MICHIGAN BUSINESS

Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump misses 'what makes Michigan great'

John Gallagher, and Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press

Hillary Clinton speaks to a crowd in Warren, Mich. on Thursday.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told factory workers near Detroit today that her economic plan will bring jobs back to the American heartland while her opponent, Donald Trump, was offering nothing but a pessimistic view of America as a failed Third World state.

In her speech today at Futuramic Tool & Engineering in suburban Warren, Clinton tried to paint a stark contrast with the plan offered Monday by Trump at the Detroit Economic Club.

“America’s best days are still ahead of us if we make up our minds to actually go out and make that happen," she said.

Of Trump, she said: “He hasn’t offered any credible solutions” on economic challenges.

Blasting Trump for what she called his pessimistic view of America, she told the crowd, “There is nothing we can’t do if we do it together.”

Contrasting her own upbeat message with Trump’s, she said, “He is missing so much about what makes Michigan great. He describes America as an embarrassment. He says we’re becoming a Third World country. Look around you, my friends.”

To cheers and applause, she said, “You can really feel the dynamism that is driving this state’s comeback. The auto industry just had its best year ever. Over in Ann Arbor, high-tech firms are thriving … and here at Futuramic, so well named, you are on the front lines of what I believe will be a true manufacturing renaissance in America.”

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And Clinton talked tough on trade, an issue on which Trump has criticized her for supporting trade deals that cost American jobs. Promising to get tough with China and any other nation that tries to “game the system” or kill American jobs, Clinton said she would impose tariffs on trade cheaters and appoint the first “chief trade prosecutor” to enforce trade regulations.

"It is true that too often, past trade deals were sold with rosy scenarios that did not pan out. Those promises now ring hollow in many communities across Michigan and our country that have seen factories closed and jobs disappear," she said. "My message is this. I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages including the Trans Pacific Partnership. I oppose it now, I’ll oppose it after the election and I’ll oppose it as president."

That was a message that resonated with Pat Belanger, a retired employee of the Michigan Education Association who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during the presidential primary season.

"She really spoke to union members. She spoke to the everyday middle-class workers," Belanger said after Clinton's speech. "Trade has been imbalanced for so long and I really trust she’ll work on that when she’s elected president."

Futuramic employee John Morris of Warren said he likes Clinton, although many of his co-workers don't.

"I will support her. I like her words about fixing the economy," he said. "The gun laws, I don’t like so much, but hopefully that will get better.”

His co-worker, Brian Smith, was happy to hear Clinton speak directly to issues important to the working class. But he's still undecided on who he'll support in November.

"She's got a lot more to to say to working people than the other guy and that peaks my interest," he said. "But right now, if Donald Duck was running, I'd vote for him. There are a lot of things I've got to understand before I make a decision one way or another."

And Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, a Democrat who has on occasion supported Republicans for public office, said he's on board with Clinton, especially after talking with her after her speech.

Clinton "hits it right on the head. It's about bringing manufacturing jobs back to this country," Hackel said, adding that he won't say anything negative about Trump. "And it's beyond four-year degrees. It's about using community colleges and apprenticeship programs. This is our economy here in Macomb County and southeast Michigan — manufacturing. I think her message is very tightly aligned with what we are trying to do here."

But a couple dozen protests, many holding Trump/Pence signs, stood outside the plant chanting things like "Liar," and "Lock her up," as Clinton's motorcade drove up to the plant.

And Michigan Republican Party chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, called Clinton's proposals "woefully inept and preposterous."

"Her policies are designed to further drive us into debt and rapidly increase our national deficit," she said. "She has no plans to pay for her outlandish proposals and wants to continue the Obama Administration’s reckless spending.”

But Clinton told the crowd of about 500 invited guests and Futuramic workers that America’s best days are still ahead: “This is personal for me. I’m a product of the middle class.”

Rattling off a host of ideas, Clinton said she wanted broadband Internet service in every home, paid family leave, a higher federal minimum wage, clean water in Flint, initiatives for small business and entrepreneurs and a program to modernize infrastructure. She wanted students to be able to refinance their student debt at affordable rates, provide free college education for many students and she hopes to boost community college training programs.

She said she will focus on putting Americans to work building and modernizing roads, airports, bridges, ports. “We are way overdue for this, my friends,” she said.

Just before her speech, Clinton toured the Futuramic plant with owner Mark Jurcak and company Vice President John Couch. She met with employees who are making rocket boosters for NASA and parts for the F35 Fighter jet. She asked about the materials used in the components and talked with employees about their training and background.

The Warren company has a working apprenticeship partnership with Macomb Community College to train the workers in advanced manufacturing.

“I was told about the absolute perfection that is required to do this work,” Clinton told the crowd. “What is happening here can happen in so many places if we put our mind to it and support advanced manufacturing.”

Trump, by contrast, “has made a career of stiffing small businesses. … It wasn’t that he couldn’t pay them. He wouldn’t pay them.” And she criticized Trump for not releasing his tax returns as other presidential candidates have done.

“We’re all in this together,” she said. “If we can grow together, we can rise together … I’m running for president to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.”

Clinton presented her economic plan Thursday afternoon at Futuramic Tool and Engineering, headquartered in Warren and launched in 1955 as an auto supplier. In 2000, the firm more recently has pivoted to the aerospace industry, helping the military with the F35 fighter jet. A more recent venture into space has gotten Futuramic more attention. The company is working with NASA to help manufacture the SLS Rocket Booster that will be used on a future manned space mission to Mars.

“It’s a fantastic story. They took an old tennis and racquetball facility and turned it into an automotive plant,” said John Paul Rea, director of the Macomb County Economic Development Department. “And now they’re building a rocket that is going to take a man to Mars."

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Noting that Republican nominee Donald Trump as well as former Democratic contender Bernie Sanders have also visited Warren, Rea added, "This just proves that what we’re doing here matters on a national agenda. We’re not only driving a technological revolution, but we’re revamping our workforce. And that should be celebrated.”

It's also located in a county key to both campaign's futures. Macomb County was the birthplace of the so-called "Reagan Democrats" — blue collar workers and union members who left the Democratic Party to deliver Michigan to Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. But former Gov. James Blanchard told the crowd that the Reagan Democrats are quickly becoming "Hillary Republicans."

Clinton and about 100 people attended a fund-raiser Wednesday night at the Birmingham home of Gretchen and Ethan Davidson, son of Bill Davidson, who led Guardian Industries and the Detroit Pistons until his death in 2009.

The fund-raiser was described as “big-ticket,” but a dollar amount for ticket wasn’t immediately available. Among the attendees at the event was music star Aretha Franklin, who sang two songs during the event, "Respect" and “Natural Woman.”

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep. Cooper Allen of USA Today contributed to this report.