Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pledged Thursday to work with President-elect Donald Trump on economic issues, and said that despite her many disagreements with him, they had common ground on issues such as trade, infrastructure and financial reform.
“So let me be 100 percent clear about this. When President-Elect Trump wants to take on these issues, when his goal is to increase the economic security of middle-class families, then count me in. I will put aside our differences and I will work with him to accomplish that goal. I offer to work as hard as I can and to pull as many people as I can into this effort,” Warren said in a speech to the AFL-CIO’s executive council.
Warren stressed that she opposed Trump on most other issues and said his campaign used “racial attacks and then rode the escalator (further) down.” She vowed to stand up to bigotry “in all its forms.”
But she also said that he tapped in real economic concerns that the Democratic Party has not done a good enough job addressing, such as stagnant wages. People were angry and had a right to be angry, Warren said.
Trump was the rare voice in the GOP to criticize Wall Street and big money’s dominance in Washington, and that was enough for many people to overlook his other flaws, she said.
“There are many millions of people who did not vote for Donald Trump because of the bigotry and hate that fueled his campaign rallies. They voted for him despite the hate. They voted for him out of frustration and anger — and also out of hope that he would bring change,” she said.
Warren said she hoped that Trump would also live up to his rhetoric to “drain the swamp” in Washington regarding special interest money and pledged to help him on that too.
“If Donald Trump is ready to make good on his promise to get corruption out of politics, to end dark money and pay-to-play, count me in. I will work as hard as I can and to pull as many people as I can to end the influence of big money and return democracy to the people,” she said.
