NEW YORK - Hillary Clinton publicly conceded defeat to Donald Trump late Wednesday morning, calling it a painful setback, asking supporters to set aside the rancor that marked the campaign, and to remain optimistic that someday soon, the nation will yet put a woman in the Oval Office.

"We must accept this result and then look to the future.... Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead," she told a small gathering of aides and supporters.

Eight hours earlier, she'd called Trump privately to offer her congratulations after the bitter campaign. She made no mention of his calls to put her in prison, or her oft-cited qualms that he's too volatile to oversee foreign policy and control the nuclear codes.

She and Bill Clinton hugged Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton. The former president and the man who would have been her vice president flanked Clinton as she spoke. Chelsea Clinton stood to her dad's right.

John Podesta, the campaign chairman, sat in the front row with other senior aides.

"I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans," Clinton said. "This is not the outcome we wanted or that we worked so hard for. And I'm sorry that we did not win this election, for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country."

The nation, she said, is "more divided than we thought." But like President Barack Obama, who spoke in the Rose Garden, she pledged a peaceful and gracious transition to an opponent who'd labeled her "Crooked Hillary."

Mention of Obama drew an ovation in the packed ballroom at the New Yorker, a hotel a few blocks east of the Javits Convention Center, where thousands of supporters had gathered Tuesday night expecting, certainly hoping, to hear an acceptance speech.

This venue was a fraction of the size, and instead of a broad cross section of volunteers, donors and supporters, it was mostly campaign staff on hand at the end.

Huma Abedin was front and center. It was a cache of 650,000 emails on a device owned by her estranged husband, the disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner, that prompted the FBI to reopen an inquiry into Clinton's handling of classified material, 11 days before Election Day.

It was a hastily arranged event.

Podesta had sent home the Javits Center crowd shortly after 2 in the morning New York time -- just before word spread that Clinton had acknowledged defeat. What's left of her campaign put out word of the event, but they neglected to plan for the crush of interest.

Hundreds of journalists lined up for more than two hours outside the hotel near Madison Square Garden to witness the delayed concession speech. Most never got in.

"He's a con man!" one man shouted for news crews set up on Eighth Avenue as taxis and transit buses passed. "Trump will never be our president!" added a woman.

It wasn't until 15 minutes before the announced speech time that police reinforcements and crews arrived with crowd control barriers. Within minutes they had penned in the media horde and, in a separate line that snaked around the opposite corner, well wishers hoping to cheer Clinton on. Locals. Tourists from as far as Australia. A crowd bigger than some Clinton was drawing on the stump in recent weeks.

1 / 6John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, looks on as publicly conceded defeat.(Getty Images / Justin Sullivan) 2 / 6Huma Abedin, aide for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, looks on as she concedes defeat.(Getty Images / Justin Sullivan) 3 / 6Hillary Clinton conceded the election to Donald Trump. Donald Trump.(Getty Images / Justin Sullivan) 4 / 6Staffers and supporters react as former Hillary Clinton concedes to Donald Trump.(Getty Images / Justin Sullivan) 5 / 6Hillary Clinton hugs Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston after conceding defeat.(Getty Images / Justin Sullivan) 6 / 6Supporters embrace as they await Hillary Clinton at the New Yorker Hotel on Wednesday.(Getty Images / Justin Sullivan)

Hundreds more gawked from the sidewalk across the street, a flash mob dumbfounded by the events of the last 12 hours.

A campaign aide kept telling the journalists they'd all get in. This was untrue. The ballroom is big. There was plenty of room, he said. This was true.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, who'd stumped for Clinton, was seated next to her campaign manager, Robby Mook, in a place of honor up front.

Campaign workers arrived and were granted entry. A handful of journalists, perhaps 20 who've traveled with the candidate extensively, were already inside.

A couple of journalists whose outlet had invested tens of thousands of dollars to crisscross the country with Clinton talked their way in. The stars of Showtime's The Circus, including Austin-based GOP operative and filmmaker Mark McKinnon, were left in the cold.

"I was just — I'm scared," said Hannah Palmer, 25, a mom from South Orange, N.J., carrying a 2 year son on her back and a 1 year old daughter on her front. "Deep down I thought she had it. I wanted to come out and get some kind of peace."

She was choking up.

As for Trump, she said, "from what I've seen I am not hopeful. I guess we'll see."

She didn't get in, either.

TV crews had their cameras set in the middle of Eighth Avenue. Transit buses and taxis whizzed past. A man peddling a pedicab drove by, shouting "Bye bye Hillary! Lock her up!"

At 10:55 in New York, Clinton left her hotel a mile away. Forty-five minutes after the 10:30 speech time, her motorcade arrived, sirens whooping and lights flashing.

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Kaine introduced her. He mentioned that she'd won more votes than Trump, though, of course, presidents are picked state by state, with electoral votes.

"I know how disappointed you feel, because I feel it too," she said. "This is painful, and it will be for a long time. But I want you to remember this. Our campaign was never about one person or even one election. It was about the country that we love and about building a country that's hopeful, inclusive and big hearted."

Clinton was the nation's first woman to win the nomination of a major party for president. But she fell short of the big prize.

"I know that we have not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling. Someday someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now," she said in remarks directed particularly at women and girls.

Kaine, introducing her, said "she has made history" as the first female nominee. And he touted her vote tally, bigger than Trump's. "That is an amazing accomplishment," he said.

He took one swipe at Trump, who had pointedly refused to promise that he would graciously concede if defeated, a jarring deviation from two centuries of American democratic tradition.

"Nobody had to wonder about Hillary Clinton, if she would accept the outcome of an election," he said, touting her love of country and democracy.

"They killed us but they ain't whupped us yet," Kaine said, invoking a William Faulkner phrase. "Because we know that the work remains. We know that the dreams of empowering women and children remains."