Hillary Clinton Shades Trump with Nixon Comparison

Her Wellesley commencement speech was on fire.


Hillary Clinton returned to Wellesley College Friday to deliver her alma mater’s 2017 commencement speech, encouraging graduates not to sit on the sidelines during a political climate she described as a “full-fledged assault on truth and reason.” Her remarks, which frequently sparked loud applause from the audience, included a number of veiled slights at President Donald Trump, including an implicit comparison with Richard Nixon.

“By the way, we were furious about the past presidential election, of a man whose presidency would end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice,” Clinton said. “After firing the person running the investigation into him at the Department of Justice.”

“But here’s what I want you to know,” she continued. “We got through that tumultuous time.”

The sharp quip was just one of the few times on Friday Clinton appeared to offer a side some have claimed she rarely exhibits: funny, warm, and self-deprecating. The former Democratic presidential candidate set the tone by humorously crediting the role a bit of wine played in helping her get back on her feet after November.

“You may have heard that things didn’t go exactly as I planned,” Clinton said. “But you know what—I’m doing okay.”

“Long walks in the woods, organizing my closets, right? I won’t lie—Chardonnay helped a little too.”

But she also sharply criticized the Trump administration’s policies, specifically calling the new budget proposal “an attack of unimaginable cruelty.”

While the speech was largely praised on social media, conservative networks could not resist focusing on Clinton’s cough at the beginning of her remarks:

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And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

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In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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