Clinton campaign tries to steal thunder from RNC
CLEVELAND, Ohio — As the gavel dropped at the Republican National Convention here, kicking off the most crucial week yet for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton gave a speech calling for criminal justice reform just a few hours away in this swing state.
“We all know about that other convention happening up in Cleveland today,” Clinton told the NAACP national convention Monday afternoon in Cincinnati. “My opponent in this race may have a different view, but there’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here with all of you.” Trump turned down the NAACP’s invitation to speak, citing convention duties.
While the RNC began its day of law-and-order programming titled “Make America Safe Again,” Clinton laid out her own criminal justice agenda, calling for an end to violence between police and citizens, as well as a renewed commitment to rebuild trust between them. The presumptive Democratic nominee began her speech by saying her heart was broken by the killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge, La. “If you take aim at that and at them, you take aim at all of us,” she said.
But Clinton also called for national standards on police use of force and a commitment to reform the justice system from the ground up. She said the changes were necessary to make the justice system fairer to all, particularly minority men.
“Everyone is safer when there is respect for the law and when everyone is respected by the law,” she said.
The Republican National Committee quickly shot back, accusing Clinton’s speech of embracing empty platitudes. “Donald Trump wants to restore law and order to our communities and Make America Safe Again, and at a time when the country is in need of healing, our Party is committed to providing strong leadership at every level that will achieve peace, unity, and a stronger America,” said Telly Lovelace, an RNC spokesman.
This year, Clinton is defying the unspoken tradition of lying low during the rival party’s political convention. She’s scheduled to speak five times early this week, with many expecting her to announce her vice presidential pick on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign is holding daily briefings featuring surrogates just a few miles from the Quicken Loans Arena every morning. The counter-convention effort is called “Better Than This,” and will draw attention to Trump’s comments at the convention. The campaign put out an edition of a mock newspaper called the “Trump Times,” which includes a satirical advice column called “Dear Donnie,” horoscopes (Cancer: “Be greedy, greedy, greedy”) and a faux travel column urging readers to summer in Atlantic City to see “the tragedy of ruined businesses and lives.”
Monday morning, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland addressed reporters at the temporary Clinton HQ in Cleveland, alongside DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. Strickland, a Democrat, said he’s “proud” of Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich for not throwing his support behind Trump and avoiding the convention. “He’s not my best personal friend in all of the world but I can say that I admire his integrity in making the decision that he has made to avoid giving Donald Trump his endorsement,” Strickland said of Kasich, who defeated him in the 2010 elections.
Wasserman Schultz and Strickland pointed to the many national Republicans who also are skipping their own convention, saying it reflected badly on Trump’s chances in the general election. (Kasich is skipping the convention altogether. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman is set to make a brief appearance without speaking.) “The Republican leadership in Ohio is sending a message,” said Strickland, who is now running against Portman. “If they thought Donald Trump was going to do well in Ohio, they wouldn’t be avoiding it.”
Clinton and Trump are running fairly close to each other in head-to-head national polls so far, but Wasserman Schultz argued that Clinton has the edge in swing states and in the ground game. “The Republicans are extremely far behind, there is panic setting in,” Wasserman Schultz said. “We are very clearly out-organizing and out-mobilizing the Republicans.”
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