Clinton Goes On Offensive Against Trump, Downplays Email Controversy
CULVER CITY (CBSLA.com/AP) — Hillary Clinton said Friday that Donald Trump has "lowered the bar" with regard to keeping the peace at his rallies and creating an environment that encourages dialogue.
The likely Democratic nominee for president said in an interview with CNN that the presumptive Republican nominee has "set a very bad example" for not condemning the violence that is increasingly associated with his rallies, whether by his own supporters or his opponents.
We must "condemn all violence in the political arena," Clinton said. "I don't think any of this helps anybody."
Clinton once again hit Trump for the controversy surrounding his now-defunct Trump University, a real estate education program that some participants said made fraudulent promises, saying that the New York real estate mogul "preyed on people."
He "has taken them by asking them to max out their credit cards, to appoint financial despair and walked away. So I will let the lawsuits go on," Clinton said.
Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings.
Just 70 delegates shy of clinching the Democratic nomination, Clinton now leads rival Bernie Sanders by 268 pledged delegates and her advantage grows with the superdelegates, party officials who can back any candidate.
Speaking on KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO, Clinton said she didn't see any parallel between Sanders' role as a potential "spoiler" ahead of the Democratic convention and her own campaign against then-Senator Barack Obama in 2008.
"It was a much closer contest than the one between myself and Senator Sanders," she said. "In fact, the popular vote was neck in neck. By some counts, I even won the popular vote."
Both Clinton and Sanders are campaigning aggressively in California, which is among the states voting on Tuesday.
When asked whether she was concerned about being indicted in the ongoing State Department email scandal before Election Day, Clinton stated emphatically "there is absolutely no possibility" of that occurring.
"That is just never going to come to pass, I have absolutely no doubt about that," she added. "We will go into the convention united and we will come out and work hard to defeat Donald Trump."
A separate review by the State Department's Inspector General concluded last month that Clinton and her team ignored clear internal guidance that her email setup broke federal standards and could have left sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton has called her decision to rely on the private server a mistake, but contends she violated no laws.
Campaigning in California Friday at an organizing event geared at women, Clinton told about 500 cheering supporters that "if all goes well, I will have the great honor as of Tuesday to be the Democratic nominee for president."
Flanked by female celebrities and elected officials, including Sally Field, Elizabeth Banks and Debra Messing, Clinton embraced the historic nature of her candidacy.
"Starting next Tuesday we're on our way to breaking the highest and hardest glass ceiling," she said.
Clinton continued her attacks on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who she assailed in a foreign policy speech this week, calling him "temperamentally unfit" to be president.
Clinton's star supporters rallied the crowd by talking up her record of experience and questioning Trump's ability to serve. Field drew applause as she questioned why "likeability" is considered a problem for Clinton.
"What is this, a high school popularity contest? She's not running to be anybody's friend. She's running to be the president of the United States," Field said.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)