Hillary Clinton upped her election ante with pro-women and Indian-American statements. The Democratic front-runner, who is aiming to become the first woman president of the United States, has made a path-breaking statement that if elected to the White House half of her Cabinet would be comprised of women (at least 50% of women). It comes after her campaign efforts supporting Indian-Americans, whom Donald Trump made a mockery of.
“I am going to have a cabinet that looks like America, and 50 per cent of America is women, right?” Clinton said on the eve of the crucial East Coast primaries in five states – Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Her remarks come a day after her campaign manager John Podesta said that he would like to see Indian-American Neera Tanden in Clinton’s Cabinet.
A day before that Clinton’s presidential campaign slammed Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for mocking an Indian call centre worker during an election rally this week, saying it shows disrespect towards the community and is reflective of his divisive rhetoric. (Watch Trump mocking Indian call centre worker here) “Donald Trump mocking Indian workers is just typical of his disrespect that he has shown to groups across the spectrum,” said John Podesta, chairman of the Clinton Campaign. “He has run a campaign of bigotry and division. I think that’s quite dangerous for the country when you think about the fact that you need friends, allies. The kind of campaign he is running breeds disrespect across the globe and breeds division and danger here at home,” he told reporters in Germantown, Maryland after formally launching ‘Indian-Americans for Hillary’, an effort by the community to rally behind the Democratic presidential front runner.
Podesta was reacting to Trump’s apparent use of a fake Indian accent to mock a call centre representative in India during a campaign rally in Delaware this week. The real estate tycoon said that he called up his credit card company to find out whether their customer support is based in the US or overseas. At the same time, he described India as a great place, asserting that he is not angry with Indian leaders.
Hillary Clinton says half of her cabinet would be women https://t.co/vLEvPIglin pic.twitter.com/35oUwYLfzu
— NDTV (@ndtv) April 26, 2016
Hillary also ridiculed her Republican counterpart Donald Trump for his lavish lifestyle, campaigning from a “big jet” and being out of touch from the ground realities. In a speech to her supporters in Delaware, Clinton also said that the Republican front-runner should come out of his towers and spend time with Americans. “I have said, ‘Come out of those towers named for yourself and actually talk and listen to people.’ You know, at some point, if you want to be president of the United States, you gotta get familiar with the United States. You gotta spend time with Americans of all sorts and backgrounds in every part of our country,” Clinton said.