Phil Ammann
Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the first-ever South American born member of Congress, said Friday that President Donald Trump has “abandoned America” and that Latino voters around the nation are primed to vote in the upcoming election.
Mucarsel-Powell, speaking on a conference call for the Joe Biden for President campaign with other Latino leaders of the diaspora community, said that Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality incidents in America had motivated people to go to the polls.
“Unfortunately, we have a President in Donald Trump who has absolutely abandoned America in our highest moment of need,” she said. “He has failed to meet this moment as we have faced this crisis. He has responded actually with a playbook that too many of us in South Florida know from coming from Central and Latin America. And we’ve seen this before.”
Mucarsel-Powell, who was born in Ecuador and moved to the United States at age 14, said that Trump attempted to attack the media and strip important pillars of democratic institutions in his effort to maintain his hold on power. She also cited the President’s threat to send federal troops to cities and states if those local politicians do not elect to deploy the National Guard.
Meanwhile, in the face of those tactics, people are mobilizing to make their voices heard.
“Right now, we are facing an unprecedented crisis, the most serious crisis that we’ve faced in our generation amid this COVID19 pandemic,” she said. “We’ve lost more than 110,000 fellow Americans, and tens of millions of Americans are right now unemployed with the highest numbers among the Hispanic community. While our nation is also grappling with police brutality and systemic racism, we have seen hundreds of thousands of Americans join together from all walks of life and all backgrounds demanding peacefully for change.
“We are a nation that is carrying pain and open wounds, and we need someone who is going to step up and unite us as we lead forward.”
Frank Mora, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, was also part of Friday’s call, and he said that he had spent his career studying authoritarian regimes in Latin America that bears a distressing resemblance to the current administration.
Populist regimes, said Mora, often place more emphasis on staying in political power than they do concentrating on good governance.
“That’s the reason why we see — in moments of crisis like the one we’re seeing today — these regimes across the board have no other option than to deepen polarization that already exists,” he said. “I’m not saying that Donald Trump created COVID, but the mismanagement of the COVID crisis has only made it worse. I’m not saying that Donald Trump created the recession, but his mismanagement and incompetence have only deepened the recession.
“I’m not saying that Donald Trump created the race problems that we’re seeing in this country at the moment, but he’s certainly deepening and inciting those racial problems. And this is not just typical of Donald Trump; we see this across the board in many similar regimes around the world, in particular Latin America.”
Frandley Denis Julien, a Haitian American activist and writer, spoke about what it meant from his perspective to watch the current administration handle multiple crises at once.
“As a Haitian American, I live this Presidency as a double-layered tragedy,” he said. “The first layer is the constant disrespect. President Trump referred to Haiti and African countries as ‘shithole’ countries. … Now the second layer is personal to me. I came to the United States 14 years ago with a high school diploma, and today I’m an attorney. I know a thing or two about the American dream.
“But the American dream is not just financial. It’s also the idea of democracy, liberty and personal happiness. Unfortunately, with Trump, the feeling I have every day is taking me back to Haiti.”
Mucarsel-Powell, who represents Florida’s 26th Congressional District, said that voters are mobilizing for the November election because they’ve seen enough from President Trump.
“I am very confident that Hispanic communities all across America are going to come out. They are not happy with this President,” she said. “And let’s not forget that he’s been attacking immigrants and Latino communities from the very beginning; dehumanizing our immigrant brothers and sisters that have come to America fleeing violence.
“We’ve seen people dying of COVID-19 in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centers. They’re not criminals. They’ve committed civil offenses. People know that. These are family members. These are friends of family members. They have seen the attacks against their own community. They’re ready to vote him out, and they’re ready for President Joe Biden.”
4 comments
PeterH
June 15, 2020 at 2:42 pm
Trump is the worst president in American history with the most incompetent administration in many many decades. It’s obvious to most Americans that Trump is incapable of governing. Our current pandemic response and our collapsing economy is just the beginning. Let’s see what happens when mortgage and rent defaults relentlessly spread from coast to coast resulting from a retreating $600.00 per week unemployment stimulus.
Kenneth McCarver
June 15, 2020 at 2:48 pm
Americans across the country firmly believe the Democrats would be more than willing to completely destroy the economy if it meant getting rid of President Trump. They’ve tried everything else. American citizens aren’t willing to sacrifice their homes, careers, jobs and businesses, 401K for another leftist attempt to remove a President. How do you like Democrat Socialism? just like the third world isn’t it.
