Yesterday in Greensboro, North Carolina, vice presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine toured Amerifab International, a High Point small business that manufactures bedding and window equipment, and then hosted a rally at the Greensboro Transit Authority.
At both stops, Senator Kaine touted his and Hillary Clinton’s “100-Day Jobs Plan,” to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top and includes the largest investment in good-paying jobs since World War II. In addition, he contrasted their economic vision with Donald Trump’s plan, highlighting that an economic analysis done by former economic advisor to Senator John McCain said that under Trump’s plan, the economy would lose 3.4 million jobs.
Kaine’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Hey, Greensboro! Wow. Thank you so much. Thank you, guys. How about it? Give Robin another round of applause. Hey, when we came out and there was that much applause, I said, ‘Robin, they really love you here.’ I mean, and raise your hand if you either own or work for a small business. Let’s give all of our small business owners a round of applause. Excellent.
I am so excited to be here in Greensboro, and it’s just been a great visit. We arrived a couple hours ago, just had a wonderful factory visit over in High Point at Amerifab. Now, where’s Kajal, who was our host at Amerifab? Right here. A wonderful business, about 50 employees. A business that’s a lot like the business that Hillary Clinton grew up with her father running in the suburbs of Chicago. And so we’re on a tour since the convention. And anybody watch that convention in Philadelphia Wow. Didn’t – I mean, I had a good time. I think it was a good convention. It was upbeat. It was positive. It was patriotic. It was optimistic – without sugarcoating any challenge or whitewashing any of the issues we have to deal with. We Democrats showed the world – we showed the world that we’re upbeat, can-do people. Compare that to what you saw out of Cleveland – a dark, depressing, Gotham City vibe, kind of a vibe. And somebody said, ‘Well, that’s a pessimistic view of the United States they were putting on display there.’ I said that was no view of the United States, that was a tour through the mind of Donald J. Trump, which is a frightening and scary place to be.
But we Democrats – just look around at this room here in Greensboro, in this beautiful restored Southern railway depot. I mean, we are upbeat, positive, on the mood – on the move. And I can tell you, as I shook hands with folks coming in – candidates, folks in office – I felt a lot of optimism. I felt a lot of confidence. I’ve been around a while. I know that when I see it.
We are joined by some superb public officials, and let me say just a few thanks. I want to obviously thank Robin, who did my wonderful introduction. We had a great pre-program. I met Tiny Martha, who was our Pledge of Allegiance. I met Cynthia Green, who did a great job with the National Anthem; and then Anne Evangelista, who did our field pitch. So that – I was really, really glad to have you guys as part of it. We have our member of Congress, Alma Adams, right here – U.S. representative. And I said when I saw her, ‘That blue tells everybody where you are from,’ which party and which state.
It is great to be here with Alma. I was so glad to have a chance to visit for a few minutes with your attorney general and next governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper. I met a lot of your local officials. I was a city councilman and mayor in Richmond, and I met your mayor, Nancy Vaughan, who won a race with 88 percent of the vote. I shook her hand twice to get some karma that I could take with me on the road. Members of the Greensboro city council and the county commission; your senate leader, Dan Blue; Democratic leader and Democratic house leader Larry Hall; other members of the legislature here; Linda Coleman, who’s running for lieutenant governor. Where’s Linda? I think I had a chance to meet her. Over this way. And then finally, somebody who I’m really excited and I’m really, really encouraging you we’ve got to take the Senate – the U.S. Senate – back into Democratic hands. And so Deborah Ross, Deborah Ross, right here. A superb member of the legislature here who’s going to be a great U.S. senator.
Well, I’m here in Greensboro to basically tell you that North Carolina really, really matters. You really, really matter. I have been part of the ticket now for just I guess about 10 or 11 days, and read into all of the secrets of the campaign. And look, just like in ’08 when President Obama put this state into Democratic hands in the Electoral College, we view 2016 the same way. We’re working hard to do it. We feel like we’ve got a great chance, and I think Hillary Clinton can make that happen. Vote! Vote! Vote!
I am so proud to be her partner. When she called me, it was Friday, August 22nd at 7:32 p.m., but I mean who’s counting? I mean July 22nd. Who’s counting? But when she called and asked me if I would be her running mate, there were many wonderful people she was considering. What an honor. What an honor. First, because as President Obama said – and didn’t he give a good speech at the convention? President Obama said about Hillary Clinton that she is the most experienced and qualified person to be nominated by any party to be president in a very long time, maybe ever. And so to be asked to work with somebody who’s such a great public servant, of course that made me proud. But then just one other thing that just added an exclamation point or two to it.
