Clinton, Kaine launch campaign’s last 100 days from Temple University

PHILADELPHIA – Hillary Clinton kicked off her general election campaign Friday in Philadelphia by comparing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to a king, while she argued the historic nature of her candidacy showed the goodness and potential of America.

“Nobody who looked like me was thought to be possible to run for president” when the country was founded 240 years ago, Clinton told a few thousand supporters at Temple University, a day after she became the first woman to accept the presidential nomination of a major political party in the United States.

“No one who looked like Barack Obama was thought to be possible. But, contrary to Donald Trump, I believe every time we knock down a barrier in America, it liberates everyone in America,” she said to resounding applause.

The rally followed the four-day Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where her campaign highlighted support not just from party luminaries like President Barack Obama, but also a retired four-star general, lifelong Republicans disillusioned by Trump, family members of those lost to gun violence, and immigrants and Muslims who denounced Trump’s rhetoric and policy proposals.

After the rally, Clinton was to continue a bus tour with vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine through Pennsylvania and Ohio, states Obama carried twice but ones that Trump hopes to flip to the Republican side with his populist message.

Clinton will encourage companies to invest in their own workers, according to a Clinton aide, and tout a promise to invest $10 billion in infrastructure, manufacturing, and clean energy in her first 100 days in office.

Clinton and Kaine are expected to visit a K’NEX factory in Hatfield, Pa., later Friday. The campaign picked the factory because its engineering toys include a line targeted at girls, and teach crucial concepts for careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Trump made a campaign stop this week in Scranton, where he vowed he’d “have jobs flowing in, believe me.”

In a statement Friday, Trump’s campaign blasted Clinton’s “globalist agenda” and “radical amnesty plan” it said would “take jobs, resources and benefits from the most vulnerable citizens of the United States and give them to the citizens of other countries.”

In Trumpian fashion, the New York businessman also lashed out at his opponent on Twitter. “Crooked Hillary Clinton mentioned me 22 times in her very long and very boring speech,” he wrote. “Many of her statements were lies and fabrications!”

Clinton, rejecting Trump’s assertion that he “alone” can fix the nation’s problems, recounted how the Founding Fathers established a democracy because “they didn’t want one person, one man, to have all the power like a king.”

She and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, along with Kaine and the Virginia senator’s wife, Anne Holton, took the stage to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” They stood in front of signs that promoted one of her general election themes: “Stronger Together.”

Mayor James Kenney and other Pennsylvania Democrats, such as Katie McGinty, who’s running against incumbent U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, spoke before Clinton arrived.

“Philadelphia’s a tough city,” Kenney told the crowd, “and we need a tough president like Hillary Clinton.”

He watched Clinton from the front row along with former Gov. Ed Rendell, whom Clinton thanked, along with Kenney, Sen. Bob Casey, and Rep. Robert Brady, for a well-executed convention.

Clinton supporters from around the region came to the city early Friday to see Clinton in person.

Leslie Milner, a nurse from Buckingham, said she overslept her alarm Friday morning after staying up late all week to watch convention speeches on television.

She, her 16-year-old daughter, and her husband, rushed to catch a train into the city and were standing on the floor of McGonigle Hall hours before Clinton was to appear.

“All my neighbors are Republican, and I say, ‘You can’t vote for (Trump),’” she said. “I honestly don’t understand why the race is so close.”

Bill Askoy, 17, of Upper Darby, stood in the crowd before the rally began as the gymnasium filled with people and music played in the background.

He said that even though he can’t yet vote, he supports Clinton – especially for her proposal to raise the minimum wage.

Askoy, who is Muslim, said he was offended by Trump’s comments about Muslims. The GOP nominee has proposed banning Muslims from entering the country, at least temporarily, in response to terrorism.

“It was a little disgusting,” Askoy said. “Muslims come here to be Americans.”