Hillary Clinton, on bus tour, targets "the status quo"
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On a tour of Pennsylvania and Ohio this weekend to woo working class voters, Hillary Clinton has taken aim at a new target in the November election: the status quo.
"I'm not satisfied with the status quo," she said at a rally in Philadelphia on Friday, borrowing a line from her speech at the Democratic National Convention the night before. "I'm not telling you that everything's just peachy keen."
That sentiment has become a fixture in Clinton's pitch as she's met with factory workers, teachers and parents on her way through Rust Belt towns, where blue collar voters may be attracted to her opponent's booming message of change. Donald Trump, who is set to visit the two battlegrounds on Monday, has labeled Clinton as "the secretary of the status quo."
"I'm telling you we've made progress," Clinton continued in Philadelphia on Friday. "But we've got work to do if we're going to make sure everyone is included."
Clinton often describes her agenda as building on the "progress" made under President Barack Obama and, on this trip, she has spoken extensively and specifically about her plans to make greater investments in infrastructure, revitalize manufacturing and help small businesses. But alongside that positive message that Americans are "stronger together," Clinton has also sought to express that she understands the frustration that many voters feel after nearly eight years with a Democrat in the White House.
A new CBS News poll of voters in eleven battleground states, released Sunday, found that 45 percent of people surveyed disliked how Clinton and other speakers described the state of America today at the convention last week. Fewer -- 40 percent -- said they liked the way things were described.
On Saturday, on the floor of a wire factory in Johnstown, Pa., where a group of several dozen Trump supporters waited in the rain to protest her arrival, Clinton said again that she knows Americans are "angry."
"I'm not going into this with some kind of rose-colored glasses," she said. She argued that "the more you listen to Donald Trump, the more you realize he is not offering real change."
"He is offering empty promises," she said.
In an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that aired on Sunday morning, Wallace challenged Clinton on her own ability be a "real change agent" for the country.
"I think it's fair to say that you're building on the Obama agenda," Wallace said. "You're offering tweaks, not a dramatic shift."
"I think what I'm offering are proven results," Clinton replied. She then repeated: "I'm not happy with the status quo."
Clinton reasoned that Obama "didn't get to do enough" when it comes to investing in infrastructure because "he didn't get enough support from the Congress." She explained that her plan to invest in the nation's "bridges, tunnels, ports, airports" and, in turn, create jobs relies on cooperation between the private and public sectors.
In Youngstown, Ohio, late on Saturday night, Clinton asked her supporters to "hold her accountable" for what she's proposing.
"I'm going to keep traveling across America," she said. "I'm going to sit down, ask you what's working, what's not working...when I tell you I will try to help you, you can count on it."