Speaking at a town hall Wednesday in Scranton, Pa., north of Philadelphia where Democrats are holding their national convention this week, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reaffirmed his intention to put coal miners back to work. “Hang in, because we’re going to put you back to work,” he told the audience.
During his speech, Trump recounted his numerous supportive remarks to the coal industry throughout his campaign. Recalling a victory speech he gave in New York after a winning streak in the primaries, Trump said: “I don’t even know why I said it, this is the middle of Fifth Avenue, [I said] we’re going to put the miners back to work. I said that. I don’t even know why,” he said in Scranton, going on to say, “Little did I realize that shortly thereafter I’d go to a place called West Virginia, and did they love Trump.”
During that speech following the Indiana primary, Trump did say that he would “get those miners back to work,” but it is clear from the speech that he was aware that he’d be traveling on to West Virginia.
“Now we’re going to Nebraska, where I have, I just hear we’re doing really wonderfully, I look forward to that very much, and West Virginia, and we’re going to get those miners back to work, I’ll tell you what,” Trump said during the May 3 victory speech.
During his Wednesday appearance in Scranton, Trump again took a shot at Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for a March speech during which she said her energy plan would “put a lot of coal miners and a lot of coal companies out of business.”
“Hillary gave a press conference in an area where coal and the different things that we all love wasn’t so important, right? And she figured she’d make the statement, and it wouldn’t get back to West Virginia. It got back to West Virginia, and it got back to Pennsylvania, and it got back to Ohio, and it got back to a lot of places that she didn’t want to hear that message,” Trump said.
Clinton made the comment in question during a speech in Ohio, which ranks 11th in the nation in coal production.
Republicans have frequently attacked Clinton for the statement, but leave out the rest of her message. “We’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories,” Clinton said.