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Hillary Rodham Clinton defended her record as secretary of State against Republican criticism that she had been too accommodating to Russia, arguing Wednesday that she had taken a tough but pragmatic approach so the U.S. could attain its goals.

In remarks at UCLA's Royce Hall, Clinton assertively brushed aside opponents' suggestions that she and the Obama administration effectively invited Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent incursion into Ukraine by failing to blunt his aggression.

Clinton said that when she became secretary of State in 2009, "we had some business we wanted to get done with Russia." Among the U.S. goals at the time: an arms control agreement, the creation of a pathway through Russia to provide support for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and an effort to get Russia into the World Trade Organization.

"There is a debate in foreign policy, and you hear these voices on TV right now: 'These are bad folks; they're doing bad things; do nothing with them,'" Clinton said, adding that her approach was to "be smart about it; pick and choose; stand your ground on disagreements, but look for ways to get things done."

Pointing to the administration's accomplishments, Clinton said that the U.S. "even got [Russia] to support sanctions against Iran in the [U.N.] Security Council something people predicted we couldn't get done."

Still, Clinton took the opportunity to throw darts in Putin's direction, calling him "a tough guy with a thin skin" as she urged him to stand down in Ukraine.

Putin wants to "re-Sovietize" nations on Russia's periphery, Clinton told hundreds of students at UCLA, and "in the process, he is squandering the potential of such a great nation the nation of Russia and threatening instability and even the peace of Europe."

Clinton called on the nation to "refrain from the threat or use of force" in Ukraine, and said the situation called for careful diplomatic maneuvers to "avoid steps that could be misinterpreted or lead to miscalculation at this delicate time."

During a broad-ranging conversation with UCLA political science professor Lynn Vavreck, Clinton all but dismissed criticism of remarks she had made Tuesday at a private fundraiser in Long Beach.

Clinton said she was merely comparing the tactics used by Adolf Hitler and Putin and not equating the men themselves when she drew a parallel between Hitler's efforts to resettle Germans in the late 1930s to Putin's recent moves to issue Russian passports to citizens with ties to Russia in Ukraine.

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Hillary Clinton highlights pragmatism in approach to Russia

Hillary Clinton compared Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Crimea to Adolf Hitler's moves in the 1930s. Sen. John McCain and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a similar comparison.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton likened Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions on the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine to those of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

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Clinton made the comments Tuesday during a fundraising luncheon for local Boys and Girls Clubs, thePress-Telegram of Long Beach reported.

Putin contends ethnic Russians in Ukraine need to be protected. Clinton said that's what Hitler did when he maintained ethnic Germans outside Germany in places such as Czechoslovakia and Romania were not being treated right and needed to be protected.

"Now if this sounds familiar, it's what Hitler did back in the 30s," Clinton said, according to the newspaper. "All the Germans that were ... the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying, 'They're not being treated right. I must go and protect my people.' And that's what's gotten everybody so nervous."

The newspaper quoted Clinton as saying Putin is a man "who believes his mission is to restore Russian greatness."

"When he looks at Ukraine, he sees a place that he believes is by its very nature part of Mother Russia," she said at the private event.

Clinton isn't alone in making the Putin-Hilter comparison. On Tuesday, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, "What we've seen is the decision of a major power to effectively invade and occupy a neighbouring country based on some kind of extra-territorial claim of jurisdiction over ethnic minorities. We haven't seen this kind of behaviour since the Second World War."

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Hillary Clinton joins chorus of 'Putin behaving like Hitler'

Jan. 27, 2014: Hillary Clinton speaks in New Orleans, Louisiana.AP

A deal between Univision and Hillary Clinton to promote childhood education is raising questions, again, about whether TV networks are effectively giving free airtime to the possible Democratic presidential candidate.

Univision, the countrys No. 1 rated Spanish-language network, officially announced the partnership last month in East Harlem, N.Y. The multi-year partnership between the network and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation is part of a similar project titled Too Small to Fail.

The Republican National Committee, which last year raised concerns about separate TV projects involving the Clintons, is questioning the latest arrangement.

Unfortunately, Univisions decision has hurt its credibility among conservatives, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Izzy Santa told FoxNews.com. It looks like pay to play.

The Pequenos y Valiosos (Young and Valuable) project will provide research, commentary and information across multiple Univision platforms to encourage Latinos to help their young children build vocabulary and language skills, according to the cable network.

