Riley Gaines sneered at Hillary Clinton for bringing up 2016 loss. It blew up in her face.

Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines is getting mocked online for ranting about how she believes Hillary Clinton is stuck in the past because she recently mentioned Donald Trump winning his first election in 2016. People are pointing out that Gaines herself built an entire career out of losing a swim meet.

Earlier this week, Clinton spoke to Democrats in Nebraska and listed events over the past 25 years that caused “trauma” and a sense of “hard times,” which included the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the financial crisis of 2008, Trump winning the 2016 election, and the COVID pandemic.

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“If you look back on the last 25 years in our country, I was a senator from New York on 9/11. That was a trauma. The terrible financial crisis of 2008 was horrific for people,” she said. “We had an election in 2016 that, you know, raised a lot of questions that we’re still trying to find answers for about what, what kind of really went on, and then we had COVID.”

“So if you’re somebody who is saying, ‘Does it really matter that I vote because I’m not sure I matter to the people that I’m asked to vote for?’ What we have to do is demonstrate as clearly as possible and then repeat over and over again, ‘You do matter, and we’re going to do everything we can to try to help you have the life you deserve to have,’” Clinton said.

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While it’s clear that she was talking to Democrats about potential Democratic voters – that is, people who are likely to have feelings about Trump being president – Fox News picked up on the clip and used it to portray her as self-obsessed. The web version of their story was published under the headline, “Hillary Clinton includes 2016 loss in ‘hard times’ list for Dem voters, including 9/11, 2008 financial crisis.”

Gaines is an anti-trans activist who got attention in right-wing media after she tied for fifth place with trans University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas at a 2022 swim meet. Gaines built her entire brand around the story, which included appearances on Fox News, a speaking tour, a book, a calendar, and multiple hearings in Congress.

Still, Gaines chided Clinton for being stuck in the past.

“Hillary Clinton might be the only person in America who thinks that her election loss belongs in the same conversation when it comes to public devastation as 9/11,” Gaines said. Democrats “are so out of touch with reality, with what is real, what is true, what is good. People are worried about their families, they’re worried about their finances, their future, and Hillary Clinton is still worried about… Hillary Clinton!”

“It’s been 10 years. No one is thinking about this 2016 election,” Gaines continued, smugly. “The American people have moved on from 2016. The only person who has not is Hillary Clinton.”