After being bumped from his speaking slot on Wednesday, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown got his chance to address the Democrat National Convention on its last day and he spent most of his time attacking GOP nominee Donald Trump’s business record and slamming him for his comments about the Rust Belt.
After introducing himself to the convention goers and telling of his family’s union background, Brown jumped right into his claim that Hillary Clinton is a “progressive who gets things done” and will “give American workers the chance to share in the profits they create.”
But in the first two minutes of his seven-minute-long address, Senator Brown was heard attacking Trump’s business record, slamming him for “outsourcing jobs,” and saying he has destroyed people’s lives with shady business practices.
Brown attacked Trump for having Trump products made overseas and insisted that as he has worked to get a trade agenda passed in the Senate he has never seen Trump anywhere on the issue.
“The only thing I’ve seen Donald Trump do when it comes to U.S. trade policy is run his mouth and line his pockets,” Brown exclaimed just before slapping the GOP nominee for refusing to release his taxes.
The Senator then related the story of a contractor whom Donald Trump refused to pay after his contracted work was completed. Brown said that because Trump didn’t pay up, the contractor’s company went bankrupt.
“Now, Trump says he wants to run our country like one of his businesses. I guess that means he wants to slap his name on it, make false promises, and then scam innocent people out of their savings,” Brown declared.
Finally, in a speech more about Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton — Brown mentioned Trump 18 times and Hillary only seven — Ohio’s senior senator focused on Trump’s comments about America’s Rust Belt.
“Donald Trump thinks people in states like mine will choose his counterfeit campaign over the genuine solutions we’re fighting for tonight,” Brown said. “He is wrong. Donald Trump looks at towns in the middle of America and he sees a ‘rust belt’ of decay.”
“Well, we reject that term, ‘rust belt.’ Hillary, my friend Tim Kaine, and I see vibrant, innovative communities throughout the industrial heartland,” he insisted.
Brown ended his short address thanking Vermont’s now once again Independent Senator Bernie Sanders and noting the historic fact that his party has nominated a woman for president.
All these things, Senator Brown insisted, are why he thinks Hillary will win Ohio. And, as he was happy to remind the audience, “as Ohio goes, so goes the nation.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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