Sharpton: Clinton Has to 'Toughen Up, Have Tougher Surrogates'

Hillary Clinton needs to toughen up and get ready for an ugly street fight against Donald Trump, if she is going to stand any chance of winning the presidency is November, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, Sharpton said, "You can't come in with gloves waiting on the referee to fight Donald Trump" and "you've got to fight the kind of fight he's fighting, He showed that yesterday."

Sharpton's comments were in obvious reference to Trump's news conference Tuesday about veterans groups' donations, where the presumptive GOP nominee attacked the media.

"It means that she's either got to toughen up or have tougher surrogates that can resonate with her base," Sharpton said. "Otherwise, she looks like she's out of touch only because you're in a ring and the fight's out in the alley."

"Trump is a bully. You deal with a bully by calling a bully's shot. You don't try to explain. You're in the schoolyard in New York — Trump and I both grew up in New York — you're in a schoolyard in New York and a bully talks about your family.

"You don't come back and explain to him, 'well, let me tell you what parenting class — you come back and call his bluff," Sharpton said. "And you're lecturing to him about parenting rather than dealing with I'm calling your bluff."

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