Democratic Party United States Politicians

"All he does is send out a lot of press releases quoting a spokesman."

"He hasn't done a damn thing since he's been in there. I don't think he should stay there indefinitely if he doesn't shape up. He's become more of a right winger than Reagan."

"What next are the political arsonists going to burn? The Jefferson Memorial? The Lincoln Memorial? Or how about chipping away at the tombstones in Arlington Cemetery? Or how about the Justice Department building where the justices are saying that it is allowed to burn whatever one wants as long as they have a political message?"

"I don't think Hussein is worth the loss of American lives or the $50 billion to $100 billion this is going to cost us."

"What in God's name is going on? This is an outrage. What will they allow next? Allow fornication in Times Square at high noon?"

"I am in receipt of your resolution in which you condemned the pay raise. Letters such as this could have proven invaluable to me had they been sent before the fact rather than after."

"If Mr. Tyler were truly serious about this subject, I would suggest that he visit a local VA cemetery in Chicago during the Memorial Day weekend and comprehend the fluttering of small flags which adorn the grave markers."

"People are doing it anyway. We're making criminals out of people who aren't criminals."

"It sounds like typical Orr, a lotta bombast and not saying too much."

"I was awed at the power of an idea whose time has come. An idea is more powerful than all the nuclear weapons, bombers and tanks that a country has at its disposal. An idea that people are changing the world today, not the weapons."

"Being jailed for 27 years, Mandela's one of those rare people who have the ability to rise to the occasion. Circumstances thrust him to the forefront, and he has responded with an innate ability to lead a nation.""

"I think it's a significant event in the history of our country that the film was even made."

"Here we had the iron-clad conservative speaker of the House and a liberal Afro-American representing the same community and the best of friends at the same time."

"Organized labor is the only group in Democratic politics in Delaware County who can say, 'we want to find the best candidate we can and quit bloodying them up in inner-party squabbles.'"

"President Trump is not a defender of democracy. He must resign or be removed from office. Country above party. We must all defend our constitution and stand together."

"I say two words: ‘Supreme Court,’ the next president will shape the court for generations to come. And I want the court to protect the rights of all of us regardless of race, gender, class, cultural background."

"I think that there has been a real opportunity for me to be a champion for issues that I might not hear about if I only was going to the population centers of the state"

"Suicide prevention has been and should continue to be a nonpartisan issue, and I call on my Republican colleagues who have long supported this program to fight for these kids, too."

"Tammy did a great job of reaching out to the Democratic leadership, and emphasizing the importance, and helping to decide, some of the timing, such as waiting til after the election. Her leadership was critical"

""I believe in fair play, and I believe that when people are struggling, you don't talk down to them, you help lift them up"."

""One of the most amazing experiences of my life has been the ability to work from within a legislative body to build majorities, to change minds and hearts, and to bring people to the place where they're proud to call themselves fighters for equity and equality"."

"If you think about the challenges our state is facing and the people of our state are facing... some of them are things that can be addressed in a short period of time, but most of them are things that take work and that will take time"

"Here are the facts that are important to me. Kyle Rittenhouse, who was a minor at the time, traveled from Illinois to Wisconsin, and picked up an assault rifle that was illegally purchased for him. He took the law into his own hands, killing two people and injuring another... I understand why people believe that justice was not served in this case, because I feel the same way. This ruling makes clear we have so much work to do to take on gun violence, and reform our broken criminal justice system so that it starts working equally and fairly for everyone. In Wisconsin, this judge has now ruled that it’s legal for a minor to walk the streets in Wisconsin with an assault weapon. If that is true, then our state legislature should take action now in a bipartisan way to change the law and make it illegal... To me that’s just common sense that most people in our state would agree with. The fact that some people are cheering a ruling that has allowed someone to take the law into his own hands and walk free from any accountability after shooting and killing two people is disrespectful to the lives that were lost, and I am deeply concerned that it will encourage more tragic gun violence from those like Kyle Rittenhouse who think they have a license to take the law into their own hands in a violent way."

"My own first reaction was this is absolutely unnecessary but if they want clarification in writing, OK, there's no harm to state the facts"

"Millions of same-sex and interracial couples made this moment possible by living openly as their authentic selves, changing the hearts and minds of people around them"

"This legislation will protect the hard-fought progress we’ve made on marriage equality and I look forward to the Respect for Marriage Act becoming the law of the land"

"People are really sick of us going from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, and really want to see us getting back to a point where we look out over a year, or five years or ten years and plan in thoughtful way"

"It's the vote that is meaningful, in terms of sticking to your guns and standing by your principles, and I'm gonna stand by the fact that I think it's time to pass a torch to a new leadership team in our party"

"Many of my colleagues argue this major line item is worth accepting to pass the rest of the bill. I disagree: the SALT giveaway in the Build Back Better Act is larger than the child care, pre-K, healthcare or senior care provisions of the bill."

