Madeleine Albright to millennial voters: Where were you?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, isn't mincing words when it comes to younger voters.

"I think a lot of the millennials have to ask themselves: where were they?" Albright told Mashable in a post-election interview. "Millennials that, for whatever reason, did not vote, have to analyze why they didn't."

Around 24 million voters aged 18-29 turned out this year, according to an analysis by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. That's roughly the same number as voted in 2012.

But they also make up a larger share of the electorate than they did 4 years ago -- millennials being the largest generation since the Baby Boomers -- meaning more young voters chose to stay home this time.

The drop-off appears to largely consist of women, especially young white women with no college degree. White men aged 18-29 voted in larger numbers than white women of the same age. In 2012, 2008 and 2004, it was the other way around.

During Hillary Clinton's primary campaign against Bernie Sanders, Albright stirred controversy by saying "there's a special place in hell for women who don't support each other" -- a favored phrase she still uses.

By way of analogy, Albright talked about the 1960 election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, in which many young voters were concerned Kennedy was not liberal enough on civil rights.

"Some young protest voters in swing states had to recognize that their not going to the polls, or writing in someone else, would deliver the opposite of what they wanted," Albright said. (Kennedy won that election by a tiny and still-disputed majority.)

Albright was speaking at an event in San Francisco to mark the launch of an exhibit of the pins she wore as America's top diplomat, which were often used to send subtle messages about her mood to world leaders.

Asked what pin she would wear to the inauguration of Donald Trump -- which she will not be attending -- Albright suggested a simple question mark. "Because we still don't know who we elected," she told the audience.

Albright declared herself "troubled" by the "protectionist and isolationist" tone of the campaign, and also worried by Russian hacking and Trump's close ties to Vladimir Putin. "We need to know what the Russians are up to," she told Mashable. "We can't be doing their work ... what they want to do is divide Europe."

Despite admonishing young voters for their low turnout, Albright encouraged them to participate in the political process. "I would hope very much that millennials think about running for office at the local level," she said. "This is a very complicated time. They can't be bystanders."