Clinton bid gains help of Warren

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is introduced Monday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at a rally at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is introduced Monday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at a rally at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati.

CINCINNATI -- Elizabeth Warren offered an impassioned endorsement of Hillary Clinton as the two held their first joint campaign event Monday, striking a populist tone as they sought to address income inequality while portraying Donald Trump as a contributor to the middle class's economic woes.

photo

AP

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference in Washington on June 10. The billionaire running for president seeks to persuade millions of Americans to give him campaign money.

"I got into this race because I wanted to even the odds for people who have the odds stacked against them," Clinton said. "To build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, we have got to go big, and we have got to go bold."

The event was the first time the two Democrats have campaigned onstage together. It signaled another step in the formation of an unlikely political alliance between Clinton, who is often associated with her husband's centrist economic agenda, and Warren, who has assailed policies of the Bill Clinton era by tying the deregulation of Wall Street to the 2008 financial crisis.

"Here's what it boils down to: Hillary has brains. She has guts. She has thick skin and steady hands," said Warren, a champion of the party's liberal base, standing before 2,600 cheering supporters at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. "But most of all, she has a good heart. And that's what America needs."

The event marked a key moment of party unity after Clinton's hard-fought primary against liberal challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has not yet endorsed his rival.

"I'm here today because of her," said Warren, who officially endorsed Clinton earlier this month. "We're here to fight side by side with Hillary Clinton."

Later, in a speech in Chicago, Clinton pledged to earn voters' trust.

"I personally know I have work to do on this front. A lot of people tell pollsters they don't trust me," Clinton told the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, adding, "You can't just talk someone into trusting you. You've got to earn it."

At the Ohio rally, Clinton addressed the "frustration, the fear, the anxiety and, yes, the anger" over an economy in which the wealthiest Americans have thrived as middle-class wages have been virtually stagnant, and she emphasized themes that elevated Warren in the Senate and fueled Sanders' candidacy.

Clinton said that when Warren rails against Wall Street and corporate excesses from the Senate, "she is speaking for all of us."

Speaking in Ohio, a battleground state, Clinton vowed to strengthen labor unions, to close loopholes that give corporations tax breaks for moving jobs overseas, to raise the minimum wage and to make college affordable.

"Why do the richest Americans and biggest corporations get away with manipulating the tax code so they pay lower rates than you do?" Clinton asked.

Trump businesses bashed

Both women framed their remarks Monday by portraying Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, as a selfish corporate titan whose business record hasn't benefited American workers.

Clinton ticked off a laundry list of Trump enterprises.

"Trump suits were made in Mexico," she said. "Trump furniture is made in Turkey, instead of Cleveland. Trump barware is made in Slovenia, instead of Toledo."

Warren, who has long criticized Trump, lashed out at the New York businessman, calling him a "small, insecure money-grubber," "a nasty man" and "goofy."

"Donald Trump is the guy who wants it all for himself," Warren said. "And watch out, because he will crush you into the dirt to get whatever he wants."

Warren has taken criticism from Trump in return. Trump has called her "Pocahontas" because Republicans say she fabricated American Indian ancestry to help boost her legal career. Warren has said she never used her background for unfair advantage.

"Crooked Hillary is wheeling out one of the least productive senators in the U.S. Senate, goofy Elizabeth Warren, who lied on heritage," Trump tweeted Monday. Later, he called her "a racist" and "a fraud" in an interview with NBC News.

Warren's tough talk on Trump is valued by Clinton, who aides say particularly appreciates surrogates who don't mince words in their attacks.

"I do just love to see how she gets under Donald Trump's skin," Clinton said.

Also Monday, former Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, a Republican who lost his seat to Warren in 2012, aired concerns over unconfirmed reports from unnamed Clinton aides that Warren is among several people being vetted as a possible running mate.

Brown said he took issue with Clinton "considering making someone vice president who has very serious character flaws when it comes to honesty and credibility" in dealing with her heritage. He suggested that Warren could take a DNA test or call on her former university employers to clear up the dispute.

At the rally, however, there was plenty of wishful thinking for a Clinton-Warren ticket. Supporters in the crowd waved "Girl Power" signs in hopes of seeing the duo together on the ticket in the fall.

"We were really hoping that she would announce that Elizabeth Warren was her vice president," said Kristen Woods, 29. "She's amazing. I would love her."

But the two women have never been close, according to aides, who note that they didn't overlap in the Senate and they worked in different corners of President Barack Obama's administration. Clinton served as secretary of state, while Warren helped establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Some supporters have expressed doubt that Clinton would choose Warren as her running mate.

"They're both good on the campaign trail -- very good -- but I'm not sure the country can take two women. I'm just not sure," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a leader of the civil-rights movement.

With her arm over Warren's shoulder, Clinton lavished praise on the senator, whom she called a "friend" and a "great leader."

Warren returned the compliment.

"She just remembers who really needs someone on their side, and she gets up and keeps right on fighting for the people who need her the most," Warren said of Clinton.

Fundraising effort

Trump has been hard-pressed in recent weeks by members of the Republican Party to ramp up his campaign's fundraising efforts, and beginning last week, his campaign has begun to solicit online donations from supporters.

After sending out his first email asking for contributions, Trump collected $3 million -- as much as he did in the entire month of May. He had asked for donations of $10 or more, with the promise of adding $2 million of his own money.

Trump's national finance chairman, Steven Mnuchin, said the campaign was "overwhelmed" by reaction to the first online fundraising appeal and that the campaign will now solicit such contributions "daily."

The Trump campaign has since sent at least five additional solicitations. In an email Monday, his son Eric Trump wrote that "donors like you helped us to raise $11 million in just a few days."

"That's why we set another Trump-sized goal" of raising $10 million by Thursday, the last day of the month, Eric Trump wrote.

Meanwhile, a new Washington study says Trump's tax and budget plans would make the national debt skyrocket by $10 trillion or more over the coming decade, mostly because of his ambitious and expensive tax cuts.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says Clinton's agenda -- which relies on tax increases to pay for proposals such as making the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act more generous -- would increase the debt by about $250 billion over 10 years.

Trump's measure is considered important because if the debt got too large, it would cause higher interest rates, be a severe drag on national investment and growth, and potentially lead to a fiscal crisis. Interest costs would also squeeze out other priorities such as defense, education and infrastructure investment.

Trump's tax plans, which include lowering the top income tax bracket from 39.6 percent to 25 percent and the top corporate rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, would add $9 trillion-plus to cumulative deficits over a decade, the study says. Clinton's plan would increase taxes by $1.25 trillion over the same period, chiefly through a 4 percent surtax on top earners and a limit on deductions taken by the wealthy, the study says.

All told, Trump's policies would result in the $19.3 trillion national debt spiking to 127 percent of the size of the U.S. economy by 2026, the study says. Clinton's plans are projected to closely track to current budgets, in which the debt would equal 86 percent of the economy.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a nonpartisan organization that advocates for smaller deficits and warns that the government's projected deficits and debt will soon become unsustainable. It receives backing from a foundation funded by deficit hawk Peter Peterson, the Pew Charitable Trusts and other foundations.

Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Lerer, Ken Thomas, Julie Bykowicz, Andrew Taylor and Steve Peoples of The Associated Press; by Amy Chozick of The New York Times; and by Philip Rucker of The Washington Post.

A Section on 06/28/2016

Upcoming Events