President Barack Obama is hitting back at Donald Trump for the Republican’s frequent criticism of Obama’s foreign policy.
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“But the fact of the matter is that over time we have grown increasingly uncomfortable with both the policy stances and the temperament exhibited by Donald Trump”, she said.
Democrat Clinton has spent much of the summer trying to paint Trump as ill-prepared to be commander in chief and too unpredictable to make decisions that put American service members in harm’s way.
“Immediately after taking office, I will ask my generals to present to me a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy ISIS”.
“Well, it is a correct tweet”, Trump responded.
The forum, presented with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, could serve as a warm-up to the highly anticipated first presidential debate, scheduled for September 26 in NY.
Trump made the offer in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, in what appears to be a tactic created to turn the heat back on Clinton.
Clinton said she views “force as a last resort, not a first choice”, and then argued that her opponent has not taken responsibility for his support of the war.
During the forum, Clinton was grilled about her use of a personal email server and handling of classified information – issues that have plagued her on the campaign trail. But she defended her support for US military intervention to help oust a dictator in Libya, despite the chaotic aftermath.
Donald Trump defended a comment he made in 2013 that sexual assault in the United States military happened because men and women serve alongside each other. And so we must learn what led us down that path so that it never happens again.
“When you serve on the armed forces, that’s a very special situation and I could see myself working that out, absolutely”, Mr Trump said when asked if he’d support letting someone who plans to serve in the military live in the USA legally.
One veteran from the audience asked Trump what he would do to curb sexual assault in the military, and Trump suggested that the solution lies in further prosecution. And for the first time, he opened the door to granting legal status to people living in the US illegally who join the military.
Trump said he thinks he’d “have a very good relationship with many foreign leaders”, including Putin. “I could see myself working that”.
She also admitted that voting to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2002, when she was a senator, was wrong. He replied, “Yeah, I guess so”. It will offer a prelude of what to expect from them when national security issues come up in their three presidential debates later this month and next. Tuesday alone, voters saw Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine in Wilmington, former President Bill Clinton in Durham and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in Greenville.
The two candidates made back-to-back appearances at a forum on military issues in NY hosted by NBC News and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an advocacy group, as national security has moved to the forefront of the campaign. He has no military experience and has repeatedly criticized the skill of the armed forces. Earlier Wednesday, former Defence Secretary William Cohen joined the list of GOP officials supporting Clinton.
Even before promising a huge boost in military spending, Trump’s plans to cut taxes, expand infrastructure spending and leave untouched entitlement programs such as Social Security already threatened to add trillions of dollars to the federal deficit.
Perhaps a glimpse of a new, more presidential Trump?
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Trump’s call for eliminating the sequester cuts to defense spending sits in stark contrast to his initial reaction to the sequester’s across-the-board cuts, which Trump downplayed weeks before they went into effect.
