My response to President Trump's address to Congress
My response to President Trump's address to Congress.
Posted by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Last night Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) provided his own response to President Donald Trump’s address to Congress. In it, Sanders, without being hyperbolic or antagonistic, laid out Donald Trump’s campaign promises that were not addressed in the president’s speech. He spoke almost directly to the president, reminding him of the promises he made the American people that were so popular. These promises included protecting Medicare and Social Security, reinstating Glass-Steagall to keep investment banks from gambling with people’s pensions and 401Ks, and investment in infrastructure.
Senator Sanders pointed out the president’s hypocrisy in saying that he was going to “drain the swamp,” and then filling his cabinet with millionaires, billionaires, and former Goldman Sachs executives. He also addressed the incongruence between Donald Trump’s words in his speech regarding clean air and water, on the same day that he signed off on policy overturning President Obama’s Clean Water Act.
The list of inconsistencies that Sanders laid out was extensive, but his tone may have been the most striking component of his speech. It was not a fiery, angry, rally-the-troops speech; instead, it was a calmly-delivered warning to Trump that he made promises to the American people that he is not keeping, and Senator Sanders and the American people intend to hold him to those promises.