July 31, 2016

In Columbus, Clinton and Kaine Conclude Third Day of Jobs-Focused Bus Tour Across Ohio, Pennsylvania

At a rally in Columbus on Sunday, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine concluded the third day of their jobs-focused bus tour across Ohio and Pennsylvania, during which they have highlighted Clinton's "100 Days Jobs Plan," the largest investment in American jobs since World War II. Clinton contrasted this approach with that of Donald Trump, whose record is one of outsourcing jobs and stiffing contractors and employees. Clinton emphasized this contrast, saying, "He drove businesses into bankruptcy in addition to taking bankruptcy himself six times. My friends, that’s not how we do business in America [...] he says, ‘America first.’ Sounds real, doesn’t it? As if we wouldn’t put America first. [...] He makes dress shirts in China, not Brooklyn, New York. He makes furniture in Turkey, not Cleveland, Ohio. He makes barware in Slovenia, not Jackson, Ohio."

Tim Kaine added, "Donald Trump?  No plans, folks.  No plans.  I mean, he talked for 75 minutes at the convention, criticized Hillary Clinton, and made a lot of big, broad claims without any substance behind them."

 

Clinton and Kaine's remarks, as transcribed, are below:

HILLARY CLINTON:
 
Hello, Columbus.  I am just so happy to be here on this absolutely glorious, beautiful Ohio afternoon. And I am so glad to be making this journey with Senator Tim Kaine and Anne Holton because they understand what public service is all about.  They are committed to doing everything they can – as Tim has, starting on city council, mayor, lieutenant governor, governor, and now senator – to give people the best chance they can to get ahead and stay ahead.  So please join me again in thanking Senator Tim Kaine. 

And Mayor Ginther, we’re happy to be here in your beautiful capital city here in Columbus. And I don’t know how you all felt, but boy, I thought your congresswoman really knocked it out of the park at the convention. I haven’t even had time to tell Joyce this, but I think it might have been on the very first night she was sitting in the box with my husband, sitting right next to him.  And all of a sudden, Twitter was going crazy, ‘Who is that beautiful, well-dressed, elegant woman sitting next to Bill Clinton?’ And finally, somebody says, ‘That’s the congresswoman from Ohio,’ and I was so proud to have her support. 

Now, there’s somebody else with us, somebody very special to us, somebody special to Ohio, your former governor, Ted Strickland. I’ve had the great privilege of knowing Ted for decades.  I’ve seen how hard he has worked.  He got dealt a bad hand being governor during the Republican-generated Great Recession and doing everything he could to try to help Ohio and get through that.  Well, now he’s running to represent you in the Senate.  I think your other great senator, Sherrod Brown, deserves a partner. Every time Sherrod stands up and fights for you, he needs a partner to do the same and not have his vote canceled out.  So do everything you can to send Ted Strickland to the Senate in November.

Tim’s right; we’ve had a great time.  How many of you watched the convention? I was so proud to see Democrats standing up and speaking about what we can do together to make sure the economy works for everyone, not just those at the top, taking on the special interests that have benefited from a system that is rigged in their favor. 

So when we finished those four days, I was thrilled to get on that bus in Philadelphia and head out across Pennsylvania and into Ohio.  And along the way, we stopped at factories, where hardworking Americans are still making things.  We stopped at a factory in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where business and management works with the steel workers who are there represented by their union fighting hard to have more good jobs. They told me how they are bringing jobs back from China, how they’re creating more opportunity. 

That’s the American story that we’re going to be telling during this campaign during these last 100 days.  I have specific plans about how we’re going to get the economy working for everybody.  We are going to make the biggest investment in new jobs since World War II and put millions of Americans to work.  

And here’s how we’re going to do it:  We’re going to invest in infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our ports, our airports, our water systems. But not just what you can physically see; we need a new electric grid to be able to take and distribute all the clean renewable energy we’re going to be producing. 

And we need to finish the job of connecting every home and business in America to high-speed broadband internet access. I talk a lot about building our economy, getting jobs for everyone.  Well, it’s a little heartbreaking to learn, as I did when I was talking to some teachers a few days ago – and I love teachers – and the teachers told me they had just had a national survey done, and learned that 70 percent of the teachers in America assign homework to their students that required kids to go on the internet. 

