Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) declared the objective of President Donald Trump’s “hateful policies” was “cruelty.”
During an interview, Trump said, “Your home will go down in value and crime rates will rapidly rise. Joe Biden and his bosses from the radical left want to significantly multiply what they are doing now and what will be the end result is you will totally destroy the beautiful suburbs.”
Host Jake Tapper asked, “You happen to represent Boston’s suburbs. what’s your reaction to that?”
Pressley said, “More of the same from Donald Trump and this administration who sowed the seeds of division and I can’t even accuse that—characterize that as a dog whistle. It’s so far beyond that. That’s why, you know, I was hoping the president would not even tweet yesterday about John Lewis. At this point, we don’t need anybody’s sympathies or tweets. What we need is action. If you really want to honor the life of John Lewis, you don’t do things like gut the fair housing laws. You don’t sow the seeds of division. You don’t delay bringing the voting rights advancement act named after John Lewis to the floor. And that should be brought to the floor immediately. So they’re a complete contradiction of everything that John Lewis fought for. They dishonored the blood that he shed on that bridge.”
Tapper said, “Do you consider that pitch that the president’s making there, I think at the White House, not at a campaign rally, do you consider that campaign pitch to be racist?”
Pressley said, “John Lewis said Donald Trump is racist. I mean, again, at this point, this is so much bigger than his hateful rhetoric. I’m focused and don’t allow myself to get distracted by his hateful policies. The cruelty is the point when it comes to their culture. The corruption is the point. I represent a district that is 53% people of color, 40% foreign-born. We’re in a three-mile radius, life expectancy drops by 30 years, and median household income by $50,000. So my district is no anomaly, but it perfectly encapsulates the problems we face as a nation and racial injustices exacerbated.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.