| Wall Street Journal | - |
Presidential
contenders Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump delivered searing
indictments of one another Thursday, trading charges of racism and
corruption, and setting the tone for a bitter fight until the November
election.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Ramp Up Intensity of Attacks
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Ramp Up Intensity of Attacks
Democrat sees ‘prejudice and paranoia’ in campaign of Republican, who counters that his rival is corrupt
ENLARGE
Democratic candidate
Hillary Clinton accused rival Donald Trump of stoking race-based views
during a campaign event in Reno, Nev.
Photo:
Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
Mrs. Clinton charged that her rival has built his campaign on “prejudice and paranoia,” propagated a series of false and racist assertions, and amplified hate-filled voices from the nation’s fringe corners. “There has been a steady stream of bigotry coming from him,” she said in Reno, Nev.
Across the country, Mr. Trump sharpened his attacks on Mrs. Clinton’s use of private email as secretary of state and charged that donors to her family’s charitable foundation received special access at the State Department. “Clinton’s actions constitute all of the elements of a major criminal enterprise,” Mr. Trump told supporters in Manchester, N.H.
The extraordinary exchange of biting assaults from the two most unpopular presidential nominees since polling began made plain that the fall campaign is unlikely to be fought over policy or programs. Rather, both sides appear intent to persuade the voters that the alternative is simply unfit for office.
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Hillary Clinton's campaign put out a new web ad on Thursday
linking rival presidential candidate Donald Trump to comments made by
members of the Ku Klux Klan and the "alt-right" movement.
In Reno, Mrs. Clinton stopped short of calling Mr. Trump a racist, but accused of him trafficking in such comments, stoking the race-based views of others and spreading “dark conspiracy theories.”
“Of course there’s always been a paranoid fringe in our politics, a lot of it arising from racial resentment,” Mrs. Clinton said. “But it’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it, and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.”
She laid out a long bill of particulars. She pointed to Mr. Trump’s “racist lie” that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., his labeling of Mexican immigrants as “rapists and criminals,” and his assertion a U.S.-born judge couldn’t fairly adjudicate a case involving one of Mr. Trump’s companies because the judge was of Mexican heritage.
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Mrs. Clinton’s speech linked Mr. Trump to the “alt-right,” or alternative right, a loosely organized movement that rejects mainstream conservatism, promotes nationalism and views immigration and multiculturalism as threats to white identity.
ENLARGE
Republican
presidential nominee Donald Trump charged that donors to Hillary
Clinton’s charitable foundation received special access at the State
Department, allegations that have emerged from the recent release of her
emails and a partial calendar of her events while she was serving as
the nation’s top diplomat.
Photo:
Carlo Allegri/Reuters
“A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party,” she said.
In an appeal to Republican fence-sitters, she said: “Here’s the hard truth—there is no other Donald Trump.” She cited comments from past GOP nominees Bob Dole, George W. Bush and John McCain that discouraged discriminatory or inaccurate race-related remarks and called this a “moment of reckoning” for the GOP.
Speaking ahead of Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump took umbrage at her charges, and said crying racism is a predictable and tired Democratic play. “She lies and she smears, and she paints decent Americans—you—as racists,” he told his supporters.
Earlier in the week, he also called Mrs. Clinton a “bigot.”
But Mr. Trump also was squarely on offense, pointing to reports that Mrs. Clinton met with donors to the Clinton Foundation. “It is hard to tell where the Clinton Foundation ended, and where the State Department began,” Mr. Trump said.
The GOP nominee was referring to records released this week documenting Mrs. Clinton’s meetings at the department, some of which included foundation donors.
Mr. Trump, who reshuffled his campaign leadership last week, also has tried to refocus his campaign in recent days by casting himself as a better choice for minority voters. In Manchester, he said Mrs. Clinton didn’t deserve the strong support polls show she is receiving from African-American and Hispanic voters. He said Democratic policies have resulted in “total joblessness and failing schools” in America’s major cities.
“Every policy Hillary Clinton supports is a policy that has failed and betrayed communities of color in this country,” he said. “But she doesn’t care. She’s too busy raking in cash from people and rigging the system.”
—Beth Reinhard contributed to this article.
Write to Laura Meckler at lau 
