Former US president Bill Clinton is to hit the campaign trail today for his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton — his first appearance on the stump for the former first lady’s White House bid this year.
The former president’s visit to New Hampshire in support of his wife, who leads polls for the Democratic nomination, comes with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump sharpening his attacks on both Clintons.
Bill Clinton is scheduled to hold a rally at a community college in the city of Nashua and another event later today in Exeter.
Trump, who leads the Republican field by a large margin in nationwide polls, has turned recently from verbally attacking his fellow Republican candidates to stepping up his criticism of the Clintons.
Last month, he blasted Bill Clinton’s “terrible record” with women — an apparent allusion to rumored past marital infidelities, including while in the White House.
“If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women’s card on me, she’s wrong!” Trump tweeted.
Warming to the theme, Trump tweeted on Saturday: “I hope Bill Clinton starts talking about women’s issues so that voters can see what a hypocrite he is and how Hillary abused those women!”
The billionaire businessman has called Bill Clinton’s past reported affairs “fair game” in the campaign.
Accusations of sexual impropriety dating back to his time as governor of Arkansas have dogged Clinton for years.
Republicans in Congress tried but failed in 1998 to remove him from office for alleged perjury and obstruction during an investigation into an alleged White House affair.
New Hampshire is host to the nation’s first presidential primary on Feb. 9.
Voters in the heartland state of Iowa, using the caucus method, are to register their presidential preference on Feb. 1.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia