Hillary Clinton said Monday that voters must reject Donald Trump’s attempts to reboot and rebrand his presidential campaign, telling a Florida crowd that “what you see is what you get” with the Republican White House candidate.
Speaking in St. Petersburg, Mrs. Clinton — who now has a near double-digit lead over Mr. Trump in most polls — blasted her opponent’s economic platform, which the Republican laid out during a Detroit speech earlier in the day.
Mr. Trump’s address was an attempt by his campaign to put the focus back onto issues and away from negative press coverage last week.
But the Democratic presidential nominee said voters must be smart enough to see through that strategy.
“Don’t be fooled: There is no other Donald Trump. What you see is what you get,” Mrs. Clinton said. “He is still the same Donald Trump who makes his shirts and his ties overseas instead of in the United States. He is the same Donald Trump who refuses to pay his bills. … In fact, he is the same person who can be provoked with a tweet.”
Mrs. Clinton’s stop in Florida underscores the importance of the battleground state. She has held several campaign events there in recent months and announced her vice presidential pick, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, in Miami last month.
Surveys show Mrs. Clinton with a double-digit lead over Mr. Trump in Florida.
As she has done in Florida and elsewhere across the country, Mrs. Clinton tried to appeal to voters who may be sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s message. She said she understands their frustration and their anger with the economy but stressed that electing a “hater” like Mr. Trump isn’t the answer.
“Haters don’t build. Haters tear down. And at some point we have a big decision to make,” she said. “I understand there are lots of people in our country who are really disappointed, fearful, even angry. I get that. The Great Recession was a terrible experience. … I know that people are worried about whether they and their kids can have the kind of future we expect here in America. I’m here to tell you, yes we can, and we will.”
As for Mr. Trump’s revamped program, Mrs. Clinton said it is yet another version of “trickle-down economics” and that the businessman didn’t come up with the plan himself.
Instead, she said, his economic advisory team made up of “hedge fund guys, billionaire guys and six guys named Steve” penned the address.
“So, they wrote him a speech, and he delivered it in Detroit. Now, they tried to make his old, tired ideas sound new, but here’s what we all know, because we heard it again: His tax-cut plans will give super-big tax breaks to large corporations and the really wealthy, just like him and the guys who wrote his speech,” she said. “Trickle-down economics does not help our economy grow. It does not help the vast majority of Americans, but it does really well for people already at the top. Well, we’re going to turn that upside down. We’re going to make the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes for a change.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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