Hillary Clinton Says ‘Radical Fringe’ Is Taking Over G.O.P. Under Donald Trump
RENO, Nev. — Hillary Clinton on Thursday delivered a blistering denunciation of Donald J. Trump, saying he had embraced the “alt-right” political philosophy and presenting his choice as an especially ominous turn in a presidential election full of them.
In her most direct critique yet connecting the Trump campaign to white nationalists and the conservative fringe, Mrs. Clinton is framing Mr. Trump’s run as unprecedented in modern politics.
“He is taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party,” she said.
Asserting that a racially charged and “paranoid fringe” had always existed in politics, she said, “It’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.”
The speech, at a community college here, comes one week after Mr. Trump named Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, as his campaign chief. Mr. Bannon has eagerly described the site as “the platform for the alt-right” — a loosely defined and contested term often associated with white nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment.
So it was that Mrs. Clinton was seeking to describe the “alt-right” to a national audience that might have little familiarity with it.
“The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a landmark achievement for the alt-right,” Mrs. Clinton said. “A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party.”
Mrs. Clinton also noted that David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, was “jubilant” on his radio show recently while describing Mr. Trump.
“A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far dark reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military,” Mrs. Clinton said. “If he doesn’t respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?”
It was the kind of formal address that Mrs. Clinton had often pursued to communicate her general election message. She also set aside specific events to sternly criticize Mr. Trump’s plans for domestic and foreign policy, and took to the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., last month — the site of Abraham Lincoln’s “house divided” speech — to appeal to the country’s better angels.
For his part, Mr. Trump has often appeared to court the alt-right community — sometimes more winkingly than others — and his elevation of Mr. Bannon heartened many who identified with the movement.
Mrs. Clinton’s remarks also coincide with an attempted shift in strategy from Mr. Trump, who has spoken with more compassion about people in the country illegally and expressed a desire to win African-American support.
These attempts, which have come in front of predominantly white audiences, have more than occasionally offended minority voters. Mr. Trump has said African-Americans live in neighborhoods resembling “war zones,” struggle to get by on food stamps and constantly face down errant gunfire.
“What do you have to lose?” he has asked.
Mrs. Clinton’s team is straining to hold Mr. Trump to his statements from the Republican primary, reminding voters of his hard line on immigration and arguing that his campaign has encouraged hate groups.
On Thursday morning, Mrs. Clinton posted a campaign video on Twitter featuring clips of white supremacists praising Mr. Trump. It also included a now-famous interview when Mr. Trump initially declined to disavow Mr. Duke.
Near the end of Mrs. Clinton’s video, these words appear: “If Trump wins, they could be running the country.”
Her campaign has also moved to confront other Republicans with Mr. Trump’s most provocative statements.
John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, said that “Republicans up and down the ticket are going to have to choose whether they want to be complicit in this lurch toward extremism, or stand with the voters who can’t stomach it.”
Before the speech on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s campaign suggested that Mrs. Clinton was simply trying to change the subject. “Hillary Clinton’s attempt to delete the single worst week of her political career isn’t going to work,” said Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, citing controversies over Mrs. Clinton’s private email server and the Clinton Foundation.
At the same time, Mr. Trump’s campaign and Breitbart have reveled recently in conspiracy theories about Mrs. Clinton, suggesting she is in the throes of a health crisis.
In an appearance on Monday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Mrs. Clinton theatrically asked the host to check her pulse and opened a jar of pickles to demonstrate her strength.
“Make sure I’m alive,” she joked.