Rhetoric got heated at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton featuring the Democratic frontrunner’s husband, Bill Clinton. In fact, a sitting U.S. congressman promised the crowd of Hillary Clinton loyalists that their candidate would “kill” the Republican frontrunner.
“President Obama says Donald Trump will not be president of the United States,” Democratic congressman Don Beyer said enthusiastically to the crowd. “That’s exactly right. Because Hillary Clinton is going to kill him.”
The small crowd hooped and hollered.
Beyer, a used (and new) car salesman and a member of the House of Representatives, served as a warm-up act for the main event, Bill Clinton.
“But let’s make sure that we do everything we can in Virginia,” Beyer said to the crowd. The Hillary supporter made the case that the primary against Bernie Sanders should be wrapped up soon.
The event took place Wednesday evening in Alexandria, Virginia, an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C. Virginia will select its Democratic and Republican picks on Super Tuesday, March 1.
Ironically, Beyer lost his bid to become Virginia’s governor to none other than Jim Gilmore, who recently dropped out of the Republican nominating contest after failing to garner any support. Beyer was an ambassador to Switzerland in the Obama administration, working directly for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
After arriving more than an hour late for the event, Clinton himself gave a shortened version of his standard Hillary stump speech. He argued that a President Hillary Clinton would pursue clean energy, tighten Dodd-Frank, tweak rules surrounding college loans, nominate liberal justices to the Supreme Court, and improve the economy.
The other congressman to warm up the crowd, Gerry Connolly, also singled out Donald Trump for an attack, mocking the Republican’s plan to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. “I wish I could run as easily as somebody I won’t name — Donald Trump,” Connolly said, mocking Trump’s line that Mexico will willingly build and pay for a wall with the U.S.
Connolly admitted that Hillary is a “little mundane” compared to the other choices in the field. But that she’s more qualified than anyone ever to run for president.
There were fewer than 300 on hand for the event. There was, however, a large press contingent, forced into a pen in the back of the room by an angry Clinton press secretary, Angel Urena.
