During an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Hillary Clinton said President Donald Trump's behavior during the confirmation process was emblematic of a disrespect for women that he's demonstrated for years. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Kavanaugh Confirmation Hillary Clinton calls Kavanaugh's ceremonial swearing-in a 'political rally' Hillary Clinton labeled Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's ceremonial swearing-in at the White House on Monday a "political rally" that "undermined the image and integrity" of the Supreme Court. "It saddens me because our judicial system has been viewed as one of the main pillars of our constitutional government," Clinton said during an interview over the weekend with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. President Donald Trump ceremonially swore in Kavanaugh at the White House on Monday, days after the Senate confirmed his nomination with a 50-48 vote Saturday afternoon, concluding one of the most dramatic and partisan confirmation processes in the court's history. Kavanaugh was officially sworn in Saturday by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Though the court has traditionally endeavored to float above partisan politics, Kavanaugh's confirmation process was mired with accusations from both parties of manipulation. Kavanaugh was accused during the confirmation process of having sexually assaulted multiple women, allegations he adamantly denied. Trump and other Kavanaugh allies have accused Democrats of orchestrating a smear campaign to derail the justice's confirmation. The confirmation process was also a reckoning moment for the Me Too movement, as the Senate's approval of Kavanaugh was characterized by many on the left as a dismissal of sexual assault allegations. Opponents of Kavanaugh's confirmation complained that the FBI's inquiry into allegations against him was inadequate, while protesters confronted senators with stories of sexual assault and demands that the nomination be rejected. Many Republicans disregarded the protesters as an orchestrated liberal intimidation effort. POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Trump also earned severe criticism after he mocked Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, at a rally in Mississippi last week. Drawing cheers from the crowd of rallygoers, Trump imitated Ford attempting to recount the details of a party she said occurred more than 30 years ago. During her interview with Amanpour, Clinton said Trump's behavior during the confirmation process was emblematic of a disrespect for women that he's demonstrated for years. "The president has been true to form," Clinton said. "He has insulted, attacked, demeaned women throughout the campaign, really for many years leading up to the campaign, and he's continued to do that inside the White House." CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that the interview with Clinton was conducted on Tuesday.<doc-sep>Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- As Covid-19 continues to ravage India, financial professionals across the country are grappling with an increasingly surreal disconnect between the epidemic’s devastation and a record-breaking boom in local markets.The world’s worst coronavirus outbreak has battered India’s economy and lifted its official Covid death toll to more than 318,000 -- a figure that experts say is likely a significant undercount.And yet investors continue to snap up Indian assets, fueling a 65% rally in the Nifty 50 Index over the past 12 months that has outpaced every other major equity benchmark worldwide. The measure’s surge to a record on Thursday has coincided with the fastest rate of Indian initial public offerings since 2017 and an unprecedented flood of foreign-currency bond issuance by local companies.While the combination of pandemic pain and financial-market euphoria is hardly unique to India, nowhere else has the contrast been so extreme.Bulls say the gains are justified by central bank stimulus at home and abroad, along with signs that the current virus wave may be peaking and optimism that India’s long-term economic growth potential will emerge from the crisis intact. Skeptics point to overly rosy earnings estimates and the risk of further outbreaks in a country where vaccination rates remain stubbornly low. India’s central bank weighed in on Thursday, warning in its annual report that the surge in stocks “poses the risk of a bubble.”What’s clear is that financiers on all sides of the debate are stretched thin. Booming markets have left the industry swamped with work at a time when many employees have been sickened by the virus. Some have had to franticly search for medical help after hospitals were overrun and oxygen supplies fell short. Almost everyone has at least one friend or family member who has died.“You feel numb, as if we are in the midst of a war and are losing people one after the other,” said Vikaas Sachdeva, the Mumbai-based chief executive officer of Emkay Investment Managers Ltd., who lost four members of his extended family to the virus.Sachdeva expects Indian markets to be volatile in the near term as investors weigh uncertainties around the vaccination program and the possibility of a third wave. His firm has been buying shares of Indian companies with “high quality” management, betting that the country’s long-term investment case remains intact.India’s $2.9 trillion stock market has been buoyed in part by resilient demand from international investors, who’ve purchased a net $34.9 billion of shares over the past 12 months. While they pared holdings in April and early May, buying by local mutual funds and insurance companies has helped fill the gap. A steady decline in reported Covid cases since mid-May -- along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to avoid another nationwide