Advertisement

Hillary Clinton: 'I wish Donald Trump knew how to be a president'

At the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton said that she hoped the man who defeated her in the 2016 election would have done a better job as commander in chief.

“I wish Donald Trump knew how to be a president,” Clinton said in a live speech from her Chappaqua, N.Y., home. “Because America needs a president right now.”

“For four years, people have said to me, ‘I didn’t realize how dangerous he was.’ ‘I wish I could go back and do it over.’ Or worst, ‘I should have voted,’” Clinton said. ”Well, this can’t be another woulda, coulda, shoulda election.”

The former secretary of state, who won the 2016 popular vote by more than 2.8 million votes but lost to Trump in the Electoral College, urged voters to cast their ballots early, regardless of how they choose to vote.

“Don’t forget: Joe and Kamala can win by nearly 3 million votes and still lose,” Clinton said. “Take it from me.”

She said that Democrats need to turn out in “overwhelming” numbers so Trump can’t “sneak or steal his way to victory.”

“Vote to make sure we — not a foreign adversary — choose our president,” Clinton said.

Hillary Clinton speaks during the virtual Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)
Hillary Clinton speaks during the virtual Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)

Clinton said the country “needs a president who shows the same compassion, determination and leadership in the White House that we see in our communities,” particularly amid a coronavirus pandemic that has left more than 170,000 Americans dead.

“There’s a lot of heartbreak in America right now,” she said. “And the truth is, many things were broken before the pandemic. But, as the saying goes, ‘The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.’ That’s Joe Biden. He knows how to keep going, unify, and lead, because he’s done all of that for his family and his country.”

Clinton, who in 2016 became the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. party, also took a moment to note Tuesday’s 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment — a landmark piece of legislation mandating that citizens’ right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

“One hundred years ago yesterday, the 19th Amendment was ratified,” Clinton said.” It took seven decades of suffragists marching, picketing, and going to jail to push us closer to a more perfect union. Fifty-five years ago, John Lewis marched and bled in Selma because that work was unfinished. Tonight, I’m thinking of the boys and girls who see themselves in America’s future because of Kamala Harris, a Black woman, daughter of immigrants and our nominee for vice president.”

Clinton, who like Biden emerged from a bitter primary fight against Sen. Bernie Sanders, urged party unity — even name-checking the Vermont independent.

“Remember in 2016 when Trump asked: ‘What do you have to lose?’ Well, now we know: our health, our jobs, even our lives,” Clinton said, adding: “As Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders warned us on Monday: If Trump is re-elected, it will get even worse. My friends, we need unity now more than ever.”

_____

Read more from Yahoo News: