Bernie Sanders’s Democratic presidential campaign on late Monday released a radio clip accusing Hillary Clinton of stretching the truth on the 2008 auto industry bailout.
“Bernie Sanders has always been on the side of Michigan workers and working families,” the spot said.
{mosads}“Bernie voted for the auto rescue package and he’s the only candidate who’s opposed to the job killing trade deals that have crushed manufacturing,” it said of the independent Vermont senator.
“Washington has always had a funny relationship with the truth. So it’s not surprising that his opponent is out with a new radio ad trying to distort the truth about Bernie’s record.”
The ad then cited Sanders’s support for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a 2008 bill eventually used to give loans to struggling U.S. car manufacturers.
“The Washington Post spells things out pretty clearly, stating his opponent ‘glosses over a lot…’ including the fact that Sanders is actually on record as support the bailout,’” the spot said. “He even voted for it.
“’It seems like she’s willing to take the gamble that fact checkers may call her out for her tactic…but that voters won’t,’” the ad quoted The Washington Post saying.
“Michigan voters deserve better than typical Washington tactics: hoping voters don’t figure out what you’re up to until it’s too late. There’s only one candidate who tells it like it is and isn’t afraid of standing up for Michigan workers and that’s Bernie Sanders.”
Clinton on late Sunday accused Sanders of voting against bailout funds for the U.S. auto industry during the Democratic presidential debate in Flint, Mich.
Sanders retorted that the Democratic presidential front-runner merely supported aiding her friends on Wall Street who “destroyed this economy” instead.
Michigan voters will pick between the pair of Democratic presidential primary rivals during their voting contest on Tuesday. Clinton leads Sanders by about 20 percent in the Great Lakes State, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.
The 2008 auto industry bailout is still a sore subject in Michigan, the heart of American car manufacturing and the site of struggling cities like Detroit and Flint.