Maria Taylor

Hometown Life

Former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright made a stop in Northville Township on Friday to rally support for Hillary Clinton, calling the Democratic nominee “an ambassador for America” and the “best possible person to be president.”

The event was held at the home of Lisa DiRado, president of the Northville Democratic Club.

Speaking to a crowd of about 100 women and a handful of men, Albright talked about Hillary Clinton’s record as U.S. senator and secretary of state, and why she thinks Clinton would be the better choice in the Nov. 8 election. She characterized Donald Trump, Clinton’s Republican rival, as lacking the “temperament and character” for the office of commander-in-chief.

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“This is an absolutely crucial election,” said Albright, adding that it will make “an incredible amount of difference for our country and for the way that we are viewed everywhere.”

“I travel a lot,” she said. “People think we’ve lost our minds.”

Albright, a Democrat, was born in Czechoslovakia and came to the United States at age 11. She was America’s first female secretary of state, serving under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. Prior to that, she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Albright said she met Hillary Clinton when the former first lady became chair of the Children’s Defense Fund.

“She used to come to Washington and talk about the importance of really helping children everywhere, and it was such a clear example of her wanting to give a voice to those who can’t speak for themselves, and to really work very hard on behalf of others,” she said.

Albright traveled with Clinton extensively after becoming secretary of state, and called her “an ambassador for America.” She said that while Clinton did “a lot of meetings, obviously, in fancy rooms,” her true passion was “going out and meeting people and listening to them...and that has been her style ever since.”

When Clinton became New York senator in 2001, Albright noted, a lot of people thought she’d be a diva. “She was the opposite,” Albright said. “She put her head down and really worked very hard, and got so that she was somebody that could be counted on, that people trusted, that really did her work.”

As senator, Clinton served on the Armed Services Committee, something Albright said gave her valuable experience in terms of national security decisions. “And she reached across the aisle, which I thought was really important,” she continued, citing a health care plan for the National Guard that Clinton worked on with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham as an example.

Albright called Clinton a “remarkable” secretary of state.

“She restored America’s reputation, no question, after the previous administration,” Albright said. “She was instrumental in rebalancing us to Asia and helping democracy in Burma, trying to figure out our relationships in Asia, then obviously set up the way for us to have a different relationship with Iran on the nuclear issue. She tried very hard to have a different relationship with Russia, and worked very hard in terms of putting a picture forward of the United States that understands what our position in the world is, but also that we need partners.

“There is nobody, ever, that has been as prepared to be president as she is,” Albright said of Clinton, adding that her being a woman is a “bonus.”

Bottom line

“The bottom line is that she has a way of understanding how domestic and foreign policy go together, how to work with people,” Albright said. “I just think there’s no question that she knows what she’s doing in every way.”

Albright also called out Trump on issues like foreign policy and said that if he gets elected, other countries will “lose respect for the United States.”

She called his proposed ban on Muslims, on which Trump hedged during the Oct. 9 debate, “completely un-American.” She said that Clinton is “better equipped” to handle international affairs like the Syrian refugee crisis because “she actually understands what happened” and knows how to negotiate “instead of just kind of shooting from the hip.”

Albright said she was worried that Trump is too friendly with Russian president Vladimir Putin. “We know that the Russians have been supporting very far-right parties in Europe...who don’t believe in freedom of the press and human rights,” she said.

She called Trump “a gift to Putin” and said the two seem to have “some mind meld” that could undermine U.S. foreign policy, something she fears will “give rise to similar kinds of people in other places.”

Albright also denounced Trump’s behavior toward women, including multiple published accusations of sexual harassment and his remarks captured on a 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he said he used his celebrity status to grope and kiss women without their consent. Trump dismissed the comments as “locker room talk.” He denied many of the allegations as “outright lies” at a rally on Oct. 13 in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Albright said she takes his original comments at face value. “I’m sorry to say there is credibility,” she said. “You have Trump in his own words...whether it’s in that one tape from the bus or whether it’s from interviews, and then also obviously some women that have come forward, making very clear what his behavior is.”

She said that things like this give foreigners pause “because we have so talked about the importance of credible candidates around the world.”

“I think it’s a tragedy, frankly, that this kind of discussion can be going on in the context of electing the most important person in the world,” she said. “I think it’s demeaning to the American people, and it’s obviously demeaning to women.”

That’s something that really resonates with DiRado, who’s serving as 11th district presidential elector in the event Clinton is voted president.

“If someone tells you who they are, we have to believe him,” she said. “He brags about doing this. Frankly, we know this — it’s happened to our daughters, it’s happened to your mother, it’s happened to your sister...To have a president that’s a sexual predator, it’s shocking,” she said. “I’m proud Hillary is fighting for women, fighting for children.”

DiRado and her friend Susan Nichols were delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July, where a photo of the two women went viral after it was retweeted by Clinton.

In the photo, the women hold homemade signs that read “Our Daughters Are Watching” and “Born To Lead.” On the back, they read “What’s That Noise?” and “Glass Ceiling Shattered.”

“Hillary tweeted this sign of us; she said ‘History is watching,’ which it is,” said DiRado. “Our children are watching, our daughters, our sons — all of history is watching.”

Later, the photo was picked up by Marie Claire in an article by Chelsea Clinton.

“This fight has been going on for decades,” said Nichols. “Thank goodness we’ve finally got a woman who will break that glass ceiling. Our daughters all have to step on someone’s shoulders. Hillary Clinton stood on Madeleine Albright’s shoulders. It’s a matter of standing up for what’s right.”

DiRado has two daughters, ages 22 and 25.

“She [Albright] is stumping so hard because she does believe that Secretary Clinton will make a better world,” she said. “It’s very interesting that she talked about working across the aisle. Hillary Clinton will be president of the people who voted for Trump and the people who voted for her, she’s said that, and that’s the world I want for my daughters.”

Maria Taylor is a correspondent for Hometown Life.