Hillary Clinton talks 2016 election as she, Julia Gillard take to the stage

• The Australian
• 10:28PM May 10, 2018
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It was billed as an evening with Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former US senator, secretary of state and presidential candidate who, free from political constraints, promised to share her unique ­experiences from the weirdest, angriest and ultimately, unlikeliest election campaign in US ­history.

It is an election and broader battle that, according to Mrs Clinton, continues.

Taking aim at the “information warfare’’ waged by Russia to destabilise her campaign and American society in the lead-up to the bitterly contested election, Clinton warned that the world was at the crossroads of a global struggle between liberal democracies and a “rising tide’’ of ­authoritarianism.

“The forces at work in he 2016 election are still with us in the United States and around the globe,’’ she told a crowd of about 5000 people at the Melbourne Convention Centre on Thursday night.

“Deep currents of anger and resentment flowing through our culture. A political press that told voters that my emails were the most important story. The unprecedented intervention in our election by the FBI director and the information warfare waged from within the Kremlin.

“What we have learned about Russian interference in our election is more than alarming. It is a clear and present danger to democracy. It is right out of Putin’s playbook.’’

Linking this theme to the presidency of Donald Trump, Mrs Clinton said America’s “natural defences’’ to Russia’s attack had been weakened by its own fractured political discourse and emergence of “alternative facts’’ as an accepted political commodity.

“When leaders deny things we can see with out own eyes, like the size of a crowd at an inauguration, or refuse to accept settled science when it comes to urgent challenges like climate change, it isn’t just frustrating to anyone who prides himself or herself on living in the fact based universe, it is insidious and subversive to democracy.

“I truly believe that our world is at a cross roads and what we do next ... will matter enormously.’’

Mr Trump this week dismantled one of Mrs Clinton’s most significant foreign policy legacies as secretary of state by unilaterally withdrawing America from the Iran nuclear deal she helped initiate.

In an expansive rebuttal posted on Twitter before her arrival in Melbourne for Thursday night’s speaking engagement, Mrs Clinton ­described the US’s unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to ­arrest Iran’s nuclear weapons program as a “big mistake’’ that made America less safe and Iran more dangerous.

“What’s plan B?’’ she asked. “Anyone who thinks bombing is the answer is woefully mis­informed. As secretary of state, I helped negotiate the crippling international sanctions that brought Iran to the table. It would be much harder a second time, now that our credibility is shot.’’

Mrs Clinton riffed on this theme as she addressed those who had paid between $200 and $500 for a seat in the cavernous Melbourne Convention Centre.

Her support act for Thursday night’s show was Julia Gillard, the first Australian woman to serve as prime minister.

Ms Gillard spoke earlier this year of her desire to work with Mrs Clinton to share their experiences in politics and “deepen the evidence base about women in leadership”.

Mrs Clinton, like Ms Gillard, has partly attributed her political failures to sexism, and more broadly in Mrs Clinton’s case, to the Trump campaign’s expert ­appeal to the darker instincts of American ­voters. “I was running a traditional presidential campaign with carefully thought-out policies and painstakingly built coalitions,’’ she wrote in her memoir, What ­Happened.

“Trump was running a reality-TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans’ anger and resentment.’’

Mrs Clinton was one of more than 2 million people who clicked onto Ms Gillard’s famous 2012 misogyny speech delivered against Tony Abbott.

Mrs Clinton said Ms Gillard faced “outrageous sexism’’ as prime minister.

Mrs Clinton is not a regular visitor to Australia, yet, at one of the lowest points of her professional life, she contemplated refuge in the same place favoured by many suburban Australians.

It was the day of Mr Trump’s inauguration and Mrs Clinton was waiting with husband Bill to be guided to their VIP seats in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

“I’m imagining that I am anywhere but here,’’ she writes in her memoir. “Bali maybe? Bali would be good.’’

Mrs Clinton said she dealt with her shock election loss with a mixture of yoga, long walks with her dogs and chardonnay. She said writing a book about her experiences was cathartic, sometimes painful but ultimately invigorating, and that she remained fundamentally optimistic.

“Everyone gets knocked down,’’ she said. “What matters is whether you get back up and whether you keep going.’’

Mrs Clinton will speak on Friday night in Sydney. Both shows are part of a “Women World Changers’’ ­series promoted by a leadership consultancy, The Growth Faculty.