U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Brookline, offered a drastically different take of Donald Trump's first year in the Oval Office Tuesday, as delivered the Democratic Party's response to the president's first State of the Union address.
U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Brookline, offered a drastically different take of Donald Trump's first year in the Oval Office Tuesday, as delivered the Democratic Party's response to the president's first State of the Union address.
Kennedy, who led Massachusetts Democrats in questioning points raised in Trump's prime time address to Congress, argued that while the president painted a rosy picture of the United States, "many have spent the past year anxious, angry, afraid."
Contending that the Trump administration is "turning American life into a zero-sum game," the congressman raised concerns about the impact such an approach could have on things like, health care, immigration, taxes and other policies.
"We are bombarded with one false choice after another: Coal miners or single moms. Rural communities or inner cities. The coast or the heartland," he said in a televised speech from Fall River. "As if the mechanic in Pittsburgh and the teacher in Tulsa and the daycare worker in Birmingham are somehow bitter rivals, rather than mutual casualties of a system forcefully rigged for those at the top."
Kennedy stressed that Democrats, unlike their GOP counterparts, are committed to fighting for all Americans "because the strongest, richest, greatest nation in the world shouldn't leave any one behind."
"We choose a health care system that offers mercy, whether you suffer from cancer or depression or addiction. We choose an economy strong enough to boast record stock prices and brave enough to admit that top CEOs making 300 times the average worker is not right," he said. " We choose Fall River."
"We choose the thousands of American communities whose roads aren't paved with power or privilege, but with honest effort, good faith, and the resolve to build something better for their kids," the congressman continued, adding that "the state of our union is hopeful, resilient, enduring."
This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more information is available.