Hillary Clinton tears into 'failure' Trump: 'How does anybody with a beating heart still support him?'
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed President Donald Trump in a new interview published Saturday, June 6, calling him "such a failure across the board" as she discussed his "inadequate" handling of the current situation, including the coronavirus response and George Floyd protests.
Clinton, in the Los Angeles Times interview, denounced Trump and his supporters, stating that the Republican leader attempts to "keep the attention on himself" instead of addressing problems heads on.
"It is a mystery why anybody with a beating heart and a working mind still supports him,” she said. "If it’s about a terrible pandemic with an unprecedented virus, he tries to ignore it, tries to keep the attention on himself. Then when it becomes impossible to do that, he tries to seize the moment and turn it into a daily rally, like he loves to do. And then when it becomes impossible to ignore, he tries to change the subject, he tries to withdraw from the spotlight so he can come up with some other diversion and distraction for the body politic and the press.”
The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said that Trump initially appeared to respond well to George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis police custody. However, he later dropped the ball.
"When we have a terrible killing like we did in Minneapolis, he makes some steps toward — in the very early hours after we all saw that horrific video — to look like he’s going to be empathetic, to look like he’s going to try to talk about this stripping bare of the continuing racism and inequities of law enforcement and justice system,” she said. “And then he pivots again because he’s not comfortable doing that.”
The former senator also referred to Trump's controversial photo-op outside a DC church after pepper balls and smoke canisters were used against peaceful protesters to clear way for him. Clinton called it out by mentioning his "belligerence and the threat-making and the photo-opping". The former first lady, earlier this week, had criticized Trump for the move, calling it "a horrifying use of presidential power."
Excerpts of the interview were released a day after Clinton published a blog post on Medium about Floyd's death and systemic racism. "For many white people, conversations about systemic racism and our own privilege are uncomfortable,” she wrote. “Here’s what I’ve learned over the years: That discomfort is a good thing. It’s a necessary part of examining our own biases and actions, and our own role in perpetuating inequality.”
The nationwide protests came as four Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd's brutal death were fired on May 26 after a video of the incident went viral on social media. The footage showed Floyd pleading with officers as one of them, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck while the 46-year-old told them to let him stand because he could not breathe. The clip showed Floyd pleading with the officer to allow him to breathe and a few minutes later he became unconscious. Floyd's death has sparked massive protests and unrest in Minneapolis and across the country. Chauvin, 44, was arrested last week on charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter.