Hillary Clinton wouldn’t respond directly Sunday to Donald Trump’s new nickname for the Democratic presidential front-runner: “Crooked Hillary.”
Instead, Clinton called attention to the insults the Republican she could face in the general election has lobbed at bigger groups.
“I don’t respond to Donald Trump and his string of insults about me. I can take care of myself,” Clinton said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“What I’m concerned about is how he goes after everybody else. He goes after women. He goes after Muslims. He goes after immigrants. He goes after people with disabilities,” she said. “He is hurting our unity at home. He is undermining the values that we stand for in New York and across America. And he’s hurting us around the world.”
Clinton added: “He can say whatever he wants to say about me. I really could care less.”
It’s the same line Clinton has used for months in response to Trump’s personal attacks, and could preview her strategy if the two face each other in the general election.
Both Clinton and Trump face high unfavorability ratings that could hurt them in the general election. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Clinton with 56% of registered voters with a negative view of her and 32% hold a positive view. Trump’s numbers are even worse: 65% view him unfavorably and 24% favorably.
Clinton has tried to avoid making exchanges with Trump into a personal battle, instead trying to play up his barbs directed at broader, better-liked groups.
“I’m going to stay focused on the issues because there are stark differences between where I think our country needs to be headed and where he would turn us back and undermine the progress that we’ve been making,” Clinton said.
“So when I talk about jobs, when I talk about climate change, when I talk about equal pay, when I talk about a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions, and so much else,” she said, “I know that he doesn’t believe any of that, and that in this campaign he wants to set Americans against each other and I’m not going to stand for it.”