DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday condemned the media for not sufficiently covering the peril she believes former President Donald Trump poses to the planet while calling on Americans to be “outraged by what he represents.”
Clinton’s remarks follow federal and local officials confirming Sunday the arrest of 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh for allegedly attempting to assassinate the former president the same day, with Trump blaming Democrats’ “rhetoric” for the attempt during a Monday interview. The former Democratic presidential nominee, on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” did not tamp down her rhetoric against Trump, repeatedly characterizing the former president as “dangerous” in the span of a few minutes.
“Sadly, the press is still not able to cover Trump the way that they should. They careen from one outrage to the next. What was outrageous three days ago is no longer on the front pages, even though it threatens the physical safety of so many people, particularly, as you point out, immigrants that he and [Sen. JD] Vance have decided to demonize,” Clinton said. “And I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is. The late great journalist Harry Evans one time said that journalists should really try to achieve objectivity, and by that, he said, I mean they should cover the object. Well, the object in this case is Donald Trump. His demagoguery, his danger to our country and the world. And stick with it.”
“I believe Donald Trump has disqualified himself over and over and over again to be a presidential candidate, let alone a president … Part of what Trump is counting on is for people to get desensitized … Well, Americans need to understand that they have to take Trump both seriously and literally,” she added. “He has said what he wants to do. He and his allies with Project 2025, his desire to be a dictator at least on Day One. All of that is in the public record. And I believe that more Americans have to be willing to endure what, frankly, is discomforting and to some extent kind of painful, to take him at his word and to be outraged by what he represents.”
Trump asserted on Truth Social in July that he has no knowledge of Project 2025 and no involvement in it. The former president also condemned some of the document’s contents.
One of Routh’s social media posts mirrored Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden’s repeated claim that “democracy is on the ballot,” according to reports. CNN’s Dana Bash on Monday claimed that Routh’s anti-Trump social media posts have “nothing to do with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.”
“The hopeful side of this is that I do think more and more Americans are rejecting the kind of chaos that he represents. We can’t go back. That’s what the Harris campaign says all the time,” Clinton said. “We’re not going back to … what he failed to do to protect American lives during COVID, we’re not going back to the romance with dictators that puts innocent lives at risk and America’s security in danger. We can’t go back and give this very dangerous man another chance to do harm to our country and the world.”
Clinton said in April that she believes Trump is “modeling himself” after dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin does what [Trump] would like to do,” she said. “Kill his opposition, imprison his opposition, drive journalists into exile, rule without any check or balance. That’s what Trump really wants.”