At Wellesley, Hillary Clinton criticizes Trump
Commencement address draws parallels to Nixon, his resignation
WELLESLEY, Mass. — Hillary Clinton never named him, but she excoriated him.
Speaking at the Wellesley College commencement on Friday, she alluded to Donald Trump, the man who defeated her for president, again and again. Ms. 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.
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 theend of a free society.
“That is not hyperbole,” she said. “It is what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done” — attempting to control everything from budgets to thoughts.
The graduates at Wellesley, Ms. Clinton’s alma mater, cheered her thunderously. But she was not finished laying out her critique of the current political culture.
“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.”
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 — not just privately but also in public. Even run for office, she said. It may not be for everyone, she conceded, “but it’s worth it.”
She also told them that it was fine to change their minds from time to time: “Take it from me — the formerpresident of the Wellesley CollegeYoung Republicans.”
It is hard to imagine a more fitting place than Wellesley for Ms. Clinton, 69, to reflect on her life’s trajectory. It was here in 1969 that a 21-year-old Hillary Rodham was chosen by her classmates to deliver a speech at commencement. And in 1992, during her husband’s first campaign for president, she spoke again at the Wellesley commencement.
Before Ms. Clinton spoke on Friday, Tala Nashawati, this year’s student speaker, who is a daughter of Syrian immigrants, addressed the graduates. In homage to Ms. Clinton, she encouraged her classmates to “break every glass ceiling that still remains.”