San Diego, CA - Speaking before a crowd of about 500 supporters and local Democratic politicos at the Prado in Balboa Park, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton unleashed attack after attack on Donald Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric, calling the Republican presidential nominee “unfit to be commander-in-chief.”
Clinton passionately declared, “Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different, they’re the dangerous incoherent ramblings of a person unfit to lead this country. It’s not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us to war just because someone got under his very thin skin."
While weaving in strategic attacks on Trump, this was also Clinton’s first serious foreign policy campaign speech since her tenure as secretary of state ended. Her goal was to clearly forge her own identity on the global stage. She highlighted her accomplishments, “I’ve wrestled with the Chinese on trade, I’ve brokered a ceasefire with Israel and Hamas, and I’ve sat in the situation room and advised the president on tough choices.”
As for Trump and his foreign policy experience, Clinton said, “He thinks he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Ms. Universe pageant in Russia.”
The tone and timing of Clinton’s speech is likely attributed to two things. A new NBC/WSJ poll shows Clinton with a decided advantage over Trump when it comes to foreign policy matters. In the poll, voters prefer Clinton 56 percent to 29 percent for Trump.
The other, and maybe more pressing issue, is a new poll that shows Bernie Sanders within two points of Clinton in California. If Clinton loses the state of California on Tuesday to Sanders, her momentum heading into the convention would take a big hit.
It’s been a week of political fireworks in San Diego.
On Friday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of nearly 15,000 at the San Diego Convention Center. Trump doubled down on his desires to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, eliminate ISIS off “the face of the earth,”and reinforced the concept that foreign policy decisions made by President Obama’s administration, in which Clinton served as secretary of state, helped create ISIS. Clinton hit on that note saying, “Donald Trump has no clue what he will do with ISIS, and a Trump presidency would embolden the terrorist group.”
If it wasn’t clear before this past week in San Diego, it should be clear now.
The gloves have come off in the race for the White House.
Hillary Clinton’s forceful, passionate, power play against Donald Trump has made it so.