Clinton goes after Trump over Orlando response

“Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised, but it was one thing when he was a reality TV personality … it is another thing altogether when he is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president,” Clinton said in a Pittsburgh speech regarding Trump and his comments following the attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning that killed 49 people and injured 53 others, the most violent shooting in U.S. history.

Clinton rehashed Trump’s speech Monday in Manchester, N.H., which focused almost entirely on Clinton and President Obama (who on Tuesday also delivered a blistering critique of Trump during remarks at the White House). In that address, the real estate mogul sought to associate Clinton with Obama, describing their policies on extremists as “incompetent” and “politically correct.”

Clinton also gave a speech Monday in Cleveland in response to the Orlando attack where she called for unity and outreach to Muslims. One noticeable word missing from those remarks: Trump. The former secretary of State never once mentioned her opponent’s name, though it was clear she was taking jabs at some of his policies.

But on Tuesday, Clinton said his name — a lot.

She said that Trump’s words will be “a recruiting tool for ISIS” and that he is “turning Americans against Americans, which is exactly what ISIS wants.”

Clinton also brought up Trump’s interview with Fox & Friends in which he implied Obama was somehow involved in the attack.

“What Donald Trump is saying is shameful, it is disrespectful for the people who are killed and wounded and their families,” Clinton said. ”Yet more evidence he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief.”

And Clinton attempted to set the record straight on some things Trump had said about her specifically.

“He said a lot of false things, including about me. He said I’ll abolish the Second Amendment, that’s wrong,” Clinton said. She added that Trump saying she favored a flow of refugees into the country was also wrong.

Clinton promised more information about her plans to counter the Islamic State moving forward.

“None of this will be easy, and none of it will be helped by anything that Donald Trump has to offer,” Clinton said. “America is strongest when we all feel like we have a stake in our country.”

Clinton ended the speech with a plea for unity and a compliment to former presidentGeorge H.W. Bush (in her speech Monday she complimented former president George W. Bush for his response to 9/11). She brought up a letter that Bush 41 left to her husband, Bill Clinton, when he took office on Jan. 20, 1993, that said, in part: “You will be our president when you read this note … Your success is now our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.” Clinton said the letter moved her to tears.

“Let us come together,” she said. “We can disagree without being disagreeable. We can root for each other’s success, where our president is everyone’s president and our future belongs to us all.”

US Today