Clinton: Diplomacy more than quick Mexico trip
Candidate asserts exceptional quality of U.S. in leading the world
Donald Trump’s visit to Mexico on Wednesday serves as an example of the way a Trump presidency would undermine U.S. leadership as an “exceptional” nation, Hillary Clinton told veterans Wednesday.
Clinton criticized Trump for “trying to make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours and then flying home again” as her Republican opponent headed to Mexico to test his diplomatic prowess in a visit with the country’s president.
Trump has criticized some Mexican immigrants who live in the USA illegally, and he pledged to build a wall on the U.S. border and persuade Mexico to pay for it.
“That’s not how it works,” Clinton said of diplomacy and international leadership. She avoided the jokes and mockery she sometimes uses when criticizing Trump and didn’t say his name in her speech to the American Legion gathering — a group that included some Trump supporters — in Cincinnati.
Trump planned to fly to Cincinnati for his own address Thursday morning at the American Legion convention and a midday rally in Wilmington, Ohio.
Polls show the two candidates locked in a tight race in the quintessential swing state. Clinton has almost a 4-percentage-point lead over Trump in the Real Clear Politics average of Ohio polls in the past month. Her lead over Trump nationally is larger, more than 5 percentage points, and she dominates in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Hampshire.
In Cincinnati, Clinton said Trump has rejected American exceptionalism, the notion that the United States has a special role in the world as a leader and purveyor of democracy. The principle has traditionally been championed by Republicans, whom Clinton is trying to woo, and Trump has drawn on it in some ways, such as insisting that America strive to become “great” again. Trump has routinely said the United States is losing to other countries.
“My opponent is wrong when he says that America is no longer great,” Clinton said Wednesday, vowing to keep the United States the “greatest country on Earth.”
Trump’s isolationist approach would hurt the United States’ standing, Clinton said. “Our power comes with a responsibility to lead humbly, thoughtfully and with a fierce commitment to our values,” she said. “When America fails to lead, we leave a vacuum.”
Among the convention attendees, “I’m in the minority,” said Robert John of Chambersburg, Pa., who’s been a Clinton supporter since 2008.
He characterized as weak the applause given to Clinton, although he noted it was a more respectful welcome than she received at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in North Carolina in July. There, she was heckled by a few members of the crowd.
Rick Succee of Bellingham, Wash., said he is undecided on whom to support, but Trump has his ear. Succee is attracted to the GOP candidate’s immigration proposals and hopes his shoot-from-the-hip rhetoric is just an act.
“My opponent is wrong when he says that America is no longer great.” Hillary Clinton