Hillary joined the press corps on her plane today before speaking on
Tampa on a broad range of topics at a rally at the University of South Florida. Look for Hillary around
the one hour and 20 minutes mark.
At a voter registration rally in Tampa on Tuesday, Hillary
Clinton called Donald Trump temperamentally unfit to be president and
Commander-in-Chief. Clinton also criticized Trump’s lack of policy
proposals other than trillions in tax cuts to big corporations,
millionaires and Wall Street money managers. Hillary Clinton and Tim
Kaine’s new book, “Stronger Together,” meanwhile, lays out specific
plans to address America’s biggest challenges, she said.
Clinton also highlighted Trump’s dangerous vision for America and
made the case that his divisive policies would endanger us at home and
abroad. Trump has no plan to combat ISIS and has frequently insulted our
military, Clinton said, adding, “His whole campaign has been one long
insult to all those who have worn the uniform to protect our most
cherished American values. And a man who is so wrong about our veterans
isn’t right to serve as our commander-in-chief […] As president, I have a
very different vision. I will give our military everything they need
when they’re serving overseas. I will support them with care and the
benefits that they need and deserve when they come back home, including
job training and mental health care. I will work closely with our
allies, not just to contain ISIS, but defeat them.” Clinton’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Hello, Tampa! Hello, USF! I know I’m only the second most exciting
thing that’s happened here in the last few days. Your big win to open
your football season got some attention. But I am always happy to be at a
university that is doing such a superb job in preparing the next
generation of students. I had the greaat privilege of speaking to your
president, Dr. Genshaft. Thank you. And I will talk in a minute about
some of what I’ve learned about USF and why I think a lot of what you do
here is a model for what we need to do in higher education.
But for me it’s exciting to be here with so many friends. I want to
start by thanking Mary Lent, who just introduced me. Air Force
reservist, former commander of the 927th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, a
woman who has served her country with honor and distinction. I would be
proud to be her commander-in-chief.
I want to thank your extraordinary mayor, Bob Buckhorn. Bob is an
example of the kind of leader who gets things done by bringing people
together, setting big goals and working to achieve them. That’s exactly
what I want to do as president, and I look forward to working with Bob
and the people of this great city and region. And that includes a
longtime friend of mine, State Senator Arthenia Joyner. I have known
Arthenia long before she was in elected office, but she’s always been an
activist, always trying to make things better for people. I’ve known
her for, oh, I hate to admit it, 25 years, and I am so grateful she is
my friend.
This is the countdown to one of the most important elections in our
lifetimes. No matter what your age, this is going to determine so much
about your futures, the futures of our children and grandchildren. The
stakes could not be higher. Everyone knows what an important state
Florida is, and it’s not just because it’s always a hard-fought state;
it’s because Florida shows all of the excitement, the dynamism, the
opportunities as well as the challenges and problems that we have to
face together.
So we have 62 days – 62 days to make the case. And I can’t do it
without you. And I’m here to lay out my case one more time and to ask
for your help, because every single vote counts. Our campaign set a goal
in July. We launched a drive to register three million Americans to
vote this election. We have hosted thousands of events across the
country, including right here in Florida. And today I’m asking every one
of you to give us some of your precious time to be part of this
campaign. And I’m going to run through some of the reasons why every
single person here has a real stake in making sure our country heads
into the future with confidence and optimism, that we truly are stronger
together. Because that’s what will determine whether we have the
economy that produces more good jobs with rising incomes; whether we
have an education system that prepares our young people for the jobs of
the future; whether college is affordable; whether student debt can be
paid back; whether our health care system works; whether we lead the
world with strength and steadiness, working with allies and partners to
make sure that we move toward peace and prosperity.
There is an exciting, bold agenda before us, but it cannot be done by
any one person. It must be done by all of us, and that is something
that Donald Trump does not understand. Among the many troubling things
that were said at his convention – and honestly, I sometimes didn’t
recognize what country they were talking about. It was so dire, so dark,
so divisive, so dangerous. But among the things he said was, ‘I alone
can fix it.’ Think of who that leaves out – our men and women in
uniform, troops on the front line; people like Mary who put on the
uniform of the Air Force to serve our country. Think about the police
and firefighters who rush toward danger. Think about those brave police
officers and emergency responders in Orlando when the Pulse nightclub
was attacked. Think about all the teachers, the educators, the
professors, the staff who work to give young people a much better chance
in the race of life. Think about all the hardworking people who can’t
build a house by themselves, can’t erect one of Donald Trump’s
skyscrapers by themselves. Think of all the small businesses that take a
big chance – my dad was a small businessman. I know what a chance it
is. He couldn’t do it alone. He needed customers. He needed suppliers.
He needed workers. Americans don’t say, ‘I alone can fix it.’ We say,
‘We’ll fix it together, just watch us – nobody, nobody can solve
problems better than we can.’
And I want to be a president for all Americans, not some Americans –
Democrats, Republicans, independents, every single American. I want to
be the president for those who vote for me and those who vote against me
because I want to bring our country together. I’m very proud that Tim
Kaine and I are running a campaign of issues, not insults. Because I
believe anybody who is asking for your vote for the most important job
not just in the country but in the world should tell you what they plan
to do. I do have this – I guess it’s an old-fashioned idea: If you’re
going to ask people for their vote, they ought to have some idea what
they’re voting for. And I don’t think it’s enough to say, ‘Oh, I’ll tell
you later.’ I think it’s important to lay it out and to tell you how
it’s going to be paid for.
And that’s why starting today, especially for young people but really
for everybody, we are putting out a book. It’s called ‘Stronger
Together.’ And in it, it shows this is more than a slogan for the
campaign. This is a blueprint for America’s future. Among the things
that we talk about is the core of our agenda, as laid out in this book.
