Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stopped at Jackson Heights’ oldest Indian restaurant, the Jackson Diner, to speak with Queens officials and community leaders about diversity and discrimination.
About half of Jackson Heights’ residents are foreign-born, with many hailing from South America and countries such as India, Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal and Bangladesh. Clinton met with Congressman Joseph Crowley, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, state Senator Jose Peralta and other officials and discussed the rhetoric used by Republican front-runners in the race.
“Folks here know what it’s like to be discriminated against,” Crowley told Clinton.
Clinton said that Republican front-runner and billionaire celebrity Donald Trump’s words are “hurting our country” and “potentially undermining the safety of our people.”
She also took questions from restaurant patrons and community leaders at the diner, which opened in 1980. She told the group that Trump’s “rhetoric, his divisiveness, his incitement … is absolutely unacceptable and needs to be called out.”
Former President Bill Clinton will visit Flushing’s Mudan Banquet Hall on Tuesday with Congresswoman Grace Meng to stump for the former secretary of state. Clinton will debate Bernie Sanders on April 14 in Brooklyn.
She added that she is looking forward to the debate, which should be “lively” and that “under the bright spotlights and scrutiny here in New York, Senator Sanders has has trouble answering questions” on how he’d deal with banks and how he’d approach foreign policy.
Clinton said she has the best policies to keep “Wall Street from wrecking Main Street.”
