New York City mayor and presidential hopeful Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday at the Democrat candidate debate that if Americans are suffering and not enjoying the “American Dream” it is not the fault of immigrants, but “big corporations” and the “one percent.”
De Blasio interrupted Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), and cited the photograph that has been circulating of a man and his child who drowned in the Rio Grand River trying to come into the United States illegally.
“Look at the bottom line here: that tragic photo of that parent, that child — and I’m saying this as a father — every American should feel that in their heart,” de Blasio said. “Every American should say that is not America, those are not our values, but we have to get under the skin of why we have this system because we’re not being honest about the vision that’s been fomented in this country — the way American citizens have been told that immigrants somehow created their misery and their pain and their challenges.”
“For all the American citizens out there who feel they’re falling behind; who feel the American Dream’s not working for you — the immigrants didn’t do that to you,” de Blasio said. “The big corporations did that to you.”
“The one percent did that to you,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio went on to blame big corporations for working people he claims are suffering in America, despite the lowest unemployment rates under the Donald Trump presidency, including for Latinos.
“We need to be the party of working people and that includes the party of immigrants,” de Blasio said. “But first we have to tell working people in America who are hurting that we’re going to be on their side every single time against those big corporations that created this mess to begin with and remind people we’re all in this together.”
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