Early in her address to graduating Yale students at Sunday's Class Day, Hillary Clinton reached behind the lectern, pulled out a traditional Russian ushanka hat, and held it aloft.

"I mean, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." she said as the audience laughed and applauded.

The Russian hat gag, a nod to the student tradition of wearing extravagant headgear during Class Day, set the tone for a wide-ranging speech in which Clinton alternately cracked jokes about her loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and warned Yale's Class of 2018 that "we are living through a full-fledged crisis in our democracy."

"There are certain things that are so essential they should transcend politics," said Clinton, who never mentioned Trump by name during her address. "Waging a war on the rule of law and a free press, de-legitimizing elections, perpetrating shameless corruption, and rejecting the idea that our leaders should be public servants undermines our national unity."

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Clinton admitted that she still thinks about her defeat by Trump: "No, I'm not over it. I still think about the 2016 election. I still regret the mistakes I made. I still think, though, that understanding what happened in such a weird and wild election in American history will help us defend our democracy in the future."

"Today, as a person, I'm OK," Clinton added. "But as an American, I’m concerned."

The former first lady, secretary of state, New York senator and 2016 Democratic nominee for president also threw in a call for "common-sense gun safety legislation as soon as we can get it" during a brief discussion of Friday's mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas.

"You don’t need to experience gun violence to know that when a teenager in Texas who just survived a mass shooting says she’s not surprised at what happened at her school because, and I quote, ‘I’ve always felt like eventually it was going to happen here too,’ we are failing our children," she said. "So, enough is enough."

Clinton, who graduated from Yale Law School in 1973, cracked some jokes as well. She told students that she was thrilled for all of them, "even the three of you who live in Michigan and didn’t request your absentee ballots in time." She also joked about her audition to join Yale's famous Whiffenpoofs singing club, saying she had buried the tape "so deep that not even Wikileaks will be able to find it."

She continued, "If you thought my emails were scandalous, you should hear my singing voice."

Class Day is celebrated at Yale on Sunday the day before degrees are handed out. It includes the awarding of academic, artistic, and athletic prizes and the major address of commencement weekend.

It also includes such traditions as the planting of the class ivy, awarding top academic and athletic prizes to students, and the singing of Yale's "Bright College Years" while waving a white handkerchief.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Philippe Reines was ripped on Twitter Wednesday after launching a bizarre attack on Donald Trump Jr. over his estranged wife's reported youthful romance with a member of the Latin Kings street gang. 

Reines tagged the president's eldest son in a tweet linking to a New York Post report about the relationship between the then-Vanessa Haydon and Valentin Rivera. 

"Vanessa being with a Latin King must've driven you insanely jealous," Reines wrote. "The machismo, the passion. Tough act to follow. Did you wonder if she fantasized about Valentin Rivera when intimate with you?"

"She did," Reines concluded. "Every time."

Trump Jr. did not respond to Reines' taunt on social media, but many other prominent Twitter users did. One of them was former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who called it "vile."

"There are certainly worse people in America than Philippe Reines," tweeted New York Post op-ed editor Seth Mandel. "Like, five or six, maybe."

Left-wing writer Noah Berlatsky joined the criticism, calling Reines "horrible."

Reines defended his jab at Trump Jr. in an email to The Daily Caller. 

"The Right whining a Tweet about a Trump is mean is comical," he wrote. "So as Sarah Slanders™️ says, the Tweet speaks for itself. For Trumpflakes who spew vitriol but can’t handle it: yes, I bet his wife – who was cheated on while pregnant, just like her father-in-law – fantasized about ex-boyfriends. Or anyone not named Don Jr."

Vanessa Trump filed for divorce from Donald Trump Jr. in March. The couple had been married since 2005 and have five children.

Monica Lewinsky tweeted Wednesday that she was invited — then uninvited — to a social change event after former President Bill Clinton decided to attend.

"dear world: please don't invite me to an event (esp one about social change) and --then after i've accepted-- uninvite me because bill clinton then decided to attend/was invited. it's 2018," she wrote.

It's unclear what event Lewinsky was referring to, but HuffPost reported the former White House intern was uninvited from Town & Country magazine's philantrophy summit, which took place Wednesday morning at Hearst Tower in New York. 

Lewinsky, 44, said the organizers behind the event offered her the opportunity to write a magazine article instead.

"p.s. ...and definitely, please don't try to ameliorate the situation by insulting me with an offer of an article in your mag," Lewinsky tweeted, adding that author Emily Post, known for writing about proper decorum, "would def not approve."

Clinton opened the event and introduced Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students behind the March for Our Lives gun control movement, who spoke on a panel about activism.

Lewinsky has been in the spotlight since her affair with the former president in the 1990s when she was in her early 20s. Often ridiculed, she's become an anti-bullying advocate and activist.

Town & Country did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

Hillary Clinton slammed President Trump as a “reality TV” candidate and again claimed sexism contributed to her defeat in the 2016 election while on a speaking tour in Auckland, New Zealand on Monday.

Clinton, who is promoting her book “What Happened,” took multiple jabs at Trump throughout her speech and during interviews with New Zealand media, although she didn’t mention him by name much, the New Zealand Herald reported. In particular, she called him “a creep” for standing close behind her during a town hall-style debate, a moment during the campaign she’s often brought up since the election.

