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Clinton is thinking about likely matchup with Trump

 
Published March 1, 2016

Hillary Clinton and her allies are shifting their attention to a likely general election contest against Donald Trump.

Clinton is still waging a hard-fought nomination battle against Sen. Bernie Sanders, and some Democrats supporting her are wary of looking too far over the horizon. But increasingly sure that Trump will win the Republican nomination, Clinton appears this week to be running a two-pronged campaign against both Sanders and an eventual GOP opponent who sounds a lot like Trump.

On Monday, for instance, Clinton lingered on what she called "scapegoating" and "finger-pointing" in the Republican race — clearly signaling her willingness to criticize Trump.

"The mean-spiritedness, the hateful rhetoric, the insults — that's not who we are," Clinton said in Springfield, Mass., a day ahead of the Super Tuesday voting that is expected to place her firmly in the lead for the Democratic nomination. "It really undermines our fabric as a nation."

A Clinton versus Trump general election would put the former secretary of state and first lady head to head with an unconventional candidate who has seized on a current of nationalistic and anti-immigrant discontent. Trump has been talking about the general election matchup for a while, predicting that he will defeat Clinton in unexpected places, including New York and such Rust Belt states as Michigan that Republicans haven't won since the 1980s.

"People are going to be surprised," he said Monday during a rally in Radford, Va., where he also took a few swings at Clinton.

"Honestly, she should not be allowed to run," he said. But "Bernie Sanders is over, he took a big beating."

What became clear Monday is that Clinton and her surrogates are also preparing for a showdown with Trump.

Sen. Timothy Kaine, D-Va., a Clinton supporter mentioned regularly as a potential vice presidential pick, came out swinging at an appearance in the Virginia suburbs of Washington on Monday, criticizing Trump for saying during a debate last month that the U.S. military is a "disaster."

"That's a quote. From a guy who wants to be commander in chief," Kaine said. "I don't want somebody who is the commander in chief to talk that way about 1.6 million young men and women who volunteer in a time of war to serve their country. I want a commander in chief who respects the military and their families and who will speak about them with gratitude, not contempt."

"We don't need to make America great," Clinton said Saturday, playing on Trump's signature promise. "America has never stopped being great. We do need to make America whole again. Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers."