Washington, July 8 (IANS) Democratic frontrunner presidential candidate Hillary Clinton attacked her Republican rivals on immigration saying they are on a “spectrum of hostility” that was really regrettable in a nation of immigrants like America.
Republican front runner Jeb Bush, son of a president and brother, and real estate mogul Donald Trump came in for particular criticism in her first interview of the 2016 presidential race aired on CNN Tuesday.
Bush, said the former first lady and Secretary of State, “doesn’t believe in a path to citizenship. If he did at one time, he no longer does.”
Clinton said she is also “very disappointed” in Trump for his comments about immigrants and in the Republican Party for not condemning his remarks more quickly.
“They’re on a spectrum of hostility, which I think is really regrettable in a nation of immigrants like ours,” she said of the Republicans while touring Iowa, the first state from where presidential campaigns traditional begin with party caucuses.
The Bush campaign asserting that the former Florida governor “believes in a conservative legislative solution to fix our broken immigration system”, in turn accused Clinton of flip-flopping on immigration.
“Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected and her numerous flip-flops on immigration prove it,” said Emily Benavides, a Bush campaign spokeswoman, in a statement.
In her interview Clinton also dismissed the suggestion that the American people have a problem trusting her.
“People should and do trust me,” she said blaming the “barrage of attacks that are largely fomented by and coming from the right” for fuelling a perception that trust is an area of vulnerability for her.
Republicans, Clinton suggested, have sought to turn controversies like her use of a private email address and the Clinton Foundation’s actions against her.
And that, Clinton said, is why national polls and swing-state surveys have found that a majority of voters say they don’t see her as honest and trustworthy.
A Quinnipiac University Swing State poll found that by margins of 8 to 14 percentage points voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania are sceptical of Clinton’s trustworthiness.
“I think it’s understandable that when questions are raised, people maybe are thinking about them and wondering about them,” Clinton said.
She similarly dismissed questions about her use of a personal email address on a private server while serving as secretary of state.
Clinton said she turned over all the emails that had anything to do with public business, and that she broke no laws in sticking with one device because she’s not technically savvy.
“This is being blown up with no basis in law or in fact. That’s fine, I get it — this is being, in effect, used by the Republicans in the Congress. OK,” Clinton said.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)