Now, that makes sense.  We’re living in the information age.  We want more people, particularly young people, to help create that future so we have even more opportunities.  But here’s the problem:  5 million kids in America don’t have access at home to high-speed internet.  So already they’re being left behind.  So we’ve got to build America’s competition, build America’s opportunities, and the plans that we’ve laid out will do just that.

I also believe we need to do more for small business.  98 percent of the businesses in Ohio are small businesses. Let’s have greater access to credit.  Let’s be sure we cut through and eliminate any of the red tape and the other obstacles.  You heard Tim say his dad ran a small business.  So did mine.  My father ran a print plant where fabrics were printed with designs for draperies.  I was there helping him, but I know how hard he worked.  And I am personally sickened when I hear the stories about Donald Trump refusing to pay plumbers and painters and marble installers and glass installers and small businesses who have done the work.

I think about my dad.  He worked hard.  What would have happened if the customers he had, after he printed those drapery fabrics, made them into draperies, loaded them into his car, delivered them, helped to install them, and somebody like Donald Trump said, ‘We’re not paying you?’  My dad would have said, ‘What do you mean?  I did was I was contracted to do.’ But to person after person and business after business, Donald Trump said, ‘I don’t care.’  It’s not because he couldn’t pay them.  He wouldn’t pay them.  He drove businesses into bankruptcy in addition to taking bankruptcy himself six times.  My friends, that’s not how we do business in America.  If you do the work, you deserve the pay. And we’re going to stand up and make that case against Donald Trump.

The other thing about Trump – you’ve heard him – he says, ‘America first.’  Sounds real, doesn’t it?  As if we wouldn’t put America first.  That’s sure what I believe.  He says it.  But then everything he makes, he makes somewhere else. He makes dress shirts in China, not Brooklyn, New York.  He makes furniture in Turkey, not Cleveland, Ohio.  He makes barware in Slovenia, not Jackson, Ohio.  And he goes around saying he wants to put America first and American workers first.

And then just today we learn, once again, he’s asked for visas to employ foreign workers at his country clubs because he says he can’t find any American workers.  Shame on you, Donald Trump.  Shame on you. Let’s cut through all of the hype and the rhetoric and understand that we’re dealing with somebody who has a history of stiffing people, making things somewhere else besides America, and whenever possible, hiring foreign workers.  I don’t think that adds up in any way to making America great again.  I think it adds up to making Donald Trump more money, that’s what it’s all about.

So we’re not only going to grow the economy and create more jobs for American workers – we are going to make the economy fairer.  We are going to raise the minimum wage so that nobody who works full-time will be in poverty. And you’ve heard it before, but I’ll say it again:  The fastest way to raise incomes in America is to pay women equal pay for the work we do. Now, this is not just a woman’s issue.  This is a family issue.  If you’ve got a working mother, wife, sister, or daughter, it’s your issue. And we are going to enforce the laws and finally make it absolutely clear:  No more discrimination against women who work in the workplace.

So I know we’re up against some powerful forces, and here’s what I want you to know.  As you talk to your friends, your neighbors, about this election, everything I’ve proposed – and you can go to hillaryclinton.com and read all about it – I’ve told you how I will pay for it.  How will I pay for it?  I will pay for everything I’ve proposed by making the wealthy corporations and Wall Street finally pay their fair share of taxes. Somebody asked me, well, why are you doing that?  Do you resent success? 

No, I don’t resent success.  I do resent people taking advantage of other people to try to become successful.  But the reason we’re going to get the wealthy to pay is that’s where the money is.  They have earned 90 percent of all of the income gains since the recession.  That’s the top 1 percent.  And I just think, like that old movie says, you’ve got to follow the money.  And the money is with the super-wealthy.

Now, we’re also going to do more for education, starting with preschool education. We’re going to support our teachers in order to give them what they need to do the job we’re asking them to do. We are going to make four-year college affordable by making it debt-free. And we’re going to help those of you who have student debt pay it back at a lower interest rate, at a faster timetable. And if you do public service like teaching, policing, firefighting, social work, we will forgive your debt. This seems to me also to be fair. Donald Trump gets to refinance and forgive his debts.  Well, what about the families and students of America who get to have some help with their debts?  So if you vote for us, that’s exactly what we’re going to do next year.

