Hillary Clinton made a surprise appearance at the Tony Awards in New York City on Sunday and tried to make light of her ill-fated 2016 presidential campaign, but her joke was met with deafening silence from the A-list audience.
The 76-year-old former secretary of state received a standing ovation when she took the stage at Lincoln Center to introduce “Suffers,” a Broadway musical she co-produced about the women’s suffrage movement. But the mood changed when she joked about her loss to former President Donald Trump.
“I’ve been on a lot of stages, but this is very special,” the former first lady said. “I know a little bit about how hard it is to make change happen.”
Some A-listers laughed at the joke, but the room was mostly silent.
“This original American musical by Shaina Taub is a two-time Tony Award winner, so I’m very proud of it,” she continued.
“And, of course, this is a story about America’s origins – about the suffragists who fought so bravely for so long to give the women of our country the right to vote.”
Clinton, who won an Emmy Award in 2023 and a Grammy Award in 1997, urged people to vote for President Joe Biden when he faces off against Trump again in November.
“It’s almost impossible to contemplate how hard that must have been, but this is an election year and we need to remember how important it is to vote, so come on over with me, Saffs,” she said.
This was Clinton’s first Tony Award nomination.
Clinton recently blamed her loss in the 2016 presidential election on female peers who abandoned her because she was “not perfect.”
In her upcoming book, “The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America,” she argues that she lost female voters after an investigation was launched into her private email server.
Clinton’s appearance at Sunday’s ceremony came just days after she sparked backlash over a social media post marking the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
“80 years ago today, thousands of brave Americans fought to defend our democracy on the beaches of Normandy. This November, all we have to do is vote,” the former Secretary of State posted on her X account.
Conservatives criticized the posts by Clinton, a Democrat who ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential election, as disrespectful to America’s heroes.
