Hillary Clinton presented a stark contrast Thursday between what she said are her own extensive qualifications to command American foreign policy and Donald Trump’s reckless ignorance about national security.
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Speaking just days before the primary vote in California, Clinton already seemed intent on campaigning in the general, saying she would “leave it to the psychiatrists to explain [Trump’s] affection for tyrants”, and that the trouble for Trump when it comes to foreign policy and everything else is that “this isn’t reality television – this is actual reality”. “They’re not even really ideas – just a series of weird rants, personal feuds and outright lies”, she said.
“Today, we’re learning about another scam: the so-called Trump University”.
Still, Clinton has been slipping in primary polls in California, and Trump continues to see a groundswell of support among Republicans.
Though she has struggled for months to shake Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders, Clinton is poised to clinch the nomination in the coming days and secure her place in history as the first woman ever put forward by a major US political party. And with her combination of gravitas and sharp rhetoric, it looks increasingly like she may be the one person able to pull off what no one in the Republican primary ever could: mount the definitive assault on Trump’s tough-guy image.
Since Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, Clinton has directly challenged his ability to handle foreign policy issues and has taken to labeling him a “loose cannon” who will make it more hard for the United States to operate on the global arena.
“Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton!” ran one posting during the speech, which included a typo.
He adds: “Reading poorly from the teleprompter! She doesn’t even look presidential!”
Behind the scenes, discussions between the Warren and Clinton camps have been markedly increasing, especially as the freshman senator has begun to a play a more prominent role attacking Donald Trump, according to a source close to Warren.
Clinton’s rebuke was aimed at his foreign policy platform, which suggests curtailing America’s role overseas, renegotiating trade agreements and re-evaluating American treaty commitments.
Clinton also criticized Trump’s anti-Muslim proposal as well as his plan to build a wall at the border to prevent immigrants from coming to the United States. But it doesn’t work like that in world affairs.
The general election, Fleischer argued, will pit Clinton’s temperament against Trump’s more unorthodox positions on foreign policy, especially his opposition to interventionism. He has said he would bring back waterboarding and other brutal interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects that are widely regarded as torture and were discontinued by Obama.
“And remember I said I was a counter-puncher?”
He has said he would sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
The U.S. presidential elections are to take place on November 8.
Let’s face it. Things can happen in the final weeks and months before the election.
For Clinton’s strong showing to have lasting impact, it will need to be more than just a one-off moment.
Clinton showed a new side of herself, ridiculing Trump with both policy and humor.
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On Thursday, Obama appeared to have Trump in mind when he addressed graduates at the Air Force Academy.