It is building an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the
top. We’re going to make the biggest investment in new jobs since World
War II. Infrastructure jobs like those here at the port. Our roads, our
bridges, our tunnels, our ports, our airports, they need work and there
are millions of jobs to be done. And in addition to what you can see,
what about our water systems, our sewer systems? We need a new modern
electric grid to be able to take in clean, renewable energy that can
then move us toward that future we seek.
I have a plan to install a half a billion solar panels by the end of
my first term. And enough clean energy to power every home in America by
the end of my second term. And I want young people especially to be
part of this, to be in science, technology, engineering, manufacturing,
creating this future that will determine the quality of your lives and
the competitiveness of our economy.
We also have to finish extending broadband access to every place in
America. Right now, 70 percent of our teachers say that they assign
homework to their students starting in elementary school that require
the kids to learn how to use the internet. I think that’s great. We want
to have an internet-savvy population. But here’s the problem: five
million homes where little kids live, where high school kids live, don’t
have the internet. What does that mean? That means they’re already
behind. It’s so unfair.
We’re going to make this economy grow but we’re also going to make it
fair. We’re going to have more advanced manufacturing jobs. I think we
made a mistake years ago when we eliminated what used to be called
vocational education. We’ve got to return technical education to our
high schools, our community colleges. There are right now more than a
million jobs that can be filled by people who are machinists, computer
designers, tool and die makers. But for whatever reason they haven’t
been given the chance to get that training. And maybe they’ve been told,
you know what, the only future is to go to a great university like USF.
Well, that is true for a lot of people, but it’s not true for
everybody, and we need to make the hard work that builds America the
kind of great work with respect and purpose that is going to attract a
new generation.
That’s why you’ll read what I want to do in here. We’re going to try
to make community college free. We’re also going to have apprenticeship
programs. I’m going to give a tax credit to any company that is willing
to pay a young person while that young person is learning the job at the
same time.
So infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, clean, renewable energy.
We can do this. We are living off the investments that our parents and
grandparents made. It’s time for us to step up and build America’s
future. And let’s make it fair while we do that. That’s why I’ve said
we’re going to emphasize the importance of small businesses. Right now
small businesses are having a tough time in Florida and across America
getting access to credit, right, and getting the kinds of regulations
and overlapping expectations and standards that don’t really make sense.
I want to make it clean and clear and I particularly want young people
with an idea for a small business to feel that they can do it. So I have
proposed a moratorium for three years on student debt so you can
actually get a business off the ground, get it started, make your
future.
I also believe we should raise the national minimum wage. Anybody
working full-time should not be living in poverty. And finally, let’s
guarantee equal pay for women’s work, which will raise family income.
Anyone who’s willing to work hard should have enough money to raise a
family. Did any of you watch any of the Democratic Convention? Well, I
don’t know if you saw these two young people, 17 years old, from Kansas –
young man, young woman, went to the same high school, about to be
seniors, get a summer job working in a pizza restaurant in their home
town. They’re pretty excited. I remember when I had what I thought of as
my first real job. Not babysitting, not, you know, just kind of
knocking around, but a real job where I had to actually show up
someplace and get a paycheck. That was pretty exciting.
So a young man, young woman were at our convention, and here’s the
story they told. They were talking together one day after work. They’d
known each other. And the young woman said, you know, I’m excited
because I think I’m actually going to be able to save some money for
college making $8 an hour. And her friend, the young man, looked at her,
and he goes, I’m making $8.15 an hour. And the young woman said, well,
you didn’t have any experience before this job doing this, did you? He
said, no. You know I didn’t. She said, well, what do you think happened?
And the man said, oh, it must be a mistake.
So they, together – and I give the young man a lot of credit – good
guy, right? They go to tell the manager that there’s been a mistake.
They’re doing exactly the same job, he’s making 15 cents more an hour.
What happens? The manager fired them both. And, you know what? That’s
legal. If you find out about somebody else’s salary, even if you’re
doing exactly the same job, you can be retaliated against, including
being fired in most places. And so when I say, ‘Let’s have equal pay,’
and some people I see looking quizzical at me – they say, well, of
course you’ve got to have equal pay. Well, yeah, if you’re in the
military, and the pay scale is set, or you’re in the government and it’s
set, or you’re under a union contract and it’s set. But if you’re in
the vast majority of jobs in America, you have no idea whether you’re
being paid fairly. So we cannot let that continue. That’s wrong in
America. If you’re doing the job, you deserve to get the pay.
And so how are we going to fund this? I’ll tell you. We’re going
where the money is. We’re going to the people who have made the money in
the last 15 years. We’re going to the top 1, 10 percent, the
millionaires, the billionaires. They’re going to have to start paying
for supporting our military, supporting our education system, supporting
our healthcare system. There could not be a bigger contrast between
what I propose when it comes to taxes and what Donald Trump has
proposed. He actually has proposed giving trillions – and I mean that
with a T – trillions in tax cuts to big corporations, millionaires,
billionaires, and Wall Street money managers.
That would not only explode our national debt, it would lead to
massive cuts in education and healthcare, and many of his proposals
would really benefit his own family, but do nothing for the remaining 99
plus percent of Americans. And, in fact, independent analysts have said
this: They’ve looked at our plans – he doesn’t have much in the way of
plans, but they’ve looked at what he has said, and they’ve concluded, if
we did what Trump is recommending, we would lose 3.5 million jobs in
four years. If we do what I’m recommending, we stand to gain over 10
million jobs in the next four years.
And among the things that I want to do is make sure we have an
education system from early childhood through adulthood, and that means I
want universal pre-K, I want to help more kids get a better start, so
that when they get kindergarten and first grade they’re ready to learn. I
want to work with our teachers and educators – I respect teachers and
educators – and I want to give them the support they need to do the job
we ask. And I want to support universities like this one. Here’s one of
the reasons why. 50,000 students, 40 percent on Pell grants. A lot of
people would never have gotten an education if it weren’t for the
federal Pell grant program, right?
But here’s what’s most impressive. A lot of schools have a lot of
Pell grants. This university graduates all categories of students at the
same rate. If you’re a Pell grant student, a non-Pell grant student, if
you’re white, African-American, Latina, Latino, Asian, everybody
graduates at the same rate. And why that happens is because this
university makes a particular commitment to every student, and moves as
quickly as possible to help kids who maybe are first generation college
students – right? I’ve got to tell you, when I got to college – now, my
father went to college on a football scholarship. I knew I wasn’t going
to college on a football scholarship. My mother had a very difficult
childhood; she never got to go to college. So my dad couldn’t really
tell me much about going to college, because he basically played
football for four years, and loved it. My mom couldn’t tell me.
So when I got to college, I felt so out of place. I was so nervous.
There used to be something way back in the dark ages called collect
phone calls. Where you would call collect, which meant that your parents
had to pay for it, and you just waited to see whether they’d accept it.
So I called home and I said, I can’t – I can’t do this. It’s too hard.
Everybody here is smarter than I am. They’re better prepared than I am. I
want to come home. And my father, who didn’t want me to go so far away
to school anyway, he said, what? Come home. My mother said, no. You have
to stick it out. And if you feel the same way at the end of the year,
then you can make a different decision.
Of course, my mother was right. I loved it within a month or two. But
I know what it feels like to show up and wonder, can you make it? Are
you good enough? Are you smart enough? And thank goodness USF has people
waiting to mentor and reassure and guide students. Every single college
and university needs to have that. And then we’ve got to make it
affordable so kids don’t have to leave because they no longer have the
funding that they need. And I want to do more in my effort to make
childcare affordable – no family should have to pay more than 10 percent
of your income on childcare – and right now, you have a lot of states
where it costs more for childcare than tuition at college and
university. So I’m going to do – I know you’ve got childcare here, but
as I told the president, I want to do more to help you to make sure
every student parent has a safe place to bring their child while they’re
studying and working, and trying to get their education.
And then we’re going to help everybody with student debt. How many of
you have student debt? We’re going to help you pay it back and pay it
off quickly. We’re going to get the interest rates down, we’re going to
give you new ways of paying it. Because right now, we have too many
people laboring under student debt in a way that holds your own futures
back. So we’re going to lift that burden off of you, and we’re also
going to make sure you can get quality affordable healthcare. Every age
you are, every place you are, we’re going to get the costs down,
premiums, co-pays, deductibles, and especially prescription drug costs.
And there are two other things we’re going to take on. Because I’ve
heard about this all across America. We’re going to take on helping more
people with mental health and addiction problems get the help you need.
So I’m excited about what we can do to create an economy, an
education and health care system that works. And while we do it, we’re
going to be protecting the rights of Americans. All Americans. We have
fought too hard, we have come too far. And that means civil rights. And
it means women’s rights, and gay rights, and voter rights, and workers’
rights, and disability rights. And, you know, I believe with all my
heart, because I’ve done this work my entire life. I was looking at the
disability sign there. My first job out of law school was with the
Children’s Defense Fund. I did a lot of interesting things. And one of
them was to gather evidence about why so many kids with disabilities
were out of school. There was no requirement that you went to school if
you were blind, deaf, in a wheelchair. And we changed the law. The first
nation in the world to do that. And I am so proud of our country.
So these rights are not for somebody else. We all know somebody – we
all know a woman, we all know somebody in a racial or ethnic minority,
we all know a worker or a voter, we all know a gay person, and we all
know somebody with a disability. These are our rights. And the kinds of
things that you’ve been hearing from Donald Trump, demeaning, defaming
groups of Americans, people who have every right to be respected by
someone who wants to be President of the United States, and he stands
there and mocks a reporter with a disability, and he calls women pigs,
and he calls Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, and he demeans
Muslims, and attacks a Gold Star family whose son died in action in Iraq
– that’s not who we are. So, yes, we have a lot of plans, but we also
have values, my friends. And we’re going to stand up for American
values.
Our book also outlines how we’re going to keep our country safe from
all threats. We’re going to work with our allies, not insult them. We’re
going to stand up to our adversaries, not cozy up to them. We’re going
to have real plans, not claims and secret plans. This November, the
American people have a big choice to make when it comes to national
security. On the one hand, we have Donald Trump – who has called the
American military a disaster. Who disrespects our military leaders by
saying, and I quote, ‘I know more about ISIS than the generals do.’ His
companies – and listen to this, because I know there are a lot of
veterans and a lot of, you know, active duty people based here in Tampa –
his companies, Trump companies have fired veterans because they had to
take time off to fulfill their military commitments.
And we all saw him disparage the Khans, a Gold Star family who lost
their son in a car bomb explosion in Iraq, as he ran toward it to
prevent the loss of life of the people in his unit, and saving hundreds
of his fellow soldiers. And when asked why he would insult a Gold Star
family, he suggested that his sacrifices are somehow comparable to
theirs, because he said, and again I quote – you can’t make this up – he
said, ‘I work very, very hard. I’ve had tremendous success.’ His whole
campaign has been one long insult to all those who have worn the uniform
to protect our most cherished American values. And a man who is so
wrong about our veterans isn’t right to serve as our commander-in-chief.
And when it comes to fighting ISIS, he has been all over the map. You
would have to literally map it out. He’s talked about letting Syria
become a free zone for ISIS. Look at the map, Donald. He’s talked about
sending in American ground troops. Not on my watch. That is not what we
are going to do. He’s even talked about using nuclear weapons. He’s
very loose in his talk about nukes. He says he doesn’t care if other
countries get them. He doesn’t know why they haven’t been used already. I
mean, it’s so mind-boggling. When I hear these things, I say, that
can’t be true. And then they replay it for me again. He says he has a
secret plan to defeat ISIS. But the secret is, he has no plan.
