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Forty-eight years after she gave the commencement speech as a 21-year-old graduate at Wellesley College, Hillary Clinton returned to her alma mater to give the commencement address to the graduating class of 2017 on Friday. In her comments, Clinton did not hold back when it came to criticizing the current occupant of the White House, per The New York Times, calling the current political situation a con.

And Republicansthough now in control of three branches of government and in no way affected by Clinton anymorewent, predictably, crazy. Upon hearing Clintons speech, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement Friday that Clintons speech was a stark reminder why [she] lost in 2016. She claimed that Clinton was lashing out with the same partisan talking points.

In her speech, Clinton compared 1969, the tumultuous year in which she graduatedwith the country deep in the thick of the Vietnam Warto the countrys current worrying political state. Without mentioning Donald Trumps name, she compared him to Richard Nixon, which is a parallel many have been making since the president fired former F.B.I. Director James Comey.

We were asking urgent questions about whether women, people of color, religious minorities, immigrants would ever be treated with dignity and respect, Clinton said. And by the way, we were furious about the past presidential election of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice.

She went on to remind students of the specific challenges they are facing today, getting in her digs toward Washington where she could.

And heres what that means to you, the class of 2017. You are graduating at a time when there is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason . . . Drumming up rampant fear about undocumented immigrants, Muslims, minorities, the poor . . . And to top it off, it is shrouded in a trillion-dollar mathematical lie. Let's call it what it is. It's a con.

She finished her speech by encouraging students to break the rules of the game, and even alluded to her own challenges on the 2016 campaign trail:

They may even call you a nasty woman. Some may take a slightly more sophisticated approach and say your elite education means you are out of teach with real people. In other words, sit down and shut up. Now, in my experience, that's the last thing you should ever tell a Wellesley graduate.

Clintons speech, though it ends on an encouraging note, is also a clear sign that she does not intend to stay silent during this Republican era. As she made clear by launching political action organization Onward Together earlier this month, Clinton is planting herself firmly in the Trump resistance. Resist, persist, enlist has become her motto, which is only going to anger staunch anti-Hillary Republicans further.

As Rebecca Traister mentions in her New York magazine profile published Friday, Clinton is slowly moving on from her heartbreaking election year. Clinton herself is one of these awakened women, Traister writes, comparing the former presidential candidate to the millions of women fighting back at the current administration.

But it has taken some time for Clinton to reach this point in her election recovery. As she said in her speech, long walks in the woods and closet organizing has helped her build up her resilience to whatever vitriol the Republicans sling her way. And a little Chardonnay helped, too, she added. Take note, graduates. This is the Trump era; youll need all the liquid courage you can get.

Giving a keynote address during the 28th Annual Professional Business Women of California conference in San Francisco. (March 28, 2017)

Accepting the Champion for Girls award at the Girls Inc. New York Luncheon. (March 7, 2017)

Attending the Oscar de la Renta Forever Stamp dedication ceremony at Grand Central Terminal. (February 16, 2017)

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Giving a keynote address during the 28th Annual Professional Business Women of California conference in San Francisco. (March 28, 2017)

From A.P./Rex/Shutterstock.

Accepting the Champion for Girls award at the Girls Inc. New York Luncheon. (March 7, 2017)

By Mike Coppola/Getty Images.

Attending the Oscar de la Renta Forever Stamp dedication ceremony at Grand Central Terminal. (February 16, 2017)

By Janet Mayer/Splash News.

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Hillary Clinton Is Still Driving Republicans Crazy - Vanity Fair

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McConnell May Have Been Right: It May Be Too Hard to Replace Obamacare New York Times The many meetings Republicans held to discuss a Senate health care bill have exposed deep fissures within the party that are almost as large as the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Elements of a bill that passed the House this month have ... Senate Republicans Are Pretending the AHCA Simply Doesn't ExistSlate Magazine Republicans Reckon With a Rushed Health-Care VoteThe Atlantic More Proof Republicans Are Just Lying About TrumpcareThe Nation. Washington Post (blog) -Philly.com -The New Yorker -Congressional Budget Office all 1,810 news articles »

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WASHINGTON - There are few things that strike more fear into the heart of a member of Congress than the word redistricting.

