A frenetic and foul-mouthed Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, withstood several boos from the young crowd at the kickoff of his nationwide tour with socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in Portland, Maine, launching a vitriolic attack on President Donald Trump and the Republican Party on Monday night.
“Those Republican leaders and President Trump don’t give a s**t about the people they were trying to hurt,” a wild-eyed Perez, arms flailing, yelled at the crowd.
Perez criticized Trump for his fiscal year 2018 budget proposal.
“They call it a skinny budget. I call it a s**tty budget because you know what… budgets are moral documents,” Perez exclaimed, oblivious to the disconnect in his use of profanity while speaking of morality and the likely effect it may have among some voters in red states, whom he claims are his intended audience.
“We need to continue to cause good trouble, and that good trouble includes making sure we call out this budget,” he added.
Perez criticized President Trump’s stated desires to repeal and replace Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, which he said, “has been a lifesaver, not a job killer.”
“Our strength in our nation lies in our compassion as a nation,” he concluded.
Kristina Rex of WCHS6 captured the crowd’s attitude towards the two men in this tweet:
Crowd goes wild at mention of Bernie Sanders. Some crowd members 'boo' at mention of DNC Chair Tom Perez. #NEWSCENTERnow pic.twitter.com/iFX4So1eWp
— Kristina Rex (@KristinaRex) April 17, 2017
The hyperactive Perez was followed on stage by the smoother presence of Sanders, who delivered a hardcore socialist message to the largely millennial audience in a grandfatherly manner.
“Our job is to bring millions of people into the political process who, today, do not vote or do not participate in any way,” Sanders began.
“Our job is to radically transform the Democratic Party into a fifty-state party and a party which does not continue to ignore half of the states in our country, including some of the poorest states in America,” he continued.
“Our job is to create a democratic Democrat party, a grassroots party where decisions are made from the bottom on up, not from the top on down,” he added, echoing a theme from his popular but ultimately unsuccessful campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for president in 2016.
“Can you imagine the Republican leadership wanting to give tax breaks to millionaires?” Sanders asked. Then he said Republicans wanted to drop nutrition programs. “What kind of morals do these people have?” Sanders asked rhetorically.
“It is not acceptable to me. It is not acceptable to you that we remain the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care,” he said.
Sanders told the crowd that was why he would soon be introducing legislation calling for a single payer Medicare-style health care system.
“You don’t drain the swamp when you include more billionaires in your cabinet than any president in the history of our country,” Sanders concluded.
You can watch a three-minute summary of the kickoff event, provided by the Washington Post, here.
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