Clinton visits U.S. casino hub to attack Trump's business record

[July 06, 2016]  By John Whitesides
 
 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton will journey on Wednesday to the gambling center of Atlantic City, site of some of Donald Trump's biggest corporate projects, to attack the business record of her Republican rival for the White House.

Clinton is putting a spotlight on Trump’s casino bankruptcies and complaints against him by contractors to argue that the New York businessman cannot be trusted to set economic policy from the White House.

Her attack on Trump’s business dealings comes as the Republican presidential nominee has blasted her integrity following an FBI report that criticized her use of private email during her tenure as secretary of state.

On Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey said the agency would recommend no criminal charges be filed against Clinton for her use of private email servers. But Comey rebuked Clinton for what he said was "extremely careless" handling of classified material on her email servers, and contradicted her claims that she never transmitted or received classified material on that email system.

A Clinton campaign official said that in Atlantic City, the Democratic presidential candidate would highlight Trump's history of bankruptcies, his dealings with contractors and job losses related to his business activities.

The official said Clinton would emphasize Trump’s promise to "do for the country what I did for my business" to warn that he is unfit to manage economic policy.

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Clinton has used criticism of Trump's business dealings as a way to illustrate one of her principle campaign themes - that the wealthy real estate developer is only interested in boosting his financial bottom line, and is not concerned about the economic struggles of working Americans.

"He's written a lot of books about business, they all seem to end at Chapter 11. Go figure," Clinton said at a rally in Ohio last month, a reference to Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton smiles during a campaign rally, where she received the endorsement of U.S. President Barack Obama, in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., July 5, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Trump has defended his bankruptcy filings on casinos and other projects as legitimate legal avenues designed to help businesses manage their debts. He tweeted recently that he was "the king of debt."

It was unclear if Clinton would address the FBI's announcement regarding its year-long probe into her email practices.

The FBI has been investigating whether Clinton broke the law as result of personal email servers kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, including whether she mishandled classified information on the servers.

Clinton's campaign welcomed the end of the FBI probe, which had cast a cloud over her run for the White House, but Comey's criticisms were likely to reinforce what polls show are public concerns about her honesty and trustworthiness.

(Additional reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Caren Bohan and Ralph Boulton)

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