Crowds began lining up at 3 a.m. Wednesday outside Warwick's Books in La Jolla to get a chance to see former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton.
Clinton was there for a sold-out author's event at 8:30 a.m. to sign copies of her book, "Hard Choices." Afterward, she was going to the San Diego Convention Center to be the keynote luncheon speaker at the BIO 2014 conference. Gov. Jerry Brown was to join her on stage for the speech.
Clinton, who is a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, has come under criticism over the past couple of weeks for commenting that she and former President Bill Clinton were in debt when they left the White House because of legal bills, without noting pending multimillion-dollar book deals and other prospects that would benefit them financially.
On Monday, Bill Clinton defended his wife's commitment to the poor and said she was not out of touch.
The controversy arose from reports that the Clintons charge appearance fees around $200,000. A spokeswoman for the BIO conference did not respond to a question of how much Hillary Clinton was being paid for speaking at the luncheon.
CNN reported that the book tour for her memoir has resembled a political campaign, run by campaign operatives instead of book publicists.
"Hard Choices" includes her views on the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including three San Diegans. She also discusses her dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