I was on the stage in Philadelphia – my 81-year-old mother, my wife, my daughter were all out with me. My mom, in the midst of the balloons falling, said to me, ‘This is the greatest night of my life.’ And part of that was because of me, but part of that. But let’s be honest, a big chunk of it, what she was saying is, ‘Hey, I’ve lived a while, and like a lot of women in this country, I’ve supported strong men to be in political leadership positions.’ Forty-four presidents and mayors and senators and governors. And how many strong women have stood up and supported me in my 22 years in political life: my wife, my mom, campaign managers, volunteers, donors, campaign workers, voters. More than half of the voters, more than half of the voters, in this country are women, definitely more than half of the voters who pull levers for Democrats. So again and again, I have benefitted because strong women have been able to stand up and say, ‘I’m going to support you to do what you’re trying to do for the community.’
This election gives the strong men of America the chance to stand up and support a strong woman to be president. And I know we’re up to that, guys. I know we’re up to that. I know we’re up to that.
So we are on a tour. We went on the bus to Ohio and Pennsylvania. I was in Florida yesterday, North Carolina today. We are on a tour to talk about the issue that is most on the minds of Americans, which is how can we take an economy that was in freefall that President Obama is now turning around and we are now growing out of it, but how can we make sure we accelerate growth and make sure that it’s shared, make sure that the growth isn’t just for people at the top but that the growth is for everybody, an economy that works for everybody? And that’s what we’re out on the field talking about. And we’re also out on the field learning about it.
So let me just talk about that. I want to talk about the economy. I want to talk about an economy that works for everybody, not just those at the top. And I want to compare Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Okay? Now, let me start with — “
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “No comparison.”
TIM KAINE: “No comparison? Okay. Well, my speech is over, then. Let me –
I am – I am going to start with the punchline. And then I’m going to give you the evidence. The punchline is this. And it is a question for you. Would you rather have a ‘You’re hired’ president or a ‘You’re fired’ president?”
AUDIENCE: “You’re hired.”
TIM KAINE: “Of course. Of course. It’s so – it’s so simple. We want a ‘You’re hired’ president, not a ‘You’re fired’ president. And, folks, Hillary Clinton is and will be a ‘You’re hired’ president. Now let me – now let me lay the evidence on you.
Hillary Clinton has a five-point plan for how we grow the economy. And it’s very focused on the economy of today, an economy whose backbone is the small businesses, as Robin described up here or as Kajal’s business that we visited earlier. There’s 833,000 small businesses in North Carolina that employ nearly a million and a half people.
I grew up just like Hillary did, small business family. I grew up in one, too. My dad ran a union ironworking shop: welders and ironworkers, 5 to 10 employees at the most, small business, small business in Kansas City. I got a Kansas City person who caught the train here to Greensboro from Kansas City today just for this speech.
So here’s the five-point Hillary plan. The first one is in the first 100 days to do the most ambitious jobs plan that we’ve seen in this nation since World War II. Now, this is big. It’s investments in manufacturing. It’s investments in infrastructure. Let’s rebuild our bridges, rebuild our roads, build ports, build airports, build out broadband, build out broadband. 1.4 million North Carolinians don’t have access to high-speed broadband that’s reliable and affordable. We’ve got a similar situation in Virginia. So let’s do that. And when you do infrastructure, you hire people immediately, but then you raise the platform for success for decades to come.
And so that’s the first piece. We’re going into the Congress and say, ‘The American people just gave us a mandate. They gave us a mandate to do an economic liftoff in our first 100 days. We’re going to put a bold plan down on the table. And everybody is going to have to declare whether they are for growing the American economy or whether against it. And when we do that in the first 100 days, we will accelerate growth and make sure that all benefit from it.’
Second, any educators in the house? All right. Educators. And everybody else is a friend of educators, right? This is a – this is a core value to our party: education, the great lifter, the great leveler. Hillary Clinton has an education plan that starts with pre-K for our youngest. It’s easier to build a child than repair a person if you start young. Right? If you start young, then that benefit goes throughout life. Pre-K, assistance to states on the K-12 curriculum. We just did some good work in the Senate giving more power to localities and states, not one size fits all from Washington but more creativity to advance student learning.
At the higher ed. level, Hillary Clinton has been pretty bold. We’re going to have debt-free college, debt-free college. And it’s not – it’s not just about debt-free college. It’s historic investments in HBCs and other minority-serving institutions. It’s greater and greater access to community colleges.
