Hillary Clinton Crushed It This Week

Who could have imagined that a congressional hearing about a deadly attack on an American embassy in Libya would be a perfect opening act for Katy Perry? Hillary Clinton spent more than 11 hours on Thursday fielding questions and responding to tirades at the House Select Committee on Benghazi, and even people who can't stand her agreed that the former Secretary of State crushed it. And Thursday was only one of many great pieces of news for the Democratic presidential candidate. Not only did Clinton handle questions about the 2012 attacks that killed four Americans, as well as queries about her emails and her friendships with controversial Washington figures, she lost three rivals for the Democratic nomination. Vice President Joe Biden was never officially in the race, but he finally put speculation to rest on Wednesday when he announced he would not run, and former senators Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee ended their campaigns. During the all-day hearing, Clinton endured questions about whether U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens ever visited her at home, about stacks of printed emails, and about her longtime adviser Sidney Blumenthal, whom Republican representatives tried to paint as some sort of evil genius. Clinton's opinion on the day's proceedings were not hard to read on her face, or in some gifs that popped up late Thursday.

Clinton spent Friday morning at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum, and she cracked jokes and praised Biden for his commitment to women's issues. "As some of you well know," she said, "I had a pretty long day yesterday." Clinton will still have to grapple with the fact that many people are still skeptical of her cozy relationships with the major banks responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, her aggressive foreign policy, and her history of supporting legislation that has hurt the lowest-income Americans and people of color. But this is the first time in months that Clinton didn't appear to be on the defensive, and future debates with Bernie Sanders will give her time to make her case to America. What's next? A concert. Katy Perry will lend her star power and hits to a major Clinton rally on Saturday. No word on whether Clinton plans to break out her Left Shark impression.