Clinton, in Iowa, Warns About GOP Control of White House

Hillary Clinton is warning the nation about taking a “big U-turn” to a Republican in the White House, pointing to her husband’s economic record as a model.

The Democratic presidential contender said President Bill Clinton presided over an economy that helped not only the wealthy but the poor in his eight years in office. She said Republicans afterward left President Barack Obama with an economic crisis.

“Right now our country deserves to keep moving forward, not to do a big U-turn going back to where we came from,” Clinton said at the Iowa City Public Library. “That didn’t work before. It won’t work again.”

Clinton offered herself up as a Democratic standard-bearer as her main Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has been generating large crowds, packing in more than 2,500 people during a recent event in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Sanders has made economic inequality the cornerstone of his campaign and attracted liberals wary of Wall Street.

The former secretary of state made no mention of Sanders but drew an implicit contrast with his record on gun control. Sanders, a favorite of liberal Democrats, has opposed some gun control measures in the Senate and drew criticism from some Democrats for voting in 2005 to protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits filed by victims of gun violence.

Clinton said she would speak out “about the uncontrollable use of guns in our country” and believes most Americans and gun owners support universal background checks. “Let’s not be afraid of the gun lobby, which does not even really represent the majority of gun owners in America,” she said.

Sanders says most gun owners in the country obey the law, and he makes a distinction on the gun-control question between rural states like Vermont, where hunting is common and gun-ownership traditions go deep, and big cities.

“I want to see real, serious debate and action on guns, but it is not going to take place if we simply have extreme positions on both sides,” he told CNN on Sunday. “I think I can bring us to the middle.”

Asked about Sanders, Clinton did not mention him by name but said she welcomed a contested race. “This is going to be competitive — it should be competitive,” Clinton said, adding, “The more the better.”

Clinton sat down Tuesday with CNN for her first national broadcast interview since launching her campaign in April.

This article appeared in print on page 15 of the July 8th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.