Hillary Clinton, for the first time since launching her campaign, declared
herself the inevitable nominee of the Democratic party, having held off a surprisingly strong challenge from her progressive rival, Bernie Sanders. While Clinton has maintained a comfortable lead in both delegates and votes, her opponent has refused to bow out of the primary race even as his path to the nomination narrowed. Today, Clinton said her pledged delegate lead is “insurmountable” and concluded that Sanders is no longer a barrier on her path to the nomination.
She cited his proposal to temporarily bar Muslims from entering American borders, his comments about diminishing the United States’ involvement in NATO and his remarks that he would negotiate directly with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, as evidence of how “unmoored” Mr. Trump is on foreign policy.
This month, when MSNBC asked a similar question, Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Trump had “given no indication that he understood the gravity of the responsibilities that go with being commander in chief.” But she stopped short of emphatically declaring that he was unqualified.
Mrs. Clinton’s statements come as she encounters a lingering threat for the Democratic nomination from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whose supporters have become increasingly antagonistic toward her candidacy. Despite recent primary wins by Mr. Sanders, his path to the party’s nomination appears mathematically impossible, a fact Mrs. Clinton sought to make abundantly clear.
“I will be the nominee of our party, Chris,” she told Mr. Cuomo. “There is no way I won’t be.”
On Thursday afternoon, Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Mr. Sanders, said in a statement that his candidate’s recent victories in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon showed that voters there “respectfully disagreed with Secretary Clinton.” He added, “We expect voters in the remaining eight contests also will disagree,” and said that some polls showing Mr. Sanders faring better than Mrs. Clinton against Mr. Trump made it “clear that millions of Americans have growing doubts about the Clinton campaign.”
Throughout the interview, Mrs. Clinton appeared ready to put the primaries behind her and move on to Mr. Trump. Asked if she would consider naming Mr. Sanders her vice-presidential nominee, in an effort to unify the party and bring in his liberal and young supporters, she demurred.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump escalated his
attacks on former President Bill Clinton, accusing him of rape in a Fox News interview Wednesday.
In an interview on Fox News’s “Hannity,” Sean Hannity compared allegations of Trump harassing women that appeared in The New York Times with accusations made against the former president.
“For example, I looked at The New York Times. Are they going to interview Juanita Broaddrick? Are they going to interview Paula Jones? Are they going to interview Kathleen Willey?" Hannity said, listing women who have made allegations of sexual misconduct against Clinton.
“In one case, it's about exposure,” he continued. “In another case, it's about groping and fondling and touching against a woman's will.”
“And rape,” Trump responded.
“And rape,” Hannity said.
"And big settlements, massive settlements," Trump continued. "And lots of other things.
In an interview with Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, Trump was answering questions about an unflattering story published this past weekend by The New York Times involving his relationships with women when he turned his attention to Bill Clinton.
"By the way, you know, it's not like the worst things, OK," Trump said. "You look at what Clinton's gone through with all of the problems and all of the things that he's done."
Hannity went on to question whether the newspaper would interview women including Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey. All three have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct.
The real estate mogul has lashed out at the Clintons in the past over the former president’s infidelities, going so far as to call his wife, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, an “enabler.”
But until now, he had stopped short of accusing Bill Clinton of rape.
In 1999, Broaddrick, a former nursing home employee, accused Clinton of raping her decades earlier when he was a gubernatorial candidate in Arkansas.
Clinton denied the allegations through his attorney and refused to comment on them.
