Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, could serve as the focal point for the effort to restore manufacturing in states that were suffering huge coal job losses, especially in Appalachia.
“I told my husband he’s got to come out of retirement and be in charge of this,” Clinton said, during a campaign event today, according to reporters who were present. She proposed a “Marshall Plan” type of program which would likely include heavy government spending in the area.
Clinton tried to express sympathy with coal workers in the state who had lost their jobs due to draconian regulation of coal by the Obama administration.
“Appalachian coal has taken a huge hit and it is something that I am really worried about,” Clinton said.
That’s a stark contrast from her remarks during a CNN town hall in March, boasting that she would put the coal industry out of business.
“We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” Clinton said at the time.
Both Clintons have been disrupted on the campaign trail by angry residents protesting the loss of the jobs critical to the state economy.
She tried to portray herself as a big supporter of American manufacturing, in spite of herself and her husband’s history of supporting trade deals.
“I am a make-it-in-America fanatic,” she declared.