While Labor Day traditionally has been the kickoff to the fall campaign, both Clinton and Trump have been locked in an intense back-and-forth throughout the summer.
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Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has been highly critical of Mexico, saying the country sends rapists and drug dealers to the United States.
Democrat Clinton maintains an edge over Trump in national polls, has dramatically deeper ground operations in swing states, and trounced Trump in August fundraising. Clinton also has multiple paths to the 270 electoral votes needed to win in November – so many that she could lose OH and Florida and still become America’s first female president.
The day before in swing state Ohio, Trump softened his stance on immigration while Clinton blasted Russian Federation for suspected tampering in the USA electoral process.
Earlier Monday, Clinton took steps to seemingly answer more press questions, by including her traveling press corps on the same plane on which she flies.
Mrs Clinton’s comments follow reports that the Russian government may have been involved in the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails just days before the party’s national convention. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s vanquished primary rival, will be rallying the young voters and liberals who backed his campaign. And she cited his warm words for Mr. Putin, and noted places where his positions that line up with Russian interests, such as pulling back the USA commitment to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump extended a rare invitation to journalists to accompany him on his private plane from Cleveland to Youngstown, Ohio. “I’m not going to jump to conclusions”, she said.
Clinton powered through a coughing fit at a Labor Day festival at a Cleveland park, sharply criticizing Trump’s recent trip to Mexico as “an embarrassing worldwide incident”.
“He can try to fool voters into thinking somehow he’s not as harsh and inhumane as he seems, but it’s too late”, Clinton said.
“He came out saying one thing and the Mexican president contradicted him nearly immediately”, Clinton told ABC News in an interview in an apparent reference to the contradictory statements between Trump and Nieto after their meeting last week.
“I’m going to continue to focus on what we’re doing to create jobs here at home”, Clinton said.
Tim Kaine, who appeared alongside Vice President Joe Biden at an earlier event, criticised Donald Trump for saying that Clinton ‘does not look presidential, does she, fellas?’.
She added that there has also never been a candidate who urged a country to hack into American computer networks. And she doesn’t have the energy or the stamina to bring ’em back.
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, seized on the episode to tweak Clinton over her distance from the media – including not holding a full-blown press conference since last December.
“I will come back and talk to you more formally but I wanted to welcome you onto the plane”, Clinton said at the outset of a Labor Day campaign swing.
Neither major third party candidate appears to be making the gains necessary to reach the 15 percent threshold set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, with just three weeks to go before the first debate on September 26. Polls show Trump trailing Clinton in a series of must-win battleground states, meaning the debates could be his best chance at reorienting the race.
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Committing to participate in the scheduled debates, he said that only natural disasters or other similar crises would prevent him from attending. “Have they looked at their own candidate and are they anxious at all about getting more information about his health?”
