"How could Trump possibly champion the collapse of the housing
market and our economy?" U.S. Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio said on
the call.
Clinton knocks Trump for cheering housing bubble burst(Reuters)
Democrat Hillary Clinton, seeking to dampen Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's growing appeal with working-class voters, on Tuesday accused him of having cheered on the 2008 housing market crash.
Clinton's
campaign released an ad with audio that the presumptive Republican
nominee recorded in 2006 for his now-defunct Trump University venture.
Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, in remarks on a "bubble burst," said: "I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy" property and "make a lot of money."
Clinton's
campaign and her surrogates used the recording to argue that she would
take better care of the U.S. economy. Clinton is seeking to blunt the
inroads that Trump has been making with voters in crucial states such as
Florida and Ohio.
Trump defended his comments on
Tuesday evening at a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, saying buying
when the housing market was down showed smart dealmaking skills that he
would bring to the White House.
"I'm a businessman, that's what I'm supposed to do," Trump said. "I feel badly for everybody. What am I going to do? I'm in business."
The
New Yorker also impersonated Clinton on the campaign trail, who he said
"screams," and said other big names in business did similar deals as he
did before the housing crisis.
Trump has never
held elected office and often touts his history as a businessman in
response to accusations that he is unprepared to assume the presidency.
Anti-Trump
protestors and police clashed outside the Albuquerque convention center
on Tuesday when protestors tried to storm the center, calling for an
end to the Trump rally.
Albuquerque police said on
Twitter that protestors threw rocks and bottles and a door to the
facility appeared to have been hit with something. Police said the only
arrests so far had been inside the rally, where Trump was interrupted
multiple times by protestors.
Opinion polls in key
states show Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination,
and Trump in a tight race ahead of the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential
election. Nationally, Trump has been rising in polls to pull roughly
even with Clinton.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a
Democrat who is a favorite of financial reformers, bashed Trump in
prepared remarks released ahead of a speech in Washington on Tuesday.
Trump's 2006 comments, she said, amounted to rooting for "people to get
thrown out on the street."
"The rest of us were horrified by the 2008 financial crisis," Warren said in the comments. "But
Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown - because
it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap."
Warren
also criticized Trump for saying in a Reuters interview last week that
the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, enacted in response to the
crisis, made it hard for bankers to operate.
"Let me find the world's smallest violin to play a sad, sad song," Warren said. "Can Donald Trump even name three things that Dodd-Frank does? Seriously, someone ask him."
Trump
did not directly respond to Warren's comments on Tuesday, but he called
her a "total failure" as a U.S. senator during the rally.
Clinton
surrogates from Ohio and Florida held a conference call with reporters
about Trump's housing statements. Her campaign hosted related events in
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada, which
will all be battlegrounds in November's general election.
"How could Trump possibly champion the collapse of the housing market and our economy?" U.S. Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio said on the call.
Clinton
is still fighting on two fronts as she seeks to wrap up her primary
battle with Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from
Vermont.
Clinton and Sanders both campaigned on
Tuesday in California, which is among six states holding Democratic
nominating contests on June 7. California, the most populous U.S. state,
has more Democratic delegates than any other state, and Sanders has
invested heavily there.
Clinton needs a solid win
in California for a strong finish heading into her party's national
convention in July and to dispel questions about whether she can unite
the party after a drawn-out, increasingly bitter primary race.
Clinton
on Monday turned down an invitation by Fox News to debate Sanders in
California despite having agreed previously to a May debate. Her
campaign said Clinton's time would be better spent meeting directly with
California voters. Sanders said her refusal was an insult to California
voters.
Sanders on Tuesday requested that the
state of Kentucky review his loss there last week to Clinton by fewer
than 2,000 votes. Kentucky's secretary of state, Alison Grimes, said in a
statement that the state will recanvas the results at all 120 county
boards of election.
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