After shooting herself in foot with coal jobs threat, Hillary returns for other foot

You’d think that what with running against a foul-mouthed hothead in the person of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton would have an easy path to Pennsylvania Avenue. The only obstacle she faces is the other idiot in the room who keeps mucking things up for the Democratic front-runner. The name of that idiot? Hillary Clinton.

In March, Rusty Weiss reported on Clinton’s promise (boast?) during a CNN townhall in Ohio to “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

For those who prefer to hear the words direct from the horse’s … er — mouth, here’s the video:

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

The words may have sounded reassuring to Democrats in the audience, but apparently not everyone derived the same comfort from Clinton’s threat. On Monday, she returned to coal country to ask the good people of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio for their support in the upcoming election.

Her reception in the Mountain State was anything but warm as dozens of angry protesters gathered outside the venue selected for Monday’s round-table session, shouting “Go home!”

Clinton’s greeting inside wasn’t noticeably more cordial. One of questioners was a 39-year-old husband and father named Bo Copley, who lost his job as a foreman in West Virginia’s struggling coal industry.

“I just want to know how you can say you’re going to put a lot of coal miners out of, out of jobs, and then come in here and tell us how you’re going to be our friend, because those people out there don’t see you as a friend,” he told Clinton. She fumbled badly in her attempt to gloss over her haughty comments in March:

I don’t know how to explain it other than what I said was totally out of context from what I meant, because I’ve been talking about helping coal country for a very long time.

And it was a misstatement, because what I was saying is that the way things are going now, we will continue to lose jobs.

So her remark was taken out of context and it was a misstatement. But she wasn’t finished ‘splaining:

I didn’t mean that we were going to do it. What I said was, that is going to happen unless we take action to try to and help and prevent it.

No, actually, her exact words were “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” There was no unless clause, and the plan to put miners out of work was hers.

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

Comments

For your convenience, you may leave commments below using Disqus. If Disqus is not appearing for you, please disable AdBlock to leave a comment.