That proved particularly true this week among Texas Republicansin Washington, thanks to a recent court ruling that came about just as talk was increasing in Austin that Gov. Greg Abbott may call a special session.Some Texas Republicans in Congress hope that any upcoming special session will include redrawing the state's 36 congressional districts as part of its agenda.

The message coming out of Austin thus far: not going to happen.

Several congressional Republicans told the Tribune theywant Abbott to call a special session to redraw the Congressional lines. They believe such a maneuverwould put theirallies in the state legislature in the driver's seat, circumventing Republicans' worst fear:that a panel of federal judges will draw a less favorable map of its own.

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I cant speak for my whole delegation but Ive already reached out to some of my friends back in the legislatureI said, Give me a holler,'"said U.S. Rep.Randy WeberR-Friendswood, on his hopes for a special session.

My thought is, if the legislature doesnt [redraw the map], then the court is going to drop the map, which I think is way outside their constitutional purview, he added.

The problem with that strategy? Austin has no appetite for it largely, state Republicans argue, because it would make no legal sense in the latest battle of the state's campaign to preserve its current maps.

Abbott has rebuffed the delegation calls for a special session, according to a Republican member of the Congressional delegation.And Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtonon Thursday filed alegal advisory resolving any questions about where the state's leadership stand: "TheState does not intend to undertake redistricting in a special session," it said.

In March, a three-judge panel in San Antonio ruled Texas lawmakers in 2011 purposefully discriminated against blacks and Latinos in drawing the state's congressional map. They flagged particular violations in the 23rd Congressional District, represented by Will Hurd, R-Helotes; the 27th, represented byBlake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi; and the 35th, represented byLloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

In April, the same judges concluded the 2011 Texas Legislature intentionally diluted the clout of minority voters statewide in drawing a state House districts.

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With the 2018 elections looming, lawyers representing Texas and opponents are scheduled to return to San Antonio in July for a five-day trial concerning the states next set of maps.

For most of the state's current legislative session, Republicans in Austin have been reluctant to publicly discuss the court's scoldings let alone contemplate offering new maps.

State Rep. Cindy Burkett, a Sunnyvale Republican who chairs the House Committee on Redistricting, for instance, refused to call any hearings during the legislative session whether to probe the impact of the rulings or to discuss any of the seven bills, now dead, referred to her panel. (The committee hasnt met since 2013.)

That was despite loud calls from Democrats to try to fix the maps during the regular session, which ends on Monday.

State Rep. Eric Johnson, a Dallas Democrat and the committee's vice chair, said Wednesday he hadnt heard any talk about a special session for redistricting. Calling one would show bad faith that judges weren't likely to take seriously, he said.

The time to do this was now, when were in Austin and have a committee in place, he said. Not at the eleventh hour.

Nevertheless, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this week set off special session speculation among Texans in Washington.

The justices struck downtwo U.S. House districts in North Carolina, ruling that statelawmakers illegally packed African-American voters into them and minimized their statewide influence.

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The decision, some experts say, could affect political cartography in every statehouse particularly in the American south. It prompted the judges presiding over the Texas case to quickly ask the state whether it was willing to call a special session to redraw the Texas map.

To be sure, the Congressional delegation would like to keep the current lines. But its calls for a special session are rooted in fears that the map will not hold up in court.

And even those fears are not uniform within the delegation itself.

One attorney will tell you one thing, another attorney will tell you something different, said U.S. Rep.Bill Flores, R-Bryan. "Theres more confusion than consensus.

Even as a tax code overhaul and the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections dominated the news in Washington this week, it was redistricting that absorbed many of the Texans. But the Texas GOP delegation concerns are evolving into a national worry.

