29 May, 2017
During a commencement speech at Wellesley College in MA on Friday, Hillary Clinton had some advice for the class of 2017: break echo chambers, be critical of fake news, and ignore the trolls.
She's remained pretty quiet, particularly on the topic of Donald Trump - until now.
"And to top it off, it is shrouded in a trillion-dollar mathematical lie", she said. Let's call it what it is: "It's a con". "They may even call you a nasty woman", Clinton said.
"You are graduating at a time when there is a full fledged assault on truth and reason, just log on", Clinton told her alma mater.
She said people on social media can deny science and concoct "elaborate, hurtful conspiracy theories about child abuse rings operating out of pizza parlors". Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes. "You may have heard that things didn't exactly go the way I planned, but you know what, I'm doing okay", she said with a smile at the beginning of her almost hour-long speech, before adding that she's had some assistance recovering from the shock of the election results with the help of her grandchildren, as well as "long walks in the woods", "organizing [her] closets", and, perhaps most importantly, some Chardonnay. "Like the size of crowds", she said to laughter, an outright jab to Trump's inauguration claims.
She said in her classmates distrusted authority and were angry at the growing casualties in Vietnam - and the occupant of the White House.
And by the way, we were furious about the past presidential election of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice.
"You may be convinced to change your mind from time to time", she said.
Clinton's speech has been met with both praise from supporters, and criticism from her critics.
"Instead of lashing out with the same partisan talking points, Hillary Clinton would be wise to look inward".
Much of her speech was a rallying cry for graduates to get politically involved and engaged with their communities. She pointed to it as evidence that she doesn't plan to fade away, and repeated a line she made during her commencement address as a student almost a half-century ago. Her original speech as a graduate at Wellesley, which she recalled staying up all night writing and editing, reflected her classmates's wishes for her to address their worries about America in the '60s. I'm doing okay", she said, joking, "I've gotten to spend time with my family...long walks through woods, organizing closets.
"I won't lie, chardonnay may have helped", she added.
She implicitly linked Mr Trump's firing of Federal Bureau of Investigations director James Comey with the Watergate scandal, which unfolded after Mrs Clinton's graduation from Wellesley in 1969.
Wellesley College's president, Paula A. Johnson, introduced Clinton by saying she was the first woman nominated to be a presidential candidate for a "major" political party.