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At Wellesley, Clinton Criticizes Trump and His Policies At Wellesley, Clinton Criticizes Trump and Invokes Nixon Resignation
(about 1 hour later)
WELLESLEY, Mass. — Hillary Clinton returned to her alma mater Friday to the same ceremony where she began her political career almost a half-century ago. WELLESLEY, Mass. — Hillary Clinton never named him, but she excoriated him.
“I couldn’t think of any place I’d rather be this year than right here,” she told the graduates to thunderous applause. Speaking at the Wellesley College commencement on Friday, she alluded to Donald J. Trump, the man who defeated her for president, again and again. Mrs. Clinton referred to an “assault on truth and reason,” lambasted Mr. Trump’s proposed budget, and drew parallels to Richard Nixon and his ultimate fate, resignation from office under a threat of impeachment.
“You may have heard that things didn’t exactly go the way I planned,” she added. “But you know what? I’m doing okay.” These days, she said, those in power are discarding reality in favor of inventing their own facts, which, she warned, could lead to the beginning of the end of a free society.
She said she had spent time with her family, taken long walks in the woods and organized her closets. “I won’t lie,” she added. “Chardonnay helped a little too.” “That is not hyperbole,” she said. “It is what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done” — attempting to control everything from budgets to thoughts.
As her speech unfolded, it became increasingly critical of the administration of the man who defeated her in November, without ever naming him. The graduates at Wellesley, Mrs. Clinton’s alma mater, cheered her thunderously and treated her like a returning hero, if not one who had conquered, at least one who in their eyes remained unbowed.
She drew parallels between the year she graduated and the current year, noting that the president who was elected back then had ultimately been forced to resign while facing accusations of obstruction of justice. And she lacerated the atmosphere of “alternative facts,” warning that this can lead to the beginning of the end of a free society. But she was not finished laying out her critique of the current political culture.
She spoke under an enormous white tent as a persistent drizzle coated the lush campus, where the top of Galen Stone Tower and its 32-bell carillon poked above the trees. “There is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason,” she declared. “People denying science, concocting elaborate hurtful conspiracy theories about child abuse rings operating out of pizza parlors, drumming up rampant fear about undocumented immigrants, Muslims, minorities, the poor, turning neighbor against neighbor and sowing division at a time when we desperately need unity.”
It is hard to imagine a more fitting place than Wellesley for Mrs. Clinton, 69, to reflect on her life’s trajectory. The college’s commencement has served as her platform twice before, at major turning points in her life. Pausing, she added: “Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes, like the size of crowds.”
It was here in 1969 that a 21-year-old Hillary Rodham, president of her class with a freshly minted degree in political science, was chosen by her classmates as the first student to deliver a speech at commencement. Pointing to the administration’s proposed budget, she called it “an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us.” She said it “grossly underfunds public education, mental health and even efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.”
If the particulars of her words seemed pointed, the core of her message to the graduates was broad: Get involved and persevere. Harness your anger, she advised them. Stand up for truth and reason, and do it publicly. Even run for office, she said. It may not be for everyone, she conceded, “but it’s worth it.”
For Mrs. Clinton, the stage was a familiar one. She began her political career here almost a half-century ago.
“I couldn’t think of any place I’d rather be this year than right here,” she began, opening her speech on a somewhat wistful note.
“You may have heard that things didn’t exactly go the way I planned,” she said. “But you know what? I’m doing okay.”
She said she had spent time with her family, taken long walks in the woods and organized her closets. “I won’t lie,” she added. “Chardonnay helped a little, too.”
She spoke under an enormous white tent as a persistent drizzle coated the lush campus, the top of Galen Stone Tower with its 32-bell carillon poking above the trees.
It is hard to imagine a more fitting place than Wellesley for Mrs. Clinton, 69, to reflect on her life’s trajectory. The college’s commencement has served as her platform twice before at major turning points in her life.
It was here in 1969 that a 21-year-old Hillary Rodham, the president of her class with a freshly minted degree in political science, was chosen by her classmates to be the first student to deliver a speech at commencement.
And in 1992, during her husband’s first campaign for president — when she raised hackles for sounding more like a running mate with opinions and ambitions than an acquiescent wife — she spoke again at the Wellesley commencement. It was a politically safe speech, in which she mused on balancing family, work and public service.And in 1992, during her husband’s first campaign for president — when she raised hackles for sounding more like a running mate with opinions and ambitions than an acquiescent wife — she spoke again at the Wellesley commencement. It was a politically safe speech, in which she mused on balancing family, work and public service.
But in 1969, she was more daring. She caused a stir by criticizing, however obliquely, the commencement speaker, a United States senator. Her comments landed her in Life magazine as a voice of her generation and catapulted her onto the public stage. In 1969 she was more daring. She caused a stir by criticizing, however obliquely, the commencement speaker, a United States senator. Her comments landed her in Life magazine as a voice of her generation and catapulted her onto the public stage.
Today, those remarks about the commencement speaker, Senator Edward Brooke, Republican of Massachusetts, seem quaint. Yet 48 years after her graduation, her words about the idealism of a student starting college and determined to change the world seem more significant.Today, those remarks about the commencement speaker, Senator Edward Brooke, Republican of Massachusetts, seem quaint. Yet 48 years after her graduation, her words about the idealism of a student starting college and determined to change the world seem more significant.
“We arrived not yet knowing what was not possible,” she said in 1969. “Consequently, we expected a lot.”“We arrived not yet knowing what was not possible,” she said in 1969. “Consequently, we expected a lot.”
Now, of course, she knows what is not possible.Now, of course, she knows what is not possible.
Mrs. Clinton has kept a low profile since her humiliating and unexpected loss for president in November to Donald J. Trump. Her re-emergence onto the public stage has been slow and methodical. She delivered a political speech in March in San Francisco, in which she criticized the administration’s plans for overhauling health care and deplored the persistent indignities faced by women and minority women in particular. Mrs. Clinton has kept a low profile since her humiliating and unexpected loss for president in November. Her re-emergence onto the public stage has been slow and methodical. She delivered a political speech in March in San Francisco, in which she criticized the administration’s plans for overhauling health care and deplored the persistent indignities faced by women, and minority women in particular. She spoke in April at the Women in the World event in New York, admitting that she was devastated after her defeat and was still trying to figure out why having a female president had seemed so threatening to so many people.
In May, she announced that she would start a political action organization called Onward Together that would funnel money to groups that resist Mr. Trump’s policies.In May, she announced that she would start a political action organization called Onward Together that would funnel money to groups that resist Mr. Trump’s policies.
In an interview with CNN at the time, she sought to reassure her supporters that she was no longer hibernating, declaring: “I’m now back to being an activist citizen and part of the resistance.” Before Mrs. Clinton spoke on Friday, Tala Nashawati, this year’s student speaker, who is a daughter of Syrian immigrants, addressed the graduates. In homage to Mrs. Clinton, she encouraged her classmates to “break every glass ceiling that still remains.”