Clinton steps up attack on Trump

Says the GOP candidate is ‘dangerously incoherent’ and ‘temperamentally unfit’ to be President

June 03, 2016 10:53 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 04:22 am IST - Washington:

A demonstrator burns a Donald Trump ‘campaign hat’ in protest against theRepublican U.S. presidential candidate in San Jose, California, on Thursday.

A demonstrator burns a Donald Trump ‘campaign hat’ in protest against theRepublican U.S. presidential candidate in San Jose, California, on Thursday.

As Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton tried to take the battle to the Republican enemy Donald Trump on Thursday, it appeared that her general election campaign might hinge on a strategy that his primary opponents had used, and failed. Ms. Clinton questioned Mr. Trump’s temperament, intellect and grasp of foreign policy issues, in a thoroughly planned speech in California, calling him “dangerously incoherent” and “temperamentally unfit” to be President.

Mr. Trump’s challengers in the primary race had used roughly the same arguments against him but it turned out that those were exactly the attributes that won him the nomination—being brash, eccentric and even racist and misogynistic allegedly. Ms. Clinton evidently hopes that what made him popular among the narrow band of Republican voters will make him unacceptable for the general election voters, which is racially diverse and politically more moderate.

Policy prescriptions

“This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes…because it’s not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin,” she said, never referring to her opponent as ‘Mr. Trump’. To buttress her core argument that Mr. Trump is unfit to occupy the world’s most powerful office, she recalled a series of policy prescriptions made by him that will turn turtle long held U.S. positions on most global issues.

“This is a man who said that more countries should have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia… This is someone who has threatened to abandon our allies in NATO… He believes we can treat the U.S. economy like one of his casinos and default on our debts to the rest of the world… Imagine Donald Trump sitting in the Situation Room, making life-or-death decisions on behalf of the United States.”

In tone, tenor and content, Ms. Clinton’s speech echoed Republican leader Mitt Romney who made a speech in March in an effort to stop Mr. Trump from winning the party nomination. “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers,” Mr. Romney had said.

On his part, Mr. Trump is clear that his campaign against Ms. Clinton would be a continuation of his primary campaign – in style and substance. Or the lack of the latter. In tweets and a speech later, Mr. Trump scorned his Democratic opponent, calling her ‘Crooked Hillary’, and ‘Lying Hillary.’ Mr. Trump said her speech was “pathetic”, “had nothing to do with foreign policy”, and promised to expose her lies in the coming weeks.

Ryan endorses Trump

Mr. Trump also got a shot in the arm when Republican Speaker Paul Ryan endorsed him after weeks of vacillation. Mr. Ryan, the highest ranking elected Republican, had publicly opposed Mr. Trump at various stages in the campaign.

He explained his endorsement as a move to stop Ms. Clinton. “A Clinton White House would mean four more years of liberal cronyism and a government more out for itself than the people it serves. Quite simply, she represents all that our agenda aims to fix.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.