So there’s a big agenda, and I watched what’s happened over the last two weeks.  A lot of the rhetoric that came from Trump and his convention was so dark, so pessimistic, so negative.  I know we’ve got problems and challenges.  I’m not taking a position that we don’t have work to do.  In fact, I’m telling you what work we can do together.  But at the end of the day, we Americans are better when we roll up our sleeves, we set some goals, and we work together, because yes, we are stronger together.

And I am very excited about what we can do.  You see, I view this campaign as a giant job interview.  I am here telling you what I want to achieve, asking for your vote, and asking you also to hold me accountable.  I want you not just to vote for me in November but help me be the best president I can be for all Americans. I want to be the president for every American. And that’s why today Tim and I and Anne are here, because we are kicking off this campaign in Ohio. 

And yes, we have a lot of other issues that we are concerned about.  I see some of the t-shirts and the signs.  We will defend Planned Parenthood from these outrageous attacks. We will defend and improve benefits under Social Security. We will take on the gun lobby for comprehensive gun safety reforms. We will take on the real challenges that confront America, not pick fights with people, not act as though some folks are better than others, not insult and finger-point.  We’re going to stand up for Americans’ rights:  for women’s rights and gay rights and voting rights and workers’ rights.

But we can’t do any of this without your help.  And I’m asking for it.  We need you to get involved in the campaign.  And right now, if you will text JOIN, J-O-I-N, at 47246 or go to hillaryclinton.com, you can find out how to get involved.  And, by the way, we are hiring organizers in Ohio if you’re interested in being part of our campaign staff because at the end of this election, I want people to have made an informed choice.  I don’t want folks to be misled, to listen to the rhetoric and the demagoguery. 

I personally think that Donald Trump poses a serious threat to our democracy. And it’s going to be up to all of us to repudiate the hatefulness, attacks on distinguished military leaders, like General John Allen, who came to the Democratic Convention because he loves a country that he served for more than 40 years and wanted to be clear about what he thought was best for our national security, or insulting the family of a fallen soldier, Captain Khan, an American Muslim who sacrificed his life to protect his unit and other soldiers as a taxi raced toward the gates of a base containing a bomb. 

When his father spoke at the convention and pulled out a copy of the Constitution, it was so fitting that happened in Philadelphia, where our country started 240 years ago.  They enshrined in our Constitution the principle of religious liberty.  They understood that America would be including and attracting people from all over the world.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, they addressed different religions, including Islam, that were present in America way back at our beginning.  And I want us always to stand for freedom and equality and justice and opportunity now and forever. Help us go out and win an election that will keep our democracy strong, our economy growing, and give every American a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential.

Thank you so much, Columbus.”

 

TIM KAINE:  

“Hello, Columbus. Wow.  Man, we have had an intense week, and we roll up here, as tired as we can be, and you just gave us a shot of energy. Whew.  This is so cool.  This is so cool.

Hey, let me do – let me do a couple of thank-yous.  I want to thank Roger Teeters, who just did the introduction, proud Vietnam vet, proud Vietnam vet. I think one thing we showed this week in Philadelphia is what a patriotic, upbeat, optimistic, pro-America party we are in the Democratic Party.  And you guys show us the great beauty of our country.

Wasn’t Philadelphia so different than that dark and twisted convention that the Republicans put on the week before? I know we’ve got the mayor here and Congresswoman and Governor Strickland, who is going to be a fantastic U.S. Senator.  Give them a round of applause. And I really mean that, what we said about Philadelphia.  I know we felt that the hospitality there was great, that the spirit of our Democratic family was great.  And it was such a contrast with that, kind of the dark, twisted vision that Donald Trump says is America, but, really, it’s just a tour through Donald Trump’s head.  And, folks, that’s a scary place to be, scary place to be.

But we’ve had a great three-day bus tour.  We get on the ticket.  We do the convention.  We hop on this bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio, talking about job creation, talking about Hillary Clinton’s plans and what we’ll do in her administration.  This is the last stop on the tour.  And it’s great to finish strong in Columbus.

I want to introduce you to my wife, Anne Holton, who is my wife of 32 years.  We’re proud parents of three.  She was the Secretary of Education in Virginia until last Monday.  After I was asked by Secretary Clinton to be a running mate, Anne walked in and said, ‘I want to campaign full-time for this ticket.’  She stepped down from her position.  And having her on the road with me makes me a very happy warrior. She is a great public servant.

