“A chilly if not frigid reception for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her second quest for the White House”, Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll, said in a statement. The aide requested anonymity so as not to preempt Clinton’s speech. She has aligned herself fairly closely with the president in the past but has also pushed for measures Obama has so far kept clear of, such as implementing a no-fly zone in Syria.
Advertisement
The attacks in Paris have grabbed hold of the race for the presidency, sparking conversations between candidates over what to do with refugees fleeing Syria and how to combat the rise of the terrorist group.
On Monday, a visibly irritated Obama said numerous things the Republicans are calling for are things his government is already doing. Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short said she “can’t walk away from President Obama’s failing ISIS strategy because she helped craft it and even praised it”. But she said the battle “cannot be an American fight” and that the USA instead will “support those who take the fight to ISIS”. Jeb Bush called Wednesday in a speech at The Citadel, a military academy in SC, for American troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria.
“Our prayers are with the people of France tonight”, Clinton said at the Democratic debate on Saturday in Des Moines, “but that is not enough”.
Her opponents, Vermont Sen. Ted Cruz leads by 13 percentage points, and real-estate mogul Donald Trump has an 11-point victory over Mrs. Clinton.
Clinton has also called for the United States to continue to take in refugees from Syria, something a host of Republican governors and presidential candidates have said they would not do.
But Clinton has always been more hawkish than either of the two other Democrats running for president, so Thursday’s speech will be a chance for Clinton to show her foreign policy chops and outline how her vision differs from others in the party.
Advertisement
In last week’s Democratic debate, Clinton stood by her support for 65,000 refugees entering the U.S. Obama has attacked Republicans seeking a stop to the resettlement of Syrian refugees, saying he could not “think of a more potent recruitment tool for ISIL than a few of the rhetoric that’s been coming out of here during the course of this debate”.
