Clintons talk political division, Russia in Las Vegas visit

One of America’s most influential couples wrapped up a multicity speaking tour Sunday night by discussing Russian interference in U.S. elections, misogyny in politics and division in front of a Las Vegas crowd.

“I do think that the effort to intimidate, to marginalize, to scapegoat people is not in the best interest of our country. And so from my perspective, what we have seen over the last several years is truly deplorable,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after a heckler shouted during the beginning of an event at the Park Theater at Park MGM.

She and former President Bill Clinton took questions from longtime Caesars Entertainment Corp. executive and former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones Blackhurst. Past moderators on the 10-city tour, which kicked off on April 11 in New York, included actors Ben Stiller and Bradley Whitford.

During the roughly 90-minute conversation, Hillary Clinton said she and other women in politics face a double standard.

“It is unfortunately still true that sexism and misogyny are alive and well in our political system, and women are held to a higher double standard and often more harshly, and we’ve got to get over that, my friends,” she said.

Bill Clinton said Americans should care about interference in U.S. elections.

“Even if you’re a conservative Republican and you think Hillary and I are nuts, you should care about that,” he said.

Hillary Clinton said she wanted to see lawmakers further investigate the behavior described in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

But whether the Russians interfered in the U.S. election is not in doubt, she said.

She also took a jab at Attorney General William Barr.

“I think that we saw very clearly when Barr testified that he has assumed the role of the president’s defense attorney, not the attorney general for the entire country, and I think that is incredibly dangerous,” she said.

The Clintons were originally slated to appear at the 5,200-seat Park Theater in November before the show was pushed back to May.

On Sunday, the theater was peppered with empty seats, and a curtain covered the balcony. Despite having an advertised start time of 7 p.m., the Clintons took the stage at about 7:30 p.m.

Hours before the event, the most expensive tickets on Ticketmaster for “An Evening with the Clintons” were about $250.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.