Hillary Clinton blasted Donald Trump on Thursday for his condemnation of American military generals and his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying her Republican opponent had “failed” at proving he can be commander in chief.
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Speaking to reporters the morning after a NY forum on security featuring separate appearances by the two candidates, Clinton said the businessman was “inappropriate and undisciplined” in discussing his briefings from U.S. officials.
Clinton supporters were livid that he spent a long time asking her about her emails and didn’t challenge Trump when the Republican nominee falsely that claimed he opposed the Iraq war. But her past reluctance to take questions from a freewheeling pack of traveling journalists – commonplace in presidential politics – has fueled criticism about her relatability and provided ammunition to Republicans and Trump, who have accused her of hiding to avoid scrutiny.
The two presidential nominees weren’t on stage together, thrusting Lauer, the long-time Today show co-anchor, even more into the center of the action as he questioned Trump and Clinton on national security issues.
Clinton, holding an impromptu press conference on a NY tarmac before flying to a campaign event, castigated the brash billionaire for failing to formulate a strategy to defeat IS extremists. Clinton, by contrast, does better than President Barack Obama did among college-educated whites, especially women. Imagine, for a second, John Kerry making a similar comment during the 2004 presidential campaign and consider the filleting that he would have endured from President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign.
That’s far higher than in the last several elections, when fewer than 1 in 10 voters were still up in the air at this point, and reflects the distaste that large numbers of voters have for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It also follows a more disciplined stretch from Trump, who has commanded extensive cable TV coverage of his campaign. On Wednesday, he also lifted the ban on reporters from some outlets covering his events. She had held gaggles over Labor Day weekend; now, she would take questions from the podium. He devoted about a third of his time with Clinton to questioning her about her use of a private email server and seemed to rush through topics that included domestic terrorism.
Clinton, also asked about the issue, pointed to her recently rolled out mental health policy agenda.
Yet some of the exchanges got complicated. But broaden the lens to take in the almost two-thirds of poll respondents who say they are at least fairly certain of their vote and their likelihood of casting a ballot, and the picture flips, with Clinton holding a 48 percent to 42 percent lead.
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“Perhaps most notable were the questions Lauer did not ask of Trump”. After the orange reached the front cabin, Clinton’s traveling press secretary, Nick Merrill, rolled it back to the press with the word “Putin” circled. Merrill later clarified that Clinton had not put the circle on the orange, he had.
