Hillary Clinton campaigned in Scranton, Pa., Friday night, laying out her positions to voters and throwing in a few attacks at Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz throughout her speech.
The former first lady and New York senator bounced from Wall Street to the economy and national security to gun rights, hitting her GOP foes any time their stances were relevant to her remarks.
“Donald Trump actually says wages are too high in America. I mean, honestly who does he talk to? He ought to come out of those towers and actually talk to people and listen,” Clinton said.
Clinton moved on to other economic issues and praised President Obama, who she lost to in the 2008 Democratic primary, for “digging us out of that ditch” that is the Great Recession.
“We need to continue to build on what has been done — don’t get talked into some sort of a detour … they [Republicans] all say things like ‘it’s the slowest recovery in history.’ That takes a lot of nerve, we wouldn’t have needed a recovery if they hadn’t wrecked the economy in the first place,” Clinton told attendees.
The former secretary of state later hit on her work as the country’s top diplomat. Clinton said her visits to 112 countries in that role allowed her to understand how to respond to Islamic extremism, unlike Cruz and Trump, who have called for different approaches to defeating terrorist cells in the U.S.
“When you have someone running for president that basically says ‘we don’t want any Muslims in our country,’ that sends a message,” Clinton said, referring to both candidates.
She went on to attack Cruz’s call for special police units that would patrol Muslim neighborhoods and cited a New York leader’s response to the Texas senator’s plan: “Ted Cruz doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”
Clinton said the Republicans’ lines get “big responses,” but warned voters to “stop and think” about the ramifications of their plans, adding that she was looking forward to debating the GOP nominee if she won the Democratic slot.
Clinton did not mention the other Republican candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich during her speech.
