Nutter, Wolf rip Trump while McGinty tells personal story at DNC
Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter derided Republican Donald Trump as a "con man" and Gov. Wolf blasted the GOP nominee's business practices as selfish Thursday at the Democratic National Convention.
On the same stage at the Wells Fargo Center, Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty used an early evening speech to introduce herself and call for investments to help middle class workers.
All three local Democrats spoke hours before Hillary Clinton was due to formally accept her nomination for president.
Nutter said Clinton would offer a history of getting "stuff done."
"Complicated problems don't have simple solutions, so we need a president whose ideas and attention span is longer than 140 characters," Nutter said. He added that Clinton has detailed plans for the country "because details matter," while Trump has no specifics behind his grand promises.
"We can't afford to hand our country over to a con man who thinks the presidency is an entry level job on The Apprentice," Nutter said.
Wolf, much as Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper did before him, contrasted the way he acted as a business leader to Trump's style, seeking to undercut the billionaire's message of caring for working people.
"He stiffed hundreds of small businesses, from plumbers to painters, ruining their companies as he sought to enrich himself," Wolf said. He later added, we need a President who recognizes that an economy that doesn't work for everyone, doesn't work at all."
He was one of three speakers from the Rust Belt -- along with Ohio U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm -- featured in the program, each representing competitive states that could be critical in the general election.
McGinty, locked in one of the most high-profile Senate races in the country, has struggled to spread her name and message, but the convention provided a moment in the national spotlight. The Clinton campaign is intent on helping Democrats reclaim the senate, and that goal may hinge on McGinty ousting Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).
McGinty told the personal story she has recited throughout her campaign: 9th of 10 children who grew up in a blue collar, northeast Philadelphia family. She said the opportunities she saw as a middle class child, though, have slipped away for many people today.
"We have the most productive economy in the world, but he benefits of that productivity all go to the top," McGinty told the crowd, citing the pay gap between executives and ordinary workers. "That's wrong for our families, and that is wrong for America."
She said Trump and Toomey have tried to exploit the resulting anxiety with divisive messages, but that the better response is to unite and invest in education and job training.
"This is the American way: work hard, get ahead," she said. "This is what I will fight for in the United States senate and this is what Hillary Clinton will fight for and deliver for us in the White House."
As she spoke, the Pennsylvania delegation held "Katie" signs aloft -- but much of the rest of the crowd buzzed in side conversations.
Toomey's campaign fired back at McGinty, accusing her of damaging average people's economic well-being by supporting Gov. Wolf's proposed tax hikes when she was the governor's chief-of-staff, and for her backing of President Obama's health law.
"Her liberal tax-and-regulate agenda that kills jobs and crushes family pocketbooks is the last thing Pennsylvanians need," Toomey said in a news release.
Republicans' national senate campaign arm also ran TV ads attacking McGinty for calling Toomey an "a--hole" earlier this week. McGinty apologized, and said Thursday morning that her "salty" Irish upbringing sometimes brings out too much passion in her comments.
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