Summary

Chapter 12 describes Clinton’s struggles in connecting with working class, rural, white voters. It opens with a quote, which Clinton argues was taken wildly out of context, stating, “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” (263). Despite its heartless impression, Hillary was describing a state of affairs, not her own policy, and hoping to explain how she could address the employment crisis in coal country. Nonetheless, attacks ads poured in decrying her supposed resentment for rural white voters. Despite the disingenuous nature of these attacks, Clinton does admit that she struggled to attract working class white voters, who voted in record numbers for Donald Trump. Following her coal miner comment, Clinton went on campaign tour of coal country, hoping to assuage some of the anger toward her. There, she was generally met with an extremely...