Hillary Clinton will paint her White House rival Donald Trump as the candidate of the far right Thursday, claiming “a radical fringe” has taken over the Republican Party. Trump, whose support comes mainly from whites, is unlikely to be victorious unless he can cut into that support. “If any American voter is troubled by the idea that the Clintons want to continue working to solve the AIDS crisis on the side while Hillary Clinton is president, then don’t vote for her”. “Hillary Clinton isn’t just attacking me, she’s attacking all of the decent people of all backgrounds – doesn’t matter – of all backgrounds who support this incredible, once in a lifetime movement”.
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Clinton, for her part, has repeatedly declined opportunities to call Trump himself a racist, despite repeated questioning on the subject and multiple labelings of some of his campaign statements as racist by her campaign.
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.
But in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Clinton was defiant in her characterization.
Speaking at a community college, Clinton sought to link Trump to the “alt-right”, an informal group of mostly white conservative men aligned with the Republican Party that sees Trump as the only choice in 2016.
“No, no, look – I know there’s a lot of smoke and there is no fire”, Clinton responded.
Trump has tried recently to broaden his appeal to them, hinting at a softening of his hardline position on immigration. “We’re living in her head rent-free, and that must terrify the political insiders who want to keep things exactly the way they are”.
Trump also met with black and Latino Republican leaders at his headquarters in New York City on Thursday morning. “It’s nothing that Mr. Trump says out on the stump”.
An association of 40 Latino organizations sent a letter on Thursday calling on him to “cease” his rhetoric and meet with their leadership to discuss ways he could improve his outreach to Hispanics.
The video also shows newly appointed Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon, who ran the website Breitbart.com, which has been accused of stoking online racists.
Bannon told the magazine Mother Jones during the Republican National Convention last month that the website was “the platform for the alt-right”, a brand of US political conservatism associated with white nationalism.
Clinton said the Bannon hire has led to a “de facto merger” between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a “landmark achievement” for a “fringe element that has effectively taken over the Republican Party”.
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Trump’s campaign called for the Clinton campaign to withdraw the video.
