Hillary Clinton last weekend took broad swipes at President Trump’s 2016 election victory, seemingly putting blame for her loss on poorer areas of the United States.
At the India Today Conclave 2018 in Mumbai, Clinton told a crowd that the states she won represented a higher gross domestic product than the areas won by Trump.
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“If you look at the map of the United States, there’s all that red in the middle where Trump won,” Clinton said. “I win the coast, I win, you know, Illinois and Minnesota, places like that.”
“I won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product,” she continued. “So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, ‘Make America Great Again,’ was looking backwards.”
Clinton defeated Trump in the popular vote but lost the Electoral College after losing several states that had been reliably blue in recent elections, including Michigan, which hadn’t gone for a Republican since 1988.
At the Mumbai event, the former secretary of State said her opponent’s message appealed to racist and sexist reactions in modern society.
“You didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women, you know, getting jobs,” Clinton said of Trump’s message. “You don’t want, you know, see that Indian-American succeeding more than you are. Whatever your problem is, I’m going to solve it.”
Clinton also expressed hope during her talk that Trump would be challenged by a Republican in 2020.
Some, like Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, have been rumored to be interested in challenging the president, but none have formally declared their candidacy.
Trump officially announced his 2020 reelection bid last month and has placed his campaign under the control of Brad Parscale, his former digital strategist.