‘A lot of things he should apologize for’: Clinton basks in post-debate glow at Detroit rally
A visibly energized Hillary Clinton roused supporters at a Monday rally in Detroit, her first campaign event since Sunday night’s presidential debate against Donald Trump.
“The differences between me and my opponent are pretty clear,” the Democratic presidential nominee said to a roar of anti-Trump boos from the crowd at Wayne State University before proceeding to run through some of her personal highlights from the previous night’s town hall event.
“Donald Trump spent his time attacking when he should’ve been apologizing,” Clinton said.
While she noted that “there are a lot of things he should apologize for,” Clinton was clearly referring to the lewd 2005 conversation between Trump and “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush released by the Washington Post on Friday. In the leaked videotape, Trump talked about pursuing sex with married women and groping and kissing whomever he wants because “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”
“The whole world heard him talking about the terrible way he treats women,” Clinton said, adding that when pressed about the comments during Sunday’s debate, Trump “just doubled down on his excuse that it’s ‘locker room banter.’”
“Women and men across America know that is just a really weak excuse for behaving badly and mistreating people,” she said, eliciting chants of “Hillary! Hillary!” from the crowd.
Clinton continued to relive more of her favorite debate moments, including Trump’s admission that, as the New York Times recently reported, he used a $916 million loss in 1995 to avoid paying federal income taxes, though he would not say for how long.
Clinton called Trump’s own tax proposal “bizarre.” She also gleefully read a statement released Monday by Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in response to Trump’s suggestion that his tax deduction was nothing compared to those of wealthy liberals like Buffett who, Clinton couldn’t resist adding, “is a real billionaire.”
“I believe every single one of us in this room today has paid more in federal income taxes than Donald Trump has,” she said.
Clinton also took the opportunity to reiterate the largely overshadowed comment she made during the debate about a recent Newsweek report detailing that Trump — who regularly promises to return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. from China and other countries — has for years opted to purchase cheap steel from China instead of from American manufacturers for his own construction projects. (At a rally near Pittsburgh later in the day on Monday, Trump repeatedly promised to bring steel jobs back to the U.S.)
“He went to great extremes to hide the fact that he chose to support Chinese workers, not American workers,” Clinton told the crowd in Detroit, adding that “last year, he suggested that U.S. automakers shift production away from Michigan to communities where workers are paid less.”
“He keeps denying these things,” she said. “He must forget that we do have audio and video in 2016.”