Though Clinton helped kick off the project, Univision has no plans for her to appear in any future elements of the campaign, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. But the arrangement has raises the argument that the powerful Democrat, who leads in just about every poll of possible 2016 Democratic presidential contenders, is getting free exposure before a key voting bloc.

President Obama won roughly 71 percent of the Hispanic vote in his 2012 reelection victory over Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a situation that prompted the GOP to try to better connect with Hispanic voters.

Though Univision is relatively small in the cable TV industry, it appears to have growing clout. The network co-hosted 2012 candidate forums with Obama and Romney.

And in July 2013, Univision for the first time had a larger audience than its English-language competitors in the coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic, averaging 1.81 million viewers over the month, according to the Nielsen rating company.

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RNC rips 'partnership' between Univision, Hillary

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared the recent Russian troop deployment in Crimea to policies implemented by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany regime.

Speaking at an event benefiting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach, Calif. Tuesday, Clinton drew parallelsbetween what she described as a campaign by Russian President Vladimir Putin to give Russian passports to any Crimea resident with Russian ties and the so-called "Heim ins Reich" resettlement policy practiced by the German dictatorship prior to World War II.

"[This is like] what Hitler did back in the 30s," Clinton said, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram. "All the Germans that were ... the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying theyre not being treated right. I must go and protect my people and thats whats gotten everybody so nervous."

"Heim ins Reich," which literally means "Home into the Empire," was a policy pursued by Hitler beginning with the Anschluss of Austria and the annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland in 1938. The ultimate aim was to convince ethnic Germans living outside the Third Reich to agitate to be included in a so-called "Greater Germany." In practice, the policy required expelling non-Germans from their traditional homes as the Nazis pushed east and resettling ethnic Germans in their place, as well as transferring whole German communities from parts of eastern Europe for resettlement in Germany. The policy ended with the defeat of the Nazis on the Eastern Front by the Soviet Union in 1945.

At a press conference earlier Tuesday, Putin said that he would use force in Crimea only as a last resort, but he reserved the right to protect ethnic Russians in the region by any means necessary.

Later in her remarks, Clinton described Putin as a man "who believes his mission is to restore Russian greatness ... When he looks at Ukraine, he sees a place that he believes is by its very nature part of Mother Russia."

However, the former top American diplomat did strike a cautiously optimistic note as she claimed that the ongoing Crimea situation was "a real nail-biter, right now, but nobody wants to up the rhetoric. Everybody wants to cool it in order to find a diplomatic solution and thats what we should be trying to do."

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Hillary Clinton compares Putin's Ukraine action to Nazi 'Heim ins Reich' policy

March 4, 2014|3:50 pm

The foregone conclusion from America's clamoring political class is that Hillary Clinton will be crowned the Democrat nominee for president in 2016. Yet there is speculation among Washington's speculating class that health concerns might keep her from running.

Allow me to speculate on that speculation. It is so much easier than getting any facts out of the spin-doctors in D.C.

The Washington Post, head cheerleader for Hillary, even wrote a piece: "How Sick is Hillary Clinton?" We all noticed that she seemed unable to wear her contact lenses, resorting to thick glasses. Her weight gain may not be just to lure Bill Clinton back to her bedroom. Observers think she has been physically going downhill since the fall. When coupled with her age (69 in 2016), her thrombosis and neurological symptoms could be issues.

This sends a panic wave among the power-dependent Democrat establishment. They have no bench to fall back on if Hillary does not run. For a party that substitutes faux compassion for common sense, Democrats must have a charismatic salesman like Obama or Clinton peddling it.

As has been her MO, Hillary conveniently stalled testifying on her Benghazi involvement. She said she "fell and hit her head." Her State Department staff played that up when her PR people released a picture of her being given a football helmet upon her return to work. That could have been due to a long-standing policy of requiring Clintons to wear protection, but many feel it was staged.

It worked. Hillary successfully avoided the blame for Benghazi that was rightfully hers. Her Ferris Bueller-like excuses forced then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice to appear on five Sunday talk shows to spin the Obama Administration lie that the attack was caused by a YouTube video. It was classic Clintonian obfuscation.

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In general, Hillary's tenure as Secretary of State has been carefully promoted as successful, though she had issues with Benghazi, al Qaeda reconstituting itself, and the WikiLeaks / Edward Snowden security breaches. Hillary has historically been more concerned about DNA leaks than intelligence ones.

She always did a great job masking Obama's contempt for Israel. In every meeting with Israelis leaders, she reminded them that three of Bill Clinton's last four girlfriends were Jewish.

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A Peak Inside the Head of Bill and Hillary Clinton