Each crisscrossed the state and took the stage for another town hall, battling for every last vote in what’s considered a bellwether for the November election

On the eve of Michigan’s crucial primary, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed on the campaign trail, with the Vermont senator on the defensive over his support for the auto industry and the former secretary of state already looking far beyond the primary.

“The sooner I could become your nominee, the more I can begin to turn attention to the Republicans,” Clinton told the hundreds of supporters who had gathered in the rotunda of the Wright Museum of African American History on Monday night.

Sanders and Clinton crisscrossed the state on Monday, battling for every last vote ahead of Tuesday’s crucial primary. Michigan, the first major industrial state to vote, is considered a bellwether for the November election.

Clinton spent the afternoon meeting with employees of a tech software firm in Grand Rapids before her evening rally in Detroit while Sanders drew large crowds at three rallies across the state. Both later attended a town hall event hosted by Fox News.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Clinton and Sanders have heated exchange over trade in Sunday’s Democratic debate: ‘Excuse me, I’m talking’

At each rally, Sanders accused Clinton of “mischaracterizing” his 2009 vote to release funds as part of a financing package to save the auto industry and called her contention in one of the sharpest exchanges from Sunday’s debate “absolutely untrue”.

“Secretary Clinton went out of her way to mischaracterize my history as it relates to the 2008 auto industry bailout,” Sanders said 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.”

The debate spilled over into an hourlong town hall hosted by Fox News in downtown Detroit, during which the candidates took turns speaking to prospective Michigan voters. There, they both struck a cooler tone having fiercely debated trade and the auto industry bailout during Sunday night’s CNN debate.

Sanders, the Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist, first answered questions from Fox News anchor Bret Baier over his comments in Sunday’s debate that white people “don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto”. The remark had drawn swift condemnation on social media.

Sanders said he knows “about white poverty” from living in Vermont, and added the US has “too many people living in poverty” for being “the richest country in the history of the world”.

“We have got to change our national priorities,” he told the crowd of 250 in Detroit’s Gem Theatre. “We have got to deal with those issues.”

Sanders was also asked about his December 2008 vote to support the bailout of the auto industry. On Sunday, Clinton said her opponent “was against the auto bailout” and “voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry” – a damning accusation to make in Michigan, the heart of the US automotive industry.

Not quite, Sanders told Fox.

“In this case, there was one vote to support the automotive industry,” he said, adding: “What I did not vote for was the bailout of Wall Street.”

Despite Clinton’s claim that Sanders opposed the automotive industry, he is on the record in December 2008 opposing a separate plan to rescue carmakers General Motors and Chrysler during the economic crisis.

While it’s true that in January 2009 Sanders voted against releasing the second half of the $700bn relief package that included funds for the auto bailout, the vast majority of that money went to keep the nation’s largest banks from failing. In effect, Sanders could not have voted to save the automotive industry without voting to save the very banks he rails against in every campaign speech he gives.

“What I did not vote for –­ and [I] 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 during a morning rally in Kalamazoo.

But the war of words continued on the airwaves. On Monday, Clinton’s campaign began running radio ads that highlighted the debate moment when Clinton said: “When it came down to it, you were either for saving the auto industry or you were against it. … I voted to save the auto industry.”

Sanders’ campaign responded with a radio ad of its own that accused Clinton of “trying to distort the truth about Bernie’s record”.



Clinton has maintained a relatively consistent and substantive lead over Sanders in recent polls. A Monmouth University poll released on Monday showed Clinton with a 13-point advantage. Yet a victory here for Sanders could reset his campaign.

After the debate on Sunday, Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said he thought Sanders would “do well here” and noted that their internal polling tells a slightly more optimistic story.

Still, he maintained that Sanders wasn’t finished if he didn’t win Michigan.

“There’s no state you have to win,” he said. “We have a long race ahead of us.”

Despite a narrow path to the nomination, Sanders has pledged to stay in the race until the party’s convention in July.