Klobuchar, Baldwin tout Biden, blast Trump during virtual campaign events aimed at Kenosha, Superior

Democratic U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota hit the virtual campaign trail for Joe Biden Monday, lauding the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's policies to boost manufacturing and criticizing President Donald Trump for public health and economic failures.

The pitch to voters in Kenosha and Superior came just a week before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. Biden will deliver his acceptance speech from his home state of Delaware and no major speakers will be in Milwaukee because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Baldwin charged that when Trump came to Wisconsin in 2016 he "promised to Buy America, Hire America. Instead, we have seen jobs leave this country because of the policies he has pushed forward."

She added that Trump has exhibited "an abject failure of leadership" on the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"He has shown this callousness," Klobuchar said, bringing up an interview in which Trump remarked "it is what it is" when asked about the country's death toll from COVID-19.

"Well, it isn't what it is," Klobuchar said. "It didn't have to be that way."

Klobuchar, who ran in the Democratic presidential primaries, praised Biden as a man who understands the American people, such as those workers facing lay offs at Harley-Davidson.

The Biden campaign's economic agenda features a $700 billion "buy American" proposal, including an increase in government purchases of U.S.-based goods and services and investment in research and development.

"Buy America is one of the really powerful tools that we can use to help restore American manufacturing," Baldwin said. "To help make sure workers have the right to organize. And to make sure that we have the capacity to manufacture what we need in America to secure ourselves, whether it's against foreign adversaries or a pandemic."

The Trump campaign countered that Biden's economic policies, including his support for NAFTA, have hurt Wisconsinites.

“Thanks to President Trump’s Great American Comeback, manufacturing jobs are coming back," Trump Victory spokesperson Anna Kelly said. "If Joe Biden cared about the Wisconsin worker, he wouldn’t be bailing on his own convention and supporting anti-growth policies that would obliterate jobs in the Badger State.”