Clinton slams Trump for calling Mexicans ‘rapists’

Hillary Clinton took some swings at Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who derided Mexican immigrants as he launched his campaign earlier this week.

A recent entrant into the presidential race said some “very inflammatory things about Mexicans,” Clinton said Thursday in an interview with KNPB's Jon Ralston in Las Vegas.

In Trump's announcement speech on Tuesday, the billionaire real estate mogul described Mexicans as bringing drugs and crime to the U.S.

“They’re rapists,” he said.

Clinton didn't mention Trump by name, though the implication was clear.

“That’s not acceptable. You don’t talk like that on talk radio. You don’t talk like that … on political campaigns,” she said. “I think he is emblematic. It's not about him, it's about everybody.”

Clinton’s comments on Trump came after offering slightly more veiled criticism during a midday speech to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials when she said she was taking a stand,” right here and right now, against divisive rhetoric that demonizes immigrants and their families. It’s wrong, and no one should stand for it.

“We are blessed to live in a tolerant and generous nation. We should celebrate those values and model them in our own lives, and in our politics. This ultimately is about how we treat each other. What kind of country and world we want to live in. It’s about the habits of our heart, which lie at the real foundation of who we are as a nation.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2015 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Clinton slams Trump for calling Mexicans ‘rapists’."