43
Clinton: Hillary will make America better, together
By DAVID SKOLNICK
skolnick@vindy.com
BOARDMAN
Gallery
For Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency, her message of building “bridges, not walls” must resonate with voters, said her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
In an exclusive interview Wednesday with The Vindicator, the former president was asked what the nominee’s focus must be in the final month of the campaign, similar to the “It’s the economy, stupid” de facto slogan of his successful 1992 campaign that reminded voters of the struggles of the middle class.
“The focus of her campaign, the message, is: We got to raise income, increase upward mobility, and we can only do that if we work together, not if we keep fighting,” Clinton said after a rally at the Western Reserve Building Trades hall in Boardman.
“We’ve got the most successful society in the world for the 21st-century economy,” and “we can only take advantage of it if we [don’t] keep trying to demonize each other and [instead] work together,” Clinton said.
The former president also told The Vindicator, “We have the strongest security position in the world, but all the borders look like nets and walls because of social media,” in what sounded like a subtle criticism of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who wants Mexico to pay to build a wall to keep illegal immigrants out of the United States, and who often goes to Twitter, the popular social media site, to espouse his opinions.
“We have to have allies and friends, which means we need bridges, not walls; bridges, not walls; answers, not anger; empowerment and working together,” Clinton said. “That’s the only way to rebuild the middle class in America and to claim the promise of the future.”
Clinton spent much of Wednesday in the Mahoning Valley, starting his day at the building trades hall. That was followed by stops to the Starting Line Barber Shop and Joe Maxx Coffee in downtown Youngstown, lunch to go at Vernon’s Cafe in Niles, and at the Clinton campaign office in Warren before leaving for a rally in Stark County.
Clinton spoke to about 150 people at the breakfast rally at the union hall.
Though never mentioning Trump by name, he drew comparisons between the Republican and his wife.
“It’s a question of whether you believe we’re better off in this election lashing out in anger or embracing answers,” he said.
Clinton contended Republicans have supported “everything she’s ever done when she was first lady, when she was senator, when she was secretary of state,” a statement that simply isn’t accurate.
Clinton urged the partisan crowd to go “elect her president. We’re going to rise again. We’re going to do it together.”
The election, he said, is between his wife, who backs an economy that invests in the middle class; and a “trickle-down” economy that gives tax breaks to the wealthy and hasn’t been as successful in the past 30-plus years.
Clinton said his wife’s plan includes making college debt-free for most, fighting the drug epidemic and strengthening the economy.
“She has done a lot of things in her life, always to make positive changes,” he said.
The former president said his wife’s infrastructure plan – not just roads and bridges, but electrical grids and waterlines – will strengthen the nation’s economy and the manufacturing industry.
Clinton also said, “This election matters for a lot of reasons,” including security and the economy, and the wrong decision for president could put the nation in danger.
In response, Seth Unger, Trump’s campaign spokesman in Ohio, said, “Bill Clinton has been on an apology tour” of the state trying to explain “away the bad trade deals he signed that sent Northeast Ohio jobs to Mexico.”
Unger also called the Clintons “corrupt and incompetent insiders who have driven jobs out of Ohio, while Donald Trump is an agent for change with a plan to bring our jobs back from overseas.”
During the Joe Maxx stop, Clinton took questions from reporters, including his thoughts on the debate performance Tuesday of Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee.
“I really did like him,” said Clinton, who added that he had hoped for more discussion on certain issues – specifically mentioning “a woman’s right to choose” to have an abortion – between Kaine and Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence, who he also never mentioned by name.
Clinton said of that issue, “I thought they were both genuine” in their responses. “They came out of different places, but I thought it was real.”
He criticized Pence for what he called a “pretty cheap, unfair shot at my foundation” in which the Republican seemed to suggest the Clintons improperly took money from the nonprofit.