Hillary Clinton: Trump 'left unchecked' in midterms could do lasting damage

Clinton told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" that she is worried about those tendencies.

The "authoritarian tendencies that we have seen at work in this administration with this President, left unchecked, could very well result in the erosion of our institutions to an extent that we've never imagined possible here," Clinton said.

And for Clinton, the possibility of Trump with no true congressional check only heightens the importance of the elections in November.

"I think you will only see more of these attacks on our institutions, on our norms, on the rule of law that could do lasting damage," Clinton said.

Republicans currently control both the House of Representatives and the Senate, allowing lawmakers to pass many of Trump's legislative priorities during his first 18 months in office. However, history -- and recent national polling -- shows Democrats are poised to make gains in the House during the November elections. Presidents often suffer setbacks in the first midterm elections after they're inaugurated.

Clinton, who embarked on a book tour following her defeat to Trump but otherwise stayed mostly quiet when it came to electoral politics, has launched herself into 2018 campaigning. She's donated the maximum amount of money to a number of Democratic candidates and headlined three Democratic National Committee fundraisers in August.

These efforts are important to ensure Democrats can act as a legislative check on Trump during the next two years of his term, Clinton said.

"We're not there yet," she said, "but that's because we have an election, and it's an election that could not be more critical to ending any continuing threat from authoritarian tendencies."