BY KAREN OCAMB | No matter how many times Donald Trump spat out the letters LG.BTQ during his historically long acceptance speech at the Republican Convention Thursday night, it is beyond the imagination to picture him posing with a bouquet of flowers at the gay Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the scene of the worst mass shooting in US history, as his opponent Hillary Clinton did on Friday.
The Washington Post editorial board was so shocked by Trump’s rhetoric, they declared that Trump is unqualified to be president and a “unique threat to American democracy.” Trump seemed to bear that out when the GOP nominee spent considerable time during his first post-convention press conference resurrecting his beef with former opponent Sen. Ted Cruz and praised The National Enquirer as a “credible” publication in citing their photo of Cruz’s father with JKF killer Lee Harvey Oswald.
Clinton didn’t mince words either. Just hours before she announced her choice of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her choice for the Democratic Vice President, Offering herself as the calm, non-shouting, more humble alternative to the bombastic GOP nominee, Clinton dissected Trump’s speech with a mixture of contained rage, humor, and an appeal to optimism and unity. “The last thing we need is somebody running for president who talks trash about America,” she said at a rally in Tampa, Florida.
Clinton dismissed the vitriol aimed at her during the convention — including one Trump supporter who said she should be tried for treason and shot — as “kind of perversely flattering” and decried Trump’s speech as a “dark and divisive vision.”
“Last night’s speech took it to a whole new level. He offered a lot of fear and anger. And resentment but no solutions about anything that he even talked about,” she said.
But, after joking “where do I start,” Clinton singled out two of Trump’s two main messages: “I alone can fix this” and “I am your voice.”
Clinton almost seemed gobsmacked by Trump’s pretentions to the throne, as if he alone can fix what ails America—a lot from his perspective. “That’s not a democracy, my friends. As I recall, we had a revolution to make sure we didn’t have someone who said, ‘I can fix it alone,'” she said.
Clinton also blasted Trump’s claim that he will be the voice for workers, immigrants, people with disabilities, veterans, women—and LGBT people. The prospective Democratic nominee mentioned the LGBT community several times during the rally in Tampa, often touching her chest, putting hand to heart, obviously still moved by her stop by the Pulse nightclub to lay a wreath of flowers.
In an unpublicized stop, Clinton met with the families of the victims of last month’s shooting at the Holden Heights Community Center then held a roundtable discussion with local law enforcement, emergency medical workers and other first responders before paying her respects at a memorial for the mostly gay young Latinos murdered by a man with alleged ISIS sympathies.
“We need to acknowledge and be very clear who this attack targeted — the Latino, L.G.B.T. community was the target that was most severely impacted by this terrible attack,” Clinton said.
Equality Florida CEO Nadine Smith, who provided the stunning photo of Clinton’s stop at the memorial, said she got to thank Clinton for taking the time to visit and acknowledge the Pulse victims and the strong, united Orlando community. Equality Florida colleagues, Ida Vishkaee Eskamani and Carlos Guillermo Smith were part of the roundtable and Gina Duncan was in the room. (Click here to see video of the roundtable discussion with community leaders.)
Later the Clinton campaign released a transcript of her remarks at that intimate gathering, emphasizing, as she did again (without a teleprompter) the need to pull together to stand against bigotry and hatred. “We have to stand against hate and bigotry. I was really moved by everyone who stood in solidarity with the victims and families here in Orlando, with the LGBT community, the Latino community, the Muslim community, with law enforcement and others, who have been truly tested and tried in the face of such horror and evil. People from all walks of life came together to help and support one another.”
Clinton’s transcribed remarks, as provided by the campaign, followed by a video of her remarks in Tampa:
“Well Mayor, thank you for that because that’s exactly why I am came
here. To listen and learn from this community that has shown such
grace and commitment to those who were lost, to their families and to
all who were affected by this terrible event. I want to start by
thanking you for your leadership. You were a steady and very
compassionate voice throughout this terrible ordeal. I thank everyone
who is here representing various aspects of the Orlando community.
I am pleased that my longtime friend and former colleague Senator
Nelson is here as well. I want to just say a few words because I
really am here to listen to what your experiences have been and what
we do need to do together. We need to acknowledge and be very clear
who this attack targeted: the Latino LGBT community, by any measure
was the community that was most severely impacted by this terrible
attack. What does that mean? Well, among other things, it means that
it is still dangerous to be LGBT in America. I think it’s an
unfortunate fact, but one that needs to be said, that lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender people are more likely than any other group
in our country to be the targets of hate crimes. They face a very
complicated, intersecting sets of challenges in general, and
specifically even more so as people of color.
So after meeting with several representatives of the families,
including a mother who lost her beloved son, I want to underscore what
I have heard from so many across our country, but particularly from
here in Orlando. We have to stand against hate and bigotry. I was
really moved by everyone who stood in solidarity with the victims and
families here in Orlando, with the LGBT community, the Latino
community, the Muslim community, with law enforcement and others, who
have been truly tested and tried in the face of such horror and evil.
People from all walks of life came together to help and support one
another.
There are several things I think we do have to do at the national
level to support communities like this one. We do have to take on the
epidemic of gun violence, particularly assault weapons, the havoc and
horror that they bring in their wake is just no longer tolerable. And
we have to be willing to stand as one and demand changes from
lawmakers at the federal, state, and local level.
Second, we have to disrupt and dismantle the global online network
that radicalizes people here in the United States, that even
unfortunately, infects the thinking and attitudes of people in our
communities, in their homes. They are communicated with, they are
inspired, and they are even directed, and we’ve got to do a better job
to stop that.
So we have a lot of work ahead of us – and I am very much looking
forward to hearing from the panelists who are with us who represent a
fraction of the community that has responded so lovingly. And I will
do everything I can, both in this campaign, but after it, to stand
with you and to support you and to try to promote the kinds of changes
that will prevent this from happening to other people, other families
and other communities in the future.”
