Did former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeal to China to meddle in the 2020 election during a TV interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC? No, that's not true: Clinton posed the hypothetical question while mocking special counsel Robert Mueller. In his report, Mueller had dismissed Donald Trump's call for Russia to help obtain Clinton's private emails in the run-up to the 2016 election.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) by the @DschlopesIsBack account on X on July 16, 2026. It read:
Hillary Clinton's Open Plea To China
"Since Russia is clearly backing republicans, why don't we ask China to back us?"
She actually said this on live television...
This is what a screenshot of the video in the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @DschlopesIsBack on X.)
Here's the transcript of the video in the post with Clinton and Maddow from the May 1, 2019, interview:
Clinton: You know, the only other adversary of ours who's anywhere near as good as the Russians is China. So, why should Russia have all the fun? And since Russia is clearly backing Republicans, why don't we ask China to back us?
Maddow: I hereby, tonight, ask China.
Clinton: That's right, and not only that, China, if you're listening, why don't you get Trump's tax returns? I'm sure our media would richly reward you.
This hypothetical statement by Clinton -- asking for China's help -- draws a parallel to something Trump said nearly three years earlier during a July 2016 news conference. His remarks were:
Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.
According to the Mueller report (archived here), within hours, Russian military intelligence agents had "targeted for the first time Clinton's personal office" and "sent malicious links targeting 15 email accounts," including one belonging to a Clinton aide. The report concluded that Trump was not part of a conspiracy because the actions were not done secretly. For his part, candidate Trump said his comments were a joke.
The 31-second clip in the social media post leaves out that context. In a longer segment of the interview (archived here), its hypothetical nature is clearer:
Clinton: Imagine Rachel, that you had one of the Democratic nominees for 2020 on your show, and that person said, 'You know, the only other adversary of ours who's anywhere near as good as the Russians is China. So, why should Russia have all the fun? And since Russia is clearly backing Republicans, why don't we ask China to back us?'
Maddow: I hereby, tonight, ask China.
Clinton: That's right, and not only that, 'China, if you're listening, why don't you get Trump's tax returns? I'm sure our media would richly reward you.'
In context, much of what Clinton said becomes a rhetorical quote from a fictional Democratic candidate.
Then, immediately following the clip, Clinton added:
Clinton: Now, according to the Mueller report, that is not conspiracy because it's done right out in the open. So, if after this hypothetical Democratic candidate says this on your show, within hours, all of a sudden, the IRS offices are bombarded with incredibly sophisticated cyber tools looking for Trump's tax returns, and then extracts them, and then passes them to whatever the new WikiLeaks happens to be, and they start being unraveled and disclosed. Nothing wrong with that.
The Maddow interview with Clinton is embedded below:
