“The Trump business record is one where small businesses are looked at as kind of expendable,” Kaine said. | Getty Kaine accuses Trump of stiffing small businesses

HIGH POINT, N.C. – Tim Kaine unloaded on Donald Trump’s business record during a tour of a window treatment and bed factory, saying Trump has a “repeated track record” of snubbing small businesses.

“The Trump business record is one where small businesses are looked at as kind of expendable,” Kaine said, citing reports about contractors being stiffed after working on his projects. “This is such a stark contrast.”


Hundreds of contractors claimed to be stiffed on payments when hired for work by Trump’s companies, according to a USA Today report that found dozens of people have accused Trump and his companies of failure to pay.

“The track record tends to be: ‘Hey, I’ll make a promise to you, I want your help. Sell me what you have.’ And people do that and they’re proud, they’re excited to be part of a casino in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, a big project. But then the businesses go down the path with Donald Trump … and they don’t get paid,” Kaine told reporters while touring the factory on Wednesday.

Kaine also worked to shored up his and Hillary Clinton’s labor support, calling into a meeting of top AFL-CIO officials for 10 minutes on Wednesday morning.

“During the call he thanked the members for their strong support of Clinton-Kaine and made it clear both Senator Kaine and Secretary Clinton are committed to the labor movement, will fight for working families and oppose policies like right-to-work laws,” a Kaine spokesperson said.

In High Point, as workers sewed together bedding as Kaine surveyed the buzzing floor to ask about how the company operated. He also touted the Ex-Im Bank as helping small business and pitched Clinton’s jobs plan as far superior to Trump’s.

“In all the areas of the Clinton-Trump business, jobs plans, I would say the starkest would be an appreciation for, a respect for, and the treatment of small businesses,” Kaine said. “Hillary has a plan.”

Kaine spent about 20 minutes at the AmeriFab International factory chatting with the diverse workforce, breaking out his Spanish to ask one woman where she was from. On his way out the door, an amiable man shouted: “Go Redskins.”

Kaine stopped to chat and asked the man how quarterback Kirk Cousins will do this year.

The man said he thought it would be a good year.

Marianne Levine contributed to this report.