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Senator Warren Says She Is 'Louder And More Passionate Than Ever'

WAMC

Gearing up for a reelection campaign next year, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren today continued a recent series of meetings with Massachusetts constituents.

Addressing hundreds of enthusiastic supporters from throughout western Massachusetts at the town hall-like forum with the Democratic Senator Monday in Springfield, Warren urged them to join with her in being a thorn in the side of the Trump administration and Republican Congressional leadership.

"I am louder and more passionate than ever," said Warren. " And I ask everyone else to be louder and more passionate than ever."

Asked by one activist in the audience for advice on strategy, Warren said they should contact friends and relatives outside Massachusetts and encourage them to put political pressure on Republican members of the House and Senate through phone calls and emails.         

" It is going to take the contagion of democracy for us to make the people's voices heard, " she said adding, " We are partners all the way in this. Keep it up!  Keep it up!"

 Warren gave a full-throated rebuke of Trump’s first proposed federal budget, describing it as “trickle down economics on steroids.”

"We must not stand silently by as this becomes a country that works only for those at the top and kicks dirt in everyone else's face," she said as the audience cheered.

She singled out for criticism proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the elimination of Community Development Block Grants to cities and towns.

The enthusiastic audience groaned its disapproval with every mention by Warren of a Trump cabinet appointee and the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.   Warren said any nominee to the high court should have to pass the 60-vote threshold in the Senate to win confirmation.

Warren declared the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is “wrong, wrong, wrong.”

Dennis Jordan of Agawam said he is a “big fan” of Warren. 

"  I think our state is the best in the country to oppose Donald Trump's policies and having ( Senator Warren) represent us is one of the best ways to do that," he said when asked for his reaction to Warren's remarks.

Since she was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, Warren has made it a point to hold an annual public meeting in Springfield to talk about her agenda in Washington and take questions from constituents. 

 This year’s meeting was moved from the lobby of the building where Warren’s district office is located to the CityStage theater next door to accommodate a large crowd.  The audience numbered at least 250.

Last week, Warren held public meetings in Worcester and in Greater Boston.

Warren has already announced she will run next year for a second term in the Senate.

Several Republicans are said to be considering running against her.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
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