Hillary Clinton: Grown-up male leaders are scared of Greta Thunberg

Hillary Clinton has said a lot of "grown up male leaders" fear 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg for speaking out.

Mrs Clinton, a former US secretary of state who lost the 2016 US presidential election to Donald Trump, was in London on Sunday night to launch a new book she has written with her daughter Chelsea.

The book shares stories of women who have inspired them, and Greta is among them.

Speaking at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, Mrs Clinton said they had been "so moved" by the Swede's solitary climate strike in front of the Swedish parliament last year.

Since then, Greta has sailed across the Atlantic and delivered a powerful speech to the UN about climate change.

"It's been fascinating to watch how scared a lot of grown up male leaders are of this young 16-year-old girl who speaks up about the threat of climate change," Mrs Clinton said.

She added that Greta, as a young woman voicing her views, is "rattling" the paradigms and "ancient DNA" that still exists in society.

"It is maddening to think how much that still operates," she said.

"You could probably take some of the people who have been so critical of her (Greta) on social media and in other settings, attach them to a lie detector and say 'don't you think that's a bit sexist.'"

Chelsea said people in the US are attacking Greta because they cannot attack the science around climate change.

She said: "More broadly her real clarity and fearlessness and just being so unbowed and relentlessly focused on the future I think is incredibly threatening to a lot of people."

Elsewhere in the discussion, Mrs Clinton said she had "always admired Britain".

She added: "I am, as a great admirer, concerned because I can't make sense of what is happening.

"In my own country as well. I don't understand it.

"It's hard to figure out exactly where you're headed."

Regarding next month's election, she said: "We really do count on you coming out of this in a smart and effective, successful way, however it turns out."

But she also said she had seen the UK "sort of shrink" and "turn inward", adding: "To be trying to separate yourself from Europe at a time when democracies need to stick together, because we are truly under pressure from dictatorships and authoritarian regimes."

"We have a president who admires dictators and takes their help and does all kinds of crazy stuff.

"We need you to be the sane member of this partnership going forward."

Mrs Clinton's new book was co-authored with her daughter Chelsea and is called The Book Of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories Of Courage And Resilience.

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