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Hillary Clinton Says ‘Radical Fringe’ Is Taking Over G.O.P. Under Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Says ‘Radical Fringe’ Is Taking Over G.O.P. Under Donald Trump
(about 4 hours later)
RENO, Nev. — Hillary Clinton on Thursday delivered a blistering denunciation of Donald J. Trump, saying he had embraced the “alt-right” political philosophy and presenting his choice as an especially ominous turn in a presidential election full of them. RENO, Nev. — Hillary Clinton delivered a blistering denunciation Thursday of Donald J. Trump’s personal and political history with race, arguing in her most forceful terms yet that a nationalist conservative fringe had engulfed the Republican Party.
In her most direct critique yet connecting the Trump campaign to white nationalists and the conservative fringe, Mrs. Clinton is framing Mr. Trump’s run as unprecedented in modern politics. In a 31-minute address, building to a controlled simmer, Mrs. Clinton did everything but call Mr. Trump a racist outright — saying he had promoted “racist lie” after “racist lie,” pushed conspiracy theories with “racist undertones” and heartened racists across the country by submitting to an “emerging racist ideology known as the alt-right.”
“He is taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party,” she said. “He is taking hate groups mainstream,” Mrs. Clinton told supporters at a community college here, “and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party.”
Asserting that a racially charged and “paranoid fringe” had always existed in politics, she said, “It’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.” Mrs. Clinton said that while a racially charged and “paranoid fringe” had always existed in politics, “it’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it and giving it a national megaphone, until now.”
The speech, at a community college here, comes one week after Mr. Trump named Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, as his campaign chief. Mr. Bannon has eagerly described the site as “the platform for the alt-right” — a loosely defined and contested term often associated with white nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment. Mrs. Clinton’s remarks coincide with a conspicuous shift in strategy from Mr. Trump, who has spoken with more compassion about people in the country illegally and expressed a desire to win African-American support. He has even suggested he might revisit his call to deport 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally, a pivot seen as an attempt to draw in moderate voters turned off by his views.
So it was that Mrs. Clinton was seeking to describe the “alt-right” to a national audience that might have little familiarity with it. With Mr. Trump’s rise, Mrs. Clinton has often struck a have-you-no-sense-of-decency theme in her critiques — warning sternly and repeatedly that the arc of his candidacy transcended standard political attack. But her effort on Thursday was remarkable for its exhaustive accounting of Mr. Trump’s controversial racial history in business and in his presidential campaign.
“The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a landmark achievement for the alt-right,” Mrs. Clinton said. “A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party.” Mrs. Clinton detailed the Justice Department’s housing discrimination case against Mr. Trump during the 1970s, noting that the applications of black and Latino residents “would be marked with a ‘C’ — ‘C’ for colored.”
Mrs. Clinton also noted that David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, was “jubilant” on his radio show recently while describing Mr. Trump. She said state regulators had fined a Trump casino for repeatedly removing black dealers from the floor and reminded the audience of Mr. Trump’s promotion of “birtherism,” questioning President Obama’s birthplace.
“A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far dark reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military,” Mrs. Clinton said. “If he doesn’t respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?” She recalled his opening salvo in the Republican primary, calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals when he announced his candidacy, and his more recent suggestion that a judge with a Mexican heritage could not be impartial in hearing a case involving Trump University.
It was the kind of formal address that Mrs. Clinton had often pursued to communicate her general election message. She also set aside specific events to sternly criticize Mr. Trump’s plans for domestic and foreign policy, and took to the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., last month — the site of Abraham Lincoln’s “house divided” speech — to appeal to the country’s better angels. “This is someone who retweets white supremacists online,” Mrs. Clinton said, citing a posting by someone with the user name “WhiteGenocideTM. “Trump took this fringe bigot with a few dozen followers and spread his message to 11 million people.”
For his part, Mr. Trump has often appeared to court the alt-right community — sometimes more winkingly than others — and his elevation of Mr. Bannon heartened many who identified with the movement. By the end, Mrs. Clinton was quoting headlines from the Breitbart News website, which is overseen by Mr. Trump’s new campaign chief, Stephen K. Bannon.
Mrs. Clinton’s remarks also coincide with an attempted shift in strategy from Mr. Trump, who has spoken with more compassion about people in the country illegally and expressed a desire to win African-American support. “I’m not making this up,” she warned, before digging into the site’s archives: “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy”; “‘Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?’”; “Hoist It High and Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims a Glorious Heritage.”
These attempts, which have come in front of predominantly white audiences, have more than occasionally offended minority voters. Mr. Trump has said African-Americans live in neighborhoods resembling “war zones,” struggle to get by on food stamps and constantly face down errant gunfire. The address came a week after Mr. Trump hired Mr. Bannon, who has eagerly described the site as “the platform for the alt-right” — a loosely defined and contested term often associated with white nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment.
