Clinton suggests Trump’s rhetoric could be treasonous Trump fires back, accusing Clinton of being tougher on his supporters than terrorists.

Hillary Clinton on Monday leveled some of her most charged attacks against Donald Trump yet, accusing the nominee of enabling Islamic State fighters with his rhetoric and hinting he may be committing treason.

With a spate of domestic attacks over the weekend refreshing terror fears, Clinton and Trump hurled insults at each other on Monday, trying to convince voters that the other candidate would be a disastrous commander in chief.


Clinton held an impromptu news conference in the morning in which she presented herself as a steady hand in the face of terror threats and Trump as a reckless leader who is already making the United States less safe.

“We’ve heard that from former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who made it a very clear point when he said Donald Trump is being used as a recruiting sergeant in and for the terrorists,” Clinton said.

“We know from the former head of the Counterterrorism Center, Mike Olsen, that the language that Mr. Trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries,” she added, using the constitutional definition of treason.

Trump’s camp fired back, blaming Clinton for the rise of the Islamic State because she supported pulling back on troops in Iraq in 2011. “Hillary Clinton’s comments today accusing Mr. Trump of treason are not only beyond the pale, it’s also an attempt to distract from her horrible record on ISIS,” Trump’s senior communications adviser Jason Miller said.

Trump himself piled on, trying to shame Clinton and tying her to President Barack Obama on the terrorism issue.

“Today, Hillary Clinton showed again that she will say anything — and blame anyone — to shift attention away from the weakness she showed as Secretary of State,” Trump said in a statement. “The Obama-Clinton doctrine of not taking ISIS seriously enough has emboldened terrorists all over the world. They are hoping and praying that Hillary Clinton becomes President so that they can continue their savagery and murder.”

And during an afternoon rally in Florida, Trump accused Clinton of being tougher on his supporters than she has been on terrorists.

“Hillary talks tougher about my supporters than she does Islamic terrorists, right?” he said, to cheers. “She called patriotic Americans who support our campaign, many of them cops and soldiers, deplorable and irredeemable, and she means it. Millions and millions of people,” Trump added, recalling remarks Clinton made earlier this month when she lumped half of his supporters into a “basket of deplorables.”

The heated language on both sides comes as each are trying to reassure rattled Americans that they are the most capable of stepping into the commander in chief role. The series of planted bombs around New York and New Jersey over the weekend as well as the mass stabbing at a Minnesota mall has freshly raised fears of the reach of the Islamic State, even though details are still emerging about the inspiration for the attacks.

While Clinton tried to present herself as the clearheaded alternative to Trump’s reckless bombast, she also had to thread the needle when it comes to her own legacy as secretary of state and Obama’s track record.

“This is a serious challenge,” Clinton told reporters, as she sought to reassure voters that the U.S. is on the right track in combating that challenge. “We are well-equipped to meet it. And we can do so in keeping with smart law enforcement, good intelligence and in concert with our values.”

She warned against getting “diverted and distracted” by Trump's inflammatory words, and dismissed Trump’s attacks on her past efforts to combat terrorism while at the State Department.

“Well, it’s like so much else he says: It’s not grounded in fact. It’s meant to, you know, make some kind of demagogic point,” Clinton said. “I am prepared to, ready to actually take on those challenges, not engage in a lot of, you know, irresponsible, reckless rhetoric, but to do the hard work as I’ve done before, to put into place the strategies for local and state law enforcement for an intelligence surge, for the kind of preventive actions we need to take here at home and to intensify our efforts to defeat ISIS.”

Clinton also suggested Americans won’t hear her opponent’s plan, and not because it's secret. “He keeps saying he has a secret plan. Well, the secret is he has no plan,” she said. “So let’s focus on what we really can do, and what I've laid out is a path forward that will keep us safer, protect our country and go after the terrorists to finally destroy them.”

But Trump was eager to tether Clinton to Obama, and also pounced on a remark from White House press secretary Josh Earnest, who referred to the terrorism fight as a “narrative battle” against whether the U.S. and the West is battling against the Muslim religion.

“I will bring an end to these senseless acts of violence. They are wrong to say that we’re in a fight about ‘narratives.’ These terrorists pose an existential threat to our country, our values, and our way of life,” Trump said.

Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, joined in the sniping, saying he was dumbfounded by the White House’s use of the term “narrative fight” and linking Clinton to it.

“I’m not sure that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama know that we’re at war,” Pence told conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. “The White House spokesman today actually said that we were in a — quote — narrative fight, in a narrative battle. I don’t even know what that is.”

Obama, meanwhile, pats himself on the back as he credited the U.S. for exposing the Islamic State “as the failed cause that it is” by taking more of its territory.

