While the candidates never appeared on stage together, their back-to-back sessions served as a preview of sorts for their upcoming debates.
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The campaigns traded barbs on the health question, with Clinton’s organization mocking her opponent’s “showmanship” and Trump’s campaign pointing to his stamina to endure “uninterrupted” the rigors of campaigning. But she defended her support for US military intervention to help oust a dictator in Libya, despite the chaotic aftermath.
Hillary Clinton says rival Donald Trump owes President Barack Obama and the American people an apology for his role in the so-called “birther” movement that questioned the president’s American citizenship. Clinton asked that she be judged on her record in totality. She pledged to defeat Islamic State sans any American army boots on the ground. “It’s the reason we were watching, and now because Matt Lauer spent so much time on his questions about emails, the actual questions from the actual veterans about the actual Commander-in-Chief-ing gets reduced to a speed date”.
Trump renewed his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin for having “great control over his country”. And for the first time, he opened the door to granting legal status to people living in the US illegally who join the military.
Leaving the stage to the tune of James Brown’s “I feel good”, Clinton told reporters she kept her pneumonia diagnosis last Friday quiet, telling only senior staff, because she thought she would be able to “power through” the illness and keep campaigning.
Kaine said that taught him to never “tolerate somebody just using a broad brush to trash somebody due to their national origin”. Both candidates believe they have the upper hand, with Clinton contrasting her experience with Trump’s unpredictability and the Republican arguing that Americans anxious about their safety will be left with more of the same if they elect Obama’s former secretary of state. He has no military experience and has repeatedly criticized the skill of the armed forces.
Clinton made her remarks after a carefully staged bi-partisan national security summit while taking questions from the press.
Trump backers on Capitol Hill said they were heartened by the tightening race after a call on Thursday morning with his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who mapped out what the campaign was doing.
Pence was to appear with Trump later Thursday for an economic policy speech in NY.
His address earlier in the day also included plans to eliminate deep spending cuts known as the “sequester” that were enacted when Congress failed to reach a budget compromise in 2011. Beyond his $20 billion in federal money, he wants states to divert another $110 billion of their own education budgets to support school choice efforts, providing $12,000 to every elementary school student living in poverty to attend the school of their choice.
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“The poll numbers are just looking phenomenal as you move away from registered voters to likely voters”, Republican U.S. Representative Blake Farenthold of Texas said.
