Tuesday on MSNBC’s “All In,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said he was considering a 2020 presidential run to stop President Donald Trump’s “hate speech,” which the Ohio Democrat said has “emboldened far too many people to do things that are just awful.”
Brown said, “I think that voters turned out in huge numbers around Ohio on the Democratic side, particularly in the big urban areas, they turned out in huge numbers, motivated by 18 months of a very divisive president who engaged in racist demagogic rhetoric—who always tried to divide people.”
When asked about a 2020 run, Brown said, “We’re having the conversation now. Like you are, Chris, I’m worried about my country. I’m worried long-term about young federal judges he puts on the bench. I’m worried long-term about climate change. I’m worried about the hate speech coming out of the White House, and that’s given license for people to engage in racist or worse, racist rhetoric or worse, or anti-semitic rhetoric or worse.”
He added, “I was at a meeting with a Jewish group today in Cleveland and talking to them about the security they now —they’ve always had good security in most of their synagogues in Cleveland, now they’re stepping it up, at great expense, because they think they need to. I don’t put that all at the feet of Donald Trump, but I’ve called at him, I spoke to the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society right after Pittsburgh, a Columbus group after the Pittsburgh shooting and they—they’re concerned about all this and we all called on the president to try to heal and unify. I don’t blame him for this stuff, but he has made—he has emboldened far too many people to do things that are just awful.”
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