Senator campaigns for Clinton in region where Trump has placed an intense focus – despite the state having not voted for a Republican president since 1988

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Bernie Sanders blasted Donald Trump as a billionaire who exemplifies a “corrupt American political system” in the Vermont senator’s first visit to Michigan on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton on Thursday.



At a local United Auto Workers chapter in Dearborn, the first of four campaign stops across the state, Sanders’ appearance on behalf of Clinton came several months after he eked out a shocking victory in Michigan’s primary election. But in his roughly 50-minute speech, Sanders stressed the importance of electing Clinton, declaring Trump’s policy agenda is “particularly dangerous and un-American”.

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The Republican nominee, Sanders said, differs from any candidate in modern history for one reason: “The reason Trump’s campaign is particularly dangerous and un-American is that he has made the cornerstone of his campaign bigotry.”

He continued, “This campaign, what Trump is trying to do trying to win votes by dividing us up, by insulting the Latino brothers and sisters, by insulting the Muslim community, by every day hurling insults at women.”

Sanders said the revelation of Trump’s 1995 tax returns released last week accomplished more in one day “than I have in a year” to illustrate the “corrupt” American economy.

“In one day, we learned that a multibillionaire, a man who owns mansions all over the world … does not pay a nickel in federal income taxes,” Sanders told a crowd of several hundred of supporters and union members. “And he’s proud of it.”

Sanders retorted with a warning for Trump and billionaires in the US: “Hillary Clinton is going to get elected and they’re all going to start paying their fair share of taxes.”

Clinton and Trump have made Michigan a priority in the race, with just under 35 days until election day. In August, the candidates made back-to-back stops in metro Detroit to unveil economic plans – with Trump proposing a vision that includes dramatically slashing taxes, while Clinton said her intention was to produce the largest investment in “good-paying jobs” since the second world war by rebuilding infrastructure across the nation.

Sanders on Thursday slammed Trump’s economic proposals as a throwback to the mid-2000s, in the run-up to the housing crisis and subsequent economic recessions.

“We do not forget what trickle-down economics was about,” he said. “We do not forget the state of the auto industry eight years ago. We do not forget that 800,000 Americans a month were losing their jobs.”

The Trump campaign has prioritized the rust belt region, with a particularly intense focus on Michigan – despite the state having not voted for a Republican since the 1988 race. And in a new poll released on Thursday, Clinton opened up a double-digit lead. The poll showed Clinton’s campaign held a 43%-32% lead over Trump, shoring up support among women and African Americans.

Last month, Trump also made a controversial stop at a black church in Detroit , where he was met with praise by some parishioners. Two weeks later, he visited the beleaguered city of Flint, where Trump slammed a black pastor who interrupted his speech at her church for delivering a typical stump speech. Trump called the pastor a “nervous mess” and said “she had [it] in mind to interrupt him before she spoke.” In a separate poll released last week, the Republican candidate polled at 0% in the Motor City.

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Sanders said Clinton aims to expand healthcare coverage in the US, on top of the millions that have since obtained insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

“[Trump’s] response is to throw those 18 million people off of health insurance,” Sanders said. “And I asked Mr Trump and I ask Republican leaders: what happens to 20 million people who lose their health insurance? How many of those people are going to die? How many of those people are going to suffer and become a lot sicker than they should have to be. And they have no answer at all.”

Sanders mentioned how, during his last stop in Michigan, he visited Flint, which has been rankled for more than two years by a water contamination crisis.

“Children are being poisoned because we have an infrastructure that is collapsing,” he said. Rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure would also be a main tenet of a Clinton presidency, he added.

“We have got to create millions of decent-paying jobs in this country,” Sanders said. “And what Hillary Clinton understands is the fastest way to do that is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our water systems.”

Despite the self-described democratic socialist’s proclamations that he will do everything to elect Clinton, supporters of Sanders’ energized campaign are still struggling to throw their support behind his former opponent. Polls in recent weeks have shown Clinton is struggling to win over young voters nationally from third-party candidates.

Ymer Kosova, a student who lives in the nearby city of Allen Park, attended the rally on Thursday with two friends. Aged 18, he said he supported Sanders in the Michigan primary, and was “hugely disappointed” when the senator dropped out of the first presidential election he will be voting in.

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“He was genuine – and he’s an excellent person,” Kosova said of Sanders. “He’s a role model for the future.”



Blake Myers, also 18, said he appreciated that Sanders sought to “get money out of politics and discussed climate change as an actual issue.” The presidential debate last week was a huge disappointment, he said, as “there was barely any talk about climate change”.

Both said they are still uncertain about Clinton.

“I’m not 100% sure,” Kosova said. “Maybe, depending on how lucky I’m feeling at the polling booth.”



Standing nearby, Dave Nall, a semi-retired resident of the city of Riverview, said he hoped Sanders would implore his supporters to vote for Clinton.

“We have to get Hillary elected president,” Nall, 65, said. “There is no option here.”

Nall said he felt Sanders “put up a good fight” in the primary and pushed issues to the forefront that “probably needed to be brought front and center”.

“He challenged her,” he said. “But, you know, they’re allies – they were competitors – but now they’re … on the same team. No two people ever see issues the same way.”

On Sanders’ young supporters, Nall said their resistance to backing Clinton’s campaign stems from the fact “they’re still kind of new to the process”.

“They have to put their idealism to the side a little bit,” he said. “I mean, don’t lose it – but the reality is, we got to get Hillary elected president. If we don’t get her elected president, your idealism doesn’t matter.”