Warning from Hillary Clinton Presidential candidate against Trump's finger on nuclear button
Hillary Clinton also painted him as a dangerous hothead who could trigger Armageddon.
US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addresses a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio(AFP)
Hillary Clinton
tried to pivot away from attacks on her protection of US secrets,
warning against her White House rival Donald Trump being allowed control
of US nuclear launch codes.
In a barnstorming
final push before the November 8 presidential vote, Trump has seized
upon a renewed FBI inquiry into Clinton's controversial use of a private
email server while secretary of state.
But, with
no sign anything concrete will come of the FBI probe before polling day,
Clinton believes she can face down the challenge and return to the
issue of Trump's fitness to lead a nuclear power.
In
Kent, Ohio, she was introduced by Bruce Blair, a former US missile
launch officer who organized a joint letter from former colleagues
arguing that Trump should not be trusted with nuclear codes.
Clinton,
pointing to Trump's numerous angry blowups on the trail and often
confused responses to questions on security issues, painted him as a
dangerous hothead who could trigger Armageddon.
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How the US presidential election system works(AFP)
"Imagine him in the
Oval Office facing a real crisis," the 69-year-old Democrat said of her
Republican rival Trump, a 70-year-old New York property mogul turned
reality television star.
"Imagine him plunging us
into a war because somebody got under his very thin skin. I hope you'll
think about that when you cast your vote."
'Daisy girl'
In
parallel to the blood-curdling new stump speech, Clinton issued an ad
recalling the renowned 1964 "Daisy Girl" television spot that then
president Lyndon Johnson used to paint his challenger Barry Goldwater as
a danger to all human life.
Trump meanwhile, has
done nothing to moderate his own rhetoric, storming through a series of
usually Democratic states in an effort to break Clinton's apparent lock
on the electoral college.
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US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan(AFP)
His attacks on
Clinton's private email server -- which he alleges put US secrets at
risk -- are aimed at undermining the advantage the former secretary of
state has in terms of experience.
But the first
major poll to have been partly conducted after Friday's bombshell news
that the FBI is re-opening its email probe, showed little movement in
his direction -- with eight days to go.
An NBC
News/SurveyMonkey weekly poll showed Clinton's six percentage point
national lead remained essentially unchanged since last week.
Trump
nevertheless campaigned in Michigan, where Clinton has led every poll
since the race began, hoping to capitalize on the controversy over the
renewed focus on a newly uncovered batch of emails.
Allegations
Clinton put America at risk by using a private server were thrust back
into the spotlight when FBI Director James Comey said the bureau would
study the messages to see if they are "pertinent."
The
bombshell announcement could shift the momentum in a race where Clinton
was increasingly seen as the prohibitive favorite -- with leads in more
states than she would need to secure victory.
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People gather around Donald Trump's vandalized Star on Hollywood Boulevard on October 31, 2016(AFP)
Clinton and her
supporters were furious that Comey made his announcement without
providing any new evidence of wrongdoing but, after three days of rage,
Clinton took a more emollient tone Monday.
"I made
a mistake. I'm not making any excuses," she said, inviting the FBI to
pursue its probe and suggesting that the agency would again find, as it
had in July, that she has no case to answer.
"It
wasn't even a close call," she said, "And I think most people have moved
on, They're looking and focused on 'OK, who is going to be the next
president and the commander-in-chief?'"
Constitutional crisis
True
to form, Trump wasn't letting go, adding the threat of constitutional
crisis to his oft-stated claim that Clinton's email use was criminal in
intent and the worst scandal since Watergate.
A
Clinton victory, he warned supporters, "would mire our government and
our country in a constitutional crisis that we cannot afford."
He
predicted "a criminal trial for a sitting president," and chastised
Clinton for seeking to blame others for a scandal that has lasted for 20
months: "She has brought all of this on herself."
University of Virginia politics professor Larry Sabato said the FBI development has indeed changed the race's dynamics.
"She would have been running a victory lap this week, running up the score," he told AFP. "Instead, she's trying to hold on."
But
Sabato added that Trump's strategy of touring Democratic-leaning states
reflects a stark truth: he needs to flip at least one of them in order
to win -- and even that may not be enough.
"He is
going to have to turn a blue state or two in addition to winning the
battlegrounds," he said. "He has to win almost everything. If he wins
all the battlegrounds, he needs one more blue state."
According
to US media reports, Comey's FBI probe was renewed after agents seized a
laptop used by Clinton's close aide, Huma Abedin, and her now estranged
husband, Anthony Weiner.
The disgraced former
congressman, who resigned in 2011 after sending explicit online
messages, is under investigation over allegations he sent sexual
overtures to a 15-year-old girl.
Clinton campaigned Monday for a third straight day without Abedin by her side
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