The speech that won California for Hillary Clinton
SACRAMENTO -- Until California native Alexandria Ybarra saw Hillary Clinton in person in Sacramento on Sunday, she said she wasn't sure that her choice for president could pull off a win in her home state.
"Before this rally, I was doubting it. I have a lot of Bernie friends," she said, looking around at the hundreds of others gathered in a steamy college gym. "But now I see what a great supporter base she has."
Clinton has zig-zagged across the state over the last five days, from El Centro near the Southern border to the Bay Area, trying to turn out that supporter base. She worshipped with black churchgoers in Oakland and chatted with young schoolgirls outside a burger shop in Watts, in Los Angeles. But the defining moment of her final swing through California was on Thursday in San Diego where Clinton, on the cusp of capturing the Democratic nomination, turned her full attention to Donald Trump.
"He is not just unprepared," Clinton said of the presumptive Republican nominee. "He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility."
On Friday, as Clinton made her way from Culver City to San Bernardino, she made reference to her speech the day before. But before she could finish teeing it up -- "I gave a whole speech," she started in Westminster -- her supporters at each stop that day erupted with applause. It happened again on Saturday, and again.
"Everywhere I'm going to go, I'm going to tell people, young people, watch that speech," said Rep. Xavier Becerra, who joined Clinton at a roundtable on immigration on Saturday morning in Sylmar. "Young people want someone who they can believe in and I want to tell them, watch that speech, because you'll be able to see that you'll have someone who will fight for you, someone you can believe in and bring that change."
A woman in Oxnard, where Clinton held a rally at a high school on Saturday afternoon, had seen it. She brought a hand-made sign toward Clinton on the ropeline that read: "We were proud of your speech in S.D. We are proud of you." Clinton autographed the sign for her supporter backstage, under the message: "Thanks!"
"I thought she was fighting fire with fire," said Christina Myren, a teacher from Thousand Oaks who is planning to vote for Clinton in the primary on Tuesday. Myren said the speech showed a new side of Clinton, better matched to the language that Trump has used against her.
Myren singled out one difference: "She kept an even tone," she said.
Carlos Marquez, who lives in Sacramento, watched Clinton's speech as it happened on Facebook.
"I think that people can finally see this is a two-person race," he said. "In her, you have a candidate able to articulate sound foreign policy positions. Donald Trump doesn't have a platform."
Jerry Thurston, a communications instructor at Fresno City College and a Clinton supporter, didn't tune in to Clinton's speech, which was carried live by cable networks, but he said he had heard about it through the grapevine. But while Thurston said that he wanted to see Clinton take Trump "to task," he warned Clinton against getting dragged through the mud.
"I believe in taking the high road," he said.
In an interview with ABC News taped on Saturday, Clinton suggested she had no intention of mimicking Trump's brash persona. In San Jose on Thursday, Trump said that Clinton "has got to go to jail."
"It's a typical Trumpism," Clinton said, "and I don't have any response."
For many who saw Clinton over the weekend, she won't have to. College student Jay Moslehi, who managed to snap a selfie with Clinton at her event in Sacramento, wore a white t-shirt with an "x" drawn in Sharpie marker through Trump's name.
"I think if Bernie Sanders comes to her aid, it'll be a landslide," he said.