WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton captured the mostly symbolic Democratic primary Tuesday in the US capital, the final vote of the 2016 presidential primaries, as the race shifts to her showdown with Republican rival Donald Trump.
Clinton won nearly 79 percent of the vote, compared with just 21 percent for Bernie Sanders, with nearly all votes counted, according to US networks.
It marked a deflating finish for the Vermont senator, who captivated liberals and independents with his grassroots campaign that challenged Clinton more than just about everyone expected.
But as the most controversial primary season in decades drew to a close, the attention of the candidates -- and the nation -- was elsewhere: grappling with the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, the deadliest terror attack on US soil since September 11, 2001.
Instead of hailing the end of a historic primary season, Clinton and Trump were trading explosive verbal blows and laying out dramatically different approaches for fighting terrorism in the wake of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, on Monday proposed stark changes to existing immigration policy, saying that if elected he would "suspend" immigration from areas with a "proven history of terrorism."
He also suggested American Muslims were complicit in domestic attacks because they failed to "turn in the people who they know are bad."
Clinton, a former secretary of state, maintained a more statesmanlike demeanor, calling on Americans to "stand together" to defeat terrorism.
But after Trump suggested in a TV interview that Obama sympathized with terrorists, Clinton unleashed a blistering anti-Trump broadside Tuesday and called her rival's approach "dangerous" and "un-American."
"Even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States," she told supporters in Pittsburgh.
"What Donald Trump is saying is shameful," she added. "It is yet more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief."
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