BUENA PARK, Calif. — Hillary Clinton hammered Donald Trump’s foreign policy on Wednesday, saying the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s rhetoric endangered Americans, served as a recruiting tool for the Islamic State terrorist group and showed a profound lack of understanding of global affairs.
“Here is where I’m especially concerned about Donald Trump,” Clinton told hundreds of supporters at a union hall rally in Buena Park. “Just in the last few weeks, he’s attacked our closest ally, Britain. He has praised the dangerous dictator of North Korea. He has advocated pulling out of NATO, our strongest military alliance. He has suggested it’s OK with him if more countries get nuclear weapons. He’s even gone so far as to say well maybe he would use nuclear weapons against ISIS, which is not even a state. He has said we should return to torture, and he wants to ban all Muslims from coming into our country, a country founded on religious freedom. And that’s just the beginning.”
Clinton said Islamic State has used Trump’s condemnations of Muslims in propaganda videos, putting Americans and their allies abroad in jeopardy.
“These words have consequences,” Clinton said. “The reality show doesn’t end and the new show comes on. People remember; they listen.”
Clinton described her own role in helping negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and said it would have been near impossible if a politician were using the kind of language Trump does. She also recounted advising President Barack Obama to send a Navy SEAL team to kill Osama bin Laden, a decision the president ultimately made after listening to several points of view among his advisers. She described the president’s decision-making process as thoughtful and deliberate, traits she called crucial at a time of global crises.
“We live in a dangerous world,” Clinton said. “We need a steady, strong hand in order to make the best decisions.”
Clinton also criticized Trump’s plan to build an enormous border wall, saying the money should be spent on a massive new infrastructure program that would create millions of jobs while fixing crumbling roads, bridges, airports and schools.
Campaigning in California in advance of its June 7 primary, Clinton never mentioned Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic nomination. Nor did she mention the State Department inspector general’s report that faulted her for her email practices while secretary of state, an ongoing controversy that Republicans have bashed her for.
Clinton was accompanied by actress Jamie Lee Curtis and was interrupted at one point by two men in the audience who had taken off their shirts to reveal Clinton’s campaign logo and “Hillary is perfect!” painted on their chests. As a police officer approached to ask them to leave, they called out to Clinton asking to stay.
“As long as they don’t take anything else off,” she said, as the crowd laughed. “You got to make split decisions, that’s what leadership is all about.”
She later took a picture with the men, but declined hugs.
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