New York- Even though Donald Trump is sliding in the polls, President Barack Obama took a break from his vacation Monday to urge Democrats not to get complacent.
Obama said at a Democratic Party fundraiser on Martha’s Vineyard that to vanquish the Republican nominee, the party still needs a strong ground game and urgency to seal Hillary Clinton’s victory.
“What I do want to emphasize is the need for a sense of urgency and finishing the job of getting her elected,” Obama said at a private residence.
“And you notice I haven’t said much about her opponent. Frankly, I’m tired of talking about her opponent. I don’t have to make the case against her opponent because every time he talks he makes the case against his own candidacy.”
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty out there,” the president added.
“If we are not running scared until the day after the election, we are going to be making a grave mistake.”
If Democrats do not “do their jobs,” Obama warned, “then it’s still possible for her to lose.”
“When I say ‘do our jobs,’ what I mean is we are going to have to continue to be engaged,” Obama said.
“We are going to continue to have to write checks. We are going to continue to have to make phone calls, and rally people behind her candidacy. We are still going to have to fight what has been an unrelenting negative campaign against her; that has made a dent in the opinion of people even, who are inclined to vote for her.”
For his part, U.S. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump presented his plan to combat extremism, pledging to impose “utmost scrutiny measures” for those migrating to the United States in case he won the elections.
Trump blamed President Obama and Clinton for the rise of the Middle-East-based extremist group ISIS.
“The Obama-Clinton foreign policy has unleashed ISIS, destabilized the Middle East, and put the nation of Iran — which chants, ‘death to America’ — in a dominant position,” Trump told an invited audience gathered at Youngstown State University in Ohio, a key state in his election battle against his Democratic opponent in November.
He also said Clinton “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS and all of the many adversaries we face.”
In his prepared speech, Trump advocated a foreign policy overhaul in three general areas: Diplomacy, immigration, and national security (particularly cyber-security).
“In the Cold War, we had an ideological screening test. The time is long overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting. I call it extreme, extreme vetting,” Trump said. “Our country has enough problems. We don’t need more.”
Clinton’s senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said Trump’s policy shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“How can Trump put this forward with a straight face when he opposes marriage equality and selected as his running mate the man who signed an anti-LGBT law in Indiana?” he said in a statement.
“It’s a cynical ploy to escape scrutiny of his outrageous proposal to ban an entire religion from our country and no one should fall for it.”