After all his talk, the only thing that is clear is he has no clue
about what he’s talking about. And rather than work with our allies, he
chooses to insult them. Just last week in a few hours, he managed to
turn his trip to Mexico into an embarrassing international incident. He
got into a Twitter war with the President of Mexico. He is
temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the
United States.
As president, I have a very different vision. I will give our
military everything they need when they’re serving overseas. I will
support them with care and the benefits that they need and deserve when
they come back home, including job training and mental health care. I
will work closely with our allies, not just to contain ISIS, but defeat
them. First, we’re going to take out their stronghold in Iraq and Syria.
Second, we’re going to dismantle their global terror infrastructure on
the ground and online. Third, we’re going to bolster our defenses,
including with an intelligence surge, to protect us and our allies. We
will do whatever is necessary for as long as it takes to bring ISIS to
justice and end their reign of terror for once and for all. And I will
tell you this. I am a very patient person. I don’t quit. I don’t give
up. I don’t blink.
This Sunday will be the 15th anniversary of the attack of 9/11. I was
a Senator from New York. I knew people who were killed. I worked with
families and the few survivors. I worked to get the health care needed
by our first responders and emergency workers who ran toward danger. I
worked to make our country safer and to rebuild New York and the
Pentagon. But I always, always was determined to do anything I could to
bring bin Laden to justice.
And thanks to the very patient, painstaking work of the American
intelligence community, finally, when I was Secretary of State, we were
given the opportunity to evaluate the best evidence we had seen in a
long time. And I was honored to be part of that small group in the
Situation Room advising President Obama as we went through the evidence
over and over and over again, trying to decide, was it credible enough,
strong enough, to take action? And if we did, what kind of action? Would
it be a missile strike? Would it be a bombing? Would it be an attack by
special forces? And when it came time to go around the table, these
were all extremely experienced, thoughtful experts. We all gave our
opinions. I was one who said I thought it was worth the risk. And I was
in that small Situation Room on that day.
You all know the story. Some of you read the book. Some of you have
seen the movies. But there’s one thing I want to tell you because it
demonstrates again what our values are as Americans. Remember, Donald
Trump has said he would order American troops to torture. He would order
American troops to murder family members of terrorists. That’s what he
has said, heedless of the consequences that that would lead to in terms
of putting Americans all over the world at even greater risk. But here’s
what happened that night in Pakistan. And this is not an often-told
part of the story, so I want to tell you, particularly the young people
here, particularly active duty and military veterans like Mary.
If you saw any of the reenactment, you know that one of the
helicopters clipped its tail as it was going into the courtyard on the
wall. It disabled that helicopter. Now, thankfully, every contingency
had been thought through. And so we were prepared for that. The military
was prepared. They could get another helicopter there to take out the
SEALs who were going to have to blow up the disabled helicopter. After
rushing into the compound, taking out the two bodyguards, taking out bin
Laden’s adult son, taking out bin Laden, they knew they had to get out
of there. At any time, there could have been Pakistani military
wondering, what’s going on? Something’s happening. And this was a
military garrison town.
So time was really precious. But here’s what the SEALs did. Before
they blew that helicopter up, they took out all the women and children,
family members of terrorists, including the worst terrorist of all. They
took them out of the compound, around the back to safety, before they
blew that helicopter up. That, Donald Trump, is what American honor
looks like.
I want to mention just three other threats, one threat here right at
home, the epidemic of gun violence. And we have got to have
comprehensive background checks. Close the gun show loophole. Close the
online loophole. End the ability of people on the terrorist watch list
buying a gun in America. This agenda I’ve just briefly outlined is
supported by a vast majority of Americans and a vast majority of gun
owners. And it’s time we all said in one voice, hey, we can respect the
Second Amendment. We can respect the right to own arms. But we don’t
want people who shouldn’t have guns in the first place killing anybody
else ever again.
Another threat to our country is climate change. 2015 was the hottest
year on record, and the science is clear. It’s real. It’s wreaking
havoc on communities across America. Last week’s hurricane was another
reminder of the devastation that extreme weather can cause, and I send
my thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by Hermine. But this is not
the last one that’s going to hit Florida, given what’s happening in the
climate. Nobody knows that better than folks right here in Tampa and in
the broader region. Sea levels have been rising here about an inch per
decade since the 1950s. At the rate we are going, by 2030, which is not
that far away, $70 billion of coastal property in this state will be
flooding at high tide. And whenever our infrastructure is threatened, so
too is our homeland security. The next president will have to work with
communities like Tampa’s to prepare for future storms.
When I’m in the Oval Office, I’m going to work with local leaders to
make smart investments in infrastructure to help protect regions from
flooding and other effects of climate change. I’m going to continue to
continue to work on the international and national level to try to turn
the clock back, to stabilize and reduce emissions even more, to try to
gain more time. But we’re going to have to begin working immediately on
mitigation and resilience and prevention as well.
And what about Donald Trump? Well, he doesn’t even believe in climate
change. He says it’s a hoax invented by the Chinese. And he says, ‘You
can’t get hurt with extreme weather.’ Now, this is the same guy who at
one of his golf courses in some coastal place has demanded that a
seawall be built to protect his golf course from rising tides. So it’s
all fine if it affects Donald, but if it affects the rest of humanity,
he could care less. If it affects people to lose their homes or their
businesses that took a lifetime to build, it doesn’t matter to him. When
it comes to protecting our country against natural disasters and the
threat of climate change, once again Donald Trump is totally unfit and
unqualified to be our president.
