The full force of the Democratic Party, including President Obama, rallied around Hillary Clinton on Thursday, saying rival Donald Trump is unfit for office.
Advertisement
Trump went on to praise Putin’s leadership and pooh-pooh concerns about Putin’s authoritarianism: “I mean, you can say, oh, isn’t that a bad thing-the man has very strong control over a country”. 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.
While Clinton was forced to dwell for some ten minutes on why her use of a personal email server during her tenure as secretary of state ultimately did no harm to national security, Trump’s praise of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin-on which he doubled down-was not met with ten minutes of questioning about his invitation to Russia to hack into his opponent’s email server. “I make no excuses for it”, Clinton responded, stressing she had not improperly handled classified information.
Suggesting Mr Putin had “great control over his country”, the 71-year-old added: “I think when he calls me brilliant I’ll take the compliment, ok?”
He further criticized us military action in Iraq under Obama, saying generals “have not been successful”. Trump didn’t often comment on the war before it began and what he did say, we found, didn’t amount to opposition.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are in tied in Florida, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
The televised “Commander-in-Chief” forum on Wednesday, attended by military veterans, was the first time Trump and Clinton had squared off on the same stage since accepting their parties’ White House nominations in July, although they did not appear at the same time.
Trump said that comment was “long before” the war started, even though it came in the heat of the debate on the Iraq War as Congress prepared to vote on the issue.
“I don’t understand the reason for it”, Clinton said Thursday.
Clinton’s remarks also prompted an enraged rebuke from the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign.
She also drew cheers by criticizing North Carolina’s efforts to tighten voter eligibility, citing a federal appeals court ruling that said the law targeted African-American voters. But no matter how many times the Republican candidate for president says it, the facts are clear: He did not.
It offered a prelude to how Clinton and Trump will deal with questions of national security in their three upcoming presidential debates later in September and in October.
For months, Hillary Clinton’s supporters have griped that she’s held to a higher, harder standard than Donald Trump. They were hoping Trump would say something so dumb, or so outrageous that it would be the big takeaway from the evening.
“With Mr. Trump, I was looking for some substance on the issues, and I just didn’t get it”, Haynie said.
Even before Wednesday’s forum, which was watched by 14.7 million people, the role of moderators as fact-checkers was being talked about after Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who will be in charge of the third presidential debate on October 19, said in an interview that “I don’t believe my job is to be a truth squad”.
Advertisement
“By not adjudicating, the moderator leaves the viewing public with a “he said, she said” situation when the journalist picked to be onstage could say, decisively, who is right”, wrote Michael Calderone of The Huffington Post.