And a favorite of mine coming out of we’ve got community colleges there, okay, great. And a favorite of mine coming out of an ironworking and welding household, everybody doesn’t have to spend their time learning on a college campus. What about apprenticeship programs? What about technical and trade programs? What about our union training programs? And so this is a comprehensive proposal that includes also immigration reform because that’s about skills and talent, too, just like our educational investments are. So that’s the second point.
Third, shared prosperity. We can’t have prosperity that just goes to a few. The best businesses – I learned this from my dad. He was management because he owned the company. And he had these union ironworkers. And my – what my dad taught me is, he said – he would say to my brothers and me, ‘My business acumen will put my workers’ kids through college. But remember that their technical artistry is going to put you guys through college.’ And so it was about sharing.
We don’t need a society where when a company does well, the CEO takes it all and the workers don’t benefit. We don’t need a society where we give a tax break to a company to take a job overseas. And so Hillary Clinton has laid out shared prosperity, deeper investments in profit-sharing, of improving the rights of labor to organize and stand strong for workers because workers are the base of this all. Treat workers with dignity.
And she has got a great idea called an exit tax. If companies get public benefits and then they want to ship jobs overseas, we won’t give them a tax break to do it. We’ll have them pay back the benefits that they got. We don’t want – we don’t want – we don’t want exiting companies. We want patriot companies. And we’re going to reward them.
Fourth, work/family balance. You know, it – life isn’t just about work. Life is about family and about finding that balance that’s so hard to find in these days of two-income couples and people having two or three jobs. And how do you make it all work and still have time to enjoy life and enjoy your kids? And so you’ve got to have family-friendly policies, like equal pay for equal work for women. Come on. I mean, that’s really –.
We’ve got to – we’ve got to do what we haven’t done in too long, which is raise the minimum wage. I’ll tell you why we have to do that. I’ll tell you why we have to do that. We don’t need to raise the minimum wage just to say we checked that issue off. Here’s why we’ve to raise it. Here’s why we’ve to raise it. Right now in this country, if you work for minimum wage full-time – and many do, and about 60 percent of workers who do are women – and if you have a dependent, you will be at or below the poverty level. Right? So when we tell people the key to life is work hard, but then we have policies where they do, they follow what we say we believe, and then they find themselves not getting ahead but falling farther and farther behind, what does that say about our words? It says that we’re not really truthful. We’re not really being honest about our values. If hard work is important, and I believe it is, and we have good workers, and I know that we do, then we ought to value work and treat workers with dignity. And that’s equal pay for equal work and minimum wage.
And finally – look, finally, there’s got to be a way to pay for this. This is something that Hillary will do. Donald Trump doesn’t do this. He doesn’t say how we’ll pay for anything. Hillary says, look. If we’re going to have debt-free college, if we’re going to have an infrastructure program, it’s got to be paid for. It’s not going to be a big deficit-buster; we got to pay for it. And she says, here’s how we play for it.
We go to the place where the last 15 years, virtually all of the economic gains have gone to a very few at the top – to wealthy, to big corporations, to financial institutions. And look, we want them to do well. That’s fine. But we want everybody to do well. And so if we have a tax code that makes those pay their fair share, we can invest those back in society. And guess what? Not only will everybody do better, but even companies are going to do better if we have a society with better infrastructure, if we have a society with better schools.
All right. Well, that’s the Hillary Clinton ‘you’re hired’ plan. Now let me switch over to the other side of the ledger and talk about the ‘you’re fired’ guy. And I think it’s poetic justice that Donald Trump is already very associated in all of our minds with words, ‘You’re fired.’ And when this campaign is over and everybody’s forgotten that he ran it, the one thing that they will remember about Donald Trump is, ‘You’re fired. You’re fired.’ Right?
Trump doesn’t really have a plan. What he says is, ‘Believe me.’ So, ‘We’re going to be rich, believe me.’ ‘We’re going to beat ISIS, believe me.’ ‘We’re going to build that wall and make the Mexicans pay for it, believe me.’ ‘There’s nothing in my tax returns that’s unusual, believe me.’ Every time you get to the details and it’s just, ‘Believe me.’ Well, I got a question for you. Does anybody in this room believe Donald Trump? Does anybody in this room think that maybe there’s something a little bit funny in those tax returns? Does anybody think that Donald Trump should do what every candidate for president in modern history has done and release the tax returns so that the American people will see it?
So I’ll just tell you, this ‘believe me’ thing, North Carolinians are not gullible people. You are not gullible people. Virginians are not gullible people. And sadly, sadly, there’s a lot of history with Donald Trump, where people who have believed him have gotten hurt and have gotten stiffed, and in many cases even lost their businesses. Donald Trump has a way of dealing with small businesses like Amerifab. When he contracts with small businesses, contractors, to work on a casino or work on a hotel, so often the experience of the architect or the fabric firm or the marble installer or the drywall company or the contractor, so often the experience is, they’re excited to be on the project. They believe Donald Trump.