And then we’ve also had the great benefit up until the events this morning of having another travel buddy during the bus tour, President Bill Clinton.  Now, that’s pretty cool. That’s pretty cool.  I said yesterday that I’ve been in politics for 22 years.  Mr. Mayor, I was a city councilman and mayor before I was a governor and senator, started at the local level.  I thought I knew something about politics after 22 years, but spending about 15 minutes on a bus with Bill Clinton, you realize, man, now, there’s a guy who knows some things about politics.  It was really exciting for Anne and I to be on this tour.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  “You’re going to be our next VP, Tim.”

TIM KAINE:  “Thank you.  Thank you.

But I will also say I just – I am so proud to be on this ticket.  I am proud – I am proud that Hillary Clinton, out of a number of spectacular people who could have been her running mate, asked, ‘Tim, will you do this with me?’  I’m so humbled about it.  I’m so excited to work with somebody who, as President Obama said the other night, has got to be the best qualified person to be a nominee for President of the United States in a very long time.

So I’m proud and we’re having fun, but I’ll just go one more reason that I’m excited about this.  One more reason I’m excited to say a couple things about the race and out opponent, and then introduce Hillary Clinton.  This is a historic election.  This is a historic nomination. And I was standing on the podium Thursday night after Hillary did her acceptance speech and the balloons started falling.  My 81-year-old mother and my wife were standing there with me.  My mom Kathy put her arms on my shoulders and said, ‘This is the happiest moment of my life.’ ‘Of my life.’

Now, there was a lot of reasons she was saying that, but I’ll tell you one of the reasons is this: because we were making history not just by nominating the best-qualified major party nominee in a very long time if ever, but we were also nominating that the first woman to be president. And here’s what I thought of, here’s what I thought of:  How many strong women have helped me in 22 years in politics, been campaign managers for me, campaign staffers, volunteers, member of my cabinet, supporting me, so that I could have a great political career, my wife supporting me so I could have a great political career, just like I’ve supported her in her public service career.

But if you look at that whole arc of American history, how many strong women have stood behind strong men leaders?  I think it’s time for the strong men of America to show that we can stand up and support a strong woman president of this country, of this country. Now—”

AUDIENCE:  “Hillary, Hillary, Hillary!”

TIM KAINE:  “Hillary!”

AUDIENCE:  “Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary!”

TIM KAINE:  “Can I be honest and just tell you the one bad thing about this week? I mean, I’ve got to be honest.  Before I was on the ticket, Donald Trump didn’t have any reason to call me a name. So when I got on the ticket, he had to figure out how to call me a name.  So the morning after I became the nominee he did a press conference, and he took a mike and he said that Tim Kaine, he was a really lousy governor of New Jersey.

Now, I’m a sensitive guy; I don’t like criticism.  And so I kind of felt bad until I realized, wait a minute, I was never governor of New Jersey. I’ve never even lived in New Jersey.

But look, guys, give Donald a break; he’s new to this. He’s new to this. You know the basic civics, there’s 50 states and Virginia is different than New Jersey.  I’m sure that’s in the briefing book a few pages later, he’s not there yet.

Look, we’re on this tour and we’re having fun, but it’s about something real serious, which is about the American economy and how to grow it, because Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have real different plans.  I like making things simple so I’m going to make it simple.  Would you rather have a ‘You’re fired’ president or a ‘You’re hired’ president?  I thought so.  I thought so. And I predict this:  After Donald Trump loses this race, and after everybody has forgotten virtually everything about his candidacy, the one thing people will remember about Donald Trump is two words: ‘You’re fired.’  ‘You’re fired.’

Hillary has – is going to be a ‘You’re hired’ president and she’s going to talk a little bit about what we’ve been both talking about and learning about on the trail with factory stops and rallies.  The American economy was in a freefall at the end of the Bush administration.  President Obama has pulled it out, and we’re climbing again.  But we got a long way to go.  We got a long way to go because we need to grow jobs and make sure that the growth is not just for a few, but that the growth is shared by all.  And so to do that, Hillary’s got a very dynamic plan about how to grow our economy and grow it for all.

It involves skills training.  It involves major investment in advanced manufacturing.  It involves infrastructure.  It involves debt-free college so people can get the skills that they need to be successful.  It involves things that should be just basic, like raising the federal minimum wage so you can’t work full-time and be below the poverty level. And it also means making sure that women are entitled to equal pay for equal work.  

