Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members at the union’s 2016 International Convention, Monday, May 23, 2016, in Detroit. AP
DETROIT — Hillary Clinton said Monday that Donald Trump’s economic policies would lead to lower wages, fewer jobs and more debt — warning unionized workers that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee could “bankrupt America like he’s bankrupted his companies.”
“Ask yourself,” the likely Democratic nominee told thousands at the Service Employees International Union international convention in Detroit, “how can anybody lose money running a casino, really?”
Trump has accused Clinton of using the “the woman’s card” to win votes. Clinton said if fighting for equal pay, paid family leave, a higher minimum wage and affordable child care is “playing the woman card, then deal me in.”
Trump’s call for the deportation of millions of people living in the U.S. illegally and the end of automatic birthright citizenship also drew Clinton’s ire. She criticized sending a “deportation force” to schools, workplaces and homes to “round up moms, dads, grandparents — even children.”
“He’s talking about kicking children who are born here out of the only country they know,” Clinton said.
The union endorsed Hillary in November. She thanked its members — who include child care workers, home health aides, janitors and others — and called them “unsung heroes” who deserve a living wage.
She said there has never been more at stake for working families than in the 2016 election, noting that she supports raising the federal minimum wage and protecting the right to organize.
“Your fights are my fights,” she said.
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Clinton, pointing to the nearing end of the Democratic primary, applauded Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his supporters for “challenging us.”
“We are going to get unaccountable money out of politics. We are going to take on the crisis of income inequality,” she said to loud applause. “And we are going to unify the Democratic Party and stop Donald Trump. There is so much more that unites us than divides us.”
Meanwhile, at a rally in East Los Angeles, Calif., on Monday afternoon, Sanders predicted he would win California’s June 7 primary — the nation’s largest with 475 delegates — through the strength of his rallies across the state. He said that by the end of the state’s primary he will have spoken to more than 200,000 people at his rallies.
“It is a grassroots campaign, not a fancy campaign,” Sanders said.
He has pushed for the party to adopt a progressive platform at the Philadelphia convention in July. The Democratic National Committee announced a 15-member platform drafting committee, the first step in that process, which will put together the first draft of platform.
The panel will be led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who endorsed Clinton, and include Sanders’ allies such as Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., civil rights leader Dr. Cornel West and environmental activist Bill McKibben.
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