Subject: Clinton​:​ 'I don't think we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald Trump'
From: Hillary for America Press <[email-masked]>
To: Hillary for America Press <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 16:53:38 -0400
List-Id: <nationalpress2016.hillaryclinton.com>

​
​
*Clinton​:​ 'I don't think we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald
Trump'*

Today, in a sit down interview with
​CNN's ​
Anderson Cooper, Hillary Clinton made clear that
​ presumptive Republican nominee ​Donald
Trump's divisive rhetoric and
​destructive ​
policies
​make him too much of a risk to lead this country.

Clinton
​ said:
"I've seen the presidency up close from two different perspectives, and I
think I know what it takes, and I don't think we can take a risk on a loose
cannon like Donald Trump running our country. Donald Trump has said it's
okay for other countries to get nuclear weapons. I think that's just
downright dangerous. He has said wages are too high. I think we need to
have a raise for the American people, raise the minimum wage, get wages
back going up. I think when he says women should be punished for having
abortions, that is just beyond anything that I can imagine, I think most
women can imagine."

Watch HERE <https://youtu.be/AU26kqLhgqk> and see full transcript below.

https://youtu.be/AU26kqLhgqk

*​Full transcript below: *​

ANDERSON COOPER: Brooke, thanks very much. Secretary Clinton, thanks very
much for joining us.

HILLARY CLINTON: Good to talk to you.

ANDERSON COOPER: Just take us back to last night, the moment Ted Cruz
dropped out and you realized who the nominee in the Republican Party was
going to be.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, it seemed pretty clear for some time how it was
going to turn out, but I also know what it's like to keep fighting to the
end because I did that in 2008, and something can always happen. But it
didn't surprise me at all that it was over last night.

ANDERSON COOPER: Assuming you get the Democratic nomination, are you ready
for Donald Trump? I mean, he's already got an unflattering nickname for
you, he's unlike any other candidate probably, certainly you've ever run
against, anybody has seen in a long time.

HILLARY CLINTON: Anderson, I've seen the presidency up close from two
different perspectives, and I think I know what it takes, and I don't think
we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald Trump running our country.
Donald Trump has said it's okay for other countries to get nuclear weapons.
I think that's just downright dangerous. He has said wages are too high. I
think we need to have a raise for the American people, raise the minimum
wage, get wages back going up. I think when he says women should be
punished for having abortions, that is just beyond anything that I can
imagine, I think most women can imagine.

ANDERSON COOPER: He did walk that back.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, he's a loose cannon. I mean, he's somebody who has
said so many things, and I'm sure he'll be scrambling and his advisers will
be scrambling, but he's already said all of these things. He says climate
change is a Chinese hoax, and I think it's real. We've got to pull the
world together to deal with it. So you can go down a long list, some of
which he's tried to bob and weave a little bit, but I think it's a risk. I
think he is a loose cannon and loose cannons tend to misfire.

ANDERSON COOPER: If he is a loose cannon though, he's certainly willing to
say things during a race against opponents. We've seen this already that a
lot of candidates were not prepared for, on the GOP side. Are you ready for
that?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I've sort of been in the arena for 25 years, and I
think nearly everything that can be thrown at somebody in politics and
public life has come my way.

ANDERSON COOPER: You feel like you know how to run against him?

HILLARY CLINTON: Oh, absolutely. But I'm not running against him. I'm
running my own campaign. I'm running to become president, to really deal
with the economy, get it working again, take on all the barriers that stand
in the way of people of getting ahead. I have a very clear mission in this
campaign.

ANDERSON COOPER: But there were a lot of folks on the GOP side who said
that they would be running on the issues as well, and that wasn't – they
weren't able to against Donald Trump.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, maybe they just didn't have the experience. Maybe
they just didn't want to take him on, on issues because they actually
agreed with him. Everybody in that Republican primary didn't want to raise
the minimum wage, don't believe equal pay is a problem, don't want to talk
about climate change, have a lot of the same views. So they were really
trapped. They couldn't run a campaign on the issues that matter to America,
and I can, and I will.

ANDERSON COOPER: He talked about the economy last night and hitting an
economic message that clearly he's going to echo going forward. He talked
about your husband signing NAFTA, what he called, perhaps in the history of
the world, the single worst trade deal ever done. And according to the
latest CNN polling out just today by 50 percent to 45 percent margin,
voters said Trump would do a better job handling the economy than you
would. He's got an economic populist message which is appealing to people.

HILLARY CLINTON: Yes, well, we'll have to go back and talk about the
history. 23 million new jobs in the 1990's. Incomes went up for everybody.
If he wants to argue against peace and prosperity, he can absolutely do his
best to make that case. I'm going to talk, though, about what we're going
to do in the future, and I think that there are some lessons we can learn.

