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In Erie, Clinton criticizes Trump and outlines Harris’ economic plan

Umito November 3, 2024

Former President Bill Clinton left the makeshift stage inside the Lavery Brewing Co. “bunker” in downtown Erie Saturday to the sounds of Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow,” the theme song of his 1992 campaign, before working on the short rope line with U.S. Senator John Fetterman.

Clinton, 78, posed for selfies, signed autographs and spent a minute chatting with a young girl in the crowd, while other baby boomers reached out to shake the 42nd president’s hand.

With three days left in a long and contentious presidential election, Clinton tried to offer Vice President Kamala Harris what voters here offered her in 1992 and again in 1996: A victory in Erie County, which became the ultimate barometer in a critical state of the battlefield.

“My kind of rally”

Since the former Arkansas governor’s first presidential campaign 32 years ago, Erie County has voted like the rest of Pennsylvania voters, including in 2016, when the county and state went bankrupt for Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump.

“That’s my kind of rally,” Clinton joked after being introduced by Union City dairy farmer Dan Gourley. “We highlight small businesses and family farmers.”

Clinton, in his slower, southern way, wove a popular story about his discussions with northern Arkansas dairy farmers during his first political campaign 50 years ago into an assessment of the character of the man he he said he had known him for 15 years.

“I had these guys carefully explain to me how they could take a family vacation and they all scheduled themselves in series so they could replace each other and feed the cows,” Clinton said. “Now Donald Trump’s theory is that this would be a great opportunity to convince you that your neighbor was mad at you. Right?”

‘I’ll stick it to you’

Clinton cited conversations he had with voters in rural southern Georgia and eastern North Carolina in recent days that “were blunt” and acknowledged toeing Trump’s line that the race was “rigged” for Harris due to President Joe Biden’s exit from the race in midterms. -July. Harris, Clinton said, had nothing to do with it.

“She was the only reasonable person who could do it,” Clinton said. “And she’s shown tremendous growth as vice president and presidential candidate. I know a little bit about that.

“I know this job and remember it’s a job,” Clinton continued. “So how you define this profession almost determines who you vote for. And I know both candidates: I had cordial relations with Donald Trump for over 15 years until I heard it one day .Even when he was running against Hillary (in 2016) We didn’t argue until I heard him calling Mexicans rapists and thieves. And I knew how many Latino caddies he had, I knew. which made him look good in the eyes of his golf club customers And I went home and we chose. I took my golf clubs out of his golf club.

Clinton called Trump “a genius at bragging, blaming and making you feel like someone is sticking it to you” and said the 45th president would take credit if the sun shone and, if it rained for two days he would tell people that would be the case. He would not have been president.

Trump, Clinton said, learned from his father’s trade adviser, Roy Cohn, to blame everyone, “never take responsibility, deny everything and always accuse others of doing what you do.”

Trump has built up so much resentment in the country and, Clinton added, “he can win you an election if you scare people, but the presidency is a job. You get up and go to work every day.”

“And look, I’m not running for nothing. I’m almost as old as him,” Clinton said, as the crowd burst into laughter.

“I love saying that,” he added, prompting even more laughter. “But I’m running for my grandchildren’s future. That’s why I’m here.”

“Until the cows come home”

Clinton, whose presidency was defined by a booming economy and a sex scandal that led to his impeachment, then turned to the economy, contrasting what Harris plans to do if elected to fight inflation, with Trump’s plan for tariffs and tax cuts.

Although the vice president’s campaign still focuses largely on women’s reproductive rights and saving democracy from Trump, it has become increasingly focused — and more comfortable — on the economic concerns that voters face.

Trump led Harris in almost every poll when it came to who would be best for the U.S. economy. But recent polls show Harris is narrowing that advantage.

In a new survey by the Associated Press/National Opinion Research Center, respondents gave Harris a 10-point advantage over Trump on taxes and the middle class, a 5 point advantage on the cost of housing and a small advantage, 2 point advantage on employment and unemployment.

Harris’ surrogates — including U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a founding member of the House progressive group “The Squad,” on Oct. 21, Sen. Bernie Sanders a week ago and running mate Tim Walz on Thursday — descended on Harris County. Erie during the month of November. last two weeks to praise the Democratic presidential candidate’s plans for an “opportunity economy”.

Harris’ economic plan includes tax cuts for 100 million Americans, offers up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time home buyers and expands Medicare to include home care for people elderly.

As for what Harris called the “care economy,” she plans to restore the pandemic-era enhanced child tax credit, offering a $6,000 credit to parents of newborns , invest more in early childhood and K-12 education, reduce the cost of education. child care services and increase the number of child care providers.

“Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are not new to this, they are loyal to this,” Pressley said during her Oct. 21 stop at ABC 24-Hour Care, which is owned by Tiffany LaVette. “Their number one economic priority is to bring down costs for hard-working families. From child care to groceries, housing, health care, elder care for moms and hard-working dads and small business owners like Tiffany, Vice President Harris has a powerful economic plan that charts a new path forward for everyone who calls this country home.”

Waltz, who made two stops on State Street, one at the Ember + Forge cafe and another at the Puerto Rican restaurant Vilma’s Kitchen, during his latest visit to Erie on Thursday, spoke about, among other things, Harris’ plans to increase the federal small business start-up tax incentive tenfold from $5,000 to $50,000.

And Harris unveiled an economic plan aimed directly at black men the same day she visited Erie on October 14. Before holding a rally at the Erie Insurance Arena, Harris stopped at a black-owned business, Legenderie Records and Coffee.

On Saturday, Clinton said he was focused on the future.

“You can’t change the past,” he said. “You can learn from it. You can enjoy telling stories about it. I can keep you here until the cows come home. But what matters is today and tomorrow. C “It’s the only thing we have influence over.”

Still undecided

Harris, he said, is tackling price gouging, particularly among large grocers that continue to grow through mergers. Trump, on the other hand, ignores that COVID-19 and the supply chain problems it has created have driven up the cost of living across the world, he said.

Harris is proposing to build more homes to lower housing prices, he said, and the country is seeing gasoline prices fall because the United States continues to produce more energy than they don’t consume it.

“Everything from oil to natural gas, solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower: an almost magical new efficiency,” he said. “And that creates a huge number of jobs. For example, in western Pennsylvania, there are now more people working in wind power and solar power than in coal and oil combined. This what she said is that Marcellus Shale, in other parts of the state, we need to develop this stuff, but we need to be very careful about building safe pipes and connections and land allowing leaks.

Clinton accused Trump of “hanging his star on Obama’s recovery”, referring to the rebound from the 2008 economic collapse, and said Trump, if elected, would take credit for the achievements of the Biden era thanks to legislation he opposed, including the infrastructure and JOBS Act of 2021.

He also blasted Trump over conservative Blueprint 2025, a 900-page government reform playbook written by the Heritage Foundation and many of Trump’s associates, calling it a plan to turn the country into a “fact-free autocracy, where no one cannot question the master. “.

He implored the crowd to do everything they can to vote Tuesday.

“If the polls are accurate, there are still people trying to decide who to vote for or whether to vote,” Clinton said. “And you have to go out and tell people (to vote). You know, I want you to be so happy Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, or however long it takes to count the votes. to be really happy, it ‘is if we win. The next happiest thing is knowing that we did everything we could.

Matthew Rink can be contacted at [email protected] or the @ETNRink.