Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s prospective presidential nominee, came to Pittsburgh on Tuesday intending to talk about economic issues. But in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in American history, she turned to the subject of terrorism instead — while charging Republican opponent Donald Trump’s response to the shooting proved he was “temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified” to be president.
“It was one thing when he was a reality TV personality — you know, raising his arms and yelling, ‘You’re fired,’ ” Ms. Clinton told a crowd of roughly 700 people in an auditorium at the South Side’s IBEW Local No. 5 union hall, with an overflow crowd in the lobby outside. “It’s another thing now that he’s the presumptive Republican nominee.”
Forty-nine people died in an Orlando, Fla., gay nightclub last weekend: Police have identified the shooter as 29-year-old Omar Mateen. The crime has shaken the nation, while shaking up an already tumultuous election campaign.
Mr. Trump responded to the massacre with a speech renewing his calls for a temporary ban on immigration “from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism.” (Mr. Mateen was born in New York, though his parents were immigrants from Afghanistan.)
But Mr. Trump also reacted by charging that in the fight against terror, President Barack Obama “doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands.” He repeated a long-standing Republican complaint that Democrats don’t invoke the threat of “radical Islam” in describing terrorist dangers. If Ms. Clinton didn’t use similar phrasing, he said, she should drop out.
Ms. Clinton scoffed at that on Tuesday, asking, “Is Donald Trump suggesting that there are magic words that, once uttered, will stop terrorists from coming after us?”
As for his remarks about Mr. Obama, she said, “[O]ne day after the massacre, [Mr. Trump] went on TV and suggested that President Obama is on the side of the terrorists. ... Even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president.”
His proposal to bar immigration from Muslim countries, meanwhile, hurt efforts to “build trust in Muslim communities here at home to counter radicalization,” she said. “Trump’s words will be — in fact they already are — a recruiting tool for ISIS.”
Ms. Clinton’s appearance followed a Saturday visit to the area by Mr. Trump, who told a crowd at a Pittsburgh International Airport hangar that “Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment.”
On Tuesday, Ms. Clinton such characterizations were “demonstrably lies,” though she renewed a call for tougher gun control measures. “Americans are capable of protecting our Second Amendment rights while making sure guns don’t fall into the wrong hands,“ she said. ”The terrorist in Orlando was the definition of the wrong hands.”
After her speech, Ms. Clinton attended a private fundraiser at the home of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. She concluded her speech by calling for an end to the divisive politics she accused Mr. Trump of practicing. “Let’s make this once again the big-hearted, fair-minded country we all know and love,” she said.
Politically, her first order of business will be to woo supporters of her chief Democratic rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. And at least some Sanders supporters appear to be responding.
Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, perhaps Mr. Sanders’ most prominent supporter in the area, was in attendance. After the speech he said, “There isn’t a more strident supporter of Bernie than I am. But I would implore any ‘Bernie or Bust’ supporter that we can’t let this country go the way of Donald Trump.”
David Taylor and his daughter, Renata Aleman, stood in line outside the event wearing Clinton buttons over Sanders T-shirts.
Ms. Clinton “may not be completely right on the issues, but she’s 90 percent right,” said Mr. Taylor, of Morningside. “I was sad, but the decision to support her wasn’t hard.”
Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2533.
First Published: June 14, 2016, 5:23 p.m.
Updated: June 15, 2016, 3:30 a.m.
