SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Hillary Clinton said Wednesday the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln has been transformed into "the party of Trump," declaring her GOP presidential opponent a polarizing figure who is deepening the divisions in America.
Clinton embraced the symbolism of Lincoln's "House Divided" speech, using the Illinois Old State House chamber as the backdrop to argue the nation needs to repair its divisions after a series of high-profile police shootings. A week before the Republican convention, Clinton said presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump would do little to heal the country.
"This man is the nominee of the party of Lincoln. We are watching it become the party of Trump. And that's not just a huge loss for our democracy - it is a threat to it," Clinton said, speaking from the black walnut wooden dais in the Old State Capitol. "Because Donald Trump's campaign adds up to an ugly, dangerous message to America."
Clinton, a polarizing figure for nearly three decades in national political life, acknowledged she, too, must contribute to the healing.
"As someone in the middle of a hotly fought political campaign, I cannot stand here and claim that my words and actions haven't sometimes fueled the partisanship that often stands in the way of our progress," Clinton said a week after she faced criticism from the FBI director over her handling of classified materials at the State Department. "So I recognize I have to do better, too."
The Democratic presidential candidate picked the symbolic location where Lincoln delivered his famous address about the perils of slavery in June 1858 to the state Republican convention. Elected the first Republican president two years later, Lincoln declared "a house divided against itself cannot stand."