COLUMBUS, Ohio — Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Sunday escalated her criticism of Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting violence to get votes and asserting that the only way to stop him is to vote against him.
“Donald Trump is running a cynical campaign of hate and fear for one reason: to get votes,” she said at the Ohio Democratic Party Legacy Dinner in Columbus. “He’s encouraging violence and chaos to get votes. He’s pitting Americans against each other to get votes.”
Clinton hasn’t been shy about calling out Trump, for months challenging his views on immigration and subverting his “Make America Great Again” slogan by saying “America is great already.” Responding to the violence at his canceled Chicago rally on Friday, she accused him of committing “political arson.”
“Donald Trump is not who we are,” she said. “We can criticize and protest Mr. Trump all we want. But none of that matters if we don’t show up at the polls. If you want to shut him down, then let’s vote him down. And then let’s raise up a better future for ourselves and our children.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, has also been engaged in a back and forth with Trump since Friday’s melee in Chicago. Sanders denied that he encouraged the protest, calling Trump a “pathological liar” and blaming Trump’s rhetoric for the protests.
“Our campaign does not believe in and never will encourage anybody to disrupt anything,” Sanders said at a CNN town hall at Ohio State University. “I happen not to believe that people should disrupt anybody’s meetings.”
Trump blamed both Democratic presidential candidates for the violence at his events and protests against him, and argues it’s their supporters who are behind the activity. But Clinton said at the town hall just after the dinner that “Donald Trump is responsible for what happens at his events … not just inciting violence but applauding violence.”
Sanders was asked whether he was the best Democratic candidate to beat Trump. Sanders pointed to polls showing him beating Trump by wider margins than Clinton. “The American people are not going to elect a president who is insulting Mexicans, Muslims, women, veterans, insulting virtually everybody who is not quite like Donald Trump,” he said. “Thank God, most people are not quite like Donald Trump.”
