NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton says her husband wouldn't be much use picking out flower arrangements for the White House, but if she's elected president, he would come in handy as a host and adviser.
"I'll ask him about the economy, what we should do with dealing with a lot of difficult people in the world," Clinton said on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" in a segment taped Thursday. She identified one of those "difficult people" as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Clinton made the comments after Meyers asked her, "Having been a first lady, what qualities does your husband have that would be good for that job?"
She said Bill Clinton is "a great host" and "loves giving tours," but "picking out flower arrangements, maybe not." And because he is "vegan-ish" — he eats fish but not meat or dairy — she said "he might have useful information about menus" for vegan guests.
Meyers asked if it would be hard to keep Bill Clinton "out" if she were president.
"Maybe there will be occasions when I don't want to," she said. Recalling Bill Clinton's 2009 trip to North Korea to free two Americans who were being held there, she said, "You never know why you might need to use him."
On Donald Trump, Clinton said: "What he's saying now is not only shameful and wrong, it's dangerous. ... This latest demand that we not let Muslims in to our country really plays right into the hands of the terrorists. I don't say that lightly but it does. He is giving them a great propaganda tool, a way to recruit more folks from Europe and the United States."
Clinton also agreed with Meyers' assertion that Democrats and gun-control supporters have failed to connect with gun owners who support measures like universal background checks and closing gun-buying loopholes.
"We all bear some responsibility for that," she said. "It's not a total foreign, alien concept that people have guns and use them for appropriate purposes. I do think we don't have the right approach to it. We do need to reach out to responsible gun owners and say we can do more to prevent as many deaths as possible."
