Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton ripped Donald Trump for what what she described as disrespecting American generals and the commander in chief, as she took reporters questions Thursday in front of her airplane.
She went after the Republican nominee for his remarks a day earlier at a candidate forum, which including saying American generals had been “reduced to rubble” under President Obama and Mrs. Clinton.
“We saw more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief. He trash talked American generals,” she said to a gaggle of reporters an airport in Westchester County, New York.
Reporters and pundits will debate whether the question-and-answer session broke Mrs. Clinton’s streak of 277 days without a formal press conference.
Mrs. Clinton also took issue with Mr. Trump saying Russian President Vladimir Putin was a better leader than Mr. Obama, describing his comment as “bizarre.”
“That is not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country, as well as to our commander in chief, it is scary because it suggests he will let Putin do what Putin wants to do and then make excuses for him,” she said.
She wondered what Ronald Reagan would say about a “Republican nominee who attacks American generals and heaps praise on Russia’s president.”
“I think we know the answer,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Mrs. Clinton took six questions from reporters who are traveling with her. She has been criticized for going more than nine months without a formal press conference.
The Trump campaign responded by calling the gaggle a “desperate” maneuver after she failed the commander in chief test at the forum.
“Last night Hillary Clinton again failed the commander in chief test, where she was unable to answer for her terrible foreign policy judgment, mishandling of classified information and claims that the VA wait time scandal was overblown,” Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said in a statement.
He said Mrs. Clinton’s claim at the forum that no lives were lost in Libya was an insult to the memory of “the four brave Americans who died in Benghazi.”
“So it’s no surprise she’s resorting to unhinged and dishonest attacks, including claiming on Israeli TV that terrorists are praying for Mr. Trump to win,” Mr. Miller said. “These are the desperate attacks of a flailing campaign sinking in the polls, and characteristics of someone woefully unfit for the presidency of the United States.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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