Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton railed against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump on Thursday, arguing in a wide-ranging speech on foreign policy that he’s too thin-skinned to have control of the country’s nuclear codes.
During a campaign rally in San Diego, California, Clinton framed the 2016 election as a choice between “a fearful America and a strong, confident America that leads to keep our country safe and our economy growing.” Then she targeted Trump specifically.
“Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different, they are dangerously incoherent. They’re not even really ideas,” Clinton said. “They’re just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.”
“This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes,” she continued, “Because it’s not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin.”
Clinton weaved her experience as President Obama’s secretary of state into her speech criticizing Trump, noting that she had worked with generals and admirals and had visited troops overseas.
“We cannot put the lives of our young men and women in uniform in Donald Trump’s hands,” Clinton said.
Clinton pointed to Trump’s call for more countries to have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia, and for the United States to leave NATO as evidence that he was ill-prepared for the White House.
“He is not just unprepared, he is temperamentally unfit to hold office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility,” she said.
Clinton has adopted a more aggressive tone toward Trump in recent days, calling him a “fraud” on Wednesday and saying that he would “scam” America the same way he did the people who took his seminars at Trump University.
Clinton’s one-liners earned some applause from the audience, including when she said Trump’s foreign policy pronouncements were “the words of someone who doesn’t understand America or the world.”
Specifically, Clinton noted Trump’s claim that climate change was a hoax created by the Chinese, his suggestion that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) wasn’t a war hero and his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Now, I will leave it to the psychiatrists to explain his affection for tyrants. I just wonder how anyone could be so wrong about who America’s real friends are,” Clinton said. “Because it matters. If you don’t know exactly who you’re dealing with, men like Putin will eat your lunch.”
Clinton said the country knew what “tools Donald Trump brings to the table,” saying he composes “nasty tweets.” As Clinton was speaking, Trump sounded off on Twitter as Clinton said he would:
Crooked Hillary no longer has credibility – too much failure in office. People will not allow another four years of incompetence!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016
Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton! Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesn’t even look presidential!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016
“Making Donald Trump our commander in chief would be a historic mistake and it would undo so much of the work that Republicans and Democrats alike have done over many decades to make America stronger and more secure,” Clinton said.
This post has been updated.