What do these Mayors & Governors have in common?………
Wolf (Gov PA)
Kenney (Mayor Philadelphia)
Pritzker (Gov Il),
Lori Lightfoot (Mayor Chicago)
Gavin Newsom (Gov CA)
Kate Brown (Gov OR)
Ted Wheeler (Mayor Portland OR)
Jay Inslee (Gov WA)
Jenny Durkan (Mayor Seattle)
Cuomo (Gov NY)
Di Blasio (Mayor NY)
Walz (Gov MN)
Frey (Mayor MN)
Lyda Krewson (Mayor St. Louis)
Gretchen Whitmer (Gov MI)
Mike Duggan (Mayor Detroit)
Keisha Lance Bottoms (Mayor Atl GA)
All are Democrats who kept the economy in their states and cities closed as long as they could (many still are) and ordered Police in their cities to stand down and allow the “Protesters” to loot, burn, destroy beat people in the streets even murder.
Democrat Governor’s & Mayors philosophy? Police were ordered to stand down while the city was looted, burned to the ground, citizens beaten trying to protect their businesses. .
There is no moderate wing of the Democrat party people If you vote for Joe Biden, you are voting for Bernie Sanders, or Elizabeth Warren’s far left platform and against your own best interests.. Joe will follow the radical left’s agenda or Joe won’t get the support (and he is)…of Val Demings, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Valerie Jarrett,. Rashida Talib, Stacy Abrams, Ayanna Pressley, Nancy Pelosi, Sheila Jackson Lee, Tom Perez, Maxine Waters, Al Green, and llhan Omar.
This is the core of the socialists leftist wing of the Democrat party in Washington and they are firmly in charge.
mel Thomas
June 15, 2020 at 5:17 pm
Never enough. Just a few examples of the more outrageous costs associated with illegal immigration. We will pass this burden on to our children & grand children as has been passed on to us.
*Congress JUST debating DACA is costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Thank the parents and Barrack Obama.
*Cost of educating illegal aliens is staggering. From K-12 it costs taxpayers on average of $122,000 for EACH illegal alien student. This does not include the millions spent on bilingual ED, instructors, & day care. School class size are negatively impacted by illegal aliens and our students suffer as a result. In addition,
Fraud at the border. Mexican parents have their children crossing the border daily fraudulently using our schools. This occurs in border cities–Juarez Mexico to El Paso TX, Tijuana Mexico to San Diego CA, Reynosa Mexico to McAllen TX, Mexicali Mexico to Calexico, Nuevo Laredo to Laredo TX, Matamoros Mexico to Brownsville TX. School officials are fully aware of this.
*Taxpayers are funding “in state college tuition” discounts for illegal aliens. Cost to taxpayers over a billion dollars annually.
*$3Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate, process Illegal aliens in the Criminal justice system.
* Job loss and wage reduction. for years Democrats have told Americans “Illegal Aliens only take jobs American citizens don’t want.” Lie. DACA recipients take jobs as nurses, paramedics, fire fighters, police officers anything open to Americans is open to illegal aliens on DACA.
* Emergency services for city & states increase with illegal immigration (sanctuary cities). Taxpayer pay for every police, fire, paramedic service call for illegal aliens in their city’s. Taxpayers pay for all hospital emergency room treatments, ambulances, medications. Hospital wait times for citizens are negatively impacted.
*Every child birth by illegal aliens in the US is paid for with tax dollars. In the US, the average cost to have a baby without complications during delivery, is $10,808, which can increase to $30,000 when factoring in care provided before and after pregnancy (July 9, 2018 google.)
* Section 8 housing. Citizens in poverty in many cases wait behind non citizens for housing. Thank you Ben Carson for fixing this.
*$2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as SNAP, WIC, & taxpayer funded school lunches.
* Public Charge.policy has illegal aliens refusing taxpayer funded benefits across the country saving taxpayers billions..
PeterH
June 15, 2020 at 7:54 pm
40% of America’s undocumented own homes here in the USA financed by US banks. (PEW research. Annually, America’s undocumented contribute at least $12 billion dollars to the US treasury. That dollar figure does not include the billions the undocumented contribute to Medicare and Social security of which THEY CAN NEVER BENEFIT. I suggest you get off your Steve Miller talking points and learn a few facts!
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/oct/02/maria-teresa-kumar/how-much-do-undocumented-immigrants-pay-taxes/
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