Trump admin tearing down hard-won civil rights: Clinton

New York, May 30 (IANS) Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said President Donald Trump's administration was tearing down hard-won civil rights".

"We've seen a surge in hate crime across America -- shootings and arson at synagogues, mosques and churches, Americans targeted because of their race, religion or sexual orientation," Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said while delivering the commencement address at the Hunter College here on Wednesday.

"And instead of standing up against bigotry and white supremacy, this administration has too often worked to tear down hard-won civil rights."

Clinton said the administration has "banned Muslims from entering the country, ripped away protections for transgender Americans, waged war on voting rights for people of colour, poor people and young people".

Slamming the White House's hardline immigration policies, Clinton pointed to the US' southern border with Mexico, where she said "our government is tearing children from the arms of their parents" and "locking them in cages".

The former First Lady said that over the past two years the US has seen "people wearing Nazi symbols once again marching in American cities carrying torches and chanting hate", and she recalled the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a woman was killed.

She also responded to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's rare public statement earlier on Wednesday, where he addressed his team's findings in the Russia probe, saying that charging the President was not an option his office could consider in its investigation but that "if we had had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so".