Alan Rappeport and Yamiche Alcindor report at
The New York Times:
After weeks of subtle sniping, the frustration first boiled over at a rally in Philadelphia on Wednesday night when Mr. Sanders took issue with recent criticism over his understanding of financial regulation policy and assailed Mrs. Clinton from multiple angles. And he intensified the attacks Thursday, saying of Mrs. Clinton, “People might wonder about your qualifications when you supported virtually every trade agreement, trade agreements which have cost the American worker millions of decent paying jobs.”
The attacks represent a sharpening of Mr. Sanders’s tone as he comes off a string of six straight victories but heads into a more daunting challenge in Mrs. Clinton’s home state, New York, where polls show him lagging behind and he faces tough scrutiny from New York City’s unforgiving tabloids.
At the Philadelphia rally Wednesday night, he first raised the issue of Mrs. Clinton not being qualified to lead the country, citing donations to the “super PAC” supporting her.
“She has been saying lately that she thinks that I am, quote-un-quote, not qualified to be president,” Mr. Sanders said. “Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don’t believe that she is qualified if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special interest funds.”
He added: “I don’t think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in Iraq. I don’t think you are qualified if you supported the Panama free trade agreement.”
WND reports:
Former President Bill Clinton unloaded on the Obama administration and Black Lives Matter protesters during a campaign event Thursday for his wife in Pennsylvania.
Clinton took a veiled jab at Obama’s handling of world affairs, saying, “Unlike when I was president, a lot of things are coming apart around the world now. We like to just think about our economic issues, but you have to worry about a collapse in Europe dragging back the American economy. You have to worry about the largest number of refugees since World War II. And all this stuff comes home.”
Ben Kamisar reports at The Hill:
Former President Bill Clinton repeatedly defended himself from criticism about his support of his controversial crime bill from a series of protestors during a rally for his wife’s presidential campaign.
The protestors interrupted the president’s stump speech, shouting criticism of his support of the 1994 crime bill that raised mandatory minimum sentences, with one holding up a sign that said “Clinton crime bill destroyed our communities.”
Clinton pivoted away from his typical stump speech and launched into a series of arguments about ways the crime bill did help the black community.
"You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter," a visibly heated Clinton exclaimed. "Tell the truth."
In 1994, he said, “I talked to a bunch of African-American groups -- they think black lives matter. [The groups said] to take this bill because people are being shot in the street by gangs. We had 13-year-old kids planning their own funerals,” Clinton said.
“Whose lives were saved that mattered?”