The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee described her presidential election loss as a “perfect storm” involving former FBI Director James Comey, the media who covered her email scandal, Russian interference and division within the country.

“The forces at work in the 2016 election in the United States are still with us and not only in my country but around the world,” Clinton said. “It was a perfect storm: deep currents of anger and resentment flowing through our culture. Our political press that told voters my emails were the most important story. The unprecedented intervention in our election by the FBI director. The information warfare waged from within the Kremlin.”

“We're having a very important struggle in the United States right now,” she said, according to the Herald. “It's difficult to fully grasp because there are 20 stories and people are getting overwhelmed by the strange goings on we are living through.”

She told the audience she read mystery novels after she lost the election “because the bad guy usually gets it in the end.”

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“You know, in the past, I felt like I had to be, kind of careful in public, sort of keep my guard up. Well those days are over, and I am so pleased that I can pull the curtain back in the book on the unprecedented election – the first reality TV election in American history,” Clinton said.

"I am so pleased that I can pull the curtain back in the book on the unprecedented election – the first reality TV election in American history."

- Hillary Clinton

Hosted by The Growth Faculty, the former secretary of state discussed sexism, particularly in the U.S., and how she said it impacted her political aspirations. Tickets ranged from $195 to $595, according to the event page.

“The more professionally successful we are, the less people like us,” Clinton said of women. She said she was “historically” liked whenever she served as the first lady or a member of former President Barack Obama’s Cabinet – but not when she decided to become a leader and run for president.

She praised New Zealand for recently electing its third female prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. She's the country's youngest prime minister since the 1850s.

Clinton said although she doesn’t plan to run against Trump in 2020, she believes he could be defeated since “we now know a lot more about the kind of campaign he runs and the kind of candidate he is.”

She said neither she nor the press “did the job they should have” when dealing with Trump.

“Part of our problem was this unprecedented reality TV campaign, and he being the first reality TV candidate in our history,” Clinton told Stuff, New Zealand’s online publication. “The media didn’t know how to cover him. It was like they were watching a car wreck or a train wreck all the time.”

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“And his insults and his scapegoating and his horrible comments about people with disabilities and Latin Americans and immigrations and everybody – it was just so hard to understand,” she said. “So the press didn’t do the job it should have. I didn’t do the job I should have. I think people were almost mesmerized by this display.”

Clinton met with Ardern before her speech.

“We had a good discussion, which included some domestic policy here in New Zealand that Mrs. Clinton had an interest in,” Ardern said after the meeting. She added that the pair talked about “being a mom” in the political world.

Clinton said they had a “broad-ranging substantive and personal conversation.” She told Stuff Ardern’s win was a “shot of optimism” for her after she lost the presidential election.

The two women also exchanged gifts. Clinton gave the mom-to-be a Buzzy Bee toy, and Ardern gave the former first lady children’s books for her grandchildren, the prime minister said. Clinton said she also gave Ardern a personalized copy of her book, “What Happened.”

Clinton is traveling to Australia next.

A stunning New York real estate deal has offered a glimpse into just how much money one of Bill Clinton’s closest confidants has raked in over the years, after it was reported that Doug Band snatched up the Manhattan townhouse of the late business magnate David Rockefeller – for a cool $20 million.

Band, a longtime Clinton adviser, bought the mansion on the Upper East Side through a limited liability company, two people familiar with the transaction told The Wall Street Journal.

The 9,777 square-foot townhouse, located on a quiet block between Lexington and Third Avenues, is spread out over four levels and features eight bedrooms and a library, in addition to six staff rooms.

The house was built in 1924 and originally listed for $32.5 million last June. It also features a landscaped garden with "silver birch trees, mature rhododendrons and trimmed moss," according to a profile of the home by The New York Times last year. 

Rockefeller and his wife Peggy bought the home in 1948, and lived in the space for almost seven decades. The home was put on the market last year after Rockefeller, grandson of industrial magnet John D. Rockefeller and onetime CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank, died at the age of 101.

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Band, 45, has been in the Clinton family orbit for decades. He is among a cadre of Clinton associates at the center of reports suggesting they used those family connections to drum up business -- though Band has suggested such claims are "ridiculous." 

He is currently the president and co-founder of Teneo Holdings, which purports to offer intelligence about political risk to corporate CEOs, billionaire families and leaders of foreign governments. 

The high-powered firm has previously drawn criticism for helping rich investors leverage inside political information, according to an investigation by Fox News. The company also was at the center of questions over how Hillary Clinton adviser Huma Abedin was able to get paid by the firm while also working at the State Department. 

Long before Teneo, Band began his career at the White House in 1995 and served as President Clinton's chief adviser from 2002 until 2012 -- a time when he was the "key architect of Clinton’s post-Presidency," according to Teneo's website.

"Mr. Band has advised several heads of state, governors and mayors transitioning out of public office into private life," Teneo's website says. "He was part of the negotiation team that handled all aspects of Hillary Clinton’s becoming Secretary of State."

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Band also helped build the Clinton Global Initiative, which was known for its annual glitzy gathering of high-powered leaders and celebrities. The CGI last year however, laid off 22 employees and shuttered its main office in New York.

Teneo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Band's reported purchase of the home.

Fox News' Cody Derespina contributed to this report.