This included Trump’s quote on nuclear weapons, in which he declared “the power, the devastation is very important to me”.
Advertisement
The New York businessman, who has struggled at times to demonstrate a command of foreign policy, also seemed to acknowledge he does not now have a plan to address cyber security or the Islamic State group.
It comes after a late summer period in which Clinton largely stayed out of public view, raising money to bankroll her fall campaign.
Clinton said the remarks show Trump has “failed” at a key test of being the nation’s commander in chief. He also echoed long-standing U.S. demands for all North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members to spend 2% on their militaries. Earlier, Clinton reiterated that she regretted her vote for the Iraq War, and hit Trump on falsely saying he has opposed the war from the onset – something he again incorrectly repeated when it was his turn during the forum.
“If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him,”Trump said of Putin at NBC’s Commander-in-Chief forum attended by military veterans”. She cites his calls to stop Muslim immigration to the United States and to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, as well as his past characterisations of Mexican immigrants as rapists and his pledge to build and force Mexico to pay for a border wall, which Mexico’s president has said is a non-starter. “Absolutely. Now we have to vet very carefully, everybody would agree with that”.
The appearances mark an intense, two-day focus on national security by Trump, who has offered tough rhetoric – but few details – on America’s challenges overseas. He’s zeroed in on her controversial email practices at the State Department, calling her private email server “reckless”.
But Clinton defended certain emails, including those that contained information about the country’s covert drone program, as not revealing classified information.
“Actually it’s 22. It’s nearly impossible to conceive that this is happening in this country”, he said.
The event at the Intrepid Air and Sea Museum in NY offered a prelude of how they will deal with questions on national security issues in their three upcoming presidential debates.
Asked about a coughing fit in Cleveland, Clinton said she suffered from seasonal allergies and had increased her dosage of antihistamines.
Trump faced questions about his fitness for office.
“I have a whole section devoted to veterans’ mental health”.
By refusing to disclose his financial obligations, and by declining to remove any potential conflicts of interest he has with Putin and other foreign entities, Trump has come up with a different notion of blind trust: He wants us to trust him, blindly. We’ve gotta help people now serving not to feel that if they report their sense of unease, their depression, that somehow it’s gonna be a mark against them. We have to do more about addiction.
“It’s her opportunity to continue to frame the message, to own the conversation”, said Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist and former Clinton campaign aide.
A member in the audience asked Trump how he would deescalate tension with Russian Federation. But it’s bad enough if a President Trump were to feel pressure to tilt in Russia’s favor because he was indebted to Putin-allied investors. “And I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Russian Federation”, he said.
“Well, I think when he calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment, OK?”
“Instead of an apology tour, I will proudly promote our system of government and our way of life as the best in the world – just like we did in our campaign against communism during the Cold War”.
Advertisement
Whites with no more than a high-school degree give Trump the advantage on virtually all of 17 candidate qualities tested, with the exceptions being having the right temperament to be president, possessing the skills needed to conduct foreign policy, and being a good role model for children.
