WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Hillary Clinton unleashed a blistering assault Tuesday on her White House opponent Donald Trump, attacking the celebrity billionaire’s “shameful” comments about President Barack Obama and Muslims after the massacre in Orlando.
Clinton accused Trump of suggesting Obama sympathized with terrorists during a television appearance one day after Sunday’s shooting by a radicalized gunman.
“Just think about that for a second. Even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States,” the former secretary of state told a crowd in Pittsburgh.
“What Donald Trump is saying is shameful. It is disrespectful to the people who were killed and wounded and their families,” she added.
“And it is yet more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief.”
Trump raised eyebrows Monday when he told Fox News that the United States is “led by a man that either is not tough, not smart or he’s got something else in mind.”
“He doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands — it’s one or the other, and either one is unacceptable,” Trump added.
Clinton’s rebuke came as Obama himself lambasted Trump and other Republicans for their “rhetoric and loose talk,” saying it fueled anger but did nothing to prevent terrorism.
Clinton and Trump have ratcheted up their war on words ever since last week, when she surpassed the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
But it has reached fever pitch since the Orlando shooting, which prompted Trump to tweet his own prescience about such attacks and call for Obama to resign.
Trump also accused American Muslims of complicity in terror attacks because they do not inform authorities about “bad” people in their communities, and said Clinton aimed to abolish Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms and that her policies would invite a flood of jihadists into the country.
“These are demonstrably lies,” Clinton countered. “But he feels compelled to tell them because he has to distract us from the fact he has nothing substantive to say for himself.”
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