"The reauthorization is long overdue, and we want to make sure it keeps pace with the retirement of the baby boom generation"

"We were talking about, access for students who might be non-traditional students, mid-career, needing to close skills gaps to get 21st century manufacturing or advanced manufacturing jobs and how they're playing a key role in doing that"

"We are not a monolith. We amplify and support each other, however we choose to show up in the resistance. I couldn’t believe the folks that were saying, “You’re not going to the State of the Union. That is your job. We want our money back. Because if I didn’t show up to work, I would be docked pay.” Well, talk to the Senate, because they haven’t been doing their job this whole Congress."

"we’re actually in the momentum. And what I mean by that is, in the way that we are intentional about bringing our ancestors into spaces, I have got to bring people like Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters. This did not — this, yes, you know, there is a paradigm shift occurring, but there have been women before us, women of color before us, black women before us, who shook the table, who called to question, who sought justice, who were the truth tellers, who preserved our democracy. And we are simply honoring and trying to be good stewards of the ground that they laid."

"we are often characterized as being disruptive. Now, if we were in Silicon Valley, we would be called innovators. So, yes, yeah, we are disrupters. We are innovators. And contrary to the opinion of many, we are actually patriots, because dissent is the ultimate patriotism."

"I did do, have the honor of delivering, the Working Families Party response, because we already know the state of the union. It’s in complete chaos and disarray. I wanted to speak to the state of the movement, which is strong as hell."

"Don't call these cabinet resignations anything but a Profile in Cowardice. They're resigning to avoid invoking the 25th amendment. Congress & the people see right through it. We must impeach & remove."

"A 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15. He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives. Fix your damn headlines."

"what I want us to get to is — and you already do it, but we need more, more folk to be intentional and inclusive in our movement building and our coalition building and the breaking down of silos and of challenging folk to have equitable outrage."

"It was a sham of a State of the Union, following the sham of a trial. The occupant of this White House has contempt for the American people, for the role of Congress as a coequal branch, as checks and balance, contempt for our Constitution. And so it was a sham of a State of the Union to me."

"The people closest to the pain should be the closest to the power."

"I need people to understand the link between the humanitarian crisis at the border and babies being ripped from their mother’s arms and what happened in my household, in millions of American households, when my father was in and out of the criminal legal system for 14 years for being an addict. So, I’m for the preservation of family, from the border and, as I would say in my district, all the way to Blue Hill Avenue. So, it’s not a competition; there is no hierarchy of hurt. If you are aghast at the crisis of human trafficking globally, then don’t look at what’s happening in your own backyard and see that as blight and affecting your property values, and not understand the brokenness and not see those folks as your neighbors. If you are concerned about human rights violations and abuses and what is happening to women and rape being used as a tool of war and oppression, please pay attention to what is happening right here. If you are concerned about the violation, the undermining of women’s rights globally, then pay attention to what’s happening with Hyde and the gag rule and the ROE Act and in our courts and abortion."

"And so, our freedoms and our destinies are tied. And what we need to get to is stop what Ilhan and I have often referred to as like the Oppression Olympics. You know, this is not a competition for who is sinking the fastest. There is no hierarchy of hurt. And so, what I’m looking for is equitable outrage, inclusive organizing and our collective upliftment."

"The Ocasio-Cortez/Markey Green New Deal resolution goes to considerable lengths to outline how it plans to avoid repeating these injustices, listing as one of its core goals "stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth." As Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said at a town hall in Boston, "This is not just an opportunity to fix the first New Deal, but also to transform the economy.""

"I'm not looking to be defined as someone that is there in opposition, but rather someone that's there serious about doing the job and doing the work. It's a piece of paper. I could care less about it."

"While Biden repeatedly vowed to address the climate crisis, his climate agenda was dealt a major setback back in Washington, D.C., when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia criticized the slimmed-down $1.75 trillion Build Back Plan to address the climate crisis and to expand the nation’s social safety net. The plan will only pass the Senate if Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema come around to support it. It was interesting Senator Manchin used Biden’s moment in Glasgow to hold his own news conference in Washington, D.C., to say, well, he’s weighing whether to support the Build Back Better Act... Some have said... that Senator Manchin has to decide whether he wants to be a senator or a lobbyist or maybe a Republican."

