A podium, a microphone, journalists, questions – on the tarmac at the White Plains airport, Hillary Clinton revived an ancient tradition that she appeared to have forgotten: the press conference.
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to the Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention in Kansas City, Mo..
Clinton said that thanks to her family and church, she “embraced an activist social justice faith”.
But the Clinton campaign acknowledged she had to spend more time focussing her remarks on herself so voters could see the “aspirational” vision she hopes to enact if she becomes the first woman elected US president.
Clinton has focussed many of her public remarks on criticism of Trump, including his provocative comments on illegal immigrants, Muslims and women. Some audience members even recited lines along with her.
“We must keep calling him out and rejecting the hateful, bigoted rhetoric that seeks to pit Americans one against each other and continue making the case in every way for our vision of an America that is stronger together, an America where all our children have a choice to live up to their God-given potential no matter where they come from or what they look like, what the circumstances of their lives have been”, she said. Clinton also vows to address issues brought up by the Black Lives Matter movement.
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At the event that had all the trappings of the presidency, Mrs. Clinton made the remarks in a somber tone and presented herself as the more serious alternative to Mr. Trump. “That was the first time I was in a black church, when I was a teenager”.
She drew applause and shouts, as she shared Scripture she said had have informed her belief: As attributed to St. Francis, “Try to preach the gospel always, and, if necessary, use words”, and from the Bible, “Faith without works is dead” and “We can not just be hearers of the word, we must be doers”.
Diplomacy, the economy but also the polemics and grey areas surrounding her candidacy: standing in the cramped cabin of her campaign plane, Clinton answered questions at length.
“My mother taught Sunday school at our church”.
“His words, the power of his example, affected me deeply and added to the lessons of my minister to face the world as it is, not as we might want it to be, but to committing ourselves to turning it into what it should be”, Clinton said.
“She’s the absolute wrong choice for a voter of faith”.
The foreign policy discussion followed a Wednesday night national security forum. Clinton did take some thinly veiled shots at Trump, but she also made an appeal to African-American voters and reflected on her Methodist faith.
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Clinton insisted she never mishandled classified information, despite FBI Director James Comey’s declaration to the nation that she was “extremely careless”.
