Seth A. Richardson

srichardson@rgj.com

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gave one of her strongest rebukes against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday, criticizing him for embracing radical elements of the right and basing his campaign on racism and paranoia.

The speech marked Clinton’s most aggressive attack on Trump since the Democratic National Convention as she called Trump a bigot and subscriber of conspiracy theories, blaming him for allowing the radical right to take over the mainstream of the Republican Party. Clinton’s appearance comes one day before Trump is set to have a fundraiser at Lake Tahoe.

“From the start, Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia,” she said. “He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two major political parties. His disregard for the values that make our country great is profoundly dangerous.”

Trump has made varying claims critics have found racially offensive during his campaign. He started his campaign by proposing a wall be built along the United States-Mexican border, calling undocumented immigrants rapists and drug dealers. In December, he floated banning Muslims from entering the country.

Clinton pointed to Trump’s non-denouncement of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, retweets of white supremacists and anti-semites and his leadership during the Birther Movement – a conspiracy theory-laden attempt to prove President Barack Obama was not born in the United States – as proof-positive of racism.

“The last thing we need in the Situation Room is a loose cannon who can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction, and who buys so easily into racially-tinged rumors,” she said. “Someone detached from reality should never be in charge of making decisions that are as real as they come.”

Recently, Trump announced Stephen Bannon, former executive director of online alt-right news site Breitbart, as his campaign CEO, another issue Clinton pointed to as embracing and legitimizing fringe elements within the party.

“The last thing we need in the Situation Room is a loose cannon who can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction, and who buys so easily into racially-tinged rumors,” she said. “Someone detached from reality should never be in charge of making decisions that are as real as they come.”

Clinton also gave praise to former Republican nominees Bob Dole and John McCain as well as President George W. Bush for quashing fringe elements within the party.

“We need leadership like that again,” she said.

In the past couple of weeks, Trump has sought to soften his image with minority communities, making explicit gestures to African Americans in particular. At the same time, he hired Bannon, whose site has become a voice for the loosely affiliated activist groups that identify with the so-called alt-right.

Clinton has been the subject of her own controversies in recent weeks regarding her emails as secretary of state and questions about the Clinton Foundation. The Trump campaign said Clinton was trying to spin the narrative of the election after a terrible few weeks.

“Hillary Clinton’s attempt to delete the single worst week of her political career isn’t going to work. Her admission that there's a lot of smoke but no fire is a complete lie, and the American public’s response will be to do exactly as her campaign suggests: don’t vote for herd,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.

About a dozen protesters gathered outside the rally before the speech, chanting over those waiting in line. Many protesters held up signs with the same message: “Pay to play. That’s the Clinton way!”

Several Clinton supporters tried to drown out the protesters with chants of their own. Dom Thomas, an immigrant from Thailand, led the charge, shouting for Trump to release his tax returns. But other Clinton supporters failed to join in.

Trump tweeted after Clinton's remarks that the Democratic presidential nominee was the one who was "fear-mongering" and that she was "pandering to the worst instincts in our society."

"She should be ashamed of herself!" Trump wrote.

In her Nevada remarks Thursday, Clinton cast Trump as "a man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far, dark reaches of the internet."

Saying "there's always been a paranoid fringe in our politics," Clinton argued that “it’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it, and giving it a national megaphone."

"Until now," she said.

Contributing: Heidi Przybyla and Cooper Allen, USA TODAY, reporting from Washington, Trevon Milliard and Sarah Litz, reporting from Reno.

Noon update:

About a dozen protesters gathered outside the Hillary Clinton rally at Truckee Meadows Community College on Thursday morning, chanting over those waiting in line.

“S-T-O-P. Hillary is for hypocrisy,” shouted the protesters over and over again.

Many protesters held up signs with the same message: “Pay to play. That’s the Clinton way!”

The signs reference a story broken by Associated Press on Wednesday that more than half the people outside the government who met with Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money to the Clinton Foundation.

Several Clinton supporters tried to drown out the protesters with chants of their own.

Dom Thomas, an immigrant from Thailand, led the charge, shouting for Trump to release his tax returns. But other Clinton supporters failed to join in. Despite there being hundreds of Clinton supporters standing in line, protesters made the larger presence.

“Wall Street paid and bought,” shouted the protesters, shifting to another chant. “Bernie never had a shot.”

11:55 a.m. Update:

Clinton released excerpts of her remarks before her planned speech at TMCC.

Clinton said Trump “has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia” and that he’s making hate groups mainstream this election.

“This is what I want to make clear today: A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military,” the speech reads. “ If he doesn’t respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?”

She also plans on criticizing online news outlet Breitbart, one of the most vocal self-admitted alt-right outlets. Trump’s new campaign manager is Stephen Bannon, former chairman of the news site. The merger of the Republican Party and Breitbart represented extreme elements taking over the mainstream Republican Party, she said.

“All of this adds up to something we’ve never seen before,” she said. “Of course there’s always been a paranoid fringe in our politics, steeped in racial resentment. But it’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it, and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.”