Donald Trump told supporters in Appalachian coal country on Wednesday that Hillary Clinton would be a "horror show" for miners as he sought to move past the controversy over his statement that gun enthusiasts could block his Democratic rival from naming judges.
The presidential election in November will be "the last shot for the miners," the Republican nominee told the audience at a rally in Abingdon, Va. "The mines will be gone if she gets elected."
Trump, who was uncharacteristically subdued, has vowed to scrap federal rules that curb the burning of coal in order to reduce the emission of gases that cause global warming. Trump once called climate change a hoax created by China to harm U.S. manufacturing, but has avoided the topic during the campaign.
Miners, some of them in hard hats, sat on stage behind Trump at the rally, many of them holding signs reading, "Trump Digs Coal." Trump held one up and told the cheering crowd: "If I get in, this is what it is, OK?"
He reminded the audience that Clinton said in March that she would "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" with her energy policies, a remark that could cost her votes in struggling coal regions of Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Trump also ridiculed "clean coal" technology, saying the Chinese were not subject to rules restraining pollution from mining.
"Believe me, they're not cleaning it," he said of Chinese coal. "We have a small _ a very, very small planet compared to the universe, right? And that stuff is going up, and they're not cleaning it. And here, we produce great stuff, and we're not allowed to use it."
Turning to Clinton's record as a U.S. senator from New York, Trump said she had broken her promise to strengthen the upstate economy. Lamenting the loss of manufacturing jobs, he called the region a "war zone" and "wasteland."
Trump did not mention attacks by Clinton and others over his comment Tuesday about Second Amendment backers stopping her from naming judges. But on Twitter, Trump denied a report that the Secret Service discussed the matter with his campaign.
