it has been a long road for hillary clinton <u+2014> former first lady, senator and secretary of state <u+2014> since she announced her presidential bid more than a year and a half ago. here<u+2019>s a look at notable moments and missteps of her campaign. clinton entered the race and instantly took the lead hillary clinton joined the presidential race in april 2015, ending two years of demurrals and instantly taking the lead in the contest to become the democratic nominee. it was seven years after she lost the democratic primary to barack obama. in a polished video announcing her candidacy she said, <u+201c>everyday americans need a champion, and i want to be that champion.<u+201d> just an unrecognized chipotle fan soon after, she slipped into a chipotle restaurant in ohio and ordered a chicken burrito bowl. she even carried her own tray. was it a stunt to prove her commitment to ordinary american-ness, or does she just really like chipotle? no journalists were present, and mrs. clinton, wearing sunglasses, went unrecognized. even the staff did not know she had been there until a times reporter called. a frank exchange on black lives matter mrs. clinton had a raw and unscripted exchange with a black lives matter activist who cornered her over her support for criminal justice policies enacted during her husband<u+2019>s presidency. she challenged the much younger man to channel his passion into policy change . on email issue, a long road to <u+2018>sorry<u+2019> mrs. clinton long resisted her aides<u+2019> suggestion that she apologize for using a private email server while at the state department, insisting the scandal had been manufactured by her political opponents and the news media. it was a high-profile example of her instinct to dig in and cede no ground when under attack. in september she finally changed course , calling her email practices <u+201c>a mistake<u+201d> and adding, <u+201c>i<u+2019>m sorry about that.<u+201d> mothers of slain black men backed clinton the mothers of michael brown, trayvon martin, eric garner, tamir rice and a half-dozen other black men killed by the police or in gun violence emerged as powerful surrogates for mrs. clinton after she asked them to tell her their stories at a three-hour dinner in chicago. <u+201c>she took her pad and her ink pen, she wrote her own notes, and she asked us what did we need,<u+201d> one mother said. clinton defeats sanders mrs. clinton effectively defeated the insurgent campaign of senator bernie sanders after she won a string of democratic primaries across the northeast, allowing her to shift her attention to the general election. from this moment she focused on donald j. trump and, to a lesser extent, senator ted cruz. clinton blasted trump<u+2019>s <u+2018>thin skin<u+2019> mrs. clinton delivered a pointed attack on mr. trump in a speech in san diego, describing him as a childish, reckless, uninformed and mentally unhinged amateur. she said he would pose a danger to both the united states and the world if he were to be elected president. she said his foreign policy ideas were <u+201c>not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.<u+201d> <u+2018> a moment of reckoning <u+2019> when she became the first woman to accept the presidential nomination of a major party in july, mrs. clinton warned of a <u+201c>moment of reckoning . <u+201d> <u+201c>powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart, bonds of trust and respect are fraying,<u+201d> she said. <u+201c>and just as with our founders there are no guarantees. it truly is up to us. we have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together.<u+201d> clinton attacked alt-right, and alt-right was thrilled mrs. clinton criticized mr. trump for his campaign<u+2019>s embrace of the alt-right , a community of conspiracy theorists and white nationalists at the fringe of the conservative movement. she said mr. trump had adopted much of the alt-right<u+2019>s language of <u+201c>prejudice and paranoia<u+201d> and was <u+201c>taking hate groups mainstream.<u+201d> many on the alt-right reveled in the attention. <u+2018> the basket of deplorables <u+2019> mrs. clinton came under intense criticism after she described half of mr. trump<u+2019>s supporters as fitting into <u+201c> the basket of deplorables <u+201d> to a laughing crowd at a manhattan fund-raiser. many of them are <u+201c>racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic, you name it,<u+201d> she said. mr. trump said the remarks showed that mrs. clinton was disdainful of his white, economically hard-hit supporters. clinton<u+2019>s pneumonia stumble mrs. clinton faced more trouble when she was seen stumbling as she abruptly left a sept. 11 memorial event early. she was then forced to admit that she had pneumonia. the episode scuttled her political strategy to cede the spotlight to mr. trump, stirred public doubts about her candor and gave new life to conspiracy theories about her health. speeches released by wikileaks show clinton<u+2019>s bank ties mrs. clinton displayed a comfort with the ultrarich, embraced free trade, praised a budget-balancing plan that required social security cuts and reflected on her family<u+2019>s wealth in lucrative paid speeches she delivered to financial firms but refused to disclose to the public. the speeches, which contrasted with the liberal tenor of her campaign, were stolen by hackers and posted online by wikileaks. a complicated feminist figure mrs. clinton responded cautiously to the increasing sexual assault accusations against mr. trump and the national debate over male privilege and sexual violence that followed. her careful approach underlined her complicated place in feminist history as the first female presidential candidate who also played a role in rebutting accusations of sexual misconduct against her husband, bill clinton. clinton turns trump<u+2019>s style against him at debate mrs. clinton outmaneuvered mr. trump in the third presidential debate , mocking, needling and taunting him with a series of verbal surgical strikes that reflected an unexpected new approach: his own. she deployed some of his trademark tactics against him, tormenting him with a broad smile. her opponent was left largely subdued and defanged. find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via facebook , twitter and the morning briefing newsletter .
hillary clinton<u+2019>s moments and missteps: a look back
liam stack