Hillary Clinton tried to pivot away from attacks on her protection of US secrets Monday, warning against her White House rival Donald Trump being allowed control of US nuclear launch codes.
In a barnstorming final push before the November 8 presidential vote, Trump has seized upon a renewed FBI inquiry into Clinton’s controversial use of a private email server while secretary of state.
But, with no sign anything concrete will come of the FBI probe before polling day, Clinton believes she can face down the challenge and return to the issue of Trump’s fitness to lead a nuclear power.
In Kent, Ohio, she was introduced by Bruce Blair, a former US missile launch officer who organized a joint letter from former colleagues arguing that Trump should not be trusted with nuclear codes.
Clinton, pointing to Trump’s numerous angry blowups on the trail and often confused responses to questions on security issues, painted him as a dangerous hothead who could trigger Armageddon.
“Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis,” the 69-year-old Democrat said of her Republican rival Trump, a 70-year-old New York property mogul turned reality television star.
“Imagine him plunging us into a war because somebody got under his very thin skin. I hope you’ll think about that when you cast your vote.”
Trump meanwhile, has done nothing to moderate his own rhetoric, storming through a series of usually Democratic states in an effort to break Clinton’s apparent lock on the electoral college.
His attacks on Clinton’s private email server — which he alleges put US secrets at risk — are aimed at undermining the advantage the former secretary of state has in terms of experience.
But the first major poll to have been partly conducted after Friday’s bombshell news that the FBI is re-opening its email probe, showed little movement in his direction — with eight days to go.
Source: AFP
