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Here’s Senator Bernie Sanders’ Speech – Full Text

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As prepared for delivery

How great it is to be with you tonight.

Let me begin by thanking the hundreds of thousands of Americans who actively participated in our campaign as volunteers. Let me thank the 2 1/2 million Americans who helped fund our campaign with an unprecedented 8 million individual campaign contributions – averaging $27 a piece. Let me thank the 13 million Americans who voted for the political revolution, giving us the 1,846 pledged delegates here tonight – 46 percent of the total. And delegates: Thank you for being here, and for all the work you’ve done. I look forward to your votes during the roll call on Tuesday night.

And let me offer a special thanks to the people of my own state of Vermont who have sustained me and supported me as a mayor, congressman, senator and presidential candidate. And to my family – my wife Jane, four kids and seven grandchildren –thank you very much for your love and hard work on this campaign.

I understand that many people here in this convention hall and around the country are disappointed about the final results of the nominating process. I think it’s fair to say that no one is more disappointed than I am. But to all of our supporters – here and around the country – I hope you take enormous pride in the historical accomplishments we have achieved.

Together, my friends, we have begun a political revolution to transform America and that revolution – our revolution – continues. Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent – a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice – that struggle continues. And I look forward to being part of that struggle with you.

Let me be as clear as I can be. This election is not about, and has never been about, Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders or any of the other candidates who sought the presidency. This election is not about political gossip. It’s not about polls. It’s not about campaign strategy. It’s not about fundraising. It’s not about all the things the media spends so much time discussing.

This election is about – and must be about – the needs of the American people and the kind of future we create for our children and grandchildren.

This election is about ending the 40-year decline of our middle class the reality that 47 million men, women and children live in poverty. It is about understanding that if we do not transform our economy, our younger generation will likely have a lower standard of living then their parents.

This election is about ending the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality that we currently experience, the worst it has been since 1928. It is not moral, not acceptable and not sustainable that the top one-tenth of one percent now own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, or that the top 1 percent in recent years has earned 85 percent of all new income. That is unacceptable. That must change.

This election is about remembering where we were 7 1/2 years ago when President Obama came into office after eight years of Republican trickle-down economics.

The Republicans want us to forget that as a result of the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, our economy was in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Some 800,000 people a month were losing their jobs. We were running up a record-breaking deficit of $1.4 trillion and the world’s financial system was on the verge of collapse.

We have come a long way in the last 7 1/2 years, and I thank President Obama and Vice President Biden for their leadership in pulling us out of that terrible recession.
Yes, we have made progress, but I think we can all agree that much, much more needs to be done.

This election is about which candidate understands the real problems facing this country and has offered real solutions – not just bombast, fear-mongering, name-calling and divisiveness.

We need leadership in this country which will improve the lives of working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor. We need leadership which brings our people together and makes us stronger – not leadership which insults Latinos, Muslims, women, African-Americans and veterans – and divides us up.

By these measures, any objective observer will conclude that – based on her ideas and her leadership – Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States. The choice is not even close.

This election is about a single mom I saw in Nevada who, with tears in her eyes, told me that she was scared to death about the future because she and her young daughter were not making it on the $10.45 an hour she was earning. This election is about that woman and the millions of other workers in this country who are struggling to survive on totally inadequate wages.

Hillary Clinton understands that if someone in America works 40 hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty. She understands that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage. And she is determined to create millions of new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure – our roads, bridges, water systems and wastewater plants.

But her opponent – Donald Trump – well, he has a very different view. He does not support raising the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour – a starvation wage. While Donald Trump believes in huge tax breaks for billionaires, he believes that states should actually have the right to lower the minimum wage below $7.25. What an outrage!

This election is about overturning Citizens United, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in the history of our country. That decision allows the wealthiest people in America, like the billionaire Koch brothers, to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying elections and, in the process, undermine American democracy.

Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United and end the movement toward oligarchy in this country. Her Supreme Court appointments will also defend a woman’s right to choose, workers’ rights, the rights of the LGBT community, the needs of minorities and immigrants and the government’s ability to protect the environment.

If you don’t believe this election is important, if you think you can sit it out, take a moment to think about the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump would nominate and what that would mean to civil liberties, equal rights and the future of our country.

This election is about the thousands of young people I have met who have left college deeply in debt, and the many others who cannot afford to go to college. During the primary campaign, Secretary Clinton and I both focused on this issue but with different approaches. Recently, however, we have come together on a proposal that will revolutionize higher education in America. It will guarantee that the children of any family this country with an annual income of $125,000 a year or less – 83 percent of our population – will be able to go to a public college or university tuition free. That proposal also substantially reduces student debt.

This election is about climate change, the greatest environmental crisis facing our planet, and the need to leave this world in a way that is healthy and habitable for our kids and future generations. Hillary Clinton is listening to the scientists who tell us that – unless we act boldly and transform our energy system in the very near future – there will be more drought, more floods, more acidification of the oceans, more rising sea levels. She understands that when we do that we can create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.

Donald Trump? Well, like most Republicans, he chooses to reject science. He believes that climate change is a “hoax,” no need to address it. Hillary Clinton understands that a president’s job is to worry about future generations, not the short-term profits of the fossil fuel industry.

This campaign is about moving the United States toward universal health care and reducing the number of people who are uninsured or under-insured. Hillary Clinton wants to see that all Americans have the right to choose a public option in their health care exchange. She believes that anyone 55 years or older should be able to opt in to Medicare and she wants to see millions more Americans gain access to primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs through a major expansion of community health centers.

And What is Donald Trump’s position on health care? No surprise there. Same old, same old Republican contempt for working families. He wants to abolish the Affordable Care Act, throw 20 million people off of the health insurance they currently have and cut Medicaid for lower-income Americans.

Hillary Clinton also understands that millions of seniors, disabled vets and others are struggling with the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs and the fact that Americans pay the highest prices in the world for their medicine. She knows that Medicare must negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry and that drug companies should not be making billions in profits while one in five Americans are unable to afford the medicine they need. The greed of the drug companies must end.

This election is about the leadership we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform and repair a broken criminal justice system. It’s about making sure that young people in this country are in good schools and at good jobs, not in jail cells. Hillary Clinton understands that we have to invest in education and jobs for our young people, not more jails or incarceration.

In these stressful times for our country, this election must be about bringing our people together, not dividing us up. While Donald Trump is busy insulting one group after another, Hillary Clinton understands that our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. Yes. We become stronger when black and white, Latino, Asian-American, Native American – all of us – stand together. Yes. We become stronger when men and women, young and old, gay and straight, native born and immigrant fight to create the kind of country we all know we can become.

It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues. That’s what this campaign has been about. That’s what democracy is about. But I am happy to tell you that at the Democratic Platform Committee there was a significant coming together between the two campaigns and we produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. Among many other strong provisions, the Democratic Party now calls for breaking up the major financial institutions on Wall Street and the passage of a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act. It also calls for strong opposition to job-killing free trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton presidency – and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen.

I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I remember her as a great first lady who broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care. I served with her in the United States Senate and know her as a fierce advocate for the rights of children.

Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here tonight.

 

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News

‘People Are Really Angry’: Fury Over Musk and DOGE Triggers Spike in Calls to Congress

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Members of Congress say they are being flooded with calls from angry constituents about President Donald Trump’s Director of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, and what he is doing inside the federal government.

“Senators’ phone systems have been overloaded, lawmakers said, with some voters unable to get through to leave a message. The outpouring of complaints and confusion has put pressure on lawmakers to find out more about Musk’s project, heightening tensions between the billionaire tech mogul and the government,” The Washington Post reports.

Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska “said the Senate’s phones were receiving 1,600 calls each minute, compared with the usual 40 calls per minute. Many of the calls she’s been receiving are from people concerned about U.S. DOGE Service employees having broad access to government systems and sensitive information. The callers are asking whether their information is compromised and about why there isn’t more transparency about what is happening, she said.”

READ MORE: ‘Bring Him Back’: JD Vance Wants Musk to Rehire 25 Year Old DOGE ‘Kid’ After Racist Posts

On Monday, the Office of U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) said, “We’re receiving reports of phones being offline across the Senate. Our office is immediately at work to address the issue and get our phones online again.”

U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) called it, “a deluge on DOGE”

“Truly our office has gotten more phone calls on Elon Musk and what the heck he’s doing mucking around in federal government than I think anything we’ve gotten in years. … People are really angry,” she told The Post.

On social media, Senator Smith added, “Musk is unpopular because Americans can see that he’s running rampant inside the federal government and no one believes he’s doing this to help us — he’s doing it to help himself. That’s what corruption looks like. I’ve been getting more calls into my office in the last week than any time I can remember. People are mad about it and they should be.”

READ MORE: Trump Inherits Biden’s ‘Astonishing’ Jobs Legacy, But Prices Are Now Climbing on His Watch

“We can hardly answer the phones fast enough. It’s a combination of fear, confusion and heartbreak, because of the importance of some of these programs,” U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) told The Post, saying “he’s been hearing from constituents ‘constantly’ on DOGE and Musk.”

The surge of telephone calls appears to have been going on all week.

“Callers are getting busy signals and voicemail inboxes are full at many U.S. Senate offices as people try to reach out and voice their opinions on President Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, executive orders and moves to dismantle various federal programs,” the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. “The influx of phone calls — which some in the Senate say are at unprecedented volumes — come as Trump and ally Elon Musk are working to shrink the federal government during the president’s first weeks in office. They are shuttering agencies, temporarily freezing funding and pushing workers to resign, all while staffers with Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency infiltrate departments in a stated effort to root out fraud and abuse.”

READ MORE: Pam Bondi Quietly Disbands DOJ Task Force Targeting Russian Oligarchs

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Bring Him Back’: JD Vance Wants Musk to Rehire 25 Year Old DOGE ‘Kid’ After Racist Posts

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Vice President JD Vance is under fire after encouraging Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk to re-hire the 25-year old whose racist posts led to his reported resignation.

The Wall Street Journal broke the story that a “key DOGE staff member who gained access to the Treasury Department’s central-payments system resigned Thursday after he was linked to a deleted social-media account that advocated racism and eugenics.”

“Marko Elez, a 25-year-old who is part of a cadre of Elon Musk lieutenants deployed by the Department of Government Efficiency to scrutinize federal spending, resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account,” the Journal reported.

According to The Journal, that account posted, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” and, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”

READ MORE: Trump Inherits Biden’s ‘Astonishing’ Jobs Legacy, But Prices Are Now Climbing on His Watch

“Normalize Indian hate,” was another post, according to the Journal, which noted that it was “in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.”

“The user appeared to have a special dislike for Indian software engineers,” the WSJ added.

That account also posted, according to the Journal, “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.”

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, wrote on X about the posts, and asked, “Does this not sound like someone shaped by the same ideology that fueled apartheid South Africa?”

U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) added, “Elon Musk thinks racism is OK, as long as Twitter says so. This man should not be anywhere near our government.”

Journalist Jay Bookman, a columnist for the Georgia Recorder, also weighed in. He wrote, “I wonder what made the kid think racism had suddenly become cool. Who was he hanging out with that would make him think such a curious thing? Elon, do you know?”

READ MORE: Pam Bondi Quietly Disbands DOJ Task Force Targeting Russian Oligarchs

Friday morning, Musk asked his 216 million followers on his social media site X, “Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?”

As of this writing, 78% said “Yes.”

The Vice President, a Republican from Ohio, responded to Musk.

“Here’s my view,” Vance, unprompted, wrote. “I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”

Critics were quick to chastise the Vice President.

