Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ilhan Omar. (photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
19 July 19
ast
night, I was at dinner with Ilhan Omar, her daughter, and some other
members of Congress when we heard the news that thousands of people at a
Donald Trump rally were chanting "send her back."
To my surprise, Ilhan was pretty unfazed. Sadly, as
she told me, she has been dealing with this kind of hatred and racism
for a long time.
And she knows, as we do, that Trump is a demagogue doing what he does best: dividing and conquering through hate.
No. Trump won't talk about trying to throw 32 million
Americans off their health care. He won't talk about his massive tax
breaks for billionaires. He won't talk about his budget which called for
huge cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. And he certainly won't talk about
how climate change is destroying the planet.
But he will try to divide the country up based on the
color of our skin, our religion, where we were born or our sexual
orientation.
Brothers and sisters: Now is the time, more than at
any other moment in our lifetimes, to say NO to racism, NO to
divisiveness, NO to the hatred that Trump is trying to foment.
Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we.
Ilhan and I have worked together on a number of
important issues since she was elected – most recently our effort to
cancel all student debt in this country.
She is a critical voice in our fight for justice in
America, and I am excited to work with her and other progressives when
we are in the White House.
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