'What is more uncivil and cruel than taking children away?' Hillary blames Trump for explosion of coarseness - and compares herself to Churchill

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Hillary Clinton said in an interview published Friday that current complaints about the loss of civility in American politics are nothing compared to the societal coarseness unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

'What is more uncivil and cruel than taking children away?' the former Democratic presidential nominee asked, pointing fingers of blame at the billionaire who beat her in 2016.

Like a growing number of Americans, Clinton is upset about the more than 2,000 minors separated from illegal immigrant parents after their border crossings. Under President Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy, the adults are prosecuted. By law the children acn't be housed with them.

Nice stay: Hillary Clinton stayed at a luxury hotel which is usually a wedding venue in the Gower peninsula while she visited Swansea University, which has named its school of law for her

Lecture tour: Hillary Clinton used her trip to the UK to deliver a lecture at Oxford as well as the trip to Wales, where much of her maternal ancestry is from. She came to the UK from Ireland, where she spoke at Trinity College Dublin

The liberal politician, traditionally bullish on big government, lamented a federal bureaucracy marked by 'very poor record keeping and incompetence' that she said is likely to lose track of some children and fail to reunite others with their mothers and fathers before the grown-ups are deported.

'The question of how we reunite the children who were taken from the parents is the one that’s keeping me up at night,' Clinton told The Guardian, adding that she's 'worried that some children will not be reunited.'

Near tears, she said she has personally raised $1.5 million to 'flood the border with lawyers, interpreters, experienced social workers, psychologists.'

'We just have to get as much expertise down there to force the federal government to give us everything.' 

She characterized the debate over incivility - fueled by incidents including Trump's press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave a restaurant and Maxine Waters, the veteran Democratic congresswoman calling for White House officials to be confronted in the street - as an example of 'that ridiculous concept of bothesidism'.

'I mean, this is a crisis of his making that will damage kids for no good reason at all, and I think everybody should be focused on that until the children are reunited,' she said. 

Clinton used the interview - conducted during a tour of Ireland and the United Kingdom - to emphasize that she has no intention of leaving the political world.

She said that she would be campaigning consistently until the November mid-term elections for Democratic candidates.

That prospect is likely to raise concern in her own party over the potential for Clinton campaigning to do more harm than good.

She was asked by the interviewer whether she had considered helping to heal the divides in U.S. life by leaving the public stage. But clearly angered, she said: 'I'm sure they said that about Churchill between the wars, didn’t they?'

Although her presence will appeal to parts of the Democratic base, it could easily be seized upon by Trump to boost Republican turnout.

But Clinton said that it felt like her patriotic duty to continue to play a part in public life. 

She was asked by the interviewer whether she had considered helping to heal the divides in U.S. life by leaving the public stage.

But clearly angered, she said: 'I'm sure they said that about Churchill between the wars, didn’t they?'

The interviewer suggested it was not a 'spontaneous' reaction and Clinton quickly added: ''I mean, I’m not comparing myself, but I’m just saying people said that, but he was right about Hitler, and a lot of people in England were wrong. And Churchill was a pain. He kept popping up all the time.'  

She also came close to intervening in UK politics by suggesting that Trump's planned visit to the country next month, when he is due to meet with Queen Elizabeth as well as Prime Minister Theresa May, should be put off until children are reunited with their families.

Clinton corrected herself 'hastily', the newspaper said, saying that it was 'your own decision'.

The failed 2016 Democratic candidate had traveled to the UK and Ireland to make a series of speeches.

Among her engagements were a two-day stop in Wales, where some of her ancestors were from, to inspect the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law at Swansea University.

While there she stayed at Fairyhill by Oldwalls in the nearby Gower peninsula, a Georgian mansion in 24 acres of grounds which is normally a wedding venue.