Clinton to cast election as ‘moment of reckoning’

PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton will tell Americans that the nation faces a “moment of reckoning” as it decides between her and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the November general election, campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters on Thursday.

Clinton will formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination on the final night of the party’s national convention in Philadelphia Thursday night.

{mosads}Mook said the former secretary of State will “stitch together” the themes from the first three nights of the convention.

Clinton will make the case that she’s a fighter for working-class Americans and dismiss Trump as a representative of the “ultra-wealthy” who has stepped all over the middle class on his way to the top.

She’ll frame herself as a natural leader with the “steadiness” Americans can count on and frame Trump as erratic and reckless.

And Clinton will look to highlight the stakes of the election and how she will protect the “values” the nation was founded on against what she sees as a threat from Trump, whom Democrats view as a divisive and dangerous figure.

“Hillary is going to stitch together each of these themes and talk about how this election is really a moment of reckoning for voters,” Mook said. “Are we going to succumb to some very powerful forces that are tearing at our social fabric, that are dividing us economically and socially? Or are we going to come together to solve these problems?”

Clinton will return to the theme of her 1996 book about how it “takes a village” to build a strong society.

The 2016 spin on that theme is how “we are stronger together,” Mook said.

The campaign will be looking to highlight the historic nature of Clinton’s nomination as she becomes the first female standard-bearer for a major political party in the U.S.

Pop singer Katy Perry is scheduled to perform before Clinton takes the stage as part of an effort to pump up the crowd.

Earlier in the night, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the first woman elected to the Senate, will speak, while Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, will introduce her mother.

Several Republicans will speak, in an effort by the Clinton campaign to highlight those who have abandoned the GOP for Clinton in the age of Trump.

Former Reagan administration official Doug Elmets is on the docket, as is Jennifer Lim, a director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and co-founder of Republican Women for Hillary.

And Mook noted that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) will address the convention, drawing a distinction with Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), who refused to endorse Trump or address the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week.