But they get to the end of it, they’ve done all the work, and he won’t pay them, because he says, look. I got more lawyers than you. I know I signed a contract. Go ahead and sue me if you want. And you can sue me, and I’ll run you ragged with a lot of lawyers, and you might even win. But when you take what you win, and you subtract from it everything you’re going to have to pay to get there, and it’s going to take a long time to get there, it’s not going to be worth it. That’s what he counts on. That’s how he treats small businesses. He can just throw them over the side and treat them like chumps. That’s his attitude. That’s his attitude. And so many of these businesses, when they’ve done work with Trump, they’ve gotten stiffed. They’ve lost jobs. They’ve even had to close down, all because they believed him.
Retirees in Florida gave him a lot of money to build condos, a couple of different condo projects there, down payments, excited about retirement, wanting a dignified retirement. Well, they lost their money and they didn’t get their condos, all because they believed Donald Trump. How about Trump University? These students, right? These students, a lot of them were veterans who had sacrificed for our country, and they wanted to get ahead and learn something. And so they saw some slick ad talking about everything that would be great if they went to Trump U. And they gave him a bunch of dough, and they ended up with something that wasn’t even worth the paper it was printed on because they believed Donald Trump. We cannot afford to believe Donald Trump, not one word of what Donald Trump says. Not one word! Not one word! Not one word! We can’t afford it. This nation can’t afford it.
And I’ll tell you, I’m not going to say to you, ‘Believe me.’ Let me tell you what Moody’s Analytic says. Moody’s Analytic is probably the best economic analysis firm in this country. They are nonpartisan. They’re not connected with either campaign. In fact, the chief economist at Moody’s was John McCain’s senior economist in his 2008 presidential race. Moody’s has just completed an analysis of the Trump promises and the Clinton plan, and here’s what they say on this ‘you’re hired’ or ‘you’re fired’ thing: ‘Hillary Clinton’s plan, if implemented – as she has laid it out at hillaryclinton.com,’ and you can go read it, how she’ll do it and how she’ll pay for it and how we’ll benefit – ‘if implemented by the end of her first term, would produce more than 10 million new jobs for our country.’ She’s a ‘you’re hired’ president. She’s a ‘you’re hired’ president. Ten million jobs! I like these guys, man. I didn’t tell them I was going to say that, but they just picked it up just like that. I mean, that’s great.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, Moody’s takes a look at what he says, and they say if you implemented the Trump plan as is, you would lose three and a half million jobs in a first term of Donald Trump. And you would put the United States ‘into a lengthy recession.’ Wow. I don’t think that’s going to look good on the bumper sticker. Trump: A Lengthy Recession. But that’s what Moody’s says. The difference between 10 million jobs plus and three and a half million jobs negative, that is massive. That’s like a whole bunch of states’ combined workforces combined, and that is going to be the difference between Hillary Clinton, the ‘you’re hired’ president, and Donald Trump, the ‘you’re fired’ president. So I’m going to ask you again: Do you want a ‘you’re hired’ president or a ‘you’re fired’ president? And that’s why we’ve got to support Hillary Clinton for president.
Now, I’m going to just do two other issues that I was thinking about because I knew I’d be coming to Greensboro. First, in Philadelphia last week, there was a speaker, Sarah McBride, who made history. Some of you know her. She was the first transgender person ever to speak at a national convention. And she talked about the continuing battle that we have in this nation, the fight against discrimination. Right? And it’s just – we said at the very beginning we wanted to be a more perfect union. That was a funny phrase. Is there such a thing as more perfect? Perfect is perfect. But those who wrote the phrase knew that we would be as good as we could be, but we’re humans. We would fall short. We set out – Jefferson set out that equality principle at the very beginning. We weren’t living equally when he said that because whether because of color of skin or gender, people didn’t have equal rights. But we nevertheless said that was who we were going to try to be.
And we’ve just been making progress and overcoming our imperfections and becoming that more perfect union. And one of the most recent battles that’s been really powerful is the battle for LGBT equality in Virginia, North Carolina, all over this country. All over this country. All over this country. And it’s just been one more wall that we had to knock down to be all we can be.
