Dem speakers tear into Trump
Speeches portray tycoon as reckless and Clinton as stable and qualified “There has never been a man or a woman — not me, not Bill, nobody — more qualified than Hillary Clinton.”
President Obama
Democrats stepped up their attacks on Donald Trump on Wednesday as they nominated Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine for vice president and heard President Obama call Hillary Clinton the most qualified presidential candidate in history.
A star-studded lineup of speakers included Vice President Biden and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, but it was Trump who increasingly dominated attention at the Democratic National Convention because of his latest controversial comments urging Russia to unearth Clinton’s missing emails.
“What we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican — and it sure wasn’t conservative,” Obama said of the Republican National Convention. “What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems — just the fanning of resentment and blame and anger and hate. That is not the America I know.”
By contrast, Obama said, Clinton “knows what’s at stake in the decisions our government makes for the working family, for the senior citizen, for the small business owner, for the soldier, the veteran. Even in the midst of cri- sis, she listens to people, and she keeps her cool and treats everybody with respect. And no matter how daunting the odds, no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits.
“That’s the Hillary I know. That’s the Hillary I’ve come to admire. And that’s why I can say with confidence, there has never been a man or a woman — not me, not Bill, nobody — more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.”
Biden pronounced Trump less prepared for the Oval Office and the nuclear codes than any other major-party candidate in history. “He has no clue about what makes America great,” the vice president said. “Actually he has no clue, period.” The delegates chanted, “Not a clue!”
“We cannot elect a man who belittles our closest allies while embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin,” Biden said.
“It is inconceivable to me that any presidential candidate would be that irresponsible,” former Defense secretary Leon Panetta said. “In an unstable world, we cannot afford unstable leadership.”
Bloomberg, an independent, denounced Trump’s record as a Manhattan-based developer and urged delegates to vote for the “sane, competent person.”
“Throughout his career, Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies and thousands of lawsuits and angry shareholders and contractors who feel cheated and disillusioned customers who feel they’ve been ripped off,” Bloomberg said.
“The bottom line is: Trump is a risky, reckless and radical choice. And we can’t afford to make that choice,” he said.
In Doral, Fla., Trump said Clinton would approve bad trade deals and allow possibly dangerous immigrants from the Middle East to flood the country.
Trump also made stops in Pennsylvania and headed for Ohio, energized by a Los Angeles
Times poll that showed him leading Clinton, 47%-40%.
Donna Brazile, who took over as interim Democratic Party chairwoman after Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down over allegations that her staff favored Clinton over Bernie Sanders, told USA TODAY she was not concerned by polling numbers. “Come Labor Day, you’ll see Hillary Clinton pulling away again,” Brazile said.