And let’s not forget the next president also has to keep our country
safe from public health crises like Zika. It’s painfully obvious we
can’t rely on the Republican Congress or Republican governors to fund an
adequate response. They can’t help themselves from playing games even
when lives are on the line. I call on all Republicans to put people
before politics and finally vote in favor of a clean funding bill to
fight Zika right here in Florida.
But the failure of the Republicans in Congress, including your
Republican Senator, means that we can’t always count on them, can we? So
last month I announced that as president, I will create a public health
rapid response fund to be available when emergencies occur, to have a
consistent budget to better enable government agencies at all levels to
quickly respond to major public health crises and pandemics. This will
complement our efforts to prepare our country to deal with those
challenges, and because of climate change, we’re going to have more of
them. Because of mobility around the world, you can get on a plane in
Africa and bring Ebola to the United States. You can be a mosquito in
Brazil and make your way to Florida. We’ve got to be better prepared.
It’s always better to invest a penny in the front end than to have to
pay many dollars after the crisis has already occurred. That’s why it is
time that when we talk about protecting public health, to put politics
aside and put our people’s needs first.
Now, I’m excited about doing all of this with you, for you, on your
behalf. But I can’t do it without you. And here’s what I’m asking. The
deadline to register voters is October 11th. If any of you are not
registered, or you’re not sure you are registered, or you’re a student
and you’re registered somewhere else but it would be more convenient to
vote here, you have until October 11th. So please learn how to register.
You can go to iwillvote.com and learn how to do that. You can go to my website, hillaryclinton.com, and learn how to do that. We are also building volunteer teams. So you can get involved by going to hillaryclinton.com,
or text ‘join,’ j-o-i-n, to 47246. Or you can sign up here today – are
there people with clipboards somewhere around here? On the way out, I
guess. You can sign up here today to have a volunteer registration
shift.
And you can also apply, if you’re really interested, to our Get Out
the Vote fellowship program. We’re going to organize special groups to
get people to the polls, and we need you. This state has so much
promise, and I want to be the best president that you could possibly
have in Florida. I want to work on all of these issues, everything
that’s in this blueprint that we have published. And I want particularly
to give the young people of this university, this state, this country,
the best shot you can have to be part of the American dream however you
define that.
Many of us who came before know that there were barriers in the way.
When I was a young woman, there were schools I couldn’t go to, jobs I
couldn’t get, scholarships I wasn’t eligible for, just because I was a
woman. And a lot of those barriers have been knocked down. For every
African American, Latino, Asian American, Native American, gay American,
you know that barriers have been knocked down. But they’re not all
down, and we got to make sure they’re all gone and that no demagogue can
ever bring them back and can ever exploit the fears and insecurities of
the American people.
So please, vote this year like your future depends on it because it
does. And if you give me the great honor of serving as your president, I
will get up every single day in that White House and I will work my
heart out for those better jobs, better educational opportunities,
better health care with quality and affordability, protecting our
rights, protecting our country, unifying America, because we need to be
the United States, not the Divided States of America.
And yes, remember, as that sign over there says – I believe this, too
– ‘Love Trumps Hate.’ Let’s have a future that proves that’s true!
Thank you all! God bless you!”
After her Cincinnati rally with Tim Kaine
today, Hillary boarded Hill Force One and took questions from her
traveling press corps hile in flight to Hampton, Illinois for the 49th
Annual Salute to Labor there. Look for Hillary around the 20 minute mark.
Here is the message Hillary would like to share on Labor Day.
On
Labor Day, we celebrate American workers and all that the organized
labor movement has done for us -- from bringing us a 40-hour work week,
the weekend, and overtime pay to securing limits on child labor.
Hillary’s got plans to strengthen organized labor and help workers
around America enjoy the benefits of good-paying jobs -- including a
living wage, the ability to raise a family, the flexibility to balance
work and life, and a sense of dignity and pride in one’s work. You can
dive into the details below, but here’s the gist:
Hillary will increase access to work training, apprenticeships, and entrepreneurial opportunity, invest in new, good-paying jobs, and create incentives for those jobs to remain in America.
Hillary will fight for higher and fairer pay overall, ranging from raising the minimum wage to encouraging profit-sharing by employers.
Hillary will fight for policies that support workers’ financial and logistical needs at every stage of life, whether you’re raising a family or preparing to retire.
It’s
important to remember that while Hillary fights to make life better for
workers, Donald Trump and Mike Pence are doing the opposite: Trump
wants to eliminate the federal minimum wage, made Trump-branded products
overseas, stiffs the small business owners and contractors who work
with him, and has hired union-busting firms to stop his own workers from
organizing. Mike Pence pushed to undermine Social Security, and both
Trump and Pence support so-called “right to work” laws which make it
much harder for workers to bargain for better salaries.
As the
granddaughter of a factory worker and the daughter of a small business
owner, Hillary knows that our workers have the right to fair wages, safe
working conditions, and reasonable hours. Here’s the rundown of what
Hillary’s got planned once she’s president: Protecting American workers
Hillary
has specific plans for job creation and economic policies that will
increase the number of good-paying jobs and trained workers here in the
United States while protecting workers from exploitation and
outsourcing. In fact, she plans to make the largest investment in
good-paying jobs since World War II.
In her first 100 days, Hillary will invest over $275 billion to spur the creation of good-paying jobs in infrastructure, and invest further in clean energy, research and technology, manufacturing, and the small business sector.
She’ll help small businesses create good-paying jobs by cutting red tape, providing tax relief and increasing access to capital.
She’ll invest in high-quality training, apprenticeships, and skill-building for all workers, including free community college and improved access to vocational education.
She’ll pull back tax breaks
for companies that ship jobs overseas, and reject global trade deals
like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that do not meet a high bar of
creating good-paying jobs and raising pay.
Higher and fairer pay
Workers
should be paid fairly for the time they put in on the job, and Hillary
will fight for employees to take home every dollar they worked for.
