The Democrat’s itinerary included tours and roundtables with Volunteers in Medicine, the Berkshire Black Economic Council, and Soldier On. She spoke with reporters after her first stop at VIM’s new facility at 199 South Street in Pittsfield.
“Today I'll be talking about funding that I was able to get for healthcare, funding for small businesses, and funding for our veterans, funding to be spent right here in Pittsfield and in the surrounding area. That's a way of saying, as a nation, we want to invest locally, because locally is how we build the strong communities. What I see every time I come out here to Pittsfield reminds me that at the federal level, I don't want to be the government that tries to tell you what to do. That's not our job, but our job is to say when you are doing the good things, when you're trying to support the small businesses, when you're trying to help our veterans, when you're trying to get health care for people. The federal government should be a good partner, and being a good partner means let's get the resources down here to help you. So, I'm celebrating today giving money away.”
Warren was asked if she is standing by embattled President Joe Biden, who faces growing calls to end his re-election bid after a widely panned debate performance against former President Donald Trump in June and lagging polls. Warren ran against Biden in the 2020 primary.
“Look, Joe Biden is our nominee,” said the senator. “He has been a terrific president who has delivered $35 insulin and a cap on what seniors spend on medical care, student loan cancelation for about 5 million people, getting rid of junk fees, and going after these giant corporate guys that are gouging people at the gas pump and the grocery store. He's running against Donald Trump, who has exactly two things to his name from his time as president. One of them is an extremist Supreme Court that overturned Roe vs. Wade and has since declared that Donald Trump or any president gets to be a king, and the other one is a $2 trillion tax break that's mostly been soaked up by millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. That is a huge contrast, and that's what I think November 5th, 2024 is going to be all about. Which side of that divide are you on?”
Warren responded to reports of chaos behind the scenes of the Democratic establishment ahead of August’s convention in Chicago.
“It's not chaos,” she said. “People in the Democratic Party are very concerned about what it is that Donald Trump stands for, and particular concerns now that JD Vance is his running mate. Let's start with abortion. Today, 30% of all women live in states that effectively ban abortion. Now here in Massachusetts, we say, not us, however, JD Vance and Donald Trump want to make abortion bans nationwide, so that means 100% of women would live in states with bans on abortion. And by the way, for JD Vance, the new person added to the ticket, he thinks an abortion ban is not enough. There should be no exceptions for rape or incest. Also understand that these are people who, in effect, just mean we can't do IVF anywhere in the United States, if Donald Trump and JD Vance get their way. The reason I emphasize things like that is it's a reminder the Republicans and the Democrats are about as far apart as we can get on that set of issues. Democrats believe that women and their healthcare providers should be making decisions about their reproductive care, and that it should not be some politician in Washington. So, we just want to make sure that come November 5th, we've gotten those issues in front of people, and that we get everybody out the polls to vote me. I'm fighting for the Democrats here.”
The senator then addressed the July 13th assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“Violence has no place in our democratic process,” said Warren. “And you know, I know for some people, they just mouth the words, but, but I really want to be clear- When you think about what democracy is, the bedrock, I mean, you've dusted away everything, what you're down to is, we may have different ideas, different ideas on abortion, different ideas on taxes, different ideas on Social Security, different ideas, but we resolve them at the ballot box. We vote. We do not engage in violence. Violence truly undercuts everything about our democratic process. I was very glad that former President Trump was all right. So sorry to hear that others were injured, and of course, one person died. I also want to use this as a moment to say, though, Republicans say let's come together- I'm all for that. Let's do something in a bipartisan way. The number one thing we could do in a bipartisan way is ban the very weapon that Donald Trump was shot with. Let's get rid of these assault weapons. They do not belong in civilian hands. And remember, we do as much as we can here in Massachusetts, but people buy these weapons elsewhere and bring them here. We want to keep our politics safer. We also want to keep our school children safer. We want to keep people who go to shopping malls and movies safer. One of the best ways to do that is ban these assault weapons. I invite every Republican to join me.”
WAMC asked Warren for her campaign pitch to Berkshire voters as she seeks a third six-year term, and if she’ll make another rare trip to the westernmost region of Massachusetts before election day.
“My job is to keep doing my job,” the senator said. “It is. I am so grateful that the people of Massachusetts have sent me to Washington to fight on their behalf, to fight for healthcare, to fight for improving housing and to get childcare across the board for all of our people, and to make sure that we are making the investments to try to fight back against climate change, and that our tax system is fair, that it's not all about letting billionaires take a walk while hardworking families are paying to keep this government going. There's a lot of pieces to this. I'm going to come out here, as I have many, many times in the past, and will continue to do so, to talk with people here in the Berkshires about what they need on the ground, and how we partner up, not only to make the Berkshires a better place, but also how to make our whole country better.”
The general election is November 5th. Two Republicans, lawyer John Deaton and Quincy City Council President Ian Cain, are running in the September 3rd primary.