“Then bring him back! You’re the big tough guy with all the power now, right? (or at least you work with those two guys),” scolded former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau. “You don’t get to play the victim anymore and hide behind the mean journalists and the cancel culture libs. You’re in charge now. If you want to hire back the guy who says he’s ‘racist’ and couldn’t be paid to marry outside of his ethnicity – who said he wants to ‘normalize Indian hate’ – do it! Not sure I could look my family in the eye if I did something like that, but maybe you can. So live your truth, pal. Bring back the racist.”

Some were quick to remind Vance that his wife, who has faced attacks from white supremacists, is of Indian heritage.

Technology executive Anil Dash commented, “This is about the CRIME of giving this man access to the treasury — everyone already knows you don’t care about having your wife and children humiliated by your fellow MAGA racists. He’s not a child, and no one appointed him or the other known security threats at DOGE.”

Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen added, “The husband of an Indian-American wife and the father of 3 Indian-American kids wants to bring back the staffer who posted “normalize Indian hate.”

Others rejected the idea that a 25-year old is just a “kid,” especially since those posts reportedly were made last year.

“He’s either a kid who is too young and stupid to be held accountable for his actions. Or he’s an adult with a taxpayer-funded job that includes having access to American’s most sensitive information, which demands a high standards and accountability. Can’t have it both ways,” noted The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell.

“So he’s a racist kid with no impulse control, but he should have access to the system that doles out trillions of dollars of the federal budget and see all of our personal information,” observed Daily KOS’s Emily C. Singer.

Others pushed back against Vance’s attack on the media, making clear that America has a right to know.

“Setting aside everything else (i.e. ‘kid’), it would seem to be in the public interest to understand whether someone with such a consequential job is a secret racist,” wrote The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake. “That’s what reporting is. People can react how they will. He’s not only in the arena; he’s a central player.”

“I get that there’s no shame and decency left,” economics writer Joey Politano said, “you can self ID as a racist eugenicist and still have insanely important roles in this admin, but the most insulting thing here is treating a 25 year old like a uwu smol bean child who can’t be held responsible for his actions.”

“A 25-year-old is not a kid. He made blatant and disgusting racist posts in the last few months,” commented veteran Jared Ryan Sears, who writes The Pragmatic Humanist. Quoting what someone said is not ‘ruining their life’ it is reporting. It is shameful to defend such a terrible person while demonizing a journalist for reporting about him.”

Former White House correspondent Sam Youngman offered a big picture view: “Too weak to stand up for his own family. Think he’ll stand up for yours?”

READ MORE: ‘Last Thing I Want Is That Guy’: Dem Warns Against Musk ‘Trying to Control the Airspace’

 

Image via Reuters

 

 

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Trump Inherits Biden’s ‘Astonishing’ Jobs Legacy, But Prices Are Now Climbing on His Watch

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The January jobs report has been released, showing unemployment remaining near historic lows. As President Donald Trump takes over, he is inheriting what one noted economist is calling President Joe Biden’s “astonishing” and “beautiful” jobs record and labor market. But beyond employment figures, key benchmarks, such as the prices of essential goods like eggs, coffee, and gas, are drawing attention—leading some to wonder if last year will be remembered as the actual “golden age” for everyday consumers.

“In many respects, Donald Trump inherited the “golden age” he claims to be ushering in. All he really needs to do is not screw it up,” Reuters editor-at-large Mike Dolan wrote two days after Trump’s inauguration. “In economic and financial terms, the United States has rarely been in better health.”

But President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and economic policies, and his promised “mass deportations,” coupled with his efforts to slash the federal government workforce, could come with strong financial and even personal health costs to everyday Americans.

For the month of January, the unemployment rate dropped, from 4.1% to 4%.

