WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has slammed her leading Republican rival Donald Trump saying his high-profile campaign is a "bad development" for the American political system.
The former Secretary of State, who is battling declining popularity ratings after it became known that she had used a private email server during her term as the top US diplomat, also said that Republican front runner Trump is unqualified to be president.
Asked yesterday about real estate tycoon Trump's attacks on her longtime aide Huma Abedin, Clinton said the Republican's candidacy is "a bad development for our American political system" and that his bravado could have dangerous repercussions if he became president, NBC News reported.
"Loose talk, threats, insults -- they have consequences. The president of the United States needs to be careful about what he or she says," she said.
She went to say that Trump is "great at innuendo and conspiracy theories and really defaming people. He is the candidate of being against".
"That's not what I want to do in my campaign, and that's not how I'm going to conduct myself," she said.
Trump and fellow Republican candidate Ted Cruz will hold a rally opposing President Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran next week at the same time Clinton will be defending it in a speech in Washington.
Asked about that, Clinton suggested that Trump and Cruz "don't believe in diplomacy" and said Americans want a president who does.