IDP Hall of Fame Celebration Speeches—Sen. Kamala Harris  ... next >
What's up Iowa? What's up Iowa?

Oh, it's good to be back with you; it is great to be back with you. And I want to thank the people of Iowa, because ever since the first trip, I [played?] here, as a presidential candidate, you have been informing and helping me be a better candidate, and you undoubtedly will help me be a better president. So I want to thank you.

In fact, one of the first meetings I had was a meeting with a group of teachers here. And and and and and during that meeting, you said to me, hey, Kamala, you know, this issue of teacher pay you've been talking about, it's a national issue. And it was because of the conversation that we had, that as my first policy proposal, I am prepared to make the first federal investment in the history of our country in closing that teacher pay gap. I thank you.

And so that's just, that's part of the backbone, part of the backbone of what I believe needs to be done right now, which is to make the case for America, make the case for our America,

An America where healthcare is a right, not a privilege,

America where teachers are paid their value.

An America where women have the right to make decisions about their own bodies.

An America where somebody has to work only one job to put food on the table and a roof over their head

An America where our children do not have to go to school every day and be concerned about some mass shooter roaming the hallways of their school.

An America where we have a president of the United States who knows it is a sign of strength not to beat people down, but to lift people up.

So I'd like to tell you a little bit about my background. So I was raised as a child as a daughter of the civil rights movement. My parents met when they were active in that movement; my sister and I joke that we grew up surrounded by a bunch of adults who spent full time marching and shouting.

In fact, our mother was all of five feet tall, but if you had ever met her, you would have thought she was seven feet tall. And my mother was the kind of person who if you ever came home complaining about something, the first thing she'd do, she might put a hand on the hip, she'd look at you and she'd say, so what are you gonna do about it?

So I decided to run for president of the United States. [laughs]

So the other thing I can tell you about my background is I've been a career as a prosecutor, and I've prosecuted those who prey on the most vulnerable—murderers and rapists. I prosecuted banks. I prosecuted big pharmaceutical companies who were preying on the most vulnerable and consumers. I prosecuted the big banks, and for profit colleges who were defrauding homeowners, and consumers. And I'm gonna tell you somebody else who has defrauded the American people. Donald Trump.

He promised the American people that he would take care of dreamers, that he would protect [inaud.] up working people. But what did we get instead? We got a president of the United States who made a whole lot of promises and betrayed the American people. What did we get? A lot of broken promises. So we need to prosecute the case. And I going to tell you, there's a rap sheet full evidence to make the case.

Let's look at what happened.

He promised health care, and then he tried to rip healthcare aware for millions of people. What's that called? Health care fraud.

He said he was for working people. Then he passed a tax bill benefiting the top 1% and the biggest corporations in this country. That's tax fraud.

He believes the president of Russia and the North Korean dictator over the word of the American intelligence community, securities fraud.

And then he claims to be the best president we've seen in a generation. Well, I say let's call it Barack Obama, because that's identity fraud.

So I'm here to ask for your support, I"m here to ask for your support because I am prepared to

make the case for America, and to prosecute the case against Donald Trump.

Thank you, Iowa.


DEMOCRACY IN ACTION TRANSCRIPT  |  [see also: prepared remarks]
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