Special to the AmNews
Hillary Clinton, approximately 90 delegate votes away from being the Democratic presidential nominee, has turned down Sen. Bernie Sanders’ request for a debate before the June 7 primary in California.
Declining Sanders’ request, however, was not the chief thing on her mind Monday afternoon in Detroit, where she addressed more than 3,000 members of the Service Employees International Union. Most of her speech was centered on Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Trump, she said, is “a disaster waiting to happen to America.” The mention of his name prompted a loud round of boos. The SEIU endorsed Clinton last November.
“I am here to tell you I join with you to do everything we can to make sure the men and women of SEIU who are providing care for our children, elderly and people with disabilities, you all have a living wage,” Clinton said. “I know that you are often unsung heroes. I want you to know your fights are my fights. Just like the theme of this conference says, together we are unstoppable. There has never been more at stake for working families than there is now. … With your help we are going to win in November.”
Clinton was returning to Michigan where Sanders upset her during the state’s primary in March, and she was perhaps intensifying her opponent’s relentless charge to take his campaign all the way to Philadelphia in July.
After praising Sanders for waging such a vigorous campaign—one that has gradually pushed her to the left—she returned to assailing Trump. She drew a thunderous response when she attacked Trump’s business failures, asking how “can someone lose money running a casino?”
Throughout Clinton’s campaign her signature platform has been tearing down barriers and not building walls, particularly the wall Trump has promised to erect along the U.S./Mexico border. “We have a moral obligation to fight for justice and equity everywhere,” she added. “That includes ending the era of mass incarceration and rebuilding the trust between law enforcement and the community.”
Last week, Clinton announced that there was no way she was not going to be her party’s nominee, a forecast that ticked off Sanders’ team. She was merely repeating what the pundits have been saying ever since she accumulated an insurmountable lead in delegates. Clinton has 2,293 delegate votes, counting the super delegate number. Sanders believes he can still win the nomination if the super delegates decide to support him.
California, with nearly 500 delegate votes up for grabs, could be the last gasp for Sanders. Even if they split—and the polls as we go to press show Clinton leading by an 8 percent margin—she will have reached the goal of 2,383 delegates needed to close the deal.
Clinton’s inability to “close the deal” is among Trump’s key charges in his attack on Clinton.
But, if things pan out well for Clinton in California, Trump will have to resort to another one of his several critiques of her and the Democratic Party.