As President Donald Trumps approval ratings flag, control of the U.S. House increasingly appears up for grabs in the 2018 midterms. Republicans are counting every seat on the map, and the fear is that a newly drawn Texas seat will put even more seats into play.

According to onemember, a frantic callwas put out andGOP members of Congressfrom Texasmet at the Republican National Committee on Tuesday night for a presentation of an Armageddon map. Republican attorneys and at least one party official showed many in the delegation a potentialworst-case scenario if the 2018 Texas map isdrawn by the three-judge panel. This potential map could jeopardize as many as a half-dozen Texas GOP incumbents and create ripple effects on the lines of many others.

The presentation did much to deeply rattle several Republican delegation members, according to people who attended the meeting. The RNC declined repeated attempts to respond to requests for comment.

But some sources within the delegation emerged from the Tuesday night meeting dubious of the frantic tone.

Regardless, submitting a new map now would do nothing to bolster the state's position in court, Paxton's Thursday filing suggested.

The states lawyers argue for the status quo: That any court rulings on the 2011 boundaries should have no bearing on the coming elections because those maps were never used. Recent Texas elections have involved boundaries that the court quickly drew ahead of the 2012 election and the 2013 Legislature adopted.

Yet the states legal opponents argue lawmakers swift adoption of the temporary 2013 maps should not insulate them from what they call lingering discrimination created by the state's 2011 redistricting effort.

Additionally, Paxton states, "there is no reason to doubt" that any new Texas-drawn map would draw additional legal challenges ahead of the 2018 elections.

While the Texas Republicans in Congress are debating their next moves, the state'scongressional Democratsare mostly blas about the litigation. They have little control over the process and not much to lose, given that the current map so heavily favors House Republicans.

Among Democratic members of Congress who are most intimately involved with the partys efforts to take back control of the U.S. House, their ambitions for a new Texas map are far more scaled back than the GOPs worst fears. In the most bullish of Democratic conversations, those members suggested a gain of two or three Texas seats would be a good night for their party.

Doggett is the Democrat who's most likely to see changes to his own 35th District. Thelongtime Democrat frequently finds himself perpetually drawn into new districts. He shrugged off the whole notion that his lines could change once again.

Ill run wherever I have to run, he said.

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Fearing 2018 losses, Texas Republicans in Congress want special ... - Texas Tribune

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Republicans, Pushing Aside Trump's Budget, Find Few Alternatives New York Times WASHINGTON Congressional Republicans greeted President Trump's first full budget on Tuesday with open hesitation or outright hostility. But it was not clear that they could come up with an alternative that could win over conservatives and moderates ... Republicans give Trump's budget the cold shoulderThe Hill Trump budget faces criticism, indifference from some Senate RepublicansABC News Icy Reception to Trump Budget From Fellow RepublicansU.S. News & World Report Wichita Eagle -ThinkProgress -Business Insider -WhiteHouse.gov all 1,555 news articles »

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GREAT FALLS, Mont. Republican Greg Gianfortes closing motivational speech to voters ahead of Thursdays special House election in Montana is the same thing GOP strategists are whispering in private: This race is closer than it should be.

Its a recurring nightmare of a pattern for Republicans around the country, as traditional GOP strongholds prove more difficult and expensive for the party to hold than it ever anticipated when President Donald Trump plucked House members like Ryan Zinke, the former Montana Republican now running the Interior Department, for his Cabinet. Gianforte is still favored to keep the seat red, but a state Trump carried by 20 percentage points last year became a battleground in the past few months.

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Democrat Rob Quist, a folk singer and first-time candidate, has raised more than $6 million for his campaign, including $1 million in the past week alone as energized Democratic donors pour online cash into political causes this year. Quist hopes that enthusiasm also contributes to an outsize turnout as it did in special elections in Kansas and Georgia earlier this year for the oddly scheduled Thursday election, happening just before a holiday weekend.

"I remember talking to people when it first started who said this was a slam dunk, Gianfortes it. And its not there anymore, said Jim Larson, the Montana Democratic Party chairman. It is a lot closer than people ever thought it would be.

