For decades, failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has had a shared enmity with Republican politicians and voters, and she has often been highly critical and disparaging toward her political opponents.

Yet, during a recently revealed interview, Clinton offered legitimate praise for her "tremendously impressive" GOP rivals over their commitment and tenacity in achieving at least one long-sought-after goal, the New York Post reported.

Of course, that goal was the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 with the Dobbs decision, which ended the supposed "right" to an abortion at the federal level, so Clinton's praise of Republicans was actually damning in its context.

Clinton interviewed about the overturning of Roe v. Wade

On June 4, a new book is set to be released titled "The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America," which purportedly endeavors to tell the "breathtaking untold story of the plan to overturn Roe v. Wade and the consequences for women, abortion, and the future of America."

Clinton was extensively interviewed for that book by its authors, journalists Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer, and spoke at length about not just the abortion issue but also the 2016 election and the man who defeated her presidential ambitions, former President Donald Trump, and her fears for a potential second term in office for him.

Excerpts of her interview for that book were adapted and published this week by The New York Times, for whom Dias and Lerer work, and the surprisingly candid remarks of the former nominee, Secretary of State, U.S. senator, and first lady have since gone viral.

Faint and damning praise for Republicans

"We didn’t take it seriously, and we didn’t understand the threat," Clinton said of the eventual undoing of Roe. "Most Democrats, most Americans, did not realize we are in an existential struggle for the future of this country. We could have done more to fight."

Of her Republican opponents who fought for decades against a federal "right" of abortion, the prominent Democratic politician said, "One thing I give the right credit for is they never give up."

"They are relentless. You know, they take a loss, they get back up, they regroup, they raise more money," she added. "It’s tremendously impressive the way that they operate. And we have nothing like it on our side."

Supreme Court justices lied during their Senate confirmation hearings

Clinton went on to discuss how she had attempted to warn Americans in 2016 about the potential for Roe to be overturned if former President Trump was elected and able to nominate conservative-leaning justices to the Supreme Court, but recalled that her warnings were largely dismissed by her fellow Democrats and even her own aides as being too "alarmist."

She further criticized the Supreme Court justices who formed the majority in the Dobbs decision and spoke in stark terms on her view of how that ruling has negatively impacted the lives and rights of women across the country, and even accused some of them of having lied about their intentions during their Senate confirmation hearings.

"It is really hard to believe that people are going to lie to you under oath, that even so-called conservative justices would upend precedents to arrive at ridiculous decisions on gun rights and campaign finance and abortion," Clinton said. "It’s really hard to accept that."

Women voters to blame for her 2016 loss

Yet, even as women were seemingly the victims of the high court's move to return regulatory power over abortion to the individual states, Clinton also appeared to chastise women as being at least partially at fault for the development for having not voted overwhelmingly to elect her in 2016.

Referencing former FBI Director James Comey's reopening of her email scandal just before the election, the failed Democratic nominee lamented, "But once he did that to me, the people, the voters who left me, were women." Clinton added, "They left me because they just couldn’t take a risk on me, because as a woman, I’m supposed to be perfect."