On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Cuomo Primetime,” DNC Chair Tom Perez reacted to President Trump’s tweeted video about Representative Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) comments about September 11th by stating Trump wishes to “distract people” and “talk about one or two members of Congress.”
Perez said, “You know, Chris, we have 571 days until the most important election of our lifetime. We have health care on the ballot. We’ve got good wages on the ballot. We’ve got — our democracy is on the ballot, and what Donald Trump wants to do in the 571 days between now and the election is distract people. He doesn’t want to talk about health care. Because he doesn’t have a plan, other than to take away people’s health care. He doesn’t want to talk about the issues that matter most in communities across this country. The distraction of 2018 was caravans. Because they didn’t want to talk about health care. And what voters want to know, Chris, and this is what we’re getting at at the Democratic Party, what voters want to know going into this cycle is, who has my back? Who can I trust to keep their promises? And that is why Donald Trump wants to talk about these issues right now. Because he is hoping that, for the next 570 days, we talk about one or two members of Congress. He doesn’t want us to talk about the fact that Democrats believe that health care is a right for all, and we’re going to keep our promise and have your back. Whereas, he has a knife in your back. We are keeping our promises to make sure that this economy works for everyone, and not just for a few at the top, and he has passed the most reckless tax cut in American history. That’s why he wants to distract.”
He added, “[E]verybody remembers where they were on 9/11. I remember exactly where I was, and I saw — we all lived this. It was the worst day of, certainly our lifetimes, and one of the two or three worst days in American history, and we should never forget that, and we never will forget that. And, as [CNN Political Contributor Paul Begala] correctly pointed out, we saw what Donald Trump was saying, on that same day, bragging, again, inaccurately, that his building was now the tallest building in New York, and talking about what people were doing in Jersey City. And so, these comments — we must all, again, understand the legacy of 9/11 and the backlash that occurred post-9/11 against so many people, not only of Muslim faith, but the first — one of the first murders after 9/11 was the murder of a Sikh American who was a gas station owner in Phoenix, mistaken for a Muslim. So, we saw so many unspeakable tragedies, and I will tell you, someone who stood up after that murder, George W. Bush, who said we are not at war with Islam, and he was unequivocal in that statement.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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