PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s, D-Mass., appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia was met Monday with warm cheers, but also a smattering of boos from a contingent of delegates unhappy with her decision to back Hillary Clinton.
Warren focused a great deal of attention on attacking the GOP nominee, Donald Trump, as a petty and dangerous demagogue.
“Trump thinks he can win votes by fanning the flames of fear and hatred. By turning neighbor against neighbor,” the Massachusetts senator said. “By persuading you that the real problem in America is your fellow Americans – people who don’t look like you, or don’t talk like you, or don’t worship like you.”
“That’s Donald Trump’s America. An America of fear and hate. An America where we all break apart. Whites against Blacks and Latinos,” she added. “Christians against Muslims and Jews. Straight against gay. Everyone against immigrants. Race, religion, heritage, gender — the more factions the better.”
As Warren spoke, her many attacks on Trump earned her enthusiastic praise. But it did little to satiate a smattering of delegates who heckled her repeatedly with chants of, “We trusted you!”
There was a brief moment where it appeared the protests caught Warren off guard, but she quickly composed herself and marched on with her speech, hailing Clinton as a progressive hero, and attacking Trump as a dangerous villain.
“[A]sk yourself this,” Warren said. “When white workers in Ohio are pitted against black workers in North Carolina, or Latino workers in Florida — who really benefits?”
“Divide and conquer is an old story in America. Dr. Martin Luther King knew it. After his march from Selma to Montgomery, he spoke of how segregation was created to keep people divided. Instead of higher wages for workers, Dr. King described how poor whites in the South were fed Jim Crow, which told a poor white worker that, quote, ‘No matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man.’ Racial hatred was part of keeping the powerful on top,” she added.
She continued, turning to her pet topic: Wall Street and banking reform.
“When we turn on each other, bankers can run our economy for Wall Street, oil companies can fight off clean energy, and giant corporations can ship the last good jobs overseas,” she said.
“When we turn on each other, we can’t unite to fight back against a rigged system,” she added. “Well, I’ve got news for Donald Trump. The American people are not falling for it!”
Warren has made fighting Wall Street corruption and banking reform the focus of her time in public office. At the same time, Clinton has been compensated handsomely in speaking fees from giants in the financial sector, including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.
The two appeared on the campaign trail for the first time in June.
