Clinton emerges to plead for unity
Hillary Clinton says she’s ‘‘ready to come out of the woods’’ and help Americans find common ground.
Clinton’s gradual return to the public spotlight following her presidential election loss continued with a St Patrick’s Day speech in her late father’s home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania yesterday.
‘‘I’m like a lot of my friends right now, I have a hard time watching the news,’’ Clinton told an IrishAmerican women’s group.
But she urged a divided country to work together to solve problems, recalling how, as US first lady, she met female leaders working to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
‘‘I do not believe that we can let political divides harden into personal divides. And we can’t just ignore, or turn a cold shoulder to someone because they disagree with us politically,’’ she said.
The speech was one of several she is to deliver in the coming months, including a May 26 commencement address at her alma mater, Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She is also working on a book of personal essays that will include some reflections on her loss to Donald Trump.
Clinton, who was spotted taking a walk in the woods around her hometown of Chappaqua, New York two days after losing the election, quipped she had wanted to stay in the woods, ‘‘but you can only do so much of that’’.
She said it would be up to American citizens, not a deeply polarised Washington, to bridge the political divide.
‘‘I am ready to come out of the woods and to help shine a light on what is already happening around kitchen tables, at dinners like this, to help draw strength that will enable everybody to keep going,’’ Clinton said.
Clinton’s father left Scranton for Chicago in search of work during the Great Depression, but returned often, and Clinton spent summers at the family’s cottage on nearby Lake Winola.