The Democratic and Republican presidential nominees both made stops in Northeast Ohio on Labor Day with their running mates.
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Democrat Clinton maintains an edge over Trump in national polls, has dramatically deeper ground operations in swing states, and trounced Trump in August fundraising.
In the past, Trump’s campaign has said Clinton’s coughing fits make her unfit for the presidency – amid persistent rumors fueled by the far right that the 68-year-old is in bad health.
Clinton expressed “grave” concern about reports that Russian Federation has been interfering in the USA electoral process through invasive cyber attacks on the Democratic Party and an apparent attack on voter registration systems in Arizona. “We’ve never had a nominee of one of our major parties urging the Russians to hack more”, Clinton told reporters travelling with her on her new campaign plane.
She last took questions from reporters on July 31, but that was a more brief exchange that covered fewer serious topics.
Mrs. Clinton cited what she described as official assessments that Russian intelligence services are behind the recent hack of computers at the Democratic National Committee.
The list of surrogates hitting the trail this month includes President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, Clinton’s former Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Vice President Joe Biden and celebrities like Tony Goldwyn and Don Cheadle, the campaign said Tuesday.
Highlighting the intensity of the fight for battleground states like Ohio, Trump was already on the ground in Cleveland for his own campaign events when Clinton landed, their planes parking about two football fields apart on the tarmac. The billionaire businessman appeared to shy away from his hard-line vow to block “amnesty” for immigrants in the country illegally. Clinton shrugged off her coughing fit as an “allergic reaction” to Donald Trump.
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 global incident”.
Unwilling to allow Mr Trump to modify his immigration stances, she said his address later that night in Arizona amounted to a “doubling down on his absurd plan to send a deportation force to round up 16 million people”.
“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.
“I’m going to continue to focus on what we’re doing to create jobs here at home, what we’re doing to make sure Americans have the best possible opportunities in the future”, Clinton told Muir. “There are so many of them I’ve lost track of them, and so I pay no attention to them”.
“I said put that back on my calendar”, She said while on stage. “You need energy, man”, Trump told reporters. “And I think that’s a pretty clear outcome from that trip”, she added.
Clinton didn’t leave the Quad Cities without attacking her opponent.
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.
Beyond Russia, she answered questions about the ongoing controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while secretary of state, which Mr Trump has used to cast doubt over her ability to protect classified information.
“I think we’ve had a great month”, Trump said.
The first presidential debate will be September 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. It will be moderated by Lester Holt of NBC News.
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Clinton remained in a strong position to win the White House race, but Trump and his team cited his growing strength in opinion polls nationally and in several states where the election is likely to be chose to argue that his message is breaking through to voters. Committing to participate in the scheduled debates, he said that only natural disasters or other similar crises would prevent him from attending.
