SAN JOSE, CA — (CNN) Donald Trump on Thursday called for his likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to be imprisoned.
“I will say this, Hillary Clinton has got to go to jail,” Trump told supporters here as he slammed Clinton’s foreign policy speech earlier in the day in which Clinton called Trump dangerous and “temperamentally unfit” to be president.
“Folks, honestly, she’s guilty as hell,” Trump said of the Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
Trump has previously accused Clinton of breaking federal law, but his comments on Thursday are his most direct call yet for Clinton to face jail time over her use of private email to conduct official State Department affairs.
The FBI is investigating Clinton’s use of a private emails to determine whether anyone improperly handled classified information.
At a news conference earlier this week, Trump declined to say whether he believes Clinton’s private email use amounted to a felony.
Trump also suggested Thursday that if Clinton is not indicted over her email use, he would direct his attorney general to investigate her.
“Five years’ statute of limitations, if I win. Everything is going to be fair but I’m sure the attorney general will take a very good look at it,” Trump said.
Trump peppered his speech Thursday with digs at Clinton but largely avoided responding directly to many of the claims Clinton leveled against him earlier in the day, in which she accused the presumptive Republican nominee of having “dangerously incoherent” ideas on foreign policy.
In one of the most striking speeches of her political career, Clinton dispensed with the sober diplo-speak that has characterized her previous national security addresses and went straight for the jugular, unleashing a series of biting attacks on Trump.
In the spirit of President Lyndon Johnson’s notorious “Daisy” nuclear blast ad targeting Barry Goldwater’s temperament in 1964, Clinton warned that Trump should not be let anywhere near the nuclear codes because he could start a war when somebody “got under his very thin skin.”
“He’s not just unprepared — he’s temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility,” Clinton said during the speech in San Diego, California, days before Tuesday’s primary in the Golden State effectively concludes the primary season and confirms her as the presumptive Democratic nominee over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Trump, of course, fired back.
“I watched Hillary today and it was pathetic. It was so sad to watch,” Trump said, calling it a “political speech” that had nothing to do with foreign policy.
“It was a pretty pathetic deal,” he added.
The speech marked a significant moment in Clinton’s campaign, as it was the first real signal of the tactics and attitude she will use to take on Trump and offered a preview of what are likely to be fierce clashes between the rivals at a trio of presidential debates later in the year. It demonstrated the kind of sardonic, unrestrained humor that she often shows in private interactions with friends and reporters but has refrained from displaying in public.
It also appeared to be aimed at Democrats who are spooked by recent polls showing a tight race between Clinton and Trump, and who fear her often-criticized campaigning skills won’t keep up with Trump’s volatile and highly effective off-the-cuff style.
And when she argued that Trump’s lack of knowledge on foreign policy and temperament would put at risk decades of Republican and Democratic foreign policy advances, she appeared to be making a pitch for disgruntled national security conservatives who feel unable to put their trust in the Republican nominee.
Yet the strategy has its risks, as pretty much all of Trump’s GOP primary rivals who tried to take on Trump couldn’t survive his return fire. The question is whether Clinton will be more effective. She might be helped by not waiting until the last minute like the Republicans did — seeking to define Trump early in the minds of the general election audience.
She attempted to convince voters that Trump’s ideas are a mix of “bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.” She lambasted his “bragging” approach to foreign policy based on a string of “nasty tweets” and accused him of harboring a “bizarre” affinity for authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Communist rulers of China and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.
“We cannot put the safety of our children and grandchildren in Donald Trump’s hands. We cannot let him roll the dice with America,” Clinton said.
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