Gianforte, a technology executive, has led consistently in polls for the special election, but Quist has narrowed that lead to single digits in recent weeks, according to private surveys. Gianforte has an edge, but its not going to be a slam dunk, said one national GOP strategist.

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Republicans have called on Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump Jr. to calm their nerves about turnout and prevent Democrats from having the only energized voting bloc in the special election. Both have rallied voters with Gianforte, and Pence recorded a get-out-the-vote robocall. Gianforte, who said little about Donald Trump when Gianforte ran for governor and lost in 2016, has cast himself as a willing and eager partner of the president this time around.

On Tuesday, surrounded by Trump stickers and some Trump hat-wearing supporters Gianforte said he was eager "to work with Donald Trump to drain the swamp and make America great again," invoking two of the president's campaign slogans. Pence's robocall may give another boost to Republican turnout efforts.

But the environment has changed since Trumps presidential win last fall. One senior Republican strategist warned that, based on the partys performance in special elections so far, if Republicans cannot come up with better candidates and better campaigns, this cycle is going to be even worse than anybody ever thought it could be.

The fact that we're talking about Montana a super red seat is amazing, said John Lapp, who led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2006 cycle. It's also amazing how much money Republicans have to pour into these seats to defend them. It's still a steep climb in Montana, but we know that the reaction there means that there's a tremendous amount of Democratic energy across the country, a tremendous amount of fundraising that will then feed into races that are much fairer fights."

Democrats hope the passage of House Republicans health care bill just three weeks before the election will put the wind at Quists back. It has been the subject of Quists closing TV ads, and he has called the plan devastating to Montana.

GOP outside groups have ensured that Republicans have a spending advantage, though, airing more than $7 million worth of TV ads, versus about $3 million from Democrats. House Majority PAC, Democrats main House outside group, on Tuesday added a last-minute $125,000 TV ad buy to the race, on top of $25,000 announced last week.

But those ads may have reached a point of diminishing returns in a state that prefers retail politics, said Matt Rosendale, the Republican state auditor.

"The airwaves are saturated, and when people see political commercials come on, they completely block it out. I think theres a lot of money wasted on it," Rosendale said. "Its a necessity in Montana to meet people. You have to be able to go out and meet with them, look them in the eye and answer difficult questions face-to-face."

Operatives in both parties privately grumble about the quality of their candidates, with each arguing their paths to victory might be clearer with a standard-bearer carrying a little less baggage.

Republicans acknowledge that Gianforte has flaws Democrats exploited mercilessly in last years gubernatorial race, likely cementing negative feelings about him from some voters. Gianforte is dogged by reports that he sued Montana to block access to a stream in front of his ranch, kicking up a public lands dispute that hits home with Montana voters and has probably followed him into this House race, said Jeff Essman, the states GOP party chairman.

Democrats, too, acknowledge that Quist isnt without his problems. Republican TV ads repeatedly attack Quists various personal financial problems, including "a defaulted loan, tax liens, collections, foreclosure notices. Republican groups dug into Quists medical records and questioned his musical performance at a nudist colony.

"I havent seen this kind of opposition research on both sides on a House race in a long time, said one Democratic strategist whos worked in the state. This is what you get when candidates are chosen in a nominating process and there's no vetting. Some people would say Quist is authentic, an outsider, a la Donald Trump, but Quist has a problematic record because he hasnt spent his career in politics being careful."

Quist called in his own big-name reinforcements to activate the Democratic base and cater to the populist streak in the state, as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders headlined a handful of rallies alongside Quist last weekend.

Its a gamble, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said, that could alienate some in the state, where Trump remains popular.

"Rob Quist is too liberal for Montana he is very liberal. Democrats who have won statewide in Montana tend to be moderate, and Quist is no moderate, said Daines, who campaigned alongside Gianforte in the final stretch of the race. Who did he parade across Montana this weekend? Bernie Sanders.

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Republicans: Montana special election 'closer than it should be' - Politico