Now, these are the basics of the Hillary Clinton ‘You’re hired’ plan.  And guess what?  She is respectful enough of y’all – I don’t know, do you use that in Columbus?  Yeah, okay.  Am I okay?  She is respectful enough of the voters to share the details.  You go on hillaryclinton.com.  One click of a mouse, you can see how she’ll do it, how she’ll pay for it, how she’ll benefit.  Right?  And she said this the other night at the convention.  I liked this line.  She said, ‘I’m going to give you the details.’  Some people criticize the details. ‘Oh, I don’t want to know about the details.’  But here’s what she said. ‘If it’s about your kid, if it’s about your family, if it’s about your business, it ain’t a detail.  It’s a big deal.  It’s a big deal.’ And she’s going to share the plan.

Go over to the other side of the aisle.  Donald Trump?  No plans, folks.  No plans.  I mean, he talked for 75 minutes at the convention, criticized Hillary Clinton, and made a lot of big, broad claims without any substance behind them.  In fact, if you ask Donald a question, he’ll say, ‘I’m going to create jobs,’ or, ‘We’re going to all be rich,’ or, ‘We’re going to beat ISIS,’ or, ‘We’re going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.’  And you ask him, ‘Well, how are you going to do any of those things?’ And he just says, ‘Believe me.’  ‘Believe me.’  Huh.  ‘Believe me.  Believe me.’

But here’s the problem.  A lot of people have believed Donald Trump and gotten stiffed, gotten hurt, gotten – there’s a lot of stories of contractors.  Hillary Clinton and I both grew up in families where our dads ran small businesses.  Her dad ran a drape and fabric-printing factory, and my dad ran an ironworker-organized welding shop.  And so we’re used to businesses. A whole lot of small businesses have done deals with Donald Trump to help him build golf courses, build casinos, et cetera, only to get stiffed after the job was done.  They did the work.  They were entitled to the pay.  But Donald and his phalanx of lawyers said, ‘We’re not paying you.  Sue us.  We’ll run you into the ground.  Even if you win, you’ll pay so much in lawyers’ fees it won’t be worth anything.’  They got hurt, and many of them lost their businesses because they believed Donald Trump.

Retirees in Florida, hundreds of them, gave Trump money to build them condos, and they never go the condos, and they never got the money.  They got burned and lost part of their savings because they believed Donald Trump.  Students – I know.  Hey, look, Columbus is a big town for students.  Right?  Big town for college. So young people like vets and others who wanted to advance, Donald Trump said, ‘Hey, give me a bunch of dough and be part of my Trump University.  And then I’ll just guarantee you’ll have a path paid for success in your life.’  And they gave him a lot of money, and they ended up with a certificate that wasn’t even worth the paper it was written on.  They got ripped off all because they believed Donald Trump.

And so now he’s just saying, ‘Oh, I’ll do all these things, believe me,’ but we are just too great a nation to believe a guy who’s ripped off virtually everybody he’s come in contact with.  We cannot put a nation as great as the United States in the hands of an empty-promising, self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew.  We just can’t do it, folks.  We just can’t do it.

And so I want to ask you a question, and I hope you’ll ask everybody this question, and that is this:  When Donald Trump says, ‘Believe me,’ does anybody here I mean even come close to believing this guy?  I mean, do you believe even one word of what he says? That’s my attitude.  Not one word.  Not one word, folks.  Not one word.  And that’s what we’ve got to do on this trail, convince others that they shouldn’t be so gullible to fall for Trump’s no-details promises, either.

Okay.  Look.  Now it is my great pleasure.  We’ve had fun on these couple of days.  And I hope you’ll keep us in your thoughts and encouragement and prayers.  It’s 100 days to Election Day. And Anne and I get the virtue of just joining with like 105 days left.  Now, this has been like an 18-month or multi-year effort on Hillary Clinton’s side.  But it’s going to be tough.  It’s going to be challenging.  But nothing important in life is meant to be easy.  And Democrats know tough, folks, and Ohioans know tough.

So let me introduce to a great leader, a tough leader, a compassionate leader, and the next president of the United States, my friend Hillary Clinton.


###

For Immediate Release, July 31, 2016