The economy does better when we have a Democrat in the White House. We saw
the stark difference between my husband's presidency and George W. Bush who
went back to trickle-down economics which is also what Donald Trump is
advocating. And then we saw Barack Obama have to rescue the economy from
the failed economic policies of the Republicans.

So I'm more than happy to take that issue on, and I think that there is not
only a lot of evidence on our side and certainly history on our side over
the last 25 years, but any specifics that he has put out - he makes these
grand statements and grand accusations - at some point when you're running
for president you actually have to put a little meat on the bones. You've
got to tell people what it is you're going to do and how he's going do it.

ANDERSON COOPER: He does run a different kind of campaign than anyone else
certainly on the GOP side. He makes himself more available to reporters, he
calls in. Is that something you are going to start doing more of?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well look, he did it and it worked for him and I think
reporters now have a chance to ask some tougher questions. It's not enough
to call in and give somebody a platform. It's now the time to make the
tough decisions. And you've got to the ask him, "Okay, so what exactly
would you replace X, Y, and Z with"? If you're against trade agreements,
how is that going to work? I'm against bad trade agreements. I'm for fair
and free trade. I voted against some of the trade agreements that came
before me when I was actually a Senator, so let's get to the specifics. If
you think wages are too high, how do you look Americans in the eye and say
"Hey, I know you haven't had a raise for 15 years, but I don't think you
deserve one."

If you're going to have a budget that slashes taxes on the wealthy and
throws our economy and our federal budget into the worst downward spiral of
debt, tell us how that's going to work. I think it's time to get serious.
The man is the presumptive nominee, and being a loose cannon doesn't in any
way protect him, I hope, from being asked the hard questions that he should
have been asked during the whole primary process.

ANDERSON COOPER: Wolf Blitzer asked him today about how he's going to be
running against you and whether he's going to sort of change his tone, be
more presidential. I want to play that exchange with Wolf.

DONALD TRUMP [TV CLIP]: There was a little talk about will he be
presidential? We had 17 people, all smart. One by one, week after week,
boom, boom, boom, gone, gone, gone. I don't maybe want to change so much
and I do want to use that same strategy for trade deals and I want to use
that same -- but I feel I'm a presidential person.

WOLF BLITZER [TV CLIP]: The same strategy that you used to get rid of the
other Republican candidates you want to use now against Hillary Clinton?

DONALD TRUMP [TV CLIP]: I would say yes, and, again, a lot is going to
depend on how they treat me. If they treat me in a certain level, I'm not
looking to do more. You've seen I'm a counterpuncher more than anything
else. I don't really like hitting people first because I don't know how --
I guess -- I've always felt that I'm better, like certain boxers, they are
better counter punchers.

ANDERSON COOPER: He says he's a counterpuncher. How scorched earth is this
race going to be?

HILLARY CLINTON: He's the one that's making that decision, Anderson, not
me. He's the one who has run the campaign insulting people, demeaning
women, degrading people with disabilities, talking about keeping Muslims
out of the country. He's the one who has been running that kind of very
negative, aggressive bullying campaign. He could choose to run whatever
campaign he wants to run.

I'm going to keep staying on the campaign I'm running. I have more than
three million votes over Senator Sanders and I have two million votes over
Donald Trump. I'm going to keep telling people what I will do as President
and I'm going to keep being specific because I think people want to know
what you're going to do and they can hold you accountable that way.

ANDERSON COOPER: Elizabeth Warren tweeted that Donald Trump has built his
campaign on racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Do you agree with that?

HILLARY CLINTON: I think Elizabeth Warren is really smart.

ANDERSON COOPER: You agree with all that?

HILLARY CLINTON: I think that anybody who’s listened to him and how he’s
talked certainly can draw that conclusion.

ANDERSON COOPER: Do you think he's a racist?

HILLARY CLINTON: I'm going to let people judge for themselves, but I have
the highest regard for Senator Warren.

ANDERSON COOPER: Last night, Trump touched on the coal situation in West
Virginia saying he'll get the miners back to work. Obviously, it was a
reference to something you said back in March. You said we're going to put
a lot of miners and coal companies out of business, a statement that you
apologized for recently down in West Virginia saying it was totally out of
context. Clearly, Trump is going to say that you will say anything to any
audience just to placate any audience that you happen to be in front of?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well no, that's just a broad misrepresentation. I've been
very clear. We've got to make a transition to clean renewable energy. I've
also been very clear for this whole campaign that we can't do it in a way
that totally leaves behind people who dug out the coal to turn on the
lights and to power our factories. 100,000 coal miners in this country lost
their lives in the 20th century, so I want people to pay attention to what
we as a nation need to do to support them, but the market is making this
decision.