READ MORE: Pam Bondi Quietly Disbands DOJ Task Force Targeting Russian Oligarchs

“Except for January 1970, the unemployment rate is lower today than it was in *every single month* of the 1970s, 80s and 90s,” wrote portfolio manager Eddy Elfenbein. Professor of Economics Justin Wolfers, a frequent cable news guest, responded: “This is an astonishing (and beautiful) fact, and we really ought to celebrate it. The labor market is in terrific shape, and continuing to improve. If the economy continues its momentum (a big if, to be sure), the unemployment rate isn’t far from returning to its fifty year low.”

But according to The New York Times, the “fresh numbers suggest that the labor market may be losing momentum heading into the second administration of President Trump, whose policy agenda — including sharp cuts to federal payrolls and large-scale deportations of unauthorized migrants — could affect both employment and the availability of workers.”

During his campaign, President Trump vowed he would “immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” That has not happened, and there is little to suggest he has made any tangible progress.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture now says the price of eggs will likely jump by 20 percent in 2025,” Politico reported this week. “An executive order Trump signed in January placed deregulation at the center of his cost-cutting strategy.”

The White House has suggested Trump’s energy policies will also lead to dramatic price drops for families.

“President Trump is already taking bold action to drive down costs with his executive actions to unleash American energy, and he is working diligently with Secretary Brooke Rollins to address the price of eggs,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Politico, the news outlet reported.

But the price of eggs is being directly impacted by a massive Bird Flu outbreak across the country, and it does not appear the Trump administration has taken steps to end it. Meanwhile, farmers have had to kill over 148 million birds, including chickens and ducks, to prevent the spread of the disease.

It could get worse.

“The White House is working on an executive order to fire thousands of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services workers, according to people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal reported in an exclusive on Thursday. “The job cuts under consideration would affect the Department of Health and Human Services, which employs more than 80,000 people and includes the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in addition to the FDA and CDC.”

READ MORE: ‘Last Thing I Want Is That Guy’: Dem Warns Against Musk ‘Trying to Control the Airspace’

“The agencies,” WSJ added, “are responsible for a range of functions, from approving new drugs to tracing bird-flu outbreaks and researching cancer. A loss of staff could affect the efforts depending on which workers are cut and whether they are concentrated in particular areas.”

Politico adds, “The White House has in recent days taken drastic steps to reorganize USAID and strip the embattled agency of its autonomy. USAID’s headquarters were closed Monday and Secretary of State Marco Rubio named its acting administrator. Trump doubled down on Tuesday, taking steps to put nearly all of the agency’s Washington-based staff on leave.”

“But shutting down an office that fights diseases worldwide will only mean prices stay high, Democrats argue.”

It appears the international health community is concerned.

“The US has the most cases of bird flu in humans globally,” the Financial Times reports. “Scientists have called for increased vaccination of farm workers and more efforts to stem the spread among farm animals as the H5N1 pathogen continues to infect cattle and chickens across the country.”

“It is arguably grossly irresponsible for the US authorities to allow such sustained high level of virus transmission in dairy cattle as this poses such a major threat to global human health,” Professor James Wood, an infectious diseases expert at the UK’s Cambridge University, told FT.

President Trump’s promise to lower the price of gas “on day one” has also not materialized.

“Amid the threat of tariffs, the national average for a gallon of gas ticked up two cents from last week to $3.13,” according to AAA on Thursday, which tracks gas prices.

In addition to Bird Flu and its impacts, there’s reason to believe food costs will continue to rise.

Bloomberg energy and commodities columnist Javier Blas reported Wednesday that “Wholesale Arabica coffee prices rise above $4 per lb in New York — an all-time high and more than double the level of a year ago.”

Blas says “just the threat” of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Columbia, the world’s third-largest coffee producer, “is enough to scare the market.”

And he’s predicting a “coffee inflation wave” for this year, and says retail coffee prices “are going to go up between 20% and 25% in the next few months.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump Vows to Eradicate ‘Anti-Christian Bias,’ Says ‘We Have to Bring Religion Back’

 

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