Most national polls show a tight race with Clinton in the lead as the United States presidential race enters its home stretch with just nine weeks until the November 8 election.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took to NBC’s Commander-In-Chief Forum on Wednesday night to again deny he ever supported the US invasion of Iraq, defend assertions female service was partially responsible for an epidemic of sexual assaults in the USA military and praise Russian President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader. While the candidates never appeared on stage together, the session served as a preview of sorts for their highly anticipated presidential debates.
The Justice Department said in July that it would follow a recommendation from the FBI and not prosecute Clinton following an investigation into her use of a private email account during her time as secretary of state. During the forum, Clinton defended her decision to intervene in Libya’s civil war and vowed that the USA would not send ground troops to help defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. “I was totally against the war in Iraq”. “I would rather as president be dealing with Iran on all of those issues without having to worry as much about their racing for a nuclear weapons”, she said, citing ballistic missiles, Iran’s role in Syria, and others.
The two struck a pointed contrast on deploying ground troops to Iraq during the town hall held in NY on Wednesday by NBC News and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Clinton could also be vulnerable to Americans’ worries about terrorism – particularly the Islamic State’s designs on the West – and criticism that Obama hasn’t done enough to combat extremism emanating from the Middle East.
Trump promised to order the military to devise a new plan to defeat Daesh “immediately upon taking office”.
“The man has very strong control over a country”, Trump told the audience.
Trump also defended a 2013 tweet he sent that said sexual assaults in the military were essentially inevitable, and repeated his false assertion that he opposed the Iraq war before it began. And for the first time, he opened the door to granting legal status to people living in the USA illegally who join the military. “And I could see myself working that out”.
“As a discussion of national security issues and the sort of things we want to hear from a prospective commander-in-chief, it’s really been a missed opportunity”, Bacevich scolded.
A right-leaning Texas newspaper broke from more than 75 years of history on Wednesday as it endorsed the Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (not seen in the picture) after their meeting in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on August 31, 2016.
Trump, meanwhile, sharply criticized the military’s top leaders, saying their ranks have been “reduced to rubble” under the Obama administration and that the military “is very sadly depleted”.
Trump was reacting to a televised national security forum where Clinton and Donald Trump both made appearances. Earlier Wednesday, former Defense Secretary William Cohen joined the list of GOP officials supporting Clinton.
Mr Trump called for more troops, more planes and more boats at a rally in Philadelphia. Republicans and Democrats voted for the automatic, across-the board cuts that affected both military and domestic programs, though the White House has long pressed Congress to lift the spending limits.
Trump’s proposal to lift the sequester limits on military spending won praise from Republicans on Capitol Hill even as some acknowledged the reality that Democratic opposition might render it hard to achieve.
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A senior adviser said ahead of the speech that Trump would make sure the additional spending was fully paid for but did not explain how.
