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8 year oldDonald Trump ripped into Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, painting her as a corrupt career politician who he said would enrich her allies and cater to special interests at the expense of the American people.
In an address where he rarely strayed from his prepared remarks, Trump accused the former secretary of state and presumptive Democratic nominee of being a "world-class liar" who "may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency."
Pointing to her past debunked claims about landing under sniper fire in Bosnia in the 1990s and her "pathetic email and server statements," Trump accused Clinton of corrupting America's economy, foreign policy and national security.
"When I see the crumbling roads and bridges, or the dilapidated airports, or the factories moving overseas to Mexico, or to other countries, I know these problems can all be fixed, but not by Hillary Clinton — only by me," Trump said from his Trump SoHo development in New York City, according to his prepared remarks. (Mexico is connected by land to the United States.)
Trump also looked to grow his coalition, and cut into Clinton's, with messaging that echoes elements of Bernie Sanders' appeal to voters. Trump ripped his rival's support of trade deals — a frequent target of Sanders — while also promising to create jobs and boost wages for blue-collar workers. And, in a near-verbatim lifting of Sanders' message, Trump complained of a system that's "rigged" against the American people.
In contrast, Clinton "has perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft," Trump said.
"She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund — doing favors for oppressive regimes, and really, many, many others, in exchange for cash," Trump said — allegation Clinton's campaign has repeatedly denied. "Pure and simple, folks, Pure and simple. Then, when she left, she made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests — and in less than 2 years — secret speeches that she does not want to reveal under any circumstances to the public. I wonder why."
"Together, she and Bill made $153 million giving speeches to lobbyists, CEOs, and foreign governments in the years since 2001," Trump said. "They totally own her, and that will never change including if she ever became president, God help us."
Clinton does not have the temperament, "or, as Bernie Sanders said, the judgment, to be president. She believes she is entitled to the office," Trump said.
"Her campaign slogan is 'I’m with her.' You know what my response to that is? I’m with you: the American people," Trump said to applause. "She thinks it’s all about her. I know it’s all about you — I know it’s all about making America Great Again for All Americans."
Trump used details from "Clinton Cash," the 2015 book by conservative operative Peter Schweizer, to hammer home his points.
The Clinton campaign has trashed the book as "false, right-wing attacks" funded by the Koch brothers, and it continued to push back on Trump's attacks Wednesday afternoon.
“The only thing Donald Trump offered today was more hypocritical lies and nutty conspiracy theories. This is more distraction from a candidate that cannot answer or dispute any of yesterday’s criticism of his business record," Clinton spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement. "Economists on the left, right and center all agree his dangerous economic policies would throw us back into recession and hurt working families costing nearly 3.5 million American jobs, that’s a fact. Donald Trump continues to prove that he is unqualified and unfit to be president. Just like he shouldn’t have his finger on the button, he shouldn’t have his hands on our economy.”
The AFL-CIO, which has endorsed Clinton, only went so far as to give Trump credit for having "recognized some of the challenges working people have known for decades," Josh Goldstein, deputy national media director said, "but the truth is he doesn’t have a clue how to fix our problems, he would only make them worse.
Hammering the Clinton Foundation's acceptance of donations from the governments of countries with hostile policies toward women and gays, as well as claiming that Clinton's immigration policy "wants to bring in people who believe women should be enslaved and gays put to death."
"To cover up her corrupt dealings, Hillary Clinton illegally stashed her State Department emails on a private server," Trump alleged — though the department has said only that the server setup violated its records-keeping policies, while the FBI has yet to determine if there was any crime involved.
"Her server was easily hacked by foreign governments — perhaps even by her financial backers in Communist China, I'm sure they have it — putting all of America in danger," Trump continued. "Then there are the 33,000 emails she deleted. While we may not know what is in those deleted emails, our enemies probably do. So they probably now have a blackmail file over someone who wants to be president of the United States. This fact alone disqualifies her from the presidency. We can’t hand over our government to someone whose deepest, darkest secrets may be in the hands of our enemies."
He continued, "National security is also immigration security — and Hillary wants neither."
"Hillary Clinton has put forward the most radical immigration platform in the history of the United States," Trump said. "She's pledged to grant mass amnesty and in her first 100 days end virtually all immigration enforcement and thus create totally open borders for the United States, totally open borders."
Trump also alleged that Clinton "managed to almost single-handedly destabilize the entire Middle East" as secretary of state claiming that the Islamic State " threatens us today because of the decisions Hillary Clinton has made along with President Obama."
Hitting Clinton for her 2002 vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq, Trump reiterated his claim that he "was among the earliest to criticize the rush to war, and yes, even before the war ever started."
However, Trump told Howard Stern on Sept. 11, 2002, "[y]eah, I guess so" and "I wish the first time it was done correctly" when asked his position, as BuzzFeed News surfaced in February.
"But Hillary Clinton learned nothing from Iraq, because when she got into power, she couldn’t wait to rush us off to war in Libya," Trump said, in reference to her advocacy for the 2011 intervention that knocked out Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi.Trump aimed high with his concluding remarks, vowing to offer a bigger, better future for the country than Clinton.
"Hillary Clinton’s message is old and tired. Her message is that can’t change. My message is that things have to change – and this is our one chance do it," he said. " This is our last chance to do it. Americans are the people that tamed the West, that dug out the Panama Canal, that sent satellites across the solar system, that built the great dams, and so much more. Then we started thinking small. We stopped believing in what America could do, and became reliant on other countries, other people, and other institutions. We lost our sense of purpose, and daring. But that’s not who we are. "
Vowing to "build the greatest infrastructure on planet Earth" and ensure the military "will have the best technology and finest equipment," Trump promised "massive new factories" that will "come roaring into our country – breathing life and hope into our communities. Inner cities, which have been horribly abused by Hillary Clinton and the Democrat Party, will finally, finally, finally be rebuilt."
"Construction is what I know," he said. "I say, nobody knows it better."
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