Hillary Clinton, standing on a metal working factory floor here in Western Pennsylvania, tried to cut into Donald Trump’s grip on white, working class voters by casting herself — not the businessman-turned-Republican nominee — as 2016’s change candidate.
Clinton, surrounded by factory equipment and spooled iron, attacked Trump’s business record and argued that the more people listen to the Republican nominee talk, the more they realize “he is not offering real change, he is offering empty promises.”
“I just want people as we go into this election to be fair. Because yes, we do have work to do, we can’t be satisfied with the status quo,” Clinton said. “I am not. Not by a long shot.”
Clinton, along with her new running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, is in the midst of a three-day bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio that is meant to make inroads with Republicans turned off by Trump and disaffected Democrats who could be wooed by Trump’s message of economic security and cracking down on immigration.
The trip has also been a chance for Clinton to cut into Republican’s claim that he is the change candidate in the 2016 race.
It is an easy case for him to make: Democrats have controlled the White House for eight years and Trump, a political novice, regularly talks about how he would bring a different set of skills to the White House.
Republicans have even used the status quo argument against Clinton. Mike Pence, Trump’s vice presidential nominee, called Clinton the “secretary of status quo” in his speech at the Republican National Convention earlier this month.
But Clinton’s campaign is looking to convince voters that while, yes, Trump would bring change to the country, it is not change anyone wants. Clinton’s argument on Saturday was that Trump would tank the economy, ruin relationships abroad and hurt working Americans.
“Look, I know people are angry or frustrated,” Clinton said shortly after someone shouted at the small event. “I think we just heard one. I understand that. I am not going into this with some rose colored classes. I know we have work to do.”
In particular, Clinton has seized on Trump saying in his Republican National Convention speech that he “alone can fix” the country.
“Most of all, we know better to believe anyone who says, I alone can fix it,” Clinton said. “I think that should set off alarm bells for everybody. Because by saying that, he is forgetting what all the rest of us do everyday.”
Clinton is uniquely tied to the administration of Barack Obama, though. She served as Obama’s secretary of state for four years and has run on his record throughout the 2016 race. She even used Obama as a way to hit Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, faulting him for criticizing the president.
Clinton argued on Saturday that sometimes, because of the political back and forth, people “lose track with where we are” economically.
“We have come a long way since the worst financial crisis in a generation and it could have gotten a whole lot worse,” Clinton said, commending Obama’s handling of the economic crash and his decision to bailout the auto industry in 2009.
Clinton’s bus trip, which continues on Saturday with events in Pittsburgh and Youngstown, Pennsylvania, is also meant to fortify her support in two key swing states.
Trump’s campaign sees a narrow path to victory for the candidate who unexpectedly won the Republican primary, acknowledging at times that Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Ohio are critical to his success.
Clinton’s tour, which was meant to mimic former President Bill Clinton’s post-convention bus tour in 1992, ends in Columbus on Monday.