Clinton says she will focus on Trump

Washington, May 22: Insisting that she would be the Democratic presidential nominee for the November elections, Hillary Clinton today said she would focus her energy on defeating her Republican rival Donald Trump.

"I'm going to keep focused on Donald Trump, because I will be the nominee, I will be running against Donald Trump in the fall and I do not want Americans and, you know, good-thinking Republicans, as well as Democrats and Independents, to start to believe that this is a normal candidacy. It isn't," she said.

"I said that if we don't respond to Donald Trump, which I am doing, as you have seen. I've said he was unqualified to be president. I believe that deeply," Clinton said.

"What he is advocating -- look what he's done this past week, you know, attacking our closest ally, England. Heaping praise on a dangerous dictator in North Korea. Reiterating his call to pull out of NATO, our strong military alliance. Talking about letting other countries have nuclear weapons. Advocating a return to torture and even murdering the families of suspected terrorists," Clinton said.

Meanwhile, a latest opinion poll showed that a Clinton-Trump fight is headed towards a dead end as the former Secretary of State is leading the real estate tycoon by just three percentage points in a hypothetical November matchup.

Clinton leads the New York businessman, 46 per to 43per cent, in a test matchup between the two likely nominees, the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. That represents a much tighter margin than her 11-percentage-point lead in April and marks the first time in Journal/NBC News polling this year that her support has dropped below 50 per cent in a matchup with Trump. In an interview to MSNBC, Clinton said she is ready to talk to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, her Democratic rival, whenever he is ready to talk.

However, Sanders told CNN that he is still in the race and Clinton is "jumping the gun". Clinton said she would do everything to unite the party and ruled out that Sanders would run as a third-party candidate. "Oh, I don't think so. I think that Senator Sanders has every right to finish off his campaign however he chooses. I do think there will then be the obvious need for us to unify the party.

I faced the same challenge in 2008. I will certainly do my part, reaching out to Senator Sanders, reaching out to his supporters. And I expect him to do his," she said.

PTI