Race cards fly in campaign

Donald Trump accused Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton of smearing his supporters as racists, minutes before she accused him of stoking the racial resentment of hate groups and turning his party over to a fringe movement.

The candidates traded sharp accusations in extraordinary back-to-back speeches on Thursday that put the politically charged issue of race in the US at the forefront of the campaign for the White House.

“Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia,” Clinton said in Reno, Nevada. “He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two major political parties. His disregard for the values that make our country great is profoundly dangerous.”

Across the country in Manchester, New Hampshire, the Republican said Clinton was trying to deflect scrutiny of her use of private email and conflicts of interest with her family’s foundation during her time as secretary of state.

He called it the most “brazen attempts at distraction in the history of politics” and that her allegations were an insult to “the millions of decent Americans” backing his campaign.

People who want their country’s border secured “are not racists”, Trump said. Wanting to build a wall along the US border with Mexico “doesn’t make you a racist, it makes you smart”. And he said that “people who speak out against radical Islam and who warn about refugees are not Islamophobes”.

“It’s the oldest play in the Democratic playbook,” Trump said. “When Democratic policies fail, they are left with only this one tired argument: ‘ You’re racist. You’re racist. You’re racist.’ They keep saying it. It’s a tired, disgusting argument, and it’s so totally predictable.”

Clinton said she originally intended to talk about her proposals to help small businesses while in Reno but switched after Trump shook up his top campaign staff last week.