just is hard to believe unless you put it into context of someone who had been under such harsh attack for over 20 years. >> in april of 2015, hillary rodham clinton once again announced. >> i'm running for president. >> there wasn't anybody else in her way. people who talk about joe biden, it was after thought. bernie sanders was a no-name recognition guy from vermont. was in the senate but who knew? >> democratic race right now is so tight, you could bounce a dime off of it. orxpand your office and take owhateverom find outow ari express cards anservic can help prepare you for growth at open.com. find obut my back paininas exprmaking it rd tsleep anopen up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only to combine a slp aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving rength of ale.. now i'm back aleve pm for a better am. [ rear alert sounds ] [ music stops ] ] ♪ on e road aga ♪ust can't wait to get on the road again ♪ frfrt assi snds ] [ music stops ] [ girl laughs ] ♪ oe road again ♪ like band of gyies wedo theigay ♪ [ beetle horn nks ] no matter which passat , you get more stanrd ftures, no matter which passat , for le than you pected. y in and lease for 9 a month. want a great way to help our children thrive? then be sure to vote yes on proposition 55. prop 55 doesn't raise taxes on anyone. instead, it simply maintains the current tax rate on the wealthiest californians to prevent education cuts that would hurt our kids. no wonder prop 55 is endorsed by the california pta, teachers and educators. because all of us want to help our children thrive. it's time to vote yes on proposition 55. i'm still very positive and energized by what i'm seeing happening here in iowa. >> senator clinton was staying positive before the iowa caucuses, but it was getting very close with polls showing younger women going for sanders. did they know the rights to choice to equality at workplace where they do get it, were they fought for? do they get it? >> i think young people of every background, every racial, ethnic, religious background are trying to understand how best they can participate in our political system. >> you could feel bernie met them out there. you could see the enthusiasm that he was arousing. >> the democratic race right now is so tight you could bounce a dime off of it. >> wow. >> it was a squeaker with hillary clinton beating bernie sanders. >> wow, what a great. an unbelievable night. what a great campaign. >> new hampshire was eight days later. sanders from neighboring vermont was seen as a favorite but he does even better than expected, winning 60% to 38%. >> she couldn't catch a break in new hampshire and they tried to deflect it by saying, well, this is the neighboring senator from vermont. but he wasn't a natural from new hampshire, he really wasn't. but he didn't have any endorsements. >> she began hitting republican front-runner donald trump. >> despite what you hear, we don't need to make america great again. america has never stopped being great. >> just a few days later on super tuesday, march 1st, she continued rolling, winning seven states, many with big delegate counts. sanders won in four races in smaller states and by smaller margins and looked over but -- >> the big news out of michigan last night was the big upset of bernie sanders by hillary clinton. >> michigan was significant because it showed that sanders' message on trade was really sinking in and that his appeal to lunch bucket blue collar decrats was real and was going to be a problem for her in the industrial midwest. >> tuesday march 15 was seen as crucial for clinton. she won big. >> i know our future will be brighter tomorrow than yesterday. thank you all so very much. >> clinton lost in wisconsin but two weeks later scored a big win in new york. after the california primary on june 7th, hillary clinton had enough delegates to be the presumptive nominee. >> thanks to you, we've reached a milestone. the first time, the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee for president of the united states. >> a month later, bernie sanders threw his support behind his former opponent. >> i am proud to stand with her today. thank you all very much. >> and in philadelphia, clinton was ready to make history. >> it is with humility, determination, and boundless confidence in america's promise that i accept your nomination for president of the united states. >> on september 26th, hillary clinton and donald trump faced off in the first presidential debate. two weeks later they met again, this time in a town hall style debate. >> i have made the cause of children and family my life's work. that's what my mission will be in the presidency. >> hillary clinton will be test not on her ability to fight off attacks, she's proven that, not on her ability to withstand personal humiliation, her talent for that is in the record books, not on her endurance of people meeting and stage craft, we know she'll do what is necessary. the test for the woman born hillary rodham is whether she can shine through it, bring a gleam of optimism and genuine open that grabs the voter in the heart. can she be to the young that battle hardened veteran who has been through all those big, bloody nights before, who gives confidence to the worried of every age that, yes, i'm just the one to take you through this. i'm chris matthews. thanks for watching. together we accomplished what absolutely nobody thought was possible. you know what that is. we are only getting started. >> he is so adept at changing the topic of not answering a question that we're at this point in the race and no one has any idea what his actual policies would be. >> you've given me the honor to lead the republican party to victory this fall.