WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran against Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, said in an interview exerpt released Tuesday that she is “favor of moving toward impeachment” and that "we are in a crisis."

“I did not come to that decision easily or quickly, but this is an emergency as I see it,” Clinton told PEOPLE. “This latest behavior around Ukraine, trying to enlist the president of Ukraine in a plot to undermine former Vice President Biden or lose the military aid he needs to defend against Trump’s friend, Vladimir Putin — if that’s not an impeachable offense, I don’t know what is.”

The former first lady called Trump a “corrupt human tornado,” continuing that “the president of the United States is betraying our country on a daily basis.”

“This man who is in the Oval Office right now is a clear and present danger to the future of the United States,” she added.

The interview was published minutes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump over the president's efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son's business dealings in the Eastern European country.

More:Read Nancy Pelosi's full remarks as she called for an impeachment inquiry of President Trump

"The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law," said Pelosi, who accused Trump of betraying his oath of office and endangering national security.

Additionally, Clinton's comments for impeachment came after a flood of Democrats, some of whom had previously held out against impeachment, joined the effort.

Trump tweeted after Pelosi’s announcement that the inquiry was “presidential harassment” and a “total witch hunt.”

Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani have pushed claims for months that Biden as vice president sought the ouster in 2016 of Ukraine’s then-prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to stop an investigation into Burisma Group, a Ukrainian energy company where his son Hunter served on the board of directors.

The push by the vice president came alongside calls for Ukraine to get rid of Shokin from European diplomats and the U.S. State Department because international leaders said Shokin did too little to fight corruption in the Eastern European country.

The Ukrainian Parliament voted Shokin out. Ukrainian officials have found no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son.

Contributing: Bart Jansen and Christal Hayes