Clinton: US ‘trying to elect president, not dictator’

campaign 2016

Associated Press

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.

Hillary Clinton is keeping the heat on Donald Trump, saying “we are trying to elect a president, not a dictator.”

The likely Democratic nominee for president addressed an enthusiastic crowd in San Bernardino, Calif., Friday night, where she continued to question her likely Republican opponent’s qualifications.

“At some point you have to ask yourself: Is this nothing but a political stunt? Calling Americans terrible names?” Clinton said. “And look what he’s doing now. He is personally attacking a federal judge who was born in Indiana. Last time I looked, that’s part of America.”

Looking toward the general election, Clinton made her goals very clear: “I am determined that I am going to expose Donald Trump’s lack of qualifications to be the president of the United States and the commander in chief.”

Clinton also again hit Trump for the controversy surrounding his now-defunct Trump University, a real estate education program that some participants said made fraudulent promises, calling it “a total con job.”

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings.

During a rally earlier Friday in Westminster, Calif., Clinton attacked Trump for saying the federal judge presiding over a case has a conflict of interest because he is “of Mexican heritage.”

“The judge is doing his job. That’s what he got appointed to do,” Clinton said “And Donald Trump wants to change the subject like he does all the time. So instead of facing up to the facts that are coming out ... he is attacking a distinguished jurist.”

Clinton also joked that if Trump got into the White House, “he’s going to Trump you!”

Just 70 delegates shy of clinching the Democratic nomination, Clinton now leads rival Bernie Sanders by 268 pledged delegates and her advantage grows with the superdelegates, party officials who can back any candidate. Both Clinton and Sanders were campaigning aggressively in California, which is among the states voting Tuesday.