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Idiot |
Hillary Clinton appears at a book-signing event in New York City, June 10, 2014.
(Associated Press)
With his tough talk and hardline stances on Iran
and North Korea, President Donald Trump is damaging America’s
credibility abroad – and could provoke a nuclear-arms race in East Asia,
Hillary Clinton says.
Trump's recent threat to decertify
the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, “makes us look foolish and small and plays
right into Iranian hands,” Clinton said last week.
"That is bad not just on the merits for this particular
situation, but it sends a message across the globe that America's word
is not good," said Clinton, who spoke in advance of Trump's announcement
Friday that he wants Congress and the other nations that negotiated the
deal to toughen the requirements for Iran.
"This particular president is, I think, upending the
kind of trust and credibility of the United States' position and
negotiation that is imperative to maintain."
"This particular president is, I
think, upending the kind of trust and credibility of the United States'
position and negotiation that is imperative to maintain."
- Hillary Clinton
For his part, Trump says that Clinton, as secretary of
state under former President Barack Obama, helped negotiate a “terrible”
deal with Iran.
Getting tough on Iran is the right approach, the president said.
“We will not continue down a path whose predictable
conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of
Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Trump said Friday, according to the Washington Times. “Iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal.”
Clinton also denounced Trump's bellicose language toward North Korea, saying his verbal aggression ha
s rattled U.S. allies.
"We will now have an arms race — a nuclear arms race in
East Asia," Clinton predicted. "We will have the Japanese, who
understandably are worried with missiles flying over them as the North
Koreans have done, that they can't count on America."
Clinton stressed that a diplomatic solution was
preferred, and suggested the inflammatory rhetoric played into Kim Jung
Un's hands. She bemoaned Trump's public undercutting of Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson when he tweeted "Save your energy, Rex" after the
nation's top diplomat had suggested negotiations.
“Diplomacy, preventing war, creating some deterrents is
slow, hard-going, difficult work,” said Clinton, who declined to answer
when asked whether Tillerson should resign. "And you can't have
impulsive people or ideological people who basically say, 'Well, we're
done with you.'"
Trump on Sept. 21 signed an executive order calling for
a new round of economic sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear
and ballistic missile programs.
The president said the actions were aimed at “a complete denuclearization of North Korea,” the Washington Times reported.
“North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development
is a grave threat to peace and security in our world,” Trump said. “It
is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal rogue
regime.”
Clinton, who recently released a book that recounts her
election defeat to Trump, has been an aggressive critic of the
president.
In an interview with Britain’s BBC on Friday, Clinton called Trump a “sexual assaulter.”
Clinton made the comments when asked about the
allegations of sexual assault made against Democratic mega-donor and
Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
“This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere,
whether it's in entertainment, politics,” Clinton said. “After all, we
have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office.”
In the same interview, Clinton referred to the sexual
transgressions of her husband – former President Bill Clinton – as being
“clearly in the past,”
Fox News reported.
Clinton’s comments on Iran and North Korea were
scheduled to air Sunday on CNN. The White House did not immediately
return a request to respond to her remarks.