Hillary Clinton Talks Trump, Upcoming NY Primary On 1010 WINS
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is confident she can beat Donald Trump and said she's "already gotten more votes" than the GOP front-runner.
Speaking in a live interview Wednesday morning on 1010 WINS, Clinton said she's been taking on Trump "from the very beginning."
She said she thinks a lot of Republicans were nervous about confronting Trump and "waited an awfully long time to make their case against him."
"But since last summer in response to some of his outrageous comments, I have been calling him to account," she told 1010 WINS' Brigitte Quinn. "I've also said, 'look, it's not just his biased and bigoted comments about immigrants or women or Muslims or people with disabilities or John McCain.' There's a long list of those that he's gone after."
She called some of Trump's comments "dangerous" and said some of what he's saying is "unfortunately, in my view, causing problems around the world."
"I've been on the front lines taking him on and I will continue to do so if I'm fortunate enough to be the nominee and if he is also," she said.
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On the upcoming New York presidential primary, she said she feels "very good" about her campaign as new poll numbers show rival Bernie Sanders closing in.
The Siena College poll has Clinton still leading 52 to 42 percent over Sanders among the state's Democratic voters ahead of Tuesday's primary. However, the poll shows that number is down from a lead of 55 to 35 percent in March.
"While Clinton continues to hold a double-digit lead over Sanders, the Brooklyn-born Sanders has tightened the race in the last month over Clinton," Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a statement.
But Clinton said there are a lot of polls out there, adding that "the only one that counts is on Tuesday" when New Yorkers go to vote.
"I feel very good about our campaign," she said. "We are competing everywhere across the state."
She also called the endorsement Tuesday by the New York Daily News "terrific" and said she was "very grateful for it."
The Daily News said Clinton is "supremely knowledgeable" and "possesses the strength and the shrewdness" to advance the Democratic agenda in the White House.
"Obviously, I had the time of my life representing New York for eight years and now I want to go on and try to keep doing that work from the White House," Clinton said.
Clinton defended the gun crime policies of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and said it won't hurt her with black voters.
"We had a terrible crime problem when Bill became president," she said. "There was an outcry from across New York, across America, from every community that something had to be done."
She also addressed criticism she and Mayor Bill de Blasio faced for what some said was a racist joke made at the annual Inner Circle Show.
"The mayor was the first one who said, that you know, it was his skit and he had worked through what he wanted to say and I was thrilled to be there and show up with him," she said. "I think that the mayor is perfectly capable of speaking for himself."
The skit starred Clinton, de Blasio and "Hamilton" star Leslie Odom Jr. In it, the mayor says he was "running on C.P. time," which seemed to be a reference to a racial stereotype, "colored people time,'' when addressing how long it took him to endorse Clinton.
Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr in "Hamilton," said, "I don't like jokes like that, Bill."
"Cautious politician time," Clinton said in the punchline. "I've been there."
On Wednesday, de Blasio took full responsibility for the script, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.
"In the context of the satire, we were making fun of a figure of speech, and then twisting it in a subversive way, to a humorous end," de Blasio said.
Slate described the joke as "cringeworthy" while Gawker said it was "awkward" and Raw Story called it "painful."
The mayor's office said the joke was not intended to offend.
"Let's be clear, in an evening of satire, the only person this was meant to mock was the Mayor himself, period," a spokesperson told CBS News in a statement. "Certainly no one intended to offend anyone."
