Clinton Will Not Visit Mexico During Campaign
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she will not be visiting Mexico before the November election.
Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, went there last week after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto invited both potential future U.S. leaders to discuss relations between the neighboring countries.
Clinton told ABC News on Monday that she will instead focus her efforts for now on creating jobs at home. Earlier Monday, she called Trump’s talks with Pena Nieto «an embarrassing international incident,» and said Trump did not know how to effectively talk to a head of state.
Clinton also told supporters in Cleveland, Ohio that her administration would fight for workers’ rights and dignity as she assailed Trump’s business record of multiple bankruptcies and allegations of poor treatment of his workers. She said his «bluster and wild claims» do not stand up to scrutiny.
She later told reporters aboard her campaign plane that she is gravely concerned about alleged «Russian government interference in our elections.»
«We are going to have to take those threats and attacks seriously,» she said. She also criticized Trump for «urging the Russians to hack more,» an apparent reference to a Trump remark in which he asked the Russians to find Clinton’s missing emails.
Russia is suspected of breaking into the computer system of the Democratic National Committee earlier this year, revealing that some DNC officials favored Clinton over her chief rival in the primaries, Bernie Sanders.
Trump meets union members
Trump also was in Ohio on Monday, meeting with union members and blaming President Barack Obama for allowing U.S. corporations to move jobs to Mexico.
«We’re going to stop companies from leaving,» Trump vowed, saying it would be «so easy» to do.
Trump’s occasionally tough and at other times moderate stance on immigration became even murkier Monday. He told a rowdy audience last week in Arizona that undocumented immigrants seeking legal status in the U.S. will have to go back home first.
But he told reporters Monday that they may not have to return home, saying he is not «ruling out anything.» He said a final decision would come in the future.
Clinton called Trump’s talks last week with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in which immigration was a major topic, «an embarrassing international incident.»
Trump denied the two discussed who would pay for a wall he wants to build along the U.S. order with Mexico, while Pena Nieto said he told Trump that Mexico will not pay for it.
Importance of winning Ohio
The Trump and Clinton campaign planes were at the Cleveland airport at the same time Monday, but the two candidates did not cross paths.
«It’s kind of interesting to have all the planes here on the same tarmac,» Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said as he walked over to greet Clinton. «Just shows you how important Ohio is. We’re going to be here a lot.»
It was no coincidence that both were campaigning in the Midwestern state on Labor Day. Ohio is both farm country and industrial, dotted by several major cities. It is also a major battleground state that could go either way on Election Day.
The latest polls give Clinton a 44-to-41 percent lead in Ohio, and a 4-point lead nationally.