By Theodore Schleifer and Dan Merica
WASHINGTON — (CNN) Hillary Clinton on Friday cast Donald Trump’s nomination speech as arrogant and his entire Republican National Convention as dark and depressing, in her first response following the week-long event.
Speaking in Tampa, Florida, Clinton said the Republican nominee “does not speak for anyone” and was not the “voice” that he fashioned himself at the convention in Cleveland. And she took particular offense at Trump’s claim that he “alone” could fix the country’s problems, characterizing it as self-centered.
“His vision of America is one where we Americans are kind of helpless. We need to be rescued,” she said. “I can’t really imagine him on a white horse, but that seems to be what he is telling us: I alone can fix it.”
Clinton also poked the Republican Party’s lack of unity, highlighted by a speech when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz declined to endorse Trump.
“Something has gone terribly wrong when one speaker says vote your conscience and gets booed,” Clinton said. “I never thought I would say these words, but Ted Cruz was right.”
Referring to Trump’s message as a “dark and divisive vision,” Clinton said her Republican opponent “offered a lot of fear and anger and resentment but no solutions about anything that he even talked about.”
And in response to Trump’s line that “I am your voice,” Clinton said that she doesn’t believe the real estate mogul speaks for working Americans such as small business owners and housekeepers.
“I don’t think he speaks for most Americans, do you?” Clinton asked.
She added, “I don’t think he speaks for working families who would be devastated by his reckless economic policies. He doesn’t speak for anyone who thinks our country should be standing together, not splintering apart. He sure doesn’t speak for me because I know we are stronger together.”
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