Hillary supports a federal $12 minimum wage, and supports prevailing wage laws and the “Fight for $15” where economically feasible.
She’ll support collective bargaining rights for unions and make it easier for workers to choose to join a union and bargain for better wages and benefits.
She’ll reward companies that share profits
with their workers by awarding a two-year tax credit equal to 15% of
the profits they share (with a higher credit for small businesses).
She’ll fight for equal pay for women,
especially women of color (the most frequent victims of the gender pay
gap), including through passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act (which she
introduced three times as a senator).
Work-life balance: a fairer, more flexible workplace
Jobs
should provide not only wages, but humane working conditions,
reasonable hours, and a sense of dignity and pride. 21st-century
families face unique challenges -- more dual-income families, more
female heads of household as breadwinners, and a health care system that
still places undue burdens on family caregivers (a quarter of American
women return to work just 10 days after having a child). In response:
Hillary will continue the fight for paid family and medical leave, with a goal of guaranteeing 12 weeks of paid leave to care for any family member (not just a newborn).
She will work towards universally affordable childcare that caps fees at 10% of a family’s income.
She will defend and expand Social Security, especially for widows and those who took time out of the workforce to care for family members, and fight pension cuts and other attempts to undermine retirement benefits.
Whether
they report to a factory or a classroom, work at computers or behind
cash registers, or make careers of caregiving and social service, our
economy -- and our families -- depend on American workers. Their
dedication deserves all the appreciation and gratitude in the world --
and they deserve to be properly compensated for it. Hillary has detailed
plans to help labor and working families, and you wonks are the best at
helping people understand those fine details! Share her plans and start as many conversations as you can.
At the 49th Annual Salute to Labor Picnic in Hampton,
Illinois on Monday, Hillary Clinton reiterated her belief that we are
stronger together, and explained why America’s labor unions reflect
that. Labor unions are also crucial to Clinton’s plan to build an
economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, she said,
given their fights for fair wages and safe working conditions that built
the world’s largest middle class. Unlike Donald Trump, who led a
union-busting campaign against his employees and said he thinks wages
are too high, Clinton will make sure unions always have a seat at the
table and a champion in the White House. Clinton said, “I am going to
say no to attacks on unions, I am going to say no to rolling back
collective bargaining, I am going to say no to unfair trade deals like
the TPP […] But I will say yes to the American dream. And here’s what I
believe. The American dream is big enough for all of us. If we build it,
we will expand it and create more opportunities. And as we run this
campaign on issues, our most important goal is getting the economy to
work for everybody. Clinton’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Hello! Wow, thank you all. Thank you. Thank you so much. And it’s
wonderful to be back. I had such a good time last year, I said, ‘Put
that back on my calendar for Labor Day. I want to be on the banks of the
Mississippi with friends from Illinois and Iowa, talking about how
we’re going to make this economy work for everybody, not just those at
the top.’ And it gives me such a great sense of real privilege and honor
to be up on this stage with the people you see before you, starting
with my friend and former colleague, the great senator from Illinois,
Dick Durbin, who has been – in so many ways the conscience of the United
States Senate. You heard him say he comes from a union family, he knows
what hard work is. He stands up every day in that Senate – I hope you
get a chance to watch him on CSPAN some time, because he carries such
passion and conviction in his voice about everything that he’s fighting
for. So thanks to our friends from Illinois for sending Dick Durbin to
the Senate for all the years – and for however long he wants to be
there.
And please be sure he is joined by Tammy Duckworth as your next
senator. Dick reminded me that I endorsed Tammy here last year. I was
looking for the right occasion to do that, and I figured right here in
her state would be the perfect opportunity. I just can’t tell you how
much I admire this brave woman. And she’s going to bring so much to the
Senate, to our national debate about issues that are critical to
America’s future. So please do everything you can to make sure that
Tammy is in the Senate.
And let me also recognize and thank your congresswoman, Cheri Bustos.
Thank you. Cheri has already made a great impression in the Congress,
and she is working hard every day. She’s another keeper. She’s somebody
who will only do more and more as she is there longer and has the chance
to really make things happen for her constituents.
I also want to recognize my friend, Congressman Dave Loebsack from
across the river who was here earlier. I don’t think I need to remind
everybody from Iowa, but please turn out and vote not only for Dave, but
vote for Democrats. Vote for Patty Judge for Senate. Vote for other
Democrats for Congress.
And it’s a thrill to be here with three great union leaders, people
who I admire and really appreciate the chance to work with and look
forward to working with as president. The UAW president, international,
Dennis Williams; IBEW international president, Lonnie Stevenson; and of
course, president of the NEA, for the educators, Lily Eskelsen. Now,
each of these leaders are pretty special people, and I think you know,
Doug was pretty happy that they’re here. He told me, ‘We’ve got three
international presidents here.’ And I said, ‘Knowing these three,
they’re happy to be here.’ This is not some kind of Labor Day
obligation; they are with their members, they’re working on behalf not
only of those in the union, but we know – it was just proven again last
week – that unions not only raise incomes and provide benefits for union
members, but because of unions, everybody is better off. And that’s a
message I’m going to talk about every single day in this campaign.
Now, this is such a beautiful day, and you all came out here to
celebrate Labor Day with all of us. And I am thrilled that I have a
chance to just say a few words.
I really believe we are stronger together. That was the theme of our
convention. And coming out tomorrow, Tim Kaine and I have a book called
‘Stronger Together,’ and – I’ll tell you why we did this book. I think
if you run for president, you ought to tell people what you want to do.
