Iowa Democratic Steak Fry - Sept. 21, 2019

I've been a fighter and I have taken on some tough fights. I've taken on the big oil companies. I've taken on the pharmaceutical companies. I've taken on transnational grains. I've taken on the big interest the special interests, who have always been keeping working families down; have always been motivated by profit to the expense of the American family. I have taken them on and I have won and it's not been about a pretty speech, it's been about the work I've actually done. And so when I stand before you as a candidate for president of the United States, I say to you look at my track record to know what I mean; I will fight for you every day of the week and we will win. And when I think about this fight I know that what we know--this is why we are all here together, is the fight that we currently have is to get the current occupant out of the White House. And to successfully do that I would suggest that we are going to have to successfully prosecute the case against four more years of Donald Trump and it will take a prosecutor to do it. And I think we're working with a pretty good long rap sheet. Cuz let's think about it, dudes gotta go. Dudes gotta go.

So let's look at what we're talking about, so here's a fellow that came in office talking about ‘make America great again’ which caused a lot of us to ask again exactly for whom? And caused all of us to realize he was talking about going back to something. So back to what exactly? Back before the Voting Rights Act? back before the Civil Rights Act? Back before the Fair Housing Act? Back before the ADA, back before Title IX, back before Roe v. Wade? Cuz we're not going back. We are not going back. And he came in making a lot of promises to a lot of folks. He made promises to farmers, he made promises to working families and he betrayed people. Let's just look at what happened; he betrayed our families when he said, “I see you, I've got you, I will take care of you, I will honor your hard work.” And then he passes the tax bill benefiting the top 1% in the biggest corporations in America. Betrayed families, betrayed our farmers. Said, “hey I'm gonna hang out with you, I'm going to respect you,” and then what did he do? He engages in trade policy by tweet, borne out a unilateral action that is essentially born out of a fragile ego that has resulted in our farmers here in Iowa looking at bankruptcy because, of course, over decades they did the hard work of building up a market to sell soybeans to China and now they're looking at soybeans rotting at--in bins and looking at bankruptcy.

Betrayed people. Betrayed us in terms of our national security and what should be the responsibility of the commander chief of the United States of America. Because what have we seen in Donald Trump, a so-called commander-in-chief, who on the subject of the fact of Russia's interference in the election of the President of the United States, prefers to take the word of the Russian president over the word of the American intelligence community. On the subject of an American student who was tortured and later died prefers to take the word of a North Korean dictator over the word of the American intelligence community. On the subject of a journalist who was assassinated, a journalist who had American credentials, prefers to take the word of a Saudi prince over the word of the American intelligence community. And just in the last 48 hours, yet again we find that he is in cahoots with a foreign government to manipulate the outcome of this election for president of the United States. Iowa, we need a new commander-in-chief. And in--and we need to absolutely right away begin impeachment proceedings. He's got to go. So we need to hold him accountable, but I want to also say this: our campaign for me you know that's an obvious point, dude gotta go. But we also have to recognize that we have had to endure years with his campaign and now his presidency of a powerful force that has been trying to sow hate and division among us as Americans. Who has been trying to get us to point fingers at each other and I would suggest to you that what we need, both in terms of a winning strategy, but also in terms of leadership that is about truly strengthening our country based on our values and our long-standing commitment, is we need leadership that is prepared to unify our country around our common values, our common goals our common aspirations and experiences. Because the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us and in this election we can't afford to have a campaign and a strategy that's about dividing people around ideology. Because I'm gonna tell you I have not attended one town hall or rally where anyone has raised their hand and said, “you know the thing that keeps me up at night is this debate between socialism and capitalism.” We need to have a strategy that is a winning strategy about saying that we have got to recognize the challenges before us as a nation and a world are big challenges about who we are, our definition, our standing and our strength as a nation. And to meet those challenges, it will not be about going back to the good old days it will be about looking forward and taking on the challenges that meet us today and in the future. And the winning strategy that is the right thing to do is to say that we will address, as the big challenges of our nation, the issues that wake people up in the middle of the night. Issues like health care, issues like so many of the young students I have met elementary middle and high school students who are in trauma about the drills they have to endure when they're being taught about how they should hide in a closet or crouch in a corner in the case that there is a gunman roaming the hallways of their school. We must address the common issue that we know affects farmers in terms of flooding, affects people in terms of hurricanes, wildfires in California and the issue of our climate crisis and what we must do to take that on with a sense of urgency and commonality in terms of outcome and experience.

The commonalities that we face in knowing that one of the issues that keeps people up at night, whoever you are, whatever your race, wherever you live, whoever you pray to, is it can you get through the end of the month and paying the bills? Which is why I'm proposing the most significant middle-class tax cut we have had in generations. These are the challenges before us and I know we are up for these challenges. And I would say to everybody here that we as Democrats have got to march toward 2020, knowing in our hearts and in our souls, that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. And to win this campaign we must be prepared to unify our country around those common goals and experiences because that is the way we will get Donald Trump out of office. And I am here to ask you to please stand in Kamala’s corner during the caucus, thank you!