Hillary Clinton says she still believes a woman can win the presidency in the United States, but she admits the political climate today makes the path more complicated than ever. Speaking on the Raging Moderates podcast this week, the former secretary of state reflected on her own historic 2016 campaign and what has followed in the years since.

When asked whether Democrats should try again to nominate a woman, Clinton was blunt: “I think we have to nominate whoever that person is that we think has the best likelihood of winning. And I think it’s absolutely fair for voters to factor in every possible attribute, including whether the candidate is a woman, whether the candidate is a person of color, whether the candidate is too tall or too short or whatever the reason might be.”

But Clinton also didn’t sugarcoat the reality. She called it “deeply disheartening” that misogyny has not only persisted but in some ways become more overt since her run. She pointed to elements of the Christian nationalist movement that have openly floated repealing the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Online harassment, she noted, has only amplified that hostility, but it is also visible in real life.

Clinton highlighted what she sees as a pattern under President Trump, recalling that among his earliest firings were the Coast Guard’s first female commandant, the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Navy’s first woman chief of naval operations. “The message is totally clear,” she said. “Nobody should be mistaken that the Republicans, the right-wing, their media are deeply against women in leadership roles.”

That doesn’t mean, she stressed, that a woman couldn’t overcome those obstacles. Clinton argued Democrats have “extraordinary candidates” of all backgrounds, and voters will ultimately judge them on who has the best chance of beating Trump or his chosen successor in 2028.

Looking back at the 2024 election, Clinton opined that if President Biden had stepped aside in 2023 there could have been space for an open primary. She believes this could have produced a candidate strong enough to defeat Trump.

Still, Clinton circled back to her central point: the margins remain thin, the culture wars are fierce, and every choice in 2028 will be shaped by those realities. “I personally believe that if he can, Trump is going to try to stay in office,” she warned. “So whoever our candidate is, they have to be ready to go toe-to-toe on all of it.”