“There’s a particular level of vitriol, from both the right and the left, directed at women,’’ Hillary Clinton said. | Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Urban Zen Foundation Clinton warns Harris, Warren would face 'double standard' in 2020

OAKLAND, Calif. — Former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, in California as part of her 16-city book tour, said Monday that Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren will need “a high pain threshold” if they run for president in 2020 because of the way female candidates are treated.

When asked what she would say if she were advising Harris (D-Calif.) or Warren (D-Mass.) on a run for president, Clinton said she would counsel that “you have to have a high pain threshold, because the double standard is alive and well … this is endemic to our political system, to business, to the media, to every part of society. So don’t be afraid to talk about it and take it on.”


“[J]ust be prepared … to have the most horrible things said about you,’’ Clinton advised. Based on descriptions on some websites, she explained, “I’m … the most amazing serial killer you ever met.”

“There’s a particular level of vitriol, from both the right and the left, directed at women,’’ she said. “Make no mistake about that.”

Clinton made the remarks before a friendly audience at the University of California, Davis, that came to hear her talk about her newly published memoir, “What Happened.”

Clinton, who was facing pressure from the right to denounce Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, a prominent contributor to her campaigns who in recent days has been accused of sexual harassment, was not asked about Weinstein during her appearance. (On Tuesday, Clinton said in a statement that she was ” shocked and appalled by the revelations,” adding: “The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior.”)

The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee argued Monday that new evidence shows Russia is engaged in a “new Cold War” being waged on social media platforms like Facebook, and warned that Russian activity in the election shows “they are just getting started” in efforts to “destroy Western democracy itself.”

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In recent weeks, “what we’ve learned about Russian interference in our election is more than alarming,’’ she said.

“Everyone, regardless of political parties, should be disturbed that Russian agents used Facebook and Twitter and Google to place targeted attack ads … not only to hurt my chances, but to fan the flame of divisions within our society,’’ Clinton said. But Vladimir “Putin is not just interfering in our discourse because he’s bored … he’s got a strategy,’’ she told the audience, which greeted her with wild cheers and applause. “His goal is to undermine and perhaps even destroy Western democracy itself. Their weapons of choice may not be tanks or missiles. But let’s not mince words. This is a new kind of Cold War, and they are just getting started.”

She noted that new findings show that “Russians posed as gun rights advocates,’’ civil rights advocates and LGBT activists to stir up dissent on social media sites like Facebook — and that Facebook has acknowledged it sold $100,000 worth of ads that were “seen by at least 10 million people in crucial states” like Michigan and Wisconsin — two of the states that “decided the election by razor-thin margins.”

Recent news stories have confirmed that “content posted by Russian trolls and bots had been shared up to 240 million times,’’ she said. “Most likely they are intelligence services who go after people online’’ to sow discourse.

And “when people ask me, did it affect the outcome?’’ Clinton said, the answer is obvious, because negative ads work. “But we’ve never seen it on a scale like this,’’ in which information was “weaponized” and “fake news delivered to people in order to affect their thinking and their vote.”

To this day, she said, Russians are stirring dissent on social media as they seek “to turn Americans against each other.’’

“Democracy is under assault,’’ she warned. “These are not one-off events. There are forces that will continue to fight against freedom and dignity,” adding that “all of our values that we hold dear as individuals and as a nation” are under assault.

Clinton said Russia’s hacking activities during the 2016 election, which also involved “getting into voter rolls and looking for weaknesses,’’ may be a worse transgression than Watergate. “Watergate was a good old-fashioned physical burglary’’ between political adversaries, she said. But Russia is “a foreign adversary.”

Clinton said that while some critics, even in her own party, have suggested she get off the stage and retire into private life, she has no intention of muffling her voice on such issues. “I’m going to do everything I can, going forward, as an active citizen to speak out.”

Clinton also had words of comfort for victims of the fires raging through Northern California in more than a dozen locations — claiming more than 10 lives and causing the evacuations of tens of thousands.

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks,’’ she said, noting the rash of hurricanes that have battered the United States and the Caribbean. But “in addition to expressing our sympathy, we need to come together to mitigate, and that starts with acknowledging climate change” and its role in such events, she said to applause. “We should respond. We should be taking care of each other.”

The same is true, she said, in the aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre, an attack that she said underscores the need “to demand courage to stand up to the gun lobby.”

