Hillary Clinton took a thinly veiled swipe at President Trump’s response to the London terror attack Monday, praising London’s controversial mayor and saying it is “not a time to lash out” — after Trump had criticized the mayor.
Clinton was speaking at a fundraiser in Baltimore for the Elijah Cummings Youth Program, where she extended her sympathies and condolences to the victims of the attack. Seven people were killed and dozens injured after three jihadists mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge Saturday night, before stabbing people in a nearby market.
However, Clinton quickly pivoted into taking shots at Trump’s response to the terrorist outrage, and made a pointed reference to Trump’s ongoing feud with London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
“This is a time for us to reach out to the world, to understand more about what is happening, not just in our own country but indeed across the globe,” she said. “It is time for steady, determined leadership, like we are seeing from local authorities in London, including the Mayor of London.”
Trump said Sunday on Twitter that “we must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people,” and attacked Khan for telling people not to be alarmed as he ramped up police presence in the wake of the attack, the third in the UK in just a few months.
Khan also reportedly said that London is “one of the safest global cities in the world if not the safest global cities in the world” just hours after the attack.
Khan has become well-known in America for his politically correct statements about terrorism. In September, Khan said terrorism is “part and parcel of living in a big city,” and in May last year called Trump’s views on Muslims “ignorant.”
Clinton also said it was not a time to “lash out” or to use terror for “political gain,” an apparent reference to Trump’s tough attitude on the attack. In addition to his criticisms of Khan, Trump has also renewed calls for his temporary travel ban for immigrants from certain terror hotspots, upsetting liberals by mentioning the ban within hours of the attack.
“This is not a time to lash out, to incite fear, or to use tragedy and terror for political gain,” Clinton said. “Normally this would go without saying…but we are not living in normal times.”
She also told the audience that one of the tasks of the next generation of leaders will be to “build bridges, not walls.”
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY