Hillary Clinton empathized Monday with voters who say the 2016 election is too bitter and contentious, and said at a rally that the race this year for the White House has been depressing at times.
“Politics can be discouraging,” the Democratic nominee said at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.
“This election in particular can be downright depressing sometimes,” she said, adding that, “it matters, it really does” that good people run for office and implement good laws.
Clinton spoke Monday before a crowd of students at Temple University in Philadelphia as part of her campaign’s larger push to court millennial voters.
As Clinton spoke Monday about her plan to make free community college and debt-free college available to voters, she also torched GOP nominee Donald Trump.
“This election isn’t a reality TV show. It shouldn’t be about birth certificates or name-calling or stunts to get on to cable news,” Clinton said. “We can’t get distracted when the media or my opponent turns this election into a circus.”
Voters have to stay focused, she continued, imploring her supporters to try not to let themselves get “so wrapped up in stuff that doesn’t matter.”
This election is like no other in the past, Clinton said, adding Trump’s unprecedented candidacy has assured that.
The Republican nominee, “incites hatred and violence like we’ve never seen before in any campaign,” Clinton said, adding that “hate speech is being normalized.”
“The dog whistles are out in the open,” she said. “Despite this I remain convinced Americans’ best days are ahead of us.”
