Clinton wins final 2016 primary as debate turns to terror fight

Washington / AFP

Hillary Clinton captured the mostly symbolic Democratic primary in the US capital, the final vote of the 2016 presidential primaries, as the race shifts to her showdown with Republican rival Donald Trump.
Clinton won nearly 79 percent of the vote against 21 percent for Bernie Sanders, with nearly all votes counted, according to US networks. It marked a deflating finish for the Vermont senator, who captivated liberals and independents with a grassroots campaign that mounted a surprisingly strong challenge to Clinton. The attention of the candidates—and the nation—however has shifted to the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, the deadliest terror attack on US soil since September 11, 2001. Clinton and Trump traded verbal blows and presented dramatically different approaches for fighting terrorism following the massacre at the Florida nightclub.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, on Monday said that if elected he would “suspend” immigration from areas with a “proven history of terrorism.”
He also suggested that US Muslims were complicit in domestic attacks because they failed to “turn in the people who they know are bad.” In contrast, former secretary of state Clinton called on Americans to “stand together” to defeat terrorism.
But after Trump suggested in a TV interview that Obama sympathized with terrorists, Clinton on Tuesday slammed her rival’s approach “dangerous” and “un-American.”
“Even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States,” she told supporters in Pittsburgh.
“What Donald Trump is saying is shameful … more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief,” she said.

Healing party divisions
Washington’s primary was an afterthought as Clinton reached number of delegates needed to lock up the nomination last week. Sanders however refused to concede, though he steadily softened his tone in recent days. Sanders and Clinton met at a Washington hotel “and had a positive discussion about their primary campaign, about unifying the party and about the dangerous threat that Donald Trump poses to our nation,” a Clinton campaign official said after the meeting.
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said the two “had a positive discussion about how best to bring more people into the political process” and about the threat posed by Trump. Clinton and Sanders also discussed what would be on the Democratic Party platform ahead of the national convention next month in Philadelphia. Sanders told reporters ahead of the meeting that he wanted to see “the most progressive platform ever passed” at a convention, one which “makes it crystal clear that the Democratic Party is in fact on the side of working people.”