AUSTIN -- Hillary Clinton cautioned an auditorium of University of Texas students on Tuesday night about the dangers of today's polarized political environment led by elected officials who she said aim to divide and mislead the American public.

Clinton was honored by the University of Texas's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and given the first "In the Arena" award in recognition of her lifetime of public service as an advocate for women and children, attorney, first lady, senator, secretary of state and the first woman to be nominated by a major party to run for president.

Clinton participated in an hourlong discussion guided by LBJ Dean Angela Evans. She vacillated between hope for future generations being ushered in by a diverse wave of recently elected congressional candidates and bleak concern that the country is in a darker place than it's been in her lifetime.

Without referring to him by name, Clinton made a handful of references to President Donald Trump. She said he is trying to "confuse people, disorient people, and change the environment in which we make decisions."

She called his rhetoric "deliberate falseness" and cracked a joke about his Inauguration Day crowd size, referencing the president's claims that he had the largest crowd of any presidential inauguration.

She said the falsehoods started "on the very first day of the current administration."

"I have been to a number of inaugurations now, and the crowd was not that big, let me just tell you," she said to laughter.

Clinton also discussed the challenges of a woman who runs for office and candidly warned that women are still treated more harshly than male candidates and elected officials.

"Everything becomes a way of presenting yourself and protecting yourself. The clothes you have and the hairstyle you wear. All of that is a persona you present," she said. "You're well aware you're going to be judged by it."

She recalled instances where Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., were openly admonished while in committee or on the floor of the Senate by male colleagues for their rhetoric and tone when questioning or criticizing Trump appointments.

By contrast, she said during the highly emotional Senate hearings when Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testified angrily in response to allegations he raped a woman in high school, there were women who were insulted by Kavanaugh and no one spoke up to try to calm him.

But Clinton said she was encouraged by the slate of candidates who won seats in the midterm elections.

"It was a diversity that really showed you the full range of who we are as Americans," she said. "I can't wait to see a picture of the Congress. There are more women than there have ever been before in our entire history. There are more people of color."

Clinton, an early proponent of universal health care, criticized Texas leaders who have refused to enact Medicaid expansion, an option made possible under former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

"Personally, it's hard for me to accept, with my head or my heart, that Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the entire country and now has a maternal mortality rate that is equivalent to some Third World countries," she said. "Women are dying in this state."

When asked about the future of the country, Clinton was somber as she talked about her grandchildren growing up in a nation so politically divided.

"If they come of age in an America that is divided and polarized, and where ancient hatreds are given free rein and where people are acting as though we are aliens in our own country with one another, that is not what I hope for them," she said about her grandchildren. "If the world they come of age in is divided and you have more authoritarians and the authoritarians are using technology to control the minds and behaviors of people in their countries, and there is fear, and there's not hope, but there's fear of the other all of the time, I will feel very sad."

When asked about her future, Clinton didn’t discuss whether she again might run again for president. She said she’s focused on her nonprofit and working to tell stories about America.