Ready to come out of the woods, says Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has said she is ready to “come out of the woods” and help the “divided” nation find common ground, five months after her shocking defeat in the US presidential polls to Donald Trump.

“Our country seems so divided right now. I do not believe that we can let political divides harden into personal divides,” Ms Clinton said in her keynote address to the Society of Irish Women’s 19th annual St Patrick’s Day Dinner.

“And we can’t just ignore, or turn a cold shoulder to someone because they disagree with us politically,” she said in her few public appearances after her defeat to Mr Trump in the presidential elections.

In an apparent reference to the current political climate, she said it is difficult to watch news these days. “I’m like a lot of my friends right now, I have a hard time watching the news,” she said. “I am ready to come out of the woods and to help shine a light on what is already happening around kitchen tables, at dinners like this, to help draw strength that will enable everybody to keep going.”