Hillary Clinton took a swing at Republican frontrunner Donald Trump during Monday night’s CNN town hall in Iowa.
“It’s a great country, despite what one of the Republicans says,” Clinton said during a vague answer to a question about Bernie Sanders’ socialism.
The implication was clear. Trump, who is calling for America to be made great “again” after the failures of the political class, was Clinton’s first target in the first couple of minutes of her remarks at the Democrats’ townhall event.
Clinton-ally David Brock, who runs two pro-Clinton super PAC’s, recently admitted that Team Clinton is looking at Trump as the Republican frontrunner instead of Ted Cruz.
Clinton also spoke of her “friendship” with President Obama.
“Well, I was really touched and gratified when I saw that,” Clinton said, referring to an interview Obama gave in which he called Clinton “wicked smart.”
Clinton said that her “great working relationship” eventually “became a real friendship” with Obama.
But Trump is questioning the sincerity of Hillary’s Obama praise, which she has trotted out in recent debates, possibly as a way to suck up to him while his FBI investigates her private email server.
“She wants to stay out of the clink, that’s why,” Trump said recently at a massive rally in Tulsa. “Every single thing, oh, she thinks the president is wonderful. She never thought the president was wonderful before. She couldn’t stand him, and frankly he couldn’t stand her…She wants to make it through this thing, and he has the power of the presidency.”
Clinton took a question from a young person, who said that many of his peers find Clinton to be “dishonest.” Clinton pivoted to slam Republicans.
“You get into the arena. You are going to get pummeled and pushed and criticized,” Clinton said. “I’ve been around a long time. People throw all kinds of things at me. I can’t even keep track of all of it.”
“They throw all this stuff at me. I’m still standing.”
“Why are they throwing all of that? Well, I’ll tell you why. Because I’ve been on the front lines of fighting for change and progress since I was your age,” Clinton said to a moderate applause break that she was clearly hoping would be much bigger.