Bernie Sanders speaks to the crowd during a rally at Wings Event Center Monday, March 7, 2016 in Kalamazoo, Mich. - Photo by Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP) / Bryan Bennett

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- Ahead of today's Michigan primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders said Monday that Hillary Clinton was being disingenuous when she asserted that he opposed the auto bailout that rescued General Motors and Chrysler from oblivion during the economic crisis.

Photo by Al Goldis / AP Photo

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a discussion with employees at Atomic Object, Monday, March 7, 2016, in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Photo by Gerry Broome / AP Photo

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Concord, N.C., Monday, March 7, 2016.

Photo by Carlos Osorio / AP Photo

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a Republican presidential primary debate at Fox Theatre, Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Detroit.

Sanders sought to defend his record and blunt the former secretary of state's momentum in the Democratic presidential contest. The bailout of the U.S. auto industry by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama remains popular in Michigan, the home of the U.S. auto industry, and has been credited with preserving the Midwest's manufacturing base.

"Secretary Clinton went out of her way to mischaracterize my history as it relates to the 2008 auto industry bailout," the Vermont senator said during a rally in Kalamazoo. "Let me be as clear as I can: There was one vote in the United States Senate on whether or not to support the auto bailout and protect jobs in Michigan and around this country. I voted for the auto bailout."

Sanders was referring to a December 2008 vote to provide a $14 billion lifeline to GM and Chrysler, which were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

That bill failed to pass in the Senate, prompting Bush to announce about a week later that the federal government would step in with $17.4 billion in federal aid to help the automakers survive and restructure.

In Sunday night's debate, Clinton declared that Sanders "was against the auto bailout."

Clinton was referring to a Jan. 15, 2009, vote in which the Senate considered a motion to block the release of the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package. Both Bush and Obama, then the president-elect, had urged Congress to release the second $350 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program funds.

Sanders, who opposed the Wall Street bailout, voted to block the money.

"What I did not vote for -- and make no apologies -- is to bail out the crooks on Wall Street whose illegal behavior and greed brought this economy into the worst downturn since the 1930s," Sanders said in Kalamazoo.

In back-to-back appearances at a town hall hosted by Fox News in Detroit, the two candidates picked up where they left off after Sunday's debate in Flint, answering questions on the economy, national security, abortion rights, education and working with Republicans.

For the most part, Clinton and Sanders passed over questions designed to pit them against each other. Asked whether he's more trustworthy than Clinton, Sanders said, "I will let the people of the United States make that decision." Clinton, asked whether she views Sanders as an opponent or an ally, called the Vermont senator an ally.

Asked whether he would be willing to become Clinton's running mate, Sanders said he is "talking about running this campaign to win." Clinton said she was focused on the Michigan primary, not who her running mate might be.

Mississippi was getting attention from Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on Monday just ahead of its presidential primaries, but with many more delegates at stake in Michigan, other campaigns were focused elsewhere.

Trump spoke Monday evening to several thousand people in the northern Jackson suburb of Madison -- his second appearance in Mississippi since early January, when a similarly large crowd turned out for his rally in Biloxi. After the gymnasium at Madison Central High School filled up, people sat in the football stadium and watched his speech as it was shown on the scoreboard.

"We have to fix our country. We have to get rid of our debt. We have to, at a minimum, get the debt way down," Trump said. "We have to balance our budgets. We have to build up our military."

Cruz announced an afternoon appearance in a southern Jackson suburb, Florence, at a catfish restaurant with a 110-foot cross in the parking lot. The senator from Texas originally had been set to appear in Ellisville, but organizers said he wouldn't be there because he wasn't feeling well.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Monday endorsed Cruz, although Bryant did not appear at the campaign event in Florence.

Republican candidate John Kasich has spoken in Mississippi twice in the past month, but Marco Rubio has not personally campaigned in the state.

Rubio, on a campaign stop in his home state of Florida ahead of its March 15 primary, said Monday that this year's presidential election is "the most important election in a generation."

"Let me tell you: It always comes down to Florida," Rubio said to a crowd of about 1,000 people at the Sanford Orlando International Airport.

Clinton and Sanders also skipped Mississippi, but former President Bill Clinton campaigned for his wife last week in Jackson.

Also on Monday, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said he's decided against mounting a third-party bid for the White House. The billionaire media mogul made his decision official in a column posted on his company's BloombergView website.

Information for this article was contributed by Thomas Beaumont, Bill Barrow, Steve Peoples, Julie Bykowicz, Emily Wagster Pettus and staff members of The Associated Press; by Arit John of Bloomberg News; and by Jeff Weiner of The Orlando Sentinel.

A Section on 03/08/2016