The market has driven down the cost of coal, so you have companies going
bankrupt, so what I'm offering is a $30 billion plan to really revitalize
Coal Country, to provide support for coal miners and their families, and I
think that is the least the country owes these brave people.

ANDERSON COOPER: There are Democrats who are just worried about you against
Trump, that you're not ready for whatever he may throw at you, that he's
brought up a lot of stuff about a lot of people that nobody could have
predicted. He was quoting from the National Enquirer just yesterday. He's
made references to your marriage, to your husband. Are you --

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, he's not the first one, Anderson. I just can't -- I
can't say this often enough. If he wants to go back to the playbook of the
1990’s, if he wants to follow in the footsteps of those who have tried to
knock me down and take me out of the political arena, I'm more than happy
to have him do that.

ANDERSON COOPER: You're ready for that?

HILLARY CLINTON: Oh, please. I mean, look, this is to me a classic case of
a blustering, bullying guy who has knocked out of the way all of the
Republicans, because they were just dumbfounded. They didn't know how to
deal with him, and they couldn't take him on, on the issues, because they
basically agreed with him. And they didn't know how to counterpunch.

ANDERSON COOPER: Do you think they waited too long?

HILLARY CLINTON: You'll have to ask them; I can't run their campaigns. They
have to run their own. I could only tell you the campaign I'm going to run.
And the campaign I'm going to run is about what we will do in the future.
And I invite a lot of the Republicans and Independents who I've been seeing
on the campaign trail, who've been reaching out to me, I invite them to
join with Democrats.

Let's get on the American team. Let's get off the red or the blue team.
Let's get on the American team. We've got some great opportunities ahead of
us. I happen to believe that America's best years can still be ahead of us.
I have that confidence. I am optimistic. But it doesn't happen just by
wishing for it or being a demagogue about it. It happens by rolling up our
sleeves and getting to work in order to seize it.

ANDERSON COOPER: Did Trump, when you were a Senator, did Trump ever engage
you on substance? He says he gave money for access. Did he ever ask you for
favors?

HILLARY CLINTON: Not that I recall. No, I don't recall that. I mean, he has
played all sides of the political arena. That's his choice and he can
explain it however he chooses. I've been consistent about where I stand
going back to when I started working as a lawyer for the Children's Defense
Fund. I am going to do everything I can to even the odds against people who
feel that the odds are stacked against them. I'm going to really give it my
all to give every person, particularly every child in this country, the
chance to live up to his or her God-given potential.

ANDERSON COOPER: Just finally Senator Sanders is obviously taking issue
with people calling you the presumptive nominee on the Democratic side.
Would you say to his supporters—should you be considered the presumptive
nominee at this point?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I'm not calling myself that. I know there are still
some contests ahead, and I respect Senator Sanders and whatever choices he
makes. And I really—I have a lot of empathy about this, Anderson. I ran to
the very end in 2008.

ANDERSON COOPER: You've been there. You know what it feels like.

HILLARY CLINTON: And I won nine out of the last 12 contests. People forget
that. I won Indiana. I won West Virginia. I won a lot of states. But I
couldn't close the gap in pledged delegates. And the gap between me and
Senator Sanders is far wider than it was between me and Senator Obama.

ANDERSON COOPER: So having been in his shoes, what do you say to him?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well I know what he said last week, which I really
welcomed. He said that he will do everything he can to prevent Donald Trump
from being the President of the United States. He will work seven days a
week. I'm going to really count on that, because I want to unify the party.
I'm certainly going to be reaching out to his supporters who have far more
in common with me and my supporters than they do with Donald Trump and his
campaign.

ANDERSON COOPER: And I know said finally, but just one more question.
Donald Trump has talked about what he would look for in a Vice President,
someone with congressional experience to reach out to Congress. Obviously,
I'm not asking you who you would pick, but what qualities would you look
for? Is there something that you would like to, a space you would like to
fill in?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well I think the most important quality is that this
person could become President on literally a moment's notice. There is no
more important quality than that. And I intend to take that very seriously
and find the person that I would have the confidence in to be a good
partner with me, but most importantly, to be a really good President of
America.

ANDERSON COOPER: Secretary Clinton, thanks very much.

HILLARY CLINTON: Thanks, Anderson.

###

For Immediate Release, May 4, 2016

Contact: [email-masked]

PAID FOR BY HILLARY FOR AMERICA

Contributions or gifts to Hillary for America are not tax deductible.
Hillary for America, PO Box 5256, New York
​

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