Down the hill from the U.S. Capitol, just up the street from the White House, Hillary Clinton was on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, making her first public appearance since conceding her loss in the race for President against Donald Trump.
"I will admit, coming here tonight wasn't the easiest thing for me," Clinton said, at a gathering of the Children's Defense Fund.
"I know many of you are deeply disappointed about the results of the election. I am too, more than I can ever express," Clinton said to approving laughter from the crowd.
"There have been a few times this past week when all I wanted to do was just to curl up with a good book, or with our dogs, and never leave the house again," she added.
While Clinton said a few things about the campaign, she spent most of the time on the work of the Children's Defense Fund, a group that she joined soon after she finished law school, working for years with her friend and colleague Marian Wright Edelman, who introduced Clinton at the Wednesday night event.
To cheers from the audience, Edelman noted Clinton's lead in the popular vote, eight days after the election.
"We're going to call her the people's President," Edelman said, spelling out Clinton's vote advantage,which is now well over a million votes.
"She is our President," Edelman added.
But for Clinton, those words would ring hollow, in a race that many Democrats felt was almost a lock for their party.
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