May 26, 2017

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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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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