Donald Trump's bigotry, bullying, bluster not popular: Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON: Claiming that she got more popular votes than Donald Trump, Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton has said her Republican rival's "bigotry, bullying and bluster" are not supported by Americans.

"The last time I checked as of last night, Donald Trump had received 3.6 million votes, which is a good number. There is only one candidate in either party who has more votes than him and that's me," Clinton said during a Democratic presidential debate in Flint, Michigan.

Clinton, 68, said she is "building a broad, diverse coalition" across the country, which will help her defeat 69-year-old Trump.

"I'm very excited by the support we're receiving. I have said, and I'll repeat here, I think that Donald Trump's bigotry, his bullying, his bluster, are not going to wear well on the American people," she said.

The former secretary of state was responding to a question on Trump, the Republican presidential front runner.

"I will look forward to engaging him because, I don't think we need to make America great again. America didn't stop being great, we have to make it whole again. We have to knock down the barriers, we have to end the divisiveness, we have to unify the country. And, if I'm fortunate enough to be the nominee that's exactly what I will do," Clinton said.

Clinton's party rival Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said he would love to run against real estate tycoon Trump who has so far dominated the Republican race.

"For a start, not all, but almost every poll has shown that Sanders versus Trump does a lot better than Clinton versus Trump," Sanders said.

"Right here in Michigan there was a poll done, I think yesterday, or today, had me beating Trump in Michigan by 22 points. Secretary Clinton beat him as well, but not by so much. And, that's true nationally, and in many other states," he said.

"The other reason I think we can beat Trump is that our campaign is generating an enormous amount of excitement. Just in the last two days we have won the caucuses in Maine, we won that tonight with a very large turnout," Sanders said.