9.45 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

Clinton claims ‘milestone’ victory

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks onstage during the "Hillary Clinton: She's With Us" concert at The Greek Theatre on June 6, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (AFP)

Published
By Agencies

Hillary Clinton hailed a historical ‘milestone’ for women as she claimed victory Tuesday over rival Bernie Sanders in the Democratic White House nomination race.

"Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone," she told cheering supporters at a rally in New York. "It's the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee."

Clinton's win in New Jersey, one of six states voting on the last major date of the 2016 primary race, sealed in the party nomination and gave her a chance to become America's first female president.

The former secretary of state held out an olive branch to her rival Sanders - who has given no indication he plans to concede before the Democratic convention in July --but whose supporters she needs to enlist in the looming showdown with Republican Donald Trump.

"I want to congratulate Senator Sanders for an extraordinary campaign," the 68-year-old Clinton said.

"Let there be no mistake, Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise income, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic party and for America."

"We believe that we are stronger together. And the stakes in this election are high, and the choice is clear," she said -- before launching into a frontal attack on her Republican rival.

"Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief," she charged.

Donald Trump lambasts Clinton

Meanwhile, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump lambasted his White House opponent Hillary Clinton.

Instead of celebrating the final day of the Republican primaries by laying out a lofty vision for change, Trump unleashed stinging criticism of Clinton as a political manipulator who lined her own pockets, and a failed secretary of state whose decisions destabilized the world.

"The Clintons have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves," Trump told supporters at his golf property in Westchester, New York.

"They've made hundreds of millions of dollars selling access, selling favors, selling government contracts."

Trump signalled he plans to go on the offensive against both Hillary and Bill Clinton.

"I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons," he said.

"I think you're going to find it very informative and very very interesting."

The remarks come as Clinton was basking in the limelight for having secured enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination, making her the first woman in the country's 240-year history to be the standardbearer of a major US political party.

Clinton's task now will be to unify her party and make nice with her rival Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to take his fight to the Democratic National Convention in late July.

But Trump taunted Clinton by reaching out directly to Sanders supporters before Clinton took the stage Tuesday night.

"To all of those Bernie Sanders voters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of superdelegates, we welcome you with open arms," Trump said, referring to the party bigwigs and elected Democratic officials who can vote for any candidate at the convention.

Trump did touch briefly on policy and America's challenges, including reducing the $19 trillion national debt, but it was in the guise of attacking Clinton.

"We're broke," Trump said. "Our schools are failing. Crime is rising. People are scared. The last thing we need is Hillary Clinton in the White House -- an extension of the Obama disaster."

"But we can turn this all around," Trump added. "We're going to do it by putting America first."

The billionaire real estate tycoon has been under extreme pressure from fellow Republicans for a series of attacks he has made against a Mexican-American federal judge, but Trump defended his actions, casting himself as a scrappy fighter.

"If I'm forced to fight for something I really care about, I will never ever back down and our country will never ever back down."