While Donald Trump enjoyed a day out in Mexico, Hillary Clinton delivered a speech at the American Legion’s national convention in Cincinnati. Much of the Democratic nominee’s address emphasized the “United States [being] an exceptional nation,” but with so much going on south of the American border, Clinton couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a few thematic swipes at her Republican rival.
“You don’t build a coalition by insulting our friends or acting like a loose cannon. You do it by putting in the slow, hard work of building relationships,” Clinton told the audience. “It’s more than a photo-op. It takes consistency and reliability. Actually it’s just like building personal relationships. People have to get to know that they can count on you. That you won’t say one thing one day and something totally different the next.”
She continued, telling the crowd “it certainly takes more than trying to make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours and then flying home again.”
As mentioned above, Clinton otherwise spent most of her speech praising America’s “exceptional” qualities in the face of Trump’s apparently anti-exceptional message. (As implied by “Make America Great Again.”) Or at least that’s what the New York Times suggested in its write-up on Clinton’s remarks:
Mr. Trump has said in the past that he dislikes the term “American exceptionalism,” describing it as insulting to other nations.
Yet as Clinton reminded the American Legion convention attendees on Wednesday, the nation’s exceptionalism “doesn’t mean that people from other places don’t feel deep national pride.” Rather, “it means that we recognize America’s unique and unparalleled ability to be a force for peace and progress, a champion for freedom and opportunity.”
Check out the full speech below.
(Via New York Times and ABC News)