Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton compared Republicans to terrorists during a speech at Case Western Reserve University today.
During her speech, Clinton took jabs at Republican presidential candidates for being pro-life:
"Marco Rubio brags about wanting to deny victims of rape and incest access to healthcare—to an abortion. Jeb Bush says Planned Parenthood shouldn't get a penny. Your governor, right here in Ohio, banned state funding for some rape crisis centers because they sometimes refer women to other health facilities that do provide abortions.
I would like these Republican candidates to look a mom in the eye who caught her breast cancer early because she was able to get a screening for cancer. Or the teenager who didn’t get pregnant because she had access to contraception. Or anyone who has ever been protected by an HIV test.
Now, extreme views about women? We expect that from some of the terrorist groups. We expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world. But it’s a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States, yet they espouse out-of-date and out-of-touch policies. They are dead wrong for 21st century America. We’re going forward. We are not going back.”
Following the speech, Republicans were quick to decry Clinton’s statements comparing pro-life politics to terrorist organizations.
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Allison Moore told the Associated Press, "For Hillary Clinton to equate her political opponents to terrorists is a new low for her flailing campaign. She should apologize immediately for her inflammatory rhetoric."
Jeb Bush tweeted Clinton’s priorities “are totally wrong.”
Donald Trump told reporters at a Greenville, South Carolina event, “Well, I tell you what, she can maybe speak to Jeb Bush on that issue because he was very negative on women’s health issues. But I’ve been very positive on women’s health. In fact, my daughter, Ivanka, and my wife, Melania, were very, very strong on, you know, they said—you should—they know how I feel about women and women’s health issues. And they said, ‘You should really talk about it more.’ But for me, it’s going to be a very major thing.”
Trump then went on to further attack Bush and Clinton on their records: “I know Jeb Bush really said some bad things and he said bad on Asian. He, all of a sudden, he’s talking about anchor babies and he steered it over to the Asians and now the Asians are upset with Jeb Bush. So you’re going to have to ask him about those, but I will take care of women’s health and women’s health issues better than anybody and far better than Hillary Clinton, who doesn’t have a clue. And I don’t think... maybe she won’t even be in the race. We’ll have to see, but maybe she won’t.”
Despite the backlash, Clinton spokeswoman Christina Reynolds is allegedly defending Clinton’s comments, stating, “Instead of trying to manufacture outrage by twisting Hillary Clinton’s words, Republican presidential candidates should stop pushing extreme policies that would limit women’s reproductive healthcare choices.”