Hillary Clinton will use her first speech since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee Friday to blast Donald Trump on women’s issues, casting him a “risk we can’t take,” according to a Clinton aide.
Clinton, who has now fully pivoted to the general election, will tell the assembled guests at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund event that she will make issues and policy that affect women and families a cornerstone of her campaign, while also warning people of what “a Trump presidency would mean for women.”
Clinton’s speech is also meant to be a signal to liberals that she is not going to pivot to the center, despite clinching the nomination this week. An aide said Clinton would make clear that she will “continue to speak out on the progressive issues that have been important to her throughout her career, and throughout this primary.”
In particularly, Clinton will hit Trump for suggesting that he “really broke the glass ceiling on behalf of women” because of his hiring practices, the aide said, and attempt to refute Trump’s argument that he “will be better for women, by a big factor, than Hillary Clinton.”
Clinton will note that Trump — who has repeatedly praised Planned Parenthood — has argued there should be punishment for women seeking abortions, the aide added, and criticize him for telling Fox News that the best way to ban abortion “is by electing me president.”
Clinton, as she has before, will also defend Planned Parenthood and hit Trump for saying he would de-fund the women’s health organization.
Clinton’s argument on Trump, the aide said, will be that he says different things depending on who he is talking to, the aide added, noting that while he talks up his respect for women, he also said in 2004 that pregnancy can be an “inconvenience” for employers.
