Clinton defends family foundation, says work will continue

The tone of the United States presidential campaign turned darker on Thursday, with Hillary Clinton skewering Donald Trump as a man who flirts with racism and paranoid ideas, while he in turn labeled her a racist whose family foundation was a “criminal enterprise”.

Trump, who also met Thursday in NY with members of a new Republican Party initiative meant to train young – and largely minority – volunteers, has been working to win over blacks and Latinos in light of his past inflammatory comments.

Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told MSNBC Clinton was only talking about Trump and race this week to deflect attention from that controversy.

Almost three-quarters of voters, meanwhile, said they believe Trump should release his tax returns publicly and 59 percent said they believe his rhetoric “appeals to bigotry” – claims Clinton’s campaign has pushed in recent weeks. “They’ve been very disrespectful, as far as I’m concerned, to the African-American population in this country”, Trump said.

At an election rally in New Hampshire Thursday night, Trump said such tricks are the oldest play in the Democratic playbook.

Calling it “a exhausted, disgusting argument”, he said it was Clinton who was being a “racist” by viewing minorities merely as a source of votes while doing nothing for them. He was joined in MS by Nigel Farage, one of the architects of Britain’s push to leave the European Union – a movement that succeeded, in part, because voters sought to block the influx of foreigners into the United Kingdom. You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good.

“People are hearing the message”, he said.

Trump also said that he’ll give an immigration speech “over the next week or two” to clarify his wavering stance on the issue.

It was a reference to an ad deleted by Trump in July featuring Clinton’s portrait superimposed on dollar bills and stamped with a red Star of David shape emblazoned with the text: “Most corrupt candidate ever!” They were quickly escorted out by security as they railed against Trump for “trying to pander to black and Latino leaders”.

The Republican nominee’s recent choice of Steven Bannion, a firebrand conservative, as his new campaign chief showed Trump was embracing the extremist white nationalist stances of the so-called “alt-right” movement, she said.

“He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two major political parties”, she said. “He’s brought it into his campaign”.

“The work has been not only transformational, it has really been in line with American interests and values”, she said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”.

“This type of rhetoric and repulsive advertising is revolting and completely beyond the pale”.

Most of the discussion about Clinton on Friday focused on her speech in Reno, Nevada, where she essentially accused Trump of stoking racism: “From the start, Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia”, Clinton said on Thursday.

The former first lady’s lead, which dropped to 45 to 38 percent over Trump when including third party presidential candidates, came despite low favorability marks and a majority of respondents saying they don’t see her as honest. Jonathan Lemire contributed from Las Vegas and Jill Colvin from Washington.