Trump met Thursday with members of a new Republican Party initiative meant to train young – and largely minority – volunteers to drive up voter turnout among their peers.
Advertisement
NEW YORK (AP) – Hillary Clinton vigorously defended her family’s foundation against Donald Trump’s criticism on Friday and declared she’s confident there will be no major further accusations involving the foundation, her emails or anything else that could undermine her chances of defeating him in November.
I think it’s really fair to take a look at the work the Clinton Foundation has done and take the time to hear about it, which is what we’ve been doing. Yet she didn’t help herself by later misquoting Comey in a televised interview as having completely exonerated her.
“I am sure because I have a very strong foundation of understanding about the foundation”, Clinton said in the Morning Joe interview, via USA Today.
Most of the discussion about Clinton on Friday focused on her speech in Reno, Nevada, where she essentially accused Trump of stoking racism: “From the start, Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia”, Clinton said on Thursday.
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. She is also trying to appeal to Republicans, casting the race as “not a normal choice between a Republican and a Democrat”. “That’s not such a bad thing right now, because he knows he can’t push her around”. “But she doesn’t do anything”, Trump said.
She said the private Clinton Foundation’s charitable programs would continue if she’s elected, even as Trump and other critics argue they would present a conflict of interest.
“Madam secretary, if a Republican candidate was running against you and served as secretary of state, and had a foundation that took donations from foreign entities, wouldn’t you be criticizing her for a conflict of interest?”
The fact that it isn’t Labor Day yet and Republicans are already planning for how they will obstruct Hillary Clinton after she wins the White House is telling.
Ms Clinton is eager to capitalise on Mr Trump’s slipping poll numbers, particularly among moderate Republican women turned off by his controversial campaign.
The movement has come under new scrutiny in the wake of a leadership shake-up in the Trump campaign that included the installation of Breitbart News head Steve Bannon as the campaign’s chief executive. Mr Trump’s video also shows U.S. senator Bernie Sanders, Ms Clinton’s main opponent in the Democratic primary this year, calling that a racist term.
Trump framed Clinton’s speech not as an attack on him but as an attack on the “millions of decent Americans” who support him.
“When Trump was asked about anti-Semitic slurs and death threats coming from his supporters, he refused to condemn them”, Clinton said.
“I’ve always had great relationships with the African-American community”, Trump told the group, which included his former rival Ben Carson and South Carolina Pastor Mark Burns.
Advertisement
Lerer reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Jill Colvin contributed reporting from Washington and Jonathan Lemire from Manchester, New Hampshire.
