Mrs. Clinton made the remarks at the Women in the World conference in Manhattan, where she was interviewed by the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof before an audience of about 3,000 people. It was her first extensive interview since her loss in November to Donald J. Trump.

She did not stint on criticism of the Trump White House. “I don’t take any pleasure in seeing the kind of chaotic functioning” of the current administration, Mrs. Clinton said. “Here’s what I don’t understand — I don’t understand the commitment to hurt so many people that this administration, this White House, seems to be pursuing.”



Women in particular, she said, are under attack by Mr. Trump’s policies.

“The targeting of women — which is what’s going on — is absolutely beyond any political agenda,” Mrs. Clinton said, pointing in particular to the State Department’s move to defund the United Nations Population Fund, among other programs.

She criticized efforts to strip maternity care and other treatments from Republicans’ failed bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. “They had not a clue what that meant,” she said. “I don’t know if any of them had ever even read the bill.”

She also noted that it was mostly men who were behind the push to curtail women’s health benefits.

“The things that come out of some of these men’s mouths — like, ‘Why do we have to cover maternity care?’” she said with a laugh. “Well I don’t know, maybe you were dropped by immaculate conception?”