Transcript: Hillary Clinton says Trump is ‘shameful’ and ‘Americans don’t need conspiracy theories’
So the questions being debated this week about how we deal with the threat of terrorism are some of the most charged and important issues we face. And there are bound to be differences of opinion. In a country as diverse and complex as ours, I think that’s a given.
But I believe that despite those differences, on a deeper level, we are all on the same team. We may not see eye to eye on everything, but we are all Americans. And there is so much more that unites us than divides us. I have said many times, I think it’s appropriate for us, not to consider ourselves on the Republican team or the Democratic team, on the red team or the blue team, but to be on the American team. And after a terrible event, like Orlando, that’s clearer than ever.
photo/ donkeyhotey
That’s what we’re seeing in Orlando and across America – people of different faiths, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities coming together to say with one voice, we won’t let hate defeat us.
If we can count on that kind of unity and solidarity from each other – if even the families of the Orlando victims are speaking out right now against hate and division – we should certainly expect that from our leaders.
And I am sorry to say that is not what we are hearing from Donald Trump.
Donald Trump wants to be our next Commander in Chief. I think we all know that is a job that demands a calm, collected, and dignified response to these kinds of events. Instead, yesterday morning, just one day after the massacre, he went on TV and suggested that President Obama is on the side of the terrorists.
Just think about that for a second.
Even in a time of divided politics, this is beyond anything that should be said by someone running for President of the United States. And I have to ask – will responsible Republican leaders stand up to their presumptive nominee? Or will they stand by his accusation about our President?
I am sure they would rather avoid that question altogether. But history will remember what we do in this moment.
What Donald Trump is saying is shameful. It is disrespectful to the people who were killed and wounded, and their families. And it is yet more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be Commander in Chief.
Of course, he is a leader of the birther movement, which spread the lie that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States. I guess he had to be reminded Hawaii is part of the United States. This is the man who claimed a distinguished federal judge born and raised in Indiana can’t do his job because of his – quote –‘Mexican heritage.’ I guess he has to be reminded Indiana is in the United States.
So maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. But it was one thing when he was a reality TV personality. You know, raising his arms and yelling, you’re fired. It is another thing altogether when he’s the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president.
Americans don’t need conspiracy theories and pathological self-congratulations. We need leadership, common sense and concrete plans.
Because we are facing a brutal enemy. In the Middle East, ISIS is attempting a genocide of religious and ethnic minorities. They’re slaughtering Muslims who refuse to accept their medieval ways. They are beheading civilians, including executing LGBT people; murdering Americans and Europeans; enslaving, torturing, and raping women and girls.
The barbarity we face from radical jihadists is profound. So I would like to have a worthy debate on the best way to keep our country safe. That’s what Americans deserve.
