Former President Bill Clinton said that there has been a lot of "road rage" in the Republican and Democratic parties, but that Hillary Clinton is the most qualified and best prepared to take office as president in unsettled times.
At a rally at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, Clinton also mocked the GOP portrayal of his wife as the "wicked witch of the west," even though Republicans "slobbered all over" her until she left the state department.
The former president campaigned in the Los Angeles area all day on Friday, including stops in Burbank and Woodland Hills.
He didn't mention Clinton's Democratic rival Bernie Sanders by name, but said that "we need to go into this convention as a unified party."
"This has been a very hotly contested primary in case you hadn't noticed," he said.
The former president attributed the disruption in both parties to frustration with "squeezing wages," and anxiety over diversity. But he said that it was a problem that has been "going on everywhere," not just the United States.
He said of the GOP strategy of attacking Clinton — throwing "mud" at her —will wear thin.
"The problem with this kind of stuff is it works until it doesn't," he said.
Clinton spent much of his speech going over his wife's policy prescriptions — including for debt free college tuition — while spending the last five minutes on politics.
He recalled winning the California primary in June, 1992, and being third in the polls — to President George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot — only to rise to the top several weeks later.
"She is in way better shape compared to Mr. Trump than I was in 1992," he said.