pittsburgh<u+2014> donald trump and hillary clinton, capping a brutally negative campaign, friday deployed fear as a political weapon by offering hair-raising reasons to view their rivals as unfit to be commander in chief. speaking to an electorate that is especially concerned about national security in the face of world terrorist threats, mrs. clinton warned of the grave risk of electing a <u+201c>thin-skinned<u+201d> president who she said could be easily provoked by adversaries. <u+201c>imagine how easily it could be that donald trump would feel insulted and start a real war<u+2014>not just a twitter war,<u+201d> the democratic presidential nominee said in pittsburgh. mr. trump, the republican candidate, portrayed mrs. clinton as an <u+201c>unstable<u+201d> person with hawkish instincts who would begin another world war if she wins the presidency. <u+201c>she<u+2019>s trigger happy,<u+201d> he said at a rally in new hampshire. the exchanges represented an effort to give fence-sitting voters a last-minute push to decide, if not based on enthusiasm for either candidate then on fear of the other. it brings to a close a battle between two candidates with unusually low approval ratings<u+2014>negative images that have been battered further by advertising and incendiary rhetoric. clinton campaign officials had signaled plans to close out the campaign with a positive message. but as the race has tightened in recent days, mrs. clinton has ramped up her attacks on her rival. the former secretary of state came to pennsylvania to shore up support and to offer a boost to down-ballot democrats. polls consistently have shown mrs. clinton with an advantage over her republican rival there, but her lead has narrowed during the final days of the campaign. the real clear politics polling average now shows a 3-percentage-point race here. capital journal is wsj.com<u+2019>s home for election 2016 news. kicking off friday<u+2019>s dash through three battlegrounds, mrs. clinton asked voters in the keystone state to imagine two different americas. mr. trump<u+2019>s version would be led by a president who mocks people with disabilities, insults minorities and pits people against each other, she said. mrs. clinton reminded voters that in 1987, mr. trump bought a full-page newspaper ad to criticize then-president ronald reagan. <u+201c>he is an equal-opportunity insulter,<u+201d> she said. the clinton campaign and its allies have been stepping up its effort to sow fear of giving mr. trump access to nuclear weapons.<u+00a0> a political-action committee associated with former new jersey sen. bill bradley this week aired tv ads warning of a mushroom cloud if mr. trump were elected. the clinton campaign also aired an ad that featured the woman who, as a girl, appeared in a 1964 ad against gop sen. barry goldwater, where she plucked a daisy and counted down to a nuclear explosion. mr. trump, for his part, tried to turn the <u+201c>unstable<u+201d> argument against mrs. clinton by pointing to her record as secretary of state. <u+201c>she wants to start a shooting war in syria and put us in conflict with a nuclear-armed russia that could seriously lead to world war iii,<u+201d> mr. trump said. <u+201c>i think she<u+2019>s an unstable person to start off with. i really do,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>i think she<u+2019>s unstable. she<u+2019>s trigger happy, you look at what she<u+2019>s done.<u+201d> the nominee wasn<u+2019>t the only person on the stage at the atkinson resort and country club who delivered attacks on mrs. clinton that went beyond even what mr. trump and his surrogates have said to date. former new hampshire gov. john h. sununu, who introduced mr. trump, made a joke about former president bill clinton <u+2019>s 1998 declaration about his affair with a white house intern. <u+201c>do you think bill was referring to hillary when he said, <u+2018>i did not have sex with that woman<u+2019>?<u+201d> mr. sununu said. at another point, mr. sununu scolded an audience member who yelled out, <u+201c>execute her!<u+201d> after a mention of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s name. mr. trump also warned that mrs. clinton would be too compromised by investigations into her family foundation and her private email server to be an effective president. <u+201c>if she were to win it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis,<u+201d> mr. trump said. <u+201c>she<u+2019>s likely to be under investigation for a long time, concluding with a criminal trial, our president. america deserves a government that can get to work on day one and get it done.<u+201d> <u+2014>janet hook contributed to this article. write to colleen mccain nelson at colleen.nelson@wsj.com and reid j. epstein at reid.epstein@wsj.com
candidates trade body blows as presidential race winds down - wsj
colleen mccain nelson reid j. epstein