Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:00 pm
In a CNN interview that aired Thursday, Hillary Clinton said what most of us have known about Donald Trump since he declared his candidacy for president: He isn’t qualified to lead the country.
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CNN host Chris Cuomo asked the former Secretary of State directly: “Do you think that Donald Trump is qualified to be president?”
Clinton responded:
No, I do not… I think if you go through many of his irresponsible, reckless, dangerous comments, it’s not just somebody saying something off the cuff. We all misstate things and may not be as careful phrasing what we say. This is a pattern, a pattern going on now for months. And it’s a pattern that adds up in my opinion having watched presidents, having seen the incredibly difficult work that they do and the decisions that they have to make, the thinking that goes in sitting in the Situation Room, do we go after bin Laden or not? I was part of that. Was it a clear, easy choice? Of course not. Did it have to be carefully parsed and analyzed and then we gave our opinions but it was up to the president to decide. I know how hard this job is. And I know that we need steadiness as well as strength and smarts in it. And I have concluded he’s not qualified to be president of the United States.
The former First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State is only repeating what Trump’s Republican rivals have stated all along – that Trump doesn’t have the temperament or thoughtfulness to be president. He whines when he doesn’t get good press coverage, picks Twitter fights with anyone who dares to criticize him, and has coasted through the primary season without having to delve into deep policy discussions.
This week alone, Trump has picked a fight with America’s closest ally, praised North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and released a list of right-wing Supreme Court justices that could help him realize his dream of criminalizing abortion.
Trump may be qualified to star in a reality TV show, but it takes a responsible adult to run the most powerful country in the world. Hillary Clinton’s response today is the beginning of the Democratic candidate’s effort to reveal the spray-tanned billionaire for who he is: a risk America can’t afford to take.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
