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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Pittsburgh Turns Out for Trump & Clinton

PITTSBURGH (CN) — Condemning her Republican opponent's reaction to the Orlando shooting, Hillary Clinton told a thousand Pennsylvania supporters Tuesday that Donald Trump's remarks prove he is "temperamentally unfit" for the job of U.S. president.

"We don't need conspiracy theorists," Clinton said, rallying at a steelworkers union center in the newly renovated, trendy part of South Side Pittsburgh.

The former secretary of state descended on Pittsburgh as voters grapple with the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

With the killer having reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in his fatal firefight with police, Donald Trump has spun the shooting to bolster anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric.

He inspired division in his own party Tuesday for implying that President Barack Obama sympathized with radical jihadists.

"There's something going on," Trump said Monday on Fox News, comments that reminded many pundits of his prominent role in the "birther" movement that questioned Obama's citizenship.

Clinton took Trump to task in Pittsburgh the next day for his "shameful and disrespectful" comments.

She said Trump has no actual experience, only "bizarre rants and lies," and an obsession with name-calling.

Mocking Trump as the "leader of the birther movement," Clinton paused to remind her opponent that both Hawaii and Indiana are in the United States.

While Obama was born in Hawaii, Indiana is the birthplace of the federal judge with whom Trump is feuding. Trump has insinuated that he cannot receive a fair trial in litigation over his much-embattled Trump University because of the judge's "Mexican heritage."

For Clinton, Trump's latest remarks are "yet more evidence" that he is "totally unqualified."

Ridiculing Trump's attempt to declare war on "an entire religion," Clinton also called Trump's plan to suspend immigration "un-American."

She emphasized that the nation faces "a brutal enemy" in the Islamic State, and that she would "go after" the terrorists overseas as president.

Clinton's speech in Pittsburgh came as Washington, D.C., held the final primary of the election season. She heads to the Democratic National Convention next month with far more delegates and endorsements than her Vermont-based opponent, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Trump held a rally in Pittsburgh on Saturday that drew three times as many people, gathered in a very large and very hot airplane hanger west of the city.

Unlike Clinton's rally, Trump's had neither air condition nor opening speakers.

An airplane did, however, roll in behind Trump for his entrance.

Trump kept press cordoned off in the back of the hangar, while Clinton allowed media to circulate among the crowd.

The former secretary's gathering proved more muted than Trump's, with a far more subdued police presence.

Trump arrived 30 minutes after the planned start time, after at least two supporters fainted in the thousands-strong crowd from the 90-degree heat.

Trump seemed somewhat off the cuff as he searched for cheers. After first talking about old airplanes, he touted his relationship with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, saying "some people have what you call a champion heart."

His talk of Mexico led to "build a wall" chanting, and a bizarre interruption by Trump. "By the way, the Mexicans are great," Trump said. "I don't blame anyone. I blame the officials."

Talking about unification, Trump said he believes everyone is equal no matter their color or race.

He also stated that China laughs at America, government officials "have no clue."

But Clinton is "crooked," Trump said. "They don't respect her."

"I'm just the messenger!" he exclaimed, before pivoting again to praise his campaign, which he called "the greatest political phenomenon [he's] ever seen."

People are "sick and tired of the stupidity going on in our country," Trump remarked.

Trump had been talking for about 40 minutes when he began insulting the press and encouraged the crowd to boo at reporters at the back of the hanger.

Despite differing environments, both Clinton and Trump's speeches offered strangely similar messages.

They both spoke about unification, and bashed the other.

Each candidate said their opponent's presidency would lead to a catastrophe while offering themselves as saviors.

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