Hillary Clinton spoke at Yale University’s commencement ceremony this weekend to offer her support for the media, telling students that the best way to fight fake news would be to buy a newspaper.
“How do we build democratic resilience? I think it starts by standing up for truth, facts and reason,” said Clinton on Sunday. “It means calling out actual fake news when we see it and supporting brave journalists and their reporting maybe even by subscribing to a newspaper.”
The line earned a few cheers from the crowd.
The former 2016 presidential candidate also quoted Timothy Snyder’s book, “On Tyranny,” to warn that the dissolution of fact-based discourse was a stepping stone to authoritarianism.
“To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis on which to do so,” said Clinton quoting from the book. “Attempting to erase the line between fact and fiction, truth and reality is a core feature of authoritarianism. The goal is to make us question logic and reason and to sow mistrust toward exactly the people we need to rely on.”
Clinton also took a few shots at Donald Trump, and at one point, even held up a Russian ushanka hat.
“If you can’t beat em, join em,” she said to laughter.
Since losing the 2016 election to Trump, Clinton has kept busy, writing a tell-all campaign memoir titled “What Happened,” and traveling and speaking widely.
The ex-candidate routinely reminisces about her contest with Trump in these speaking engagements. Her musings about why she lost and her opinions of Trump voters usually are discussed on “Fox & Friends.”