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April 6 (UPI) -- Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed concern over the current direction of the United States and Russia's purported involvement in November's election Thursday at a women's summit in New York. Clinton spoke in a 44-minute interview at the eighth annual Women in the World Summit, an event celebrating equality and women's rights.
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The former State Department chief, New York senator and first lady touched on multiple issues in her interview Thursday -- but perhaps none more than her life after November's stunning election defeat and her opinion of the new administration.
"I'm happy to be here," Clinton said after thunderous applause from the audience at the David H. Koch Theater in New York City.
"I hope we can move on to see some positive developments in our country, but that's going to take some time, apparently," she told the interviewer after he said perhaps the American people should ask for her condolences on the election loss, instead of the other way around.
"I'm doing pretty well, all things considered," she said of the five months since election day. "The aftermath of the election was so devastating and everything that has come to light in the days and weeks since have been all so troubling."
Clinton said it was difficult to regroup psychologically after her electoral college defeat to Donald Trump, 304-227, even though she won the popular vote by more than 2 million ballots.
"As a person, I'm OK. As an American, I'm pretty worried," she said. "There's a lot to be concerned about."
The former Democratic nominee identified Russia's reputed involvement in the election as the greatest concern to her, and said Congress needs to act in unison to determine if Trump's campaign played any role in Moscow's attempt to sway the vote.
"I am deeply concerned about what went on with Russia. I think it's important that we all work together, regardless of the party or partisanship or anything else, and start acting like patriotic Americans because a foreign power meddled with our election," she said. "I think what was done to us was an act of aggression.
"Because of the success the Kremlin feels they had, they are not going to go away. ... If we don't take action together to hold whoever was involved accountable, they will be back."
In her remarks, Clinton said she views four elements as chiefly responsible for Trump's election to the White House -- Russian interference, the existence of misogynistic voters who opposed a female president, FBI Director James Comey's announcement a week before the vote that the bureau was looking into new possible evidence in her email investigation, and WikiLeaks publishing stolen, private emails of campaign manager John Podesta for weeks before November 8.
Comey's potential new evidence amounted to nothing and he said as much two days before the election. But, many Democrats feel, the damage had already been done.
"People have asked me, 'Why do you think [Comey] did that to you?' Well, I don't think it's too complicated," Clinton said. "He had his desire to destabilize us and others, and he's not exactly fond of strong women.
"What was done in that election was unprecedented," she said of Russia's reported hacking into Democratic web servers to steal personal communications. "Look, I don't want any Republican candidate to be subjected to what I was subjected to ... to have their communications stolen, which is what it was, it was a theft. It was a more effective theft even than Watergate.
"I want people to say ... 'We aren't going to let somebody sitting in the Kremlin with a thousand agents with [Internet] bots and trolls and everybody else try to mix up in our election.' We have got to end that and we need to make sure that's a bipartisan American commitment."
