Trump raises spectre of crisis if Clinton wins the White House

WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called Democratic rival Hillary Clinton a threat to the country on Monday, saying that if she is elected a probe into her emails could shadow her entire term in office, as the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton’s lead narrowing slightly.

“The investigation will last for years. The trial will probably start,” Trump told a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “Nothing will get done. I can tell you, your jobs will continue to leave Michigan. Nothing’s going to get done.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday said it was investigating newly discovered emails that might relate to Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

Clinton on Monday again said she was confident that the FBI would not find anything problematic in her emails and would reach the same conclusion they did earlier this year.

“It wasn’t even a close call,” she said at a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, of the FBI investigation.

But just eight days ahead of the election – a time when candidates typically feel that the hard work of the campaign is behind them – both Clinton and Trump have ratcheted up their attacks on the other’s character and fitness for office.

Clinton, who had been riding high in opinion polls in recent weeks as Trump was hit by fallout from the release of a 2005 video in which he bragged in vulgar terms of groping women, now finds herself on the defensive.

Trump is hoping to convince voters that electing Clinton would prompt “a constitutional crisis that we cannot afford,” as her emails would be subject to years of controversy, in the wake of the FBI’s announcement on Friday that it continues to investigate material possibly related to her emails.

Clinton on Monday continued to level attacks against Trump’s ability to control nuclear weapons.

“I am running against someone who says he doesn’t understand why we can’t use nuclear weapons,” she said in Cincinnati. “He wants more countries to have nuclear weapons.

“I wonder if he even knows that a single nuclear warhead can kill millions of people,” she added.

Little is publicly known yet about the emails being investigated, other than that they were found during an unrelated probe into the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide.

FBI Director James Comey told members of Congress on Friday the agency was probing more emails that might relate to Clinton’s use of a private email server, but added, “We don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails.”

Trump, who has repeatedly referred to Clinton as “corrupt Hillary,” on Monday said the email probe shows what a poor role model she is – seemingly trying to turn the tables on Clinton, who has assailed his character over disclosures of vulgar comments he made about groping women.

“I want to tell you, she is a terrible example for my son and the children of this country,” he said in Warren, Michigan, mentioning his youngest son, Barron. “Hillary is the one who broke the law over and over and over again.”