Hillary Clinton lays into ‘racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ’ President Trump
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton participates in a discussion during the 2018 Atlantic Festival October 2, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty)
Hillary Clinton has described President Trump as “racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ.”
The former Democratic Presidential candidate tore into her 2016 opponent in an interview with The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic Festival on Tuesday (October 2).
In the interview, Clinton hit out at the leader’s response to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in August 2017.
Hillary Clinton (Mike Coppola/Getty for The Women’s Forum of New York)
She said: “I think he has thrown his lot in with many people and groups whose stated objective is white nationalism, white supremacy. How can you explain what he did and why after Charlottesville?
“We need a president at moments like that, regardless of party. And we’ve seen it, with what George W. Bush did after 9/11, when he went to a mosque, a gathering place for American Muslims, in order to say, ‘We’re not at war with you, we’re at war with those people who plotted and planned to drive those airplanes into the World Trade Center.’
“That’s not what we got after Charlottesville, and that remains one of the most troubling episodes in this Presidency.”
Goldberg asked about Trump’s exploitation of the far-right, adding: “When do you become a racist yourself, if you’re taking advantage of racism to advance your own personal goals?”
Hillary Clinton (Brad Barket/Getty for Ozy Media)
Clinton responded: “What he’s doing is broader, even, than that. He’s been racist, he’s been sexist, he’s been Islamophobic, he’s been anti-LGBTQ. There’s a long list.
“He has a view of America that is incredibly constricted. He talks to that America, he talks to them all the time.
“It’s by no means a majority, as we know, but it is a very hard core who are responding to him and supporting him for a variety of reasons, whatever they might be. Economic reasons, Supreme Court reasons, or some of these other more troubling biases and prejudices.”
The Trump administration has come under fire for close links with anti-LGBT hate groups on the far-right.
In September, Vice President Mike Pence attended the annual summit of a listed hate group, a year after Trump ignored warnings from LGBT+ groups to attend the same event.
Hardline evangelical groups have had close ties with the White House under Trump, gaining unprecedented input over policy issues.
The most rapid backslide on LGBT+ issues under the Trump administration has come from the Department of Justice, which has filed court briefs opposing LGBT+ anti-discrimination protections in employment and has intervened in favour of religious groups seeking a ‘license to discriminate’ against gay couples.
Trump also attempted to unilaterally ban transgender troops from serving in the military and ended a visa programme for same-sex partners of overseas diplomats.
Clinton’s manifesto in 2016 detailed the most radical LGBT+ policy plan of any Presidential candidate in history.
