Former Democratic president Bill Clinton criticized the state of the U.S. economy under President Obama while campaigning for his wife Hillary on Tuesday.
Speaking at a campaign event in Indianapolis, Indiana, Clinton told a crowd of supporters that the economy has not improved in recent years to help those Americans who are struggling.
"But the problem is, 80 percent of the American people are still living on what they were living on the day before the [2008 financial] crash," Clinton said to the audience. "And about half the American people, after you adjust for inflation, are living on what they were living on the last day I was president 15 years ago. So that‘s what’s the matter."
Clinton has regularly lambasted the U.S. economy’s performance during Obama’s tenure as president, arguing that conditions for working Americans have not improved and have helped give rise to Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) during the 2016 presidential race.
The former president said last month at a rally in Spokane, Washington that "if you believe we can all rise together, if you believe we’ve finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that when we were practicing trickle-down economics and no regulation in Washington, which is what caused the crash, then you should vote for [Hillary Clinton]."
The Washington Free Beacon reported at the time that Clinton appeared to realize mid-sentence his mistake insulting the president from his own political party and proceeded to also criticize the economy during the George W. Bush presidency.
Clinton also said earlier this month the country has not risen together economically in 20 years, a time frame that would include Obama’s entire time in office.
Clinton went one step further on Monday and blamed the Obama economy for the success that Trump and Sanders have enjoyed this election cycle while speaking to reporters in East Hartford, Connecticut.