Hillary Clinton criticized President Trump’s proposed cuts to the State Department and U.S. aid programs that benefit women and children in developing nations, warning of a “shift that should alarm us all” in attention around the globe to women’s rights and health.
Speaking at an awards ceremony in her name at Georgetown University, Clinton called the fight to elevate the rights of women and girls across the globe “the great unfinished business of the 21st century.”
She took aim specifically at the Trump administration for its proposed cuts in international aid and diplomatic programs that help promote peace and stability. “I know we’ve seen positive results” in the advancement of women’s rights over the past couple decades, Clinton said. “But I’m here also to say we are seeing signals of a shift that should alarm us all.”
“This administration’s proposed cuts to international health, development and diplomacy would be a blow to women and children and a grave mistake for our country,” she said. “Turning our back on diplomacy won’t make our country safer. It will undermine our security and our understanding in the world,” said Clinton.
Trump’s proposed fiscal 2018 budget would cut spending on international programs including the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development by 28.5% to $27.1 billion. During her speech, Clinton also cited a February letter from more than 120 retired generals and admirals urging Congress to block Trump’s State Department and USAID cuts, saying they save the U.S. from spending military dollars on wars.
It’s part of a series of recent speeches in which Clinton's been openly critical of the Trump administration. That includes a speech last week in San Francisco in which she slammed White House press secretary Sean Spicer for his treatment of an African-American female journalist during a press briefing and disparaged the low percentage of women serving in the current White House.
At Georgetown, Clinton cited the important role women have played around the globe in promoting peace, from women who’ve helped heal sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland to those who ended a bloody civil war in Liberia and women from the Democratic Republican of Congo who’ve endured “unimaginable abuse and cruelty.”
The ceremony itself payed tribute to individuals who’ve been pivotal in a Colombian peace agreement, including Jineth Bedoya, a journalist and advocate for victims of sexual abuse who was abducted and raped while reporting in Colombia and Elena Ambrosi, a key member of the Colombian government’s negotiating team in Havana.
On Wednesday, first lady Melania Trump gave a keynote speech on women’s empowerment at the State Department. Yet, in an earlier speech in San Francisco, Clinton pointed out that the ratio of women to men employed by Trump’s White House is the lowest in a generation.
At Georgetown, without using any names, Clinton said: “If we are to build more just free and peaceful countries and a just world it’s not enough to just pay lip service to empowering women,” she said.
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