In recent days, Hillary Clinton's campaign has been making heavy use of former President Bill Clinton, who on Monday helped rally Clinton’s base and took some more jabs at Bernie Sanders. Bobby Cuza filed the following report.
There’s no doubting Bill Clinton’s political skills. On Monday, he used them to take repeated digs at Bernie Sanders without ever identifying him.
"Sometimes in this primary, I get the feeling that the gentleman that’s running against Hillary is running harder against President Obama and me than he is against the legacy of the Bush administration and trickle-down economics," Bill Clinton said. "You know, after he’s been a Democrat a little while longer, he’ll get used to it."
Bill Clinton has faced some heat after sparring with Black Lives Matter protesters last week.
"I think he owes the American people an apology," Sanders said Saturday.
Clinton has not responded to that request, but on Monday, he took backhanded swipes at Sanders' record on immigration and on gun control, by way of praising his wife.
"She’s the only one you can vote for who voted against giving gun manufacturers, making them the only industry in America to be immune from lawsuit," Bill Clinton said.
The popular former president is clearly viewed as an asset by his wife’s campaign, deployed across the city to energize supporters. Monday, it was the Hebrew Home for the Aging in the Bronx.
"She has been a good friend of Israel," Bill Clinton said.
Later, it was a Brooklyn church. This, after speaking at three Harlem churches on Sunday.
While Clinton at no point on Monday referred to Bernie Sanders by name, he did call out one presidential candidate, Republican Donald Trump, for his rhetoric on both Muslims and on Mexican immigrants.
"He’s blamed, as near as I can see, everything but dog owners for problems in this country," the former president said. "'I’ll put up a wall and make the Mexicans pay for it, and then I’ll send all the immigrants home, I’ll give you their jobs.'" That’s not only unethical, it would crash the American economy."
Clinton is keeping up the pace with at least two more appearances in the city on Tuesday.