AURORA | Aurora Democratic Congressperson Jason Crow joined three other House Dems in Dallas Thursday to push back against President Donald Trump and Republican “Trumpapalooza” mid-term convention.
Republicans opened the second and final day of their midterm convention in Dallas on Thursday well aware that history is not on their side this election season but counting on Trump to push voters to the polls to protect their House and Senate majorities.
Crow and other Democrats vowed to take back control of the Congress.
“There are 50,000 U.S. service members in the Middle East fighting yet another quagmire endless war in the Middle East,” Crow told reporters at the live-stream press event in Dallas. “Eighteen of them have given their lives. Hundreds of them have been wounded. We have spent over $100 billion in direct military costs. The American people have paid over $100 billion in extra energy costs and counting. And after over two decades of endless war and endless conflict, here’s one thing that’s abundantly clear: while the elite and the wealthy and the privileged in the rooms across the street where Donald Trump is hanging out, get wealthier, and belly up, and make money off the American people’s backs, it’s the American working class that does the fighting, that does the dying, and pays for all of it.”
Crow tersely said Democrats need to make the case clear that Trump and Republicans contradict themselves daily by boosting the rich and endangering the middle class and poor.
“Working class folks are over it,” Crow said “I have had enough. Americans have had enough.”
California Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove said working-class struggles in her Los Angeles district keep her focused on more than just blasting the president. She said Democrats “have an action recovery plan for the American people, and we are 100 percent committed to … bring the cost of living down.”
Republicans spent the first night of the convention denouncing Democrats as extremists before Trump capped Wednesday with a speech saying the choice this election is “very, very simple” and making the outlandish promise of $5,000 to each American adult, if his party wins.
Such a proposal could cost more than $1 trillion at a time when the nation faces a record $40 trillion debt and was roundly panned by budget experts, and even some Republicans in the president’s party.
“The midterms are not supposed to be won by the sitting president,” Trump acknowledged during a lengthy primetime speech.
But he predicted this one will be “something very special,” and encouraged voters to cast their ballots as if they were voting for him.
“Pretend I’m on the ballot,” he said.
Democrats, holding this and other events around the city, portrayed the Republicans as out of touch with voters’ concerns about high prices and the ethics of the Trump administration.
“We want to ensure that people can actually live their lives, be able to work, have access to healthcare,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, “and the president’s more interested in sending bizarre, deranged social media posts and having his party in Dallas.”
Crow said that even if a Democratic House majority could not get legislation signed by the Republican Trump, there’s another key role Democrats say they could play: oversight of the president and his administration.
The Democratic delegation in Dallas said it plans to dig into the Trump family’s business dealings and examine how they’ve seen their wealth climb significantly since the president’s return to the White House.
“We will have both the power of the purse and the power of the gavel,” said Kamlager-Dove.
She said the polls show that Americans no longer trust Trump and his administration, and are looking for accurate, clear information to base their votes.
“We know that Donald Trump is the guy of empty promises,” Kamlager-Dove said. “The motto of this administration should be that surviving is the new thriving. And we are here to say we have an alternative. We are fighting to make sure that prices come down.”
Jason Crow is entitled to criticize President Trump’s Iran policy. But voters deserve more than criticism after the fact—especially from someone who understands the military stakes.
Iran had amassed a serious missile force and maintained a large stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent, just short of weapons-grade. The IAEA later said it could not verify Iran’s enrichment activities or account for the current location and composition of that stockpile. That is not a risk a president can responsibly ignore.
Reasonable people can debate the cost, timing, and consequences of military action. They should. But Crow’s argument in Dallas was long on condemnation and short on an answer to the central question: What would he have done to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state while protecting Americans, our troops, and our allies?
Leadership is not merely identifying the dangers of action. It is also accepting the dangers of inaction. After years of warnings, Trump chose to act. Crow should explain his alternative—not simply criticize the decision from a convention stage.
too bad our senators are not as verbal and active as Rep. Crow!
Mr. Crow is exactly right. During the campaign Trump said, “First, you have to get elected!” He lied right through his teeth to do so, then he broke every promise he made. The one’s he sort of kept have been messy to say the least. It’s true, immigration is down, but it’s true because immigrants are afraid of our “Storm Troopers” who cover their faces and frighten immigrants and citizens alike. Other countries are bewildered and disappointed with our support of such an unqualified person. Every day, he’s at war with another former ally or talking about taking over another country. He let himself get talked into going to war with Iran because Netanyahu needed his help and now it’s another mess, while we foot the bill. We can’t let the irresponsibly lazy GOP off the hook. They’ve totally stepped aside and let Trump run this country like a king and so has the conservative Supreme Court. All facets of the GOP have been taken over by Trump sycophants.