Hillary Clinton bails on Georgia State campaign stop (updated)

This article was updated on Feb. 28 @ 2:23 p.m. to include quotes from Hillary Clinton, Kasim Reed and others.

Around midnight of Feb. 26 Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s reps announced Friday’s campaign stop would not be hosted at Georgia State’s Student Center.

Politicos from Georgia State’s Student Government Association (SGA), which received an invite from Clinton’s people to attend the event, said the late-night emails did not give them adequate time to reroute to the new location, Atlanta City Hall.

And other attendees registered for the on-campus event weren’t informed of the switch until the morning of. Clinton’s spokespeople said the venue switcheroo was made to accommodate Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s busy schedule.

But Reed, one of Georgia’s most influential Clinton endorsers, told The Signal he had nothing to do with the changes.

“The campaign made the decision and I was actually in New York,” he said. “I got off the plane at 10:30 [a.m.] today.”

A few SGA officials said they were surprised to see Tweets this morning about the relocation, and many of them didn’t catch the news in time to trudge on down to city hall to wait in line.

The event’s main theater, the Old City Council Chambers, packed 400 people, while a few hundred more listened from the city’s hallways. Some students, who were funneled through a separate, slower line at City Hall’s entrance, didn’t make it in the front door.

SGA Vice President of Public Relations Anthony Nguyen, who couldn’t attend due to the mix-up, said he feels let down by the scheduling snafu.

“It’s a disappointment that the Hillary campaign didn’t inform us in time that we were to relocate,” he said. “Students were really excited to hear what she had to say. But I guess city hall is just more secure, easier to control the crowd.”

Nguyen also said he thinks Clinton’s campaign managers might have changed spots to avoid any protester riff-raff that could accompany the Panther student body.

“I believe the move was a political strategy,” he said. “Initially she wanted to make it seem like she’s engaging student voters, getting them involved in the primary process. But I guess that’s not the primary goal now.”

Two Georgia State students were booted from Clinton’s City Hall event for endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement, according to the AJC.

SGA’s President Teara Mayfield said she thinks Clinton’s campaign opted to relocate for more floor space.

When Clinton took the stage around 1 p.m., she asked supporters to rally for the last day of early voting and again for Georgia’s March 1 Primary vote.

She told the auditorium that she’s drawn up a plan to offer affordable college in a way — unlike her competitor, Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont — which won’t call for tax increases.

“As president I’m gonna do everything I can to help poor schools and poor kids,” she said. “I have a plan to make it possible for you to go to any public college without having to borrow money to pay for it. I want the states to spend more money [for college educations]. We have enough prisons already.”

She also slammed GOP candidates for excessive bad-mouthing and touted intentions to boost the nation’s job market for infrastructure work and clean air and water projects.

“We need good-paying jobs so incomes can rise again,” she said. “Let’s make sure no city ever suffers what Flint, Michigan went through.”

Clinton knocked conservatives aiming to repeal Obama’s affordable care act after she told a few sentimental stories of people saved by the health care plan.

“For the life of me, I do not understand how anybody can talk about repealing something that helps so many millions of people,” she said. “When they’re not insulting each other, Republicans are busy talking about repealing the affordable care act.”

Reed said students should be backing Clinton because she’s got a “real plan” to make college more affordable.

“If you look at the party that has actually reduced college affordability, it’s been President Obama and Secretary Clinton,” he said. “President Obama removed $50 billion that banks were charging college students and used that $50 billion in savings to make more loans available to college students.”

And Georgia State’s Alpharetta campus SGA President Adam Smith, also in attendance, told The Signal he’s endorsing Clinton because “she’s a pragmatic progressive.”

“She says things she’ll actually get done in the White House,” he said. “I support her because of her foreign policy experience and her 40-plus-year track record of representing Americans.”

Clinton also spoke on plans to quell national contention over women’s rights, gun safety and campaign finance reform.