Right? And what I’ve tried to do in this book – and it’s so great having
Senator Kaine by my side now – is to lay out a blueprint for America’s
future. How are we going to get more good jobs, infrastructure jobs,
advanced manufacturing jobs, clean renewable energy jobs? How are we
going to make sure that the economy not only is growing and producing
more jobs with rising incomes, but is being fair so that people are
treated fairly? That’s why we support raising the national minimum wage
so that you’re not living in poverty when you work full-time.
My opponent thinks wages are too high. I don’t know who he talks to –
but he actually says that and he doesn’t believe in raising the
national minimum wage. I also believe in doing more to support small
businesses. My dad was a small businessman; I believe that we need to do
everything we can to help small businesses succeed.
Tim Kaine and I were together in Cleveland earlier; we talked about
that. Tim’s dad ran a union shop, ironworkers, and he’s proud of that,
that he had a small business father who ran a union shop and employed
union workers, providing good products. I also believe that we have got
to finally guarantee equal pay for women’s work. And that’s because I
believe in fairness. I don’t want to see anybody treated unfairly and
discriminated against. I don’t care who you are. If you’re willing to
work and do your part, you should be able to get ahead and stay ahead.
That is the basic bargain of America.
So if you look at this book, which I hope you will, it stands in
stark contrast to Donald Trump. He says, ‘I alone can fix it.’ Now, the
folks I have met during this campaign, and for many years before, know
that we have challenges, know we’ve got to come together, and believe we
have to work together to fix what our problems are. That’s my view. I
want us to bring people together just the way unions do. Just the way
people and communities do. And here in the Quad cities, and across the
country, we can see proof every day that we have to come together to
meet our challenges.
So I’m going to continue to emphasize that we want to be the uniters
in this campaign. We believe that America is already great and that we
can become greater if we do our part. When somebody says, ‘I alone can
fix it,’ think of the people he’s leaving out. Everybody else. Leaving
out our troops on the front lines, leaving out firefighters and police
officers who run toward danger, leaving out teachers and educators who
do their best to change children’s lives, leaving out everybody else.
That is his campaign in a nutshell. And what we’ve got to do in the next
63 days is to present the vision of America we believe in.
So we’re going to continue to say, we’re stronger together, we’re
going to work together, we’re going to run a campaign of issues, not
insults. And we are going to be absolutely strong in our support for
unions. Because we know nobody gets through life alone. Unions helped
build the largest middle-class in the history of the world, in our
country. They fought for fair wages, safe working conditions, they’ve
helped so many people get on that rung to the middle class, and their
kids, like Dick Durbin, go even higher. So I am going to say no to
attacks on unions, I am going to say no to rolling back collective
bargaining, I am going to say no to unfair trade deals like the TPP, I’m
going to say no to pension cuts that deny you the secure retirement
that you have worked for, and I’m going to say no to Right to Work. It’s
not right for workers, and it’s not right for America.
But I will say yes to the American dream. And here’s what I believe.
The American dream is big enough for all of us. If we build it, we will
expand it and create more opportunities. And as we run this campaign on
issues, our most important goal is getting the economy to work for
everybody. There’s nothing more important. And how do you do that? By
creating more jobs. And what are some of the areas that I think we can
really emphasize? Infrastructure: our roads, our bridges, our tunnels,
our ports, our airports. Also, what we can’t see – our water systems –
our sewer systems. We also need a new electric grid, a modern electric
grid, to be able to take and distribute clean renewable energy. I have a
goal for us to install a half a billion more solar panels by the end of
my first term. It takes a lot of – a lot of jobs, a lot of people
working to do that. And then enough clean energy to power every home by
the end of my second term.
I also want to finish the work of broadband interconnectivity. We
have places in our country that still have dialup. We have places where
kids can’t do the homework assignments their teachers give them because
they don’t have access to the internet. That is so unfair. Think of all
the jobs we’ll create when we finish that off.
And then let’s look at advanced manufacturing. I believe we can
compete with anybody if we put our minds to it, and I’m going to have a
manufacturing renaissance policy – that will put people to work. I am so
proud that Dennis and Lonnie are here because they have been doing so
much to really create the new industries in autos and what the IBW does
in so many important areas of our economy. I want to be your partner.
And I think it’s especially important to recognize that when the
chips were down and the auto industry was on its back, President Obama
did the right thing. He saved the American auto industry. I supported
him then, and I support him just as strongly now. The American auto
industry just had the best year it has had in a long time, and that was
because of the teamwork and the partnership that we had between the
companies, between the union, and because the President of the United
States knew we had to save the auto industry. Donald Trump basically
said he didn’t care, didn’t matter to him; just shows you how he doesn’t
understand or care about the real jobs that put bread on the table and
give people a sense of purpose and dignity.
Well, you won’t have to look far to find me in the Oval Office if I’m
fortunate enough to be your president to do everything I can every
single day to create more jobs, to save jobs, to bring jobs back from
overseas. And if you contrast that with Trump, his track record – his
track record is just the opposite. He actually hired a union-busting
firm for one of his hotels in Las Vegas. He built a career out of not
paying workers for the work they did. We’re talking painters, plumbers,
electricians, people who thought it was a big deal working for Donald
Trump, one of his resorts, his casinos. He stiffed them. He stiffed
small businesses.
Like I said, my Dad was a small businessman. He printed drapery
fabrics. He’d get an order, he’d buy the material, he’d get the
silkscreens made. I would go sometimes to help him in his print plant.
He’d have these long tables. The fabric would be laid out. You would
take the silkscreen, you’d put it down, you’d pour the paint in, you’d
take the squeegee, you’d push it across, you’d lift the screen up, you’d
go all the way down, get on the next table, all the way back. Took a
lot of time. Took a lot of hard work.
When he finished, he’d load up the fabrics in his car and he’d go
deliver them. I am so happy he never got a contract from Donald Trump. I
don’t know what my family would have done if my Dad did business with
people like Trump who has told hundreds and hundreds of small businesses
– he has been sued 4,000 times for not paying the bills that he owes –
if my Dad had been told, ‘Sorry. Just kidding. We’re not paying you.’
