Bill Clinton criticizes Trump, reflects on his legacy while campaigning for Harris in swing state

Former President Bill Clinton is working hard for the Harris-Walz campaign. Earlier this week, on his blitz of the swing states, he stumped for the Harris campaign in North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada, before stopping by Phoenix for two events on Wednesday.
Clinton has a special legacy in the Grand Canyon State; he became the first Democratic nominee to win Arizona since 1948. Since Clinton won in 1996, the only other Democratic candidate to win Arizona was President Joe Biden in 2020. About his win, Clinton told attendees that he didn’t have “any idea how this happened,” adding, “I always kind of felt at home there.”
In his remarks at a Get Out the Vote event at Chateau Luxe, an event space in Phoenix, Clinton spoke about the importance of civility and honesty by contrasting Vice President Kamala Harris with former President Donald Trump, accusing the latter of lying and lashing out. He also highlighted Harris’ plans on energy, housing, immigratio and the economy.
“This is all funny to me because I used to play golf with Donald Trump,” he said. “Can you imagine that 40-some percent of American people believe that what they need in the next president is somebody who never takes his breath without bragging to himself unless he’s bashing someone else?”
“You shouldn’t count his lies, you should count his I’s,” he said, reiterating the phrase from his remarks at the Democratic National Convention two months ago.
Clinton also attacked Trump for saying more than 13,000 migrants had been convicted or accused of committing murder — “all under the Biden administration.” The numbers Trump referenced had been picked up by major news outlets, but Clinton clarified that the data was compiled over the course of four decades, and many of the criminals on the list had already been deported.
“I was a kid once. Every now and then, when I did something I shouldn’t, I left out inconvenient facts,” Clinton said. “What’s the difference (between) four years and 40 really? … It would be funny if it weren’t serious.”
Then, Clinton attacked Trump’s policy proposals, including Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on imports from countries like China, saying they could add to family’s costs, and his tax cut plan.
Clinton said voters should focus on Harris’ plan to build 3 million more affordable homes, shore up investments in clean energy and secure the border by passing the border security bill. “The only thing I’m running for is my grandchildren’s future,” he said.
Before his exit, Clinton left the crowd with one final thought; “We all keep score, and we’re always judging ourselves, our families, our work.”
Clinton continued, “If you’re interested in politics, you have to ask yourself, ‘How will I keep score?’” He said he and his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran for president in 2008 and 2016, learned that “there are no permanent victories or defeats in politics.”
There’s something greater always at stake, he said. “If we’re coming together instead of being torn apart, all the rest is background music,” the former president added.
Steve Wright, 59, an attendee, said he agreed with Clinton’s message of bringing people together and creating a better future for his daughter, “not necessarily in my lifetime, but the future lifetime.”
“It’s not all about, ‘Well, you don’t agree with me, you’re wrong.’ We’d have to get together to be able to have common ground things and not make everything a complete fight,” he said.
This is Clinton’s first time campaigning in Arizona in nearly eight years. During his last visit, he campaigned for his wife’s presidential run. At the time, he also had an unscheduled private meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which drew scrutiny since the Justice Department was carrying out an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, as CNN reported in November 2016.
Both political parties are sending surrogates to Arizona to energize voters and encourage them to vote early this week. Clinton’s visit to Phoenix Wednesday coincided with an appearance by Donald Trump Jr. Wednesday night, and comes ahead of former President Trump and President Joe Biden’s stops in Arizona later this week. Polls show the race between Trump and Harris has a razor-thin margin, with the two candidates either tied, or Trump a few points ahead.
Wright said he thinks Arizona will lean blue. He attributes it to voters “getting fed up with (Arizona) being the poster child for the immigration problems” that lawmakers aren’t willing to solve. “They want people in office that are going to work on things together to make it better,” Wright said.