Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump this week demanded an independent probe after more Clinton emails released as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showed foundation donors lobbying her top aides for access.
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“Every policy Hillary Clinton supports is a policy that has failed and betrayed communities of color in this country”, Trump said.
The billionaire businessman rejected Clinton’s allegations of racism, defending his hard-line approach to immigration and accusing her of painting “decent Americans as racists”.
In a tweet shortly after Clinton wrapped up her speech in the swing state of Nevada, Trump said she “is pandering to the worst instincts in our society”.
Trump tried to turn the tables on Clinton, suggesting she was trying to distract from questions around donations to The Clinton Foundation and her use of her private email servers.
Speaking at a community college, Clinton sought to link Trump to the “alt-right”, an informal group of mostly white conservative men aligned with the Republican Party that sees Trump as the only choice in 2016. “She should be ashamed of herself”.
“She lies, she smears, she paints decent Americans as racists”, said Trump, who then defended some of the core – and to some people, divisive – ideas of his candidacy.
On Wednesday evening, Hillary Clinton said the AP had only “looked at a small portion of my time” as secretary of state and had drawn the conclusion that her meetings with Nobel laureates – such as Peace Prize victor Elie Wiesel – were connected to the foundation rather than their work as global leaders. The “alt-right” lives primarily online, regularly pushing racist, homophobic and sexist content.
Beyond leveling attacks pre-empting Clinton’s barrage, Trump sought to repaint his campaign as one concerned about the plight of some minority communities in the U.S. and insisted that a Trump administration would promote pluralism and tolerance.
Rather, Clinton will point out, Trump is moving further toward the “alt-right”, as evidenced by his recent hiring of Breitbart News’ Steve Bannon as campaign CEO and his decision to retain Roger Ailes and Roger Stone as consultants.
Trump, who also met Thursday in NY with members of a new Republican Party initiative meant to train young – and largely minority – volunteers, has been working to win over blacks and Latinos in light of his past inflammatory comments and has been claiming that the Democrats have taken minority voters’ support for granted.
Former President Bill Clinton says he’s proud of people who have donated to the Clinton Foundation and the work the organization has done, as he waded into a dispute that Republicans are hoping will damage his wife’s presidential campaign. “And, in a sense, I don’t want to dignify her statements by dwelling on them too much, but a response is required for the sake of all decent voters that she is trying to smear”, Trump said.
Clinton described Trump as a candidate “with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of the supermarket tabloids and the far, dark reaches of the internet”.
During an interview with WMUR, a New Hampshire television station, Trump was asked whether he wants white supremacists to vote for him.
But two-thirds of voters said Clinton is qualified to serve as president, the poll found, whereas 58 percent said Trump is not qualified.
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Lerer reported from Reno, Nevada.
