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Obama and Clinton together for the first time on presidential campaign trail

USA

President Barack Obama has appeared on stage with Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton for the first time on the campaign trail, revving up voter support.

“There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary Clinton….And I’m here today because I believe in Hillary Clinton and I want you to help elect her to be the next President of the United States of America,” declared President Obama.

In less than three weeks time the Democratic National Convention is set to nominate Hillary Clinton as its candidate for the November election.

Obama attendance at the rally in North Carolina was him retuning the favour after Clinton backed him in 2008. He had delayed endorsing Clinton while she battled US Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton used the rally to take a swipe at her Republican rival Donald Trump:

“Can you imagine him (Donald Trump) sitting in the Oval Office the next time America faces a crisis. The world hangs on every word our president says and Donald Trump is simply unqualified and temperamentally unfit to be our president and commander-in-chief,” said Clinton.

Clinton’s trip with Obama came on the same day that the FBI announced Clinton will not face charges over her use of a personal email server while she was secretary of state.

ABC ABCPolitics Finally an end to this fiasco, and we can move forward and focus on real issues.

— Romeo! (@AnthonyRomeo1) 5 juillet 2016

Although FBI Director James Comey recommended no criminal charges be filed against her, he delivered stinging criticism for what he called “extreme carelessness” in Clinton’s handling of state secrets.

The criticism is ammunition to Republican presidential rival Donald Trump, who on hearing the decision, tweeted that “the system was rigged” and that Clinton used, “as usual, bad judgement”.

FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 5 juillet 2016

The FBI found 110 emails in 52 email chains that contained information that was classified at the time the messages were sent, Comey said. Eight of those chains contained “top secret” information, the highest level of government classification for material that could harm national security.

Another 36 email chains contained “secret” information, and eight “confidential” information, he said. Agents also found three classified emails among the thousands Clinton never returned to the State Department.

Comey said there were no previous cases that supported filing criminal charges against Clinton. Other cases had involved intentional mishandling of information, he said, and there was no evidence Clinton knew she was violating the law. Neither was there any evidence that her private servers had been hacked.

#APFactCheck: We evaluate some of the claims Hillary Clinton made about her email practices. https://t.co/ffH8iejw4B

— The Associated Press (@AP) 5 juillet 2016

Republican lawmakers have called for an independent investigation of Clinton, saying they do not trust the Justice Department to handle the inquiry with impartiality.

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