Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was at the University of Virginia this week – vowing to stay involved in American politics and warning of dangers to the nation’s democracy.
Clinton told a packed auditorium that she was devastated by her loss to Donald Trump in the presidential race and had no doubt that Russian interference was a factor. She also linked Vladimir Putin to white supremacists who brought violence to Charlottesville.
“You know a lot of these white supremacists admire Putin," she said. "They think of him as an icon of macho white supremacy, and he knows that. I mean he is no fool. He’s a former KGB colonel, and he understands how to play the influence game, and when our president basically says, ‘Well he told me he didn’t do it, and I believe him,’ it is so beyond weird.”
If the nation doesn’t investigate and respond aggressively to Russian meddling, she predicted the problem would continue and warned tech companies to do their part.
“ It was the American economy, the American entrepreneurial spirit that gave them the opportunity for a Russian kid to help start Google, for people to leave their countries and come to Silicon Valley and be part of the tech revolution.\," she told UVA students and faculty members. "That could not and did not happen anywhere else, and they better stand up and speak out and take action to protect our democracy.”
Claiming our voting machines were not safe from hackers, Clinton hailed Virginia’s decision to use paper ballots in the last election and cheered the outcome – a sweep of statewide office for Democrats and a record number of women winning seats in the General Assembly. That, she said, was as close to a silver lining as you can get following her surprising defeat last year.
“I spent a lot of time, as you probably know, taking walks in the woods and just being with my family and my friends, and I did other things like read mystery novels, because the bad guy always gets it in the end," Clinton said as the crowd erupted with laughter.
She attacked the Republican tax reform bill as a budget busting giveaway to a few wealthy donors and called huge staffing cuts at the state department tragic and foolish.
“There’s so much going on that is damaging our standing overseas, giving a big advantage to countries that don’t share our values, and they believe that they are playing our current administration, and they’re thrilled by it.,” she said.
Clinton blasted the Trump administration for what she called an attack on facts and reason.
“You know when a leader tells you something contrary to what you can see with your own eyes, like the size of an inauguration crowd, the first time it happens you might think, ‘Well that’s just weird,’ but when it keeps happening then those of you who study history know that trying to blur the line between fact and fiction is what dictators and authoritarians do, and we can’t let that happen.”
Hillary Clinton spoke at the Women’s Global Leadership Forum, part of the University of Virginia’s bicentennial celebration.