lockdown -- have added weight to calls for further market gains.Indian companies have taken advantage of the exuberance in markets to raise about $4 billion via public offerings since the start of the year, on track for the busiest first-half since 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“The IPO boom is being driven by Indian technology companies coming of age with businesses doing better than expected,” said Sunil Khaitan, India head of global capital markets at Bank of America. “Tech companies are advancing their fundraising plans and financial sponsors also believe this is a good time to bring in public market investors in these companies amidst ample global liquidity.”Khaitan expects India IPO volumes to more than double in 2021 from the previous year.The surge in activity has left some financial firms scrambling to complete deals after employees were sidelined by the virus. The head of equity capital markets at a Mumbai-based investment bank, who asked not be named discussing private matters, said that at one point 25% of his 40-person group was infected.About 200,000 Indian bank employees have been infected and 1,200 have died since the pandemic began, the industry’s largest union estimated this month.Among the biggest risks for India market optimists is another virus wave. Just 3.2% of the population has been fully vaccinated, versus 39.7% in the U.S. and 10.1% in Brazil, according to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Tracker.The Indian economy’s recovery from last year’s recession is already showing signs of sputtering. The country lost 10 million jobs in May, according to private research firm Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt. Among the 40 companies in the Nifty 50 index that have posted quarterly results so far, more than half have missed analysts’ estimates. While India’s central bank predicts the economy will grow at a 10.5% pace this fiscal year, other forecasters including S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service have recently cut their estimates to below 10%.“If this Covid situation keeps affecting newer areas and new strains keep emerging, then there is a problem for the near term,” said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities Ltd.Sachdeva, the Emkay CEO, said Covid will impact him and his colleagues in ways that go far beyond their work in finance. He’s reading “The Difficulty of Being Good” by Gurcharan Das, who writes about his search for a meaningful life.“The pandemic has brought about a change in many of us and we are more aware of things that matter most in life,” Sachdeva said. “We would though have to see if this is indeed a permanent change when life comes back normal.”(Updates death toll in second paragraph)More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.<doc-sep>
(CNN) — Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that President Donald Trump staged a “political rally” at Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s ceremonial swearing-in that “further undermined the image and integrity of the court.” “What was done last night in the White House was a political rally. It further undermined the image and integrity of the court,” Clinton, Trump’s Democratic 2016 election opponent, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview. “And that troubles me greatly. It saddens me. Because our judicial system has been viewed as one of the main pillars of our constitutional government. So I don’t know how people are going to react to it. I think, given our divides, it will pretty much fall predictably between those who are for and those who are against,” Clinton said. “But the President’s been true to form,” she continued. “He has insulted, attacked, demeaned women throughout the campaign — really for many years leading up to the campaign. And he’s continued to do that inside the White House.” When Trump hosted Kavanaugh and his family at a ceremonial swearing-in at the White House on Monday night, he apologized “on behalf of our nation” to the newly minted justice for the difficult confirmation process. “On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure,” Trump said. “Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation. Not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process.” Democrats must be tougher, Clinton says 03:04 - Source: CNN Clinton: Civility starts by electing Democrats Just days after Democrats lost their bitter fight to keep Kavanaugh off the high court, Clinton told Amanpour that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, thinks that “Democrats have to be tougher.” “Bill had to be incredibly strong – first to get elected, then to get re-elected and to survive. And it was not easy by any means, obviously. But he really believes that Democrats have to be tougher,” she said, adding that he also thinks the party will “have to stand up to the bullying and intimidation” from Republicans. Clinton told Amanpour that she thinks that in the future her husband will “have things to say about his own experience and how it applies here.” The former President has previously been vocal about his views on Trump’s presidency. In June, he said impeachment hearings would have begun if a Democratic president, instead of Trump, were in power and the Russia investigation was as far along as it was at that time. Clinton himself was impeached in 1998 by the House, but the Senate acquitted him, preventing his removal from office. The former secretary of state also told Amanpour that Democrats need to draw a hard line against Republicans. “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” she said. “That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.” “But until then, the only thing Republicans seem to recognize is strength,” she said. CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi and Dan Merica contributed to this report.