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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Hillary Clinton campaigns at ASU to turn AZ blue

Over ten thousand people waited for several hours on the lawn of the Arizona State University soccer field to hear Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speak at one of her campaign’s biggest rallies so far.

Clinton reached out for Arizona’s hispanic vote, criticized republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on many issues and spoke about her plan for the United States.

Since becoming a swing state, both Clinton and Trump’s presidential campaigns have targeted Arizona heavily in the past month. 

Clinton deployed her star-studded Democratic supporters in Sen. Bernie Sanders, First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughter Chelsea Clinton to campaign in Arizona with hopes of stealing the traditionally red state. 

Trump’s campaign countered her push by sending his son Donald Trump Jr. to Phoenix and then visiting personally at the end of October.

“This is going to be a close election,” Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton told the crowd.

Clinton said this election is on the path to having the highest turnout in U.S. history. She said over 50 million young people alone are projected to vote by next Tuesday and that over 700 thousand Arizonans have already voted.

She challenged Trump on multiple fronts including abortion, gay marriage, taxes, health care, muslims and illegal immigration. She said that the America Trump represents is not the America we want, nor the one we deserve. She told the crowd that Trump is unfit to be president and called him “very thin-skinned.”

“I want you to ask your friends to imagine that it is Jan. 20, 2017, and imagine what it will be like having Donald Trump in the Oval Office making decisions that affect your lives,” Clinton said.

Clinton spoke to the crowd about the national debt and promised her plan would not add a “single penny” to the debt. She said her opponent wants to fight the national debt by cutting taxes for all the wealthy people and forcing the middle class to carry the load.

Clinton asked the crowd if they would want to vote for someone that has not paid federal taxes in the last 20 years. She asked how someone that has not contributed to our country can lead our country. She added that half of immigrants who cross without legal permission into the U.S. pay federal income tax.

“Half of the people he wants to deport have paid more taxes than Donald Trump has paid,” Clinton said.

Clinton reached for hispanic voters by telling them that Trump does not understand them and that he criticized Judge Gonzalo Curiel because his parents were Mexican, even though he was born in the U.S.

“Trump does not understand that he is as much an American as Donald Trump himself is, as much an American as you and I are,” Clinton said.

One of the people that introduced Clinton was Raphael Lopez, a man whose son died fighting for the U.S. in Iraq. He said he was at the rally because he knows Clinton supports Latinos.

“We work hard for our country, we love our families,” Lopez said. “We are Americans.”

Clinton talked about her political experienced and told the crowd she has spent her whole life fighting for families and children. She outlined her time rebuilding New York after 911 as a Senator, and her time traveling to “111 countries around the world” as Secretary of State to fight for men and women’s rights.

“Change is certain, we will have change,” Clinton said. “The question is, what kind of change do we want?”

Clinton told the crowd that she, unlike Trump, believes in our system and supports our democracy. She said that if we choose to vote for Trump she will respect our decision. Clinton went on to say that if she is elected president on Tuesday then she will be a president for everyone no matter if they are a Democrat, Republican or independent.

“Even if you are not for me, I promise I will be for you,” Clinton said.

Clinton closed by talking about the importance of Arizona as a battleground state. She urged the crowd to get out and vote and she said that she wanted everyone to be able to say that they voted for a better, stronger, fairer America.

“An America where we build bridges and not walls, and where we prove that love trumps hate,” Clinton said. “Let’s go to work. Thank you, and God Bless you, Arizona.”


Follow Nate Airulla on Twitter.


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