Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stopped in Lordstown, Ohio Sunday afternoon during his campaign swing through key battleground states, including Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“Together, we are going to make sure that does not happen again. We’re going to win here in Wisconsin. We’re going to win in Indiana, We’re going to win in Ohio. We’re going to win in Michigan. We’re going to win in Pennsylvania and together we’re going to win this election,” Sanders said during a Saturday rally in Madison, Wisconsin.
On Sunday, the Vermont senator and 2020 hopeful participated in a town hall with the American Federation of Teachers in Lordstown, Ohio, a community that has received significant national attention after the recent closure of its General Motors plant.
“This is a really important meeting, and it’s an important meeting not just to discuss the horrific impact on this small town, this community, about GM preferring to give billions of dollars in stock buybacks to make the very rich even richer while they chose to close down this plant and other plants around the country, but the discussion that we are having here today, right here, is a discussion that impacts virtually every state in this country and our entire economy,” Sanders began his remarks.
“What we have to decide is whether in our democracy we are going to allow a handful of billionaires on wall street to close down profitable plants like the one here in Lordstown, whether we are going to allow them to go to Washington and ask for incredible tax breaks for the one percent and then fight to cut social security, Medicare, and Medicaid, whether they are going to dictate trade policies in America so that profitable corporations will destroy the rights of American workers while they go abroad and pay people a buck or $2 an hour to do the work that used to be done in America,” he continued.
Sanders went on to say that “we are fighting for the future of this country” and for the “future of our children.”
“Our job is to tell them, whether they like it or not, they will be good corporate citizens,” Sanders later said of GM. He then received a standing ovation after saying that he wouldn’t allow “them to throw American workers out on the streets and outsource jobs to Mexico” while lining up “to get millions in federal contracts.”
“Tell General Motors today no more federal contracts,” Sanders said to President Donald Trump as the crowd began chanting his name.
Prior to the town hall, Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken hosted a press conference outside the event, but was repeatedly disrupted by protesters.
“Bernie Sanders and his philosophy of socialism and government takeover will not only kill jobs, but it’s wrong for Ohio,” Timken said.
“With his support for the job-killing Green New Deal, the desire to eliminate all private health insurance, and continued embrace of socialism, a Bernie Sanders’ Presidency would mean disaster for Ohio jobs and workers,” said Mandi Merrit, Ohio spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. “Sanders’ $126+ trillion agenda will crush our nation’s economy, hike taxes for hardworking Americans, and lead to a government takeover of everything from healthcare to education.”
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
For once I agree with Bernie on something. Every American should demand from their Senators and House members that the contract that GM has with the federal Government be rescinded immediately. It is unacceptable for the Government to continue to buy EVERY vehicle in the Presidential, Secret Service and FBI Motorcades from GM. Ford, I’m sure would be very pleased to have that contract. After all, Ford IS building new plants here, instead of China and Mexico like GM is doing.