This is a man who wants to be president of the United States? This is
someone who doesn’t even honor contracts?
That’s what is so dangerous about this election. When Donald Trump
says what he says about the economy, you know, that he knows how to
create jobs, he had six bankruptcies. In one bankruptcy alone, 1,000
people lost their jobs. The numbers add up.
He talks about wanting to protect jobs in America, but everything he
makes he has made overseas. He could have made suits and ties and
furniture in the United States, but, no, he made it overseas. He even
hires workers from overseas, and he tells people, well, he couldn’t find
Americans who wanted to work in the heat. You can’t make this stuff up,
can you? It is truly unbelievable.
But what’s even worse is what he says about foreign policy. As bad as
he is about our economy, he has insulted our allies, he has made common
cause with dictators, he has basically endorsed Vladimir Putin and his
policies. When he says, ‘I know more about ISIS than the generals,’ when
he claims our armed forces are a disaster, or he insults a Gold Star
family, that’s not just offensive; that’s dangerous.
And just today our intelligence professionals said there is credible
evidence for them to pursue an investigation into Russia’s efforts to
interfere with our election, hacking the Democratic National Committee.
And when Putin was asked about it, didn’t deny it; in fact, he said it
was probably a good thing it happened. And this is the person that
Donald Trump praises.
We saw even more evidence last week that he is temperamentally unfit
and totally unqualified to be president. In just a few hours, he managed
to turn his trip to Mexico into an embarrassing international incident.
I mean, just look at what happened. He got into a Twitter war with the
president of Mexico. And why? Because the president of Mexico said, ‘I
told him in the meeting we weren’t paying for that wall.’
So not only did Trump mess up his first international engagement, he
choked. He couldn’t even bring himself to tell the president of Mexico
one of his very few policy demands. I mean, he went back to Arizona and
gave another hate-filled speech about rounding up and deporting 16
million people. Even some of his own advisors are having a hard time
explaining that away. So he’s going to try to distract and divide. He’s
going to hope that we don’t pay attention to what he has been saying for
14, 15 months, that we just tune in now these last two months, that he
is somehow softening his positions, that there is really another Donald
Trump out there?
Well, you’ve got to ask yourself, if you can’t even go to a friendly
foreign country without getting into a fight – can this person even
claim to have the temperament to be in the Oval Office and deal with
real urgent crises? As I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, a man
who can be provoked by a Tweet should not be anywhere near nuclear
weapons.
But we have a lot of work to do. I think every election is close and
tight and tough. That’s why we have to work as hard as we can between
now and when the last votes are counted, and that’s why I need your
help. I want to get the economy working for everybody, not just those at
the top. I want to be sure that we lead the world with strength and
steadiness and that we protect America here at home and around the
world. And I want to unify our country. I believe with all my heart –
that every American must vote. Must vote.
I see a woman holding a sign, ‘You must vote. Please, it will make a
difference.’ And then she says, ‘I am a Gold Star daughter.’ God bless
you. God bless you.
I’ve spent my life fighting for kids and families. I don’t give up. I
don’t quit. When we didn’t get healthcare reform, I went to work with
Republicans and Democrats. We passed the Children’s Health Insurance
Program that insures 8 million kids every year. As Dick said, after we
were attacked on 9/11, I worked with Democrats and Republicans to make
sure we could rebuild New York and the Pentagon, and make sure we were
as safe as we possibly could be.
This election will determine so much about our future. And one thing I
know for sure is we have to start listening to and respecting each
other again. We may have differences; that’s the American way. But we
are stronger together. We can do anything if we put our minds to it. I
saw the picture of Mother Teresa that was being held up here, and I was
fortunate enough to know Mother Teresa. I was fortunate enough to
actually work with her. We didn’t agree on everything, but we found
common ground.
She asked me, when I was First Lady, to get a home for babies started
in Washington so mothers who couldn’t care for their babies could take
their babies to a safe place and those babies could be adopted. And when
Mother Teresa asked you to do something, the only answer was, ‘Yes,
ma’am.’ And I started working. And she would call me. She’d call me from
India. She’d call me from Vietnam. She called me from everywhere. She’d
say, ‘Where’s my home?’ And I’d say, ‘Well, Mother, working with the
Washington, D.C. zoning department requires divine intervention.’ And so
she did, and we got it done.
Here’s what I hope you will do. I hope you will get involved in this campaign for these last two months. I hope you will go to hillaryclinton.com and
see how you can work, in Illinois, in Iowa. I hope you will text
‘join,’ j-o-i-n, and go to 47246, to see what you can do. We need
everybody involved. There has never been a more important, consequential
election in our lifetimes. And we need to elect progressive leaders
like Tammy and Sherry and Dave Loebsack and others who are on the ballot
as well.
I am confident and optimistic about America’s future. When I listen
to Donald Trump, when I watched his convention, I honestly did not know
what country he was talking about. It was so dark, so dire, so
depressing. That’s not the America I know. It’s not the America that I
see. I don’t deny that we have problems. Of course we do. We’re human
beings. But my goodness, would you live anywhere else? Would you give up
our freedom, our values, our opportunity, for anywhere else? I traveled
to 112 countries as your Secretary of State, and every I went, I was so
proud to land that plane which said the United States of America on it
and to come down those stairs and begin to meet on behalf of our values,
our interests, and our security. And there is not a place, despite what
they say, that doesn’t envy who we are and what we have. We cannot put
any of that at risk, my friends.
So for these last two months, join this campaign. Help us make
history. Make sure that we are continuing to be not just great but even
greater, and that we’re creating opportunities for the next generation,
like my grandchildren. That’s what we can do together if we remember we
are stronger together. God bless you!”