"Manchin is the perfect example of how Big Oil works. He’s taken more money than any other senator from the fossil fuel industry... There was that sting videotape released a couple of weeks ago where Exxon’s chief lobbyist reported talking to him every week and calling him their “kingmaker.” There was a report yesterday that Manchin spent part of September huddled with all the leading coal barons at a golf resort someplace, where they played a Civil War - themed golf tournament in between speeches."

"Manchin and Sinema are effectively acting like 21st Century-style "Dixiecrats" of the '50s ad '60s, segregationist Democrats such as James Eastland, Robert Byrd (Manchin's mentor) and George Wallace. The Dixiecrats' were committed to racial segregation and white supremacy...The question is whether faced with the potential defeat of historic civil rights legislation due to their opposition to filibuster reform, are Sinema and Manchin willing to go down in history as the Strom Thurmonds, George Wallaces, and yes, Robert Byrds of the 21st century, who stood in the classroom doors to block integration and for years filibustered civil rights laws. Will they want to face headlines like "Two Democratic Dissenters Manchin and Sinema Join Republicans in Blocking Filibuster Reform That Would Allow Majority Passage of Civil Rights Laws." Are Sinema and Manchin willing to face the outrage of the grassroots activists who helped get them elected and who are ready to cash in their chips and mobilize a mass movement to get these two Senators to change their positions? Sinema may be particularly susceptible to grassroots pressure, since her narrow win was powered in large part by organizing from unions and Latino activists. And if Sinema flips, would Manchin be willing to be the lone Democrat allowing Republicans to block historic civil rights legislation? Sinema's and Manchin's decisions may well determine whether America remains a democracy or whether it's indefinitely distorted by minority rule."

"Sanders' remarks on the NDAA—which cleared a key procedural hurdle late Wednesday—came as Democrats in Congress also worked to finalize the Build Back Better Act, a reconciliation package whose social spending and climate provisions have been gutted to satisfy right-wing members of the majority party such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Manchin, a key swing vote in the Senate, has repeatedly cited the national debt as a reason to pare back the reconciliation bill, which now has a top-line price tag of around $1.75 trillion over ten years—roughly half of the original $3.5 trillion framework. But while the West Virginia Democrat says he's alarmed by the prospect of spending to expand Medicare and combat the climate crisis, he appears unconcerned that, over the past decade, Congress has poured over $9 trillion into the only federal agency that has yet to pass a full independent audit. Manchin has approved every NDAA since 2011, and he voted Wednesday to advance the 2022 Pentagon budget."

"President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress are facing a crisis as the popular domestic agenda they ran on in the 2020 elections is held hostage by two corporate Democratic senators: fossil-fuel consigliere Joe Manchin and payday-lender favorite Kyrsten Sinema. But the very week before the Democrats’ $350-billion annual domestic package hit this wall of corporate money-bags, all but 38 House Democrats voted to hand over more than double that amount to the Pentagon. Senator Manchin has hypocritically described the domestic spending bill as “fiscal insanity,” but he has voted for a much larger Pentagon budget every year since 2016. Real fiscal insanity is what Congress does year after year, taking most of its discretionary spending off the table and handing it over to the Pentagon before even considering the country’s urgent domestic needs."

"And this is a genuine crisis for America because if President Biden is frustrated in his attempt to pass his Build Back Better legislation (that is overwhelmingly supported by Americans across the political spectrum) — all because business groups, giant corporations and rightwing billionaires are asserting ownership over their two “made” senators — there’s a very good chance that today’s cynicism and political violence is just a preview of the rest of the decade. But this isn’t as much a story about Kyrsten Sinema as it is about today’s larger political dysfunction for which she’s become, along with Joe Manchin, a poster child. Increasingly, because of the Supreme Court’s betrayal of American values, it’s become impossible for people like the younger Sinema to rise from social worker to the United States Senate without big money behind them.... While the naked corruption of Sinema and Joe Manchin is a source of outrage for Democrats across America, what’s far more important is that it reveals how deep the rot of money in American politics has gone, thanks entirely to a corrupted Supreme Court. In Justice Stevens’ dissent in Citizens United, he pointed out that corporations in their modern form didn’t even exist when the Constitution was written..."