Clinton: To Elect Trump President Would Be 'Historic Mistake'
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton said Thursday that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is "temperamentally unfit'' to be president, and said to elect him would be a "historic mistake."
She further argued that Trump is peddling foreign policy proposals that are "dangerously incoherent."
Clinton lambasted Trump in a speech on international affairs she's delivering in San Diego, California. She seeks to undermine the billionaire businessman's qualifications by casting him as someone who "doesn't understand America or the world.''
The former New York U.S. senator, secretary of state and likely Democratic nominee says she is offering a "smart and principled'' foreign policy that centers on keeping America in a leading role around the globe.
She contrasts that with Trump's vision of a "fearful America'' that she says would be less secure and less engaged in the world.
Clinton cast Trump as thin-skinned, irrational and unprepared to be commander in chief.
She said his vision for America is "all wrong," and urged voters to remember that the U.S. is a "big-hearted, fair-minded country."
Clinton's comments came in a foreign policy speech that held her most blistering criticism to date of the presumptive Republican nominee for president.
The remarks signal that Clinton won't hold back in challenging the billionaire businessman's readiness to be president in the general election.
Clinton further said Trump's call to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States would be a "huge propaganda victory" for ISIS.
She also says that when Trump "insults" Muslims, as well as Mexican-Americans, he should remember that Muslims and Mexican-Americans serve in the U.S. military. She said Trump could learn from those service members.
Clinton also defended the landmark nuclear accord with Iran championed by President Barack Obama and other world powers. Trump has criticized the diplomatic agreement aimed at dismantling Iran's nuclear program in exchange for easing global economic sanctions.
Clinton challenged the Trump to answer how he would deal with Iran in the absence of a nuclear deal.
Trump has argued that his experience negotiating business deals would have allowed him to strike a better deal with Iran and has also said he would have walked away from a bad deal.
Clinton said that while that might work in negotiating a golf course deal, "it doesn't work like that in world affairs."
She said of Trump's vague proposals, "This isn't reality television -- this is actual reality."
Trump responded to Clinton's comments on Twitter.
"With all of the Crooked Hillary Clinton's foreign policy experience, she has made so many mistakes - and I mean real monsters! No more HRC," Trump wrote.
Clinton has been regularly criticizing the presumptive Republican nominee on the campaign trail for suggesting that more countries have access to nuclear weapons and for proposing that the U.S. pull out of NATO, CBS New reported.
"This is not just divisive rhetoric," she said Wednesday in New Jersey. "This is dangerous."
Trump was in California Wednesday, where he continued to criticize Clinton over the use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
"She broke federal law by putting her emails on a secret private server, that foreign countries could easily get to and hack," Trump said. "She's one of the worst secretaries of state in the history of our country. Now she wants to be our president. Look, I'll be honest. She has no natural talents to be president. This is not a president."
A new Quinnipiac poll shows Clinton leading Trump 45 to 41 percent in a potential general election match-up.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
