SAN FRANCISCO — A spirited Hillary Clinton took on the Trump administration Tuesday in one of her first public speeches since she lost the presidential election, criticizing the country’s Republican leaders on everything from health care to the shortage of women appointees in top administration positions.
Cracking jokes about her November defeat and her months out of the limelight since, Clinton spoke to thousands of businesswomen in San Francisco, joking there was no place she'd rather be, ‘‘other than the White House.’’
Without mentioning President Trump by name, Clinton faulted the Republican presidential administration repeatedly, including calling its representation of women in top jobs ‘‘the lowest in a generation.’’
She rebuked White House press secretary Sean Spicer, again not by name, for hours earlier Tuesday chiding a black woman journalist during a news conference for shaking her head.
‘‘Too many women have had a lifetime of practice taking this kind of indignity in stride,’’ Clinton said.
‘‘I mean, it’s not like I didn’t know all the nasty things they were saying about me. I thought some of them were kind of creative,’’ she said. ‘‘But you just have to keep going.’’
Clinton declared herself appalled at a much-circulated photo showing an all-male group of Republican lawmakers last month negotiating women’s coverage in health care legislation, noting a social-media parody of it that showed an all-dog panel deciding on feline care.
Last week’s failure of the GOP health care bill, Clinton told a cheering, applauding crowd, was ‘‘a victory for all Americans.’’
Trump has named four women to his Cabinet, the same number as in former President George W. Bush’s first Cabinet.
Trump earlier this week pointed to the work he planned to have his daughter, Ivanka Trump Kushner, do on child care and other issues involving working women and men in her unsalaried role in his administration.
Clinton has kept a low profile after Trump defeated her for the presidency, except chiefly for sightings while she took walks outdoors with her husband, former president Bill Clinton. She said earlier this month that she intended to start speaking out again on public issues.
On Tuesday, she urged voters to resist Trump policies that she said included suspicion of refugees and voter suppression in some areas.
‘‘These are bad policies that will hurt people and take our country in the wrong direction,’’ Clinton said, relaying what she had become one of her mantras since the November election.
‘‘It’s the kinds of things you think about when you take long walks in the woods,’’ she said. ‘‘Resist, insist, persist, enlist.’’
Associated Press
GAO to examine costs of Trump’s travel to Florida
WASHINGTON — A government watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office, has agreed to review the costs and security precautions associated with President Trump’s travel and stays at Mar-a-Lago after a request for inquiry from leading Democrats on Capitol Hill.
On 17 days of his presidency, Trump has spent at least part of his time at Mar-a-Lago, his club in Palm Beach, Fla., flying down five times on Air Force One and requiring protection from the Secret Service, the US Coast Guard, and local police forces while in Florida. The government has not disclosed the costs.
After Trump announced his third trip there last month, senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Tom Udall of New Mexico, along with Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, all Democrats, wrote to GAO chief Gene L. Dodaro saying they were ‘‘deeply concerned’’ about the potential costs as well reports that Trump had met the Japanese prime minister in plain view of diners at the club.
The Democrats also questioned whether the president’s company, which he still owns and which owns Mar-a-Lago, was charging the government ‘‘fair and appropriate’’ rates for use of the property while there at the service of the president.
On Friday the GAO agreed to take up the inquiry, by looking into four areas:
■ What measures are being used to protect classified information and provide secure communications capabilities while the president is away from the White House, and whether a secure communications space has been created at Mar-a-Lago.
■ The type of security screening the Secret Service employs for guests and visitors of Mar-a-Lago.
■ What measures the Secret Service and Defense Department have taken to ensure fees they are charged for Mar-a-Lago trips are ‘‘fair and reasonable.’’
■ Whether the US Treasury has received any payments resulting from profits at hotels that are owned or operated by the president.
Trump has called Mar-a-Lago his ‘‘Winter White House,’’ and White House press secretary Sean Spicer recently countered criticism of Trump’s travel there.
‘‘The president is very clear that he works seven days a week. This is where he goes to see his family. He brings people down there. This is part of being president,’’ he said.
The Secret Service has requested $60 million extra for Trump-related costs and protection, according to internal agency documents, about half of that for security at Trump Tower, in New York, where First Lady Melania Trump and son Barron Trump live.
Washington Post
