By Stephanie Akin, CQ-Roll Call
Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton “the devil” at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania Monday night, intensifying his already aggressive attacks.
When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped his losing bid for the Democratic nomination and threw his weight behind Clinton, “he made a deal with the devil,” Trump told a packed high school gymnasium.
Then, in case anyone missed his point, Trump clarified: “She’s the devil.”
The quip immediately made headlines across the country. As the New York Daily News pointed out, Trump has been comparing Sanders’ alliance with Clinton to a “deal with the devil” at rallies across the country. He has also been unsparing in his criticism of Clinton, calling her “crooked” and a “pathological liar.” But this is the first time he had taken the extra step to link Clinton to the antichrist.
Attendees at the rally, though, told The Washington Post they did not mind the remark, or others that have recently drawn criticism about the mogul’s brash and unconventional style — including his attacks on an American Muslim family whose Army captain son was killed in the Iraq war, his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invitation to Russian agents to hack Clinton’s email.
“None of it bothers me,” 65-year-old Vickie Myers, an area resident, told the Post. “I think the standards of what people can say has changed. It’s not Trump that did that. That started with social media. People say whatever they like.”
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