Now, I know in North Carolina, there’s been some pain over this issue. They snuck through in the legislature this HB2, and they tried to introduce it kind of in the dead of night, and the legislature said, can we do an end run and make it happen really fast? And maybe people won’t notice, and maybe people won’t complain. But you all have stood up in a major way. And you said, this is not who we are. This is not who North Carolina is. These are not our values. And that’s one of the reasons why North Carolina is so intensely focused on this race is – Roy Cooper said to me when he walked in, ‘We don’t people around the country thinking that we’re fighting to go backward rather than forward. We got to go forward, not backward. Forward, not backward.’ Forward, not backward. Forward together. Forward together. Or, as we used to say – I spent some time in Honduras – we used to say, adelante no atrás. Adelante no atrás. Forward, not back. Adelante no atrás. And that’s what we’ve got to do. That’s what we got to do.
The vice presidential nominee on the Republican side, Mike Pence, did something like the North Carolina bill. Found that immediately – discriminating against LGBT people – immediately, companies started to pull out. You’re seeing those announcements in North Carolina, too, whether it’s the All-Star Game or PayPal. Same thing happened in Indiana. And he had to kind of do a U-turn. But this is something who’s said LGBT people would bring about a societal collapse. That’s just not right, folks. Just not right. Just not right. And so this is about forward, not backward, and that’s the kind of campaign we’re running. That’s the kind of candidate we’ll have.
Second issue, North Carolina: I want to talk about the voting rights. What a great decision issued by the federal court last week. What a great decision. I mean, here in a state – here in a state that has had a good track record of trying to expand the franchise and bring people in because participation’s the name of the game. Participation’s the name of the game.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “Forward, not backward!”
TIM KAINE: “Yes. All right. That’s easier to chant than ‘participation’s the name of the game.’ That had too many syllables to it, folks. But the state had a good track record. And then under this current governor and this current legislature, the decision was made to make it harder for people to vote and to put barriers in their way. Why would you want to restrict the number of people who can vote? Why would you want to shut down participation and call yourself a democracy?
And so what that court did was that court laid it on them, folks. I was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years. I’ve done some voting rights cases. I’ve done some voting rights cases. Sometimes you can win a voting rights case and the court will say, you win because even if it was unintentional, the change that happened would have the effect of keeping people away from being able to participate. That is sometimes the way you win a case.
That was not this case. What the court said in this case is you had to strike down some of these foolish rules, not because of the effect that they would have, but the court found that there was an intent – there was an intent – to discriminate against African Americans and keep African Americans and minorities from being able to participate like others. Right? And so when folks try to divide us, when folks try to prefer one group and kick the other to the curb, we’ve got to have a vigorous court system. We got to have a full Supreme Court, for gosh sakes, that will stand up for civil rights. Stand support for civil rights.
And I want to say this and conclude on this voting rights thing: The effect of that ruling could mean an additional 100,000 people who were supposed to be able to participate, who were shunted aside, will now get to come back in and participate, as is their God-given constitutional right to do. As is their right to do.
If you ever talk to anybody who’s a friend or family or neighbor or anybody and they tell you that they think their vote doesn’t matter, then what you tell them is this: If your vote doesn’t matter, why is the other side working so hard to keep you from being able to vote? Right? Why are they working so hard to put barriers in your way? Why are they working so hard to have ID requirements and narrow down early voting? If your vote didn’t matter, would the other side be working so hard to make sure that you couldn’t go to the polls? Your vote matters, and after this court ruling, we got to show everybody we know our vote matters and vote for Hillary Clinton. Okay?
All right. Here’s what I want to ask you to do. Voting is out there, but there’s stuff to do right now. You heard from great field organizers and folks with this campaign. Hillary for North Carolina is doing a weekend of action this weekend, and it is – all right – it is the biggest statewide effort so far to reach out, work on registration, work on voter education, make sure that especially after this ruling, people know what to do to make sure we have a big victory here. I hope that all of you can help these fantastic organizers around this state – staffers, volunteers, others – on this weekend of action. And if you’re willing to do it, just text ‘volunteer’ to 47246. Sign up and help. I’m going to conclude this. I like that. And just text ‘volunteer’ to that number and they will put you to work.
Now, I’ll just say this. I’m a neighbor. I’m a neighbor. You know Virginia and North Carolina, we like to joust a little bit, especially when it comes to football and basketball. We like to joust a little bit. But we’re neighbors, and we have an awful lot in common. We have an awful lot in common. And it is a treat for me to be able to be on this ticket. But especially knowing how important North Carolina is, I have a feeling I’m going to be coming to a lot of neighborhoods, zip codes, rallies, fundraising events, and theaters near you in North Carolina between now and November 8th. And you’re also going to be seeing Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and President Obama and Michelle Obama. We’re going to go all in. We’re all on the field. Are you on the field with us? We will make history on November 8th with North Carolina the wind in our sails. Thank you guys for having me. Let’s go out and win. Appreciate it.”
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