Hillary Clinton ramped up her pressure on Donald Trump in the election’s most competitive states Friday with an emotional TV ad targeting his criticism of a Muslim American family.
Clinton’s new ad features Khizr Khan, whom Trump assailed after Khan spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
In the minute-long ad, which Clinton’s campaign said was airing in seven battleground states including Ohio, Khan retells how his son, Capt. Humayun Khan, died in Iraq seeking to protect his U.S. military unit from a suicide bomber.
“Mr. Trump, would my son have a place in your America?” the father asks, tearing up as the ad fades to black.
Clinton has sought to use Trump’s widely panned attacks on the father and his wife as evidence supporting her case that the Republican bullies minorities.
Trump alludes to loss
Trump, meanwhile, settled on a new target: Michelle Obama, who has emerged as one of the most effective voices for Clinton. The first lady for years has been loath to devote significant time to campaigning, but has done so in recent days with searing indictments of Trump’s treatment of women.
“All she wants to do is campaign,” Trump said as he rallied supporters in North Carolina. He cited comments Obama made during her husband’s 2008 campaign in which she said someone who can’t run their own house can’t run the White House. “She’s the one that started that,” Trump said.
The typically self-assured Trump was unusually candid about the possibility of losing the election. Trump said he is packing his schedule with campaign events through Election Day so he will know he spared no effort even if ultimately unsuccessful.
Russian vote monitors?
Russia’s government asked Oklahoma and two other states to allow Russian officials to be present at polling stations on Election Day, to study the “U.S. experience in organization of voting process.”
Allegations by the U.S. government that Russia is trying to influence the election by hacking Democratic groups has fed a Clinton camp claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is siding with Trump.
The Oklahoma secretary of state’s office said Friday it had denied the Russian request, in line with state law.