Clinton to take on Trump's controversial cheering squad -- the "alt-right"
Hillary Clinton plans to say more about Donald Trump and what she calls “a hate movement.” She’s also blasting a report on her State Department meetingswith Clinton Foundation donors. Clinton said her work as secretary of state “was not influenced by any outside forces.”
“There is a lot of smoke, and there is no fire,” Clinton said in a phone call to CNN.
She also said her meetings with humanitarians like Melinda Gates and Elie Wiesel had nothing to do with their donations to her family charity, the Clinton Foundation.
“That is absurd. These are people I was proud to meet with,” Clinton said
Wednesday night.
In Atlanta, Georgia, former President Bill Clinton argued the foundation was being
targeted unfairly.
“If there’s something wrong with creating jobs and saving lives, I don’t
know what it is,” he said.
His wife will try to turn the focus back to Trump Thursday by taking on one ofhis most controversial cheering squads – the “alt-right,” or the “alternative right.” Active online, the alt-right call Trump “the emperor,” hailing his talk of a deportation force.
“The alt-right is sort of an amorphous nebulous internet world of white ethno-nationalists,” said Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff, who has been writing about the alt-right for two years.
But the movement suddenly pierced the public consciousness last week. One media commentator said they come off as “sexist, racist and anti-Semitic.”
The trigger was Trump’s decision to make Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon his new campaign CEO. Under Bannon’s leadership, the conservative website has become what he called “the platform for the alt-right,” highlighting crimes committed by immigrants and criticized for anti-Muslim sentiments.
“Is Donald Trump a member of the alt-right?” Cordes asked.
“They see him as a very admirable leader; they really like him,” Woodruff said.
“They see Trump as someone whose policies would be good for whites.”
Clinton’s speech is all about sending a message to wavering Republicans that Trump is not quite one of them. She’s even giving the speech in Reno, Nevada, a city that leans Republican in a battleground state.