FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Facing a backlash from Appalachian Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Monday tried to reaffirm her commitment to coal communities one day after declaring on national television she was going to “to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
Clinton’s comments came during a Sunday night appearance on CNN, where she was asked a question about how her policies would benefit poor white people in southern states who generally vote Republican.
“I’m the only candidate, which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity, using clean renewable energy as the key, into coal country. Because we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” Clinton said. “We’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people.”
Clinton was touting a plan she released last year that would set aside $30 billion to protect the health benefits for coal miners and their families. But her quip about putting coal miners out of business gave Republicans a perfect soundbite to use against her in states like Kentucky and West Virginia, where the party has made historic gains in coal communities in recent years by running against President Barack Obama’s energy policies.
“I think every voter in the state of Kentucky needs to hear what she said,” said Jonathan Shell, a Kentucky state representative who is leading Republican efforts to take control of the state House of Representatives in November, the last legislative chamber in the South still controlled by Democrats.