Hillary Clinton: Party of Lincoln debased

She points to Trump; he says Ginsburg’s ‘mind is shot’

Hillary Clinton, speaking Wednesday at the Old State House in Springfield, Ill., urged the nation to cast aside deepening divisions and reject what she called Trump’s “ugly, dangerous message to America.”
Hillary Clinton, speaking Wednesday at the Old State House in Springfield, Ill., urged the nation to cast aside deepening divisions and reject what she called Trump’s “ugly, dangerous message to America.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln has been transformed into "the party of Trump," declaring her GOP presidential opponent a polarizing figure who is deepening the divisions in America.


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Donald Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence leave the Governor’s Mansion in Indianapolis after a meeting Wednesday morning as Trump and family members narrow the choices for a running mate.

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Carpenter Bill Kaim of Cleveland works Wednesday on the convention floor at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland preparing for the Republican National Convention.

Clinton embraced the symbolism of Lincoln's "House Divided" speech, using the Illinois Old State House chamber as the backdrop to argue that the nation needs to repair its divisions after a series of police shootings.

A week before the Republican convention, Clinton said presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump would do little to heal the country.

"This man is the nominee of the party of Lincoln. We are watching it become the party of Trump. And that's not just a huge loss for our democracy -- it is a threat to it," Clinton said, speaking from the black-walnut dais in the chamber at the Old State Capitol.

"Donald Trump's campaign adds up to an ugly, dangerous message to America," Clinton said of the real estate mogul. "A message that you should be afraid -- afraid of people whose ethnicity is different, or whose religious faith is different, or who were born in a different country or hold different political beliefs."

Clinton acknowledged that she, too, must contribute to the healing.

"As someone in the middle of a hotly fought political campaign, I cannot stand here and claim that my words and actions haven't sometimes fueled the partisanship that often stands in the way of our progress," Clinton said a week after she faced criticism from the FBI director over her handling of classified materials at the State Department. "So I recognize I have to do better, too."

The Democratic presidential candidate picked the symbolic location where Lincoln delivered his famous address about the perils of slavery in June 1858 to the state Republican convention. Before being elected the first Republican president two years later, Lincoln declared that "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

Clinton is not the first to reach for Lincoln's legacy. President Barack Obama began his first presidential campaign in 2007 in a chilly outdoor rally on the steps of the Old State Capitol, echoing Lincoln's calls for unity before the Civil War.

Clinton said the recent shootings had left many Americans asking "whether we are still a house divided."

Clinton said the nation, including herself, needs to listen more rather than fueling political and other divisions. She reiterated her calls to address gun violence, criminal-justice changes and ways of supporting police departments.

But she sought to present herself as a unifying force against Trump, pointing to the businessman's statements about Muslims, Hispanics and others.

Trump, in an interview Monday with The Associated Press, predicted that protests against police violence that followed last week's slaying of the five police officers in Dallas "might be just the beginning for this summer."

Clinton cited Trump's toying with "creating a database to track Muslims in America," his provocative statements about women, and work during Obama's presidency to promote the "birther movement," which sought evidence that the onetime Illinois U.S. senator was not born in the United States.

"His campaign is as divisive as any we've seen in our lifetimes. It's built on stoking mistrust and pitting American against American," Clinton said. "It's there in everything he says and everything he promises to do as president."

She also sought to send a warning of what a Trump presidency might bring, telling supporters, "Imagine if he had not just Twitter and cable news to go after his critics and opponents, but also the IRS -- or for that matter, our entire military."

Vice president search

Trump has entered the final phase of his search for a running mate, arranging last-minute meetings with his finalists and family members as his staff prepares for a Friday announcement.

Trump posted on Twitter on Wednesday night that he would reveal his choice at 10 a.m. Friday in Manhattan.

Trump, his adult children and key staff members huddled with one of the prospects, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, on Wednesday morning at the Governor's Mansion in Indianapolis, a day after the two campaigned together in the state. They were joined by Trump's three adult children, along with his son-in-law, and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who were seen leaving the residence. Hours later, Newt Gingrich, another finalist, was spotted with Trump's entourage at a downtown Indianapolis hotel. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., was spotted arriving at the same hotel not long after Gingrich left.

Trump's family, including Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, also met privately Tuesday with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The meeting was confirmed by a source who had direct knowledge of the meeting but was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The meetings have been designed to let Trump's family get to know the candidates better before the presumptive nominee formalizes his decision.

Trump has taken his finalists on tour, having them open for him at speeches and rallies to test their receptions before his crowds.

"It's a little bit like The Apprentice," Gingrich, the former House speaker, said in a Tuesday interview with Fox News Channel, making a reference to a TV show that featured Trump. "You find out sooner or later who the last one standing is."

Introducing Trump at a rally in Westfield, Ind., on Tuesday evening, Pence received an enthusiastic reception as he compared Trump to Republican icon Ronald Reagan and dug into Trump's likely Democrat rival, Clinton.

Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that he is looking for a "fighter skilled in hand-to-hand combat" as his second-in-command but hadn't seen enough of Pence to measure his fight. Pence's speech appeared to be an effort from the former congressman to show Trump he could take on such a role.

Ginsburg's comments

Trump called Wednesday for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to resign for suggesting publicly that she feels he is unfit to be president. Trump said the 83-year-old justice's "mind is shot."

"Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me," Trump wrote in an early-morning tweet. "Her mind is shot -- resign!"

Ginsburg said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that she didn't want to think about the possibility that Trump would be president and predicted that Clinton will win and have a few appointments to make to the Supreme Court.

In a subsequent interview with The New York Times, she joked about moving to New Zealand if Trump is elected. She escalated her criticism Tuesday, telling CNN that Trump is a "faker" and questioning how he has "gotten away with not turning over his tax returns."

"He has no consistency about him," she said.

Richard Painter, a legal-ethics expert who teaches at the University of Minnesota Law School, said Ginsburg's comments could undermine the justices' authority if Trump becomes president, potentially giving him an excuse to flout the court's rulings.

"She's playing with fire," Painter said. "What I'm worried about is Trump claiming that she needs to recuse if he were elected president from every single presidential-powers case over the next four years. We don't need to give him grounds for saying the Supreme Court is stacked against him. This is a very dangerous situation."

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine, defended Ginsburg's comments.

"I don't think anyone should be surprised that Ruth Bader Ginsburg thinks this," Chemerinsky said. "Saying this doesn't change the reality."

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a former state solicitor general who has argued before the Supreme Court, called Ginsburg's criticisms of Trump "obviously inappropriate."

"She should not be launching attacks at any presidential candidate," said Cruz, who also criticized Trump as a competitor for the Republican nomination. "And Justice Ginsburg attacking Donald Trump was every bit as inappropriate as Barack Obama, during the State of the Union, falsely maligning the justices of the Supreme Court."

Obama's comments at that 2010 speech -- saying the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission would "open the floodgates for special interests" in elections -- prompted Justice Samuel Alito Jr. to shake his head and say, "Not true."

Information for this article was contributed by Ken Thomas, Brian Slodysko, Jonathan Lemire, Steve Peoples, Jill Colvin, Vivian Salama Erica Werner and Julie Bykowicz of The Associated Press; by John Wagner of The Washington Post; by Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News; and by Todd Ruger of Roll Call.

A Section on 07/14/2016

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