Speaking Thursday in Michigan, a state he described as “devastated” by the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said that on “one of the most important issues facing working people”—trade—he and his rival Hillary Clinton “have very different points of view.”
As he’s been doing for months, Sanders drew attention to his own consistent opposition to corporate-friendly, “job-killing” trade deals, juxtaposing his record with that of the former secretary of state, who only came out against the Trans Pacific Partnership last fall after having once called it “the gold standard in trade agreements.”
“A campaign is not about what you said yesterday. It is about what you have stood for your entire career. On one of the most important issues facing working people, Secretary Hillary Clinton and I have very different points of view,” Sanders said at a press conference East Lansing, where he was reportedly flanked by union members.
In supporting trade deals like NAFTA, he continued, “She was very, very wrong and millions of families across the country have been suffering.”
U.S. trade policy is a “key issue in the upcoming Michigan primary” on Tuesday, the Washington Post pointed out—a fact Sanders acknowledged in his speech.
“Everyone understands what these disastrous trade agreements are all about,” Sanders said. “The results are clear. You look at Detroit. Look at Flint. Our trade policies have failed.”
In fact, the campaign claims “no city in the United States has been more devastated by unfettered free trade than Flint, Michigan,” where since 1978, General Motors has eliminated more than 72,000 jobs. Today, one quarter of Flint residents have an annual income of less than $15,000 and 65 percent of the children live in poverty.
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