http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/08/31/hillary-clinton-speaks-cincincinnati-today/89644434/Donald Trump's visit to Mexico Wednesday serves as an example of the way a Trump presidency would undermine the U.S.'s leadership as an "exceptional" nation, Hillary Clinton told veterans Wednesday....
Clinton criticized Trump for "trying to make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours and then flying home again," as her Republican opponent headed to Mexico to test his diplomatic prowess in a visit with the country's president. Trump has criticized some Mexican immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally, and his signature campaign issue is his pledge to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and persuade Mexico to pay for it.
"That's now how it works," Clinton said of diplomacy and international leadership. Still, she avoided the jokes and mockery she sometimes uses when criticizing Trump and avoided saying his name in her speech to the American Legion gathering at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, a group that included some Trump supporters.
After his visit to Mexico, Trump plans to give a long-awaited speech Wednesday night in Arizona on his immigration stances, which appear to have softened in recent days. Trump then plans to fly to Cincinnati for his own address Thursday morning at the American Legion convention and a midday rally in Wilmington.
The two candidates are returning to Ohio as polls show them locked in a tight race in the quintessential swing state. Clinton has just under a 4-percentage-point lead over Trump in the Real Clear Politics average of Ohio polls in the last month. Her lead over Trump nationally is larger, more than 5 percentage points, and she is dominating in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Hampshire.
In Cincinnati, Clinton argued Trump has rejected American exceptionalism, the notion that the U.S. has a special role in the world as a leader and purveyor of democracy. The principle has often been championed by Republicans, whom Clinton is trying to woo, and Trump has drawn on the principle in some ways, such as by insisting that America strive to become "great" again.
But Trump generally has opposed the use of the term and rejected the principle that the U.S. is better than other countries, to whom he routinely says the U.S. is losing.
"My opponent is wrong when he says that America is no longer great," Clinton said Wednesday, echoing the feelings of many devotees of American exceptionalism. They advocate for more engagement of the U.S. internationally to spread democratic ideals, while Trump has often taken a more isolationist approach.
Clinton says Trump would undermine America’s greatness, and she would maintain it.
“Our power comes with a responsibility to lead humbly, thoughtfully and with a fierce commitment to our values," she said. "When America fails to lead, we leave a vacuum,”
But to U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy, Clinton's work as secretary of state doesn't back her words.
We witnessed Hillary’s foreign policy prowess during her time as Secretary of State and it was an absolute disaster," Davidson, an Army veteran, said in a statement the Trump campaign distributed ahead of Clinton's speech. "The Obama-Clinton strategy of ‘leading from behind’ set the table for ISIS to grow. She routinely compromised classified information on her private e-mail servers, and it appears she traded access to the State Department for donations to the Clinton Foundation. For Americans who are concerned about national security and the treatment of our veterans, Donald Trump is our only choice for President." Clinton's campaign responded by questioning Davidson's foreign policy prowess, pointing out that his website doesn't include any foreign affairs positions.
Trump's visit to Mexico Wednesday to meet with its president, Enrique Pena Nieto, has heightened expectations for his immigration speech Wednesday night.
Trump hasn't backed off the pledge to build the wall, but he has appeared to consider changing his plan to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. While Trump had said during the primary that he intended to accomplish that goal with the help of a “deportation force,” in recent weeks he has suggested in closed-door meetings with Hispanic activists that he might be open to re-considering. He and his aides have spent the last week-and-a-half offering mixed signals.
Clinton’s speech in Ohio comes after several days of big-ticket private fundraisers in the Hamptons, a wealthy community on New York’s Long Island, where she collected millions at waterfront mansions in preparation for the fall campaign. The fundraising swing concluded in style Tuesday night, with an event featuring performances from Jimmy Buffett, Jon Bon Jovi and Paul McCartney.
Clinton’s campaign says she has also been invited by Nieto to make a visit to Mexico and that the two will talk again at “the appropriate time.”