“The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a landmark achievement for the alt-right,” Mrs. Clinton said.
At a rally in Manchester, N.H., on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Trump offered a pre-emptive response to Mrs. Clinton’s speech, portraying her attacks as directed not only at him, but also at his many supporters.
“She lies, and she smears, and she paints decent Americans — you — as racists,” he said, motioning toward the crowd gathered at a hotel. “She bullies voters who only want a better future and tries to intimidate them out of voting for a change.”
He offered a pointed response to Mrs. Clinton and those “pushing her to spread smears and her lies about decent people.”
“I have three words,” he said. “I want you to remember these three words: Shame on you.”
Mrs. Clinton’s pitch seemed aimed largely at moderate Republicans and other voters who have watched Mr. Trump’s attempts in recent days to soften his image.
“Trump is trying to rebrand himself,” she said. “Don’t be fooled.”
She detailed explicit rejections of racist behavior from prominent Republicans in the past, like Bob Dole, George W. Bush and Senator John McCain of Arizona. And she defended the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, and Senator Ted Cruz, who had been attacked by Mr. Trump’s campaign.
Mrs. Clinton suggested a reason Mr. Trump had latched onto the evidence-free theory that Mr. Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
“Perhaps in Trump’s mind, because Mr. Cruz was a Cuban immigrant, he must have had something to do with it,” she said, speaking before two dozen American flags.
She later called the Trump campaign “a moment of reckoning for every Republican dismayed that the Party of Lincoln has become the Party of Trump.”
In a signal of the gravity with which the campaign viewed her speech, Mrs. Clinton took the stage without music.
Jason Miller, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, said that with her attacks, Mrs. Clinton was merely trying to direct attention away from her own controversies.
“Hillary Clinton’s attempt to delete the single worst week of her political career isn’t going to work,” he said, citing uproars over her private email server and the Clinton Foundation.
Mr. Trump’s recent efforts to moderate his tone, which have come in front of predominantly white audiences, have more than occasionally offended minority voters. Mr. Trump has said African-Americans live in neighborhoods resembling “war zones,” struggle to get by on food stamps and constantly face down errant gunfire.
“What do you have to lose?” he has asked.“What do you have to lose?” he has asked.
Mrs. Clinton’s team is straining to hold Mr. Trump to his statements from the Republican primary, reminding voters of his hard line on immigration and arguing that his campaign has encouraged hate groups. On Thursday, Mrs. Clinton offered her response: “The answer is everything.”
On Thursday morning, Mrs. Clinton posted a campaign video on Twitter featuring clips of white supremacists praising Mr. Trump. It also included a now-famous interview when Mr. Trump initially declined to disavow Mr. Duke. As Mr. Trump has been recalibrating his message, Mrs. Clinton’s team has been straining to hold Mr. Trump to his statements from the Republican nominating fight, reminding voters of his hard-line stance on immigration and arguing that his campaign has encouraged hate groups.
On Thursday morning, Mrs. Clinton posted a campaign video on Twitter featuring clips of white supremacists praising Mr. Trump. It included a now-famous interview in which Mr. Trump initially declined to disavow David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader.
Near the end of Mrs. Clinton’s video, these words appear: “If Trump wins, they could be running the country.”Near the end of Mrs. Clinton’s video, these words appear: “If Trump wins, they could be running the country.”
Her campaign has also moved to confront other Republicans with Mr. Trump’s most provocative statements. In her speech, she alluded to a so-called Trump effect in schools, citing instances of bullying that have targeted Latino and Muslim students, and lamented his penchant for conspiracy theories.
John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, said that “Republicans up and down the ticket are going to have to choose whether they want to be complicit in this lurch toward extremism, or stand with the voters who can’t stomach it.” “This is what happens when you treat The National Enquirer like gospel,” she said.
Before the speech on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s campaign suggested that Mrs. Clinton was simply trying to change the subject. “Hillary Clinton’s attempt to delete the single worst week of her political career isn’t going to work,” said Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, citing controversies over Mrs. Clinton’s private email server and the Clinton Foundation. She mused at the Trump team’s suggestion that she was in the throes of a health crisis.
At the same time, Mr. Trump’s campaign and Breitbart have reveled recently in conspiracy theories about Mrs. Clinton, suggesting she is in the throes of a health crisis. “Dream on,” she said.
In an appearance on Monday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Mrs. Clinton theatrically asked the host to check her pulse and opened a jar of pickles to demonstrate her strength.
“Make sure I’m alive,” she joked.