Warren lambastes Trump’s RNC speech: ‘Sounded like some two-bit dictator’

    Michael Walsh
    Reporter

    Democratic politicians swiftly condemned Donald Trump’s Republican nomination acceptance speech on Thursday at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland as peddling prejudice and paranoia without offering any real solutions to the problems facing the United States.

    Some of the Democratic Party’s most influential voices, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, excoriated the real estate tycoon’s vision for the country before the night came to a close.

    Warren, who has publicly feuded with Trump, called the four-day Republican National Convention “the nastiest, most divisive convention that we’ve seen in half a century” during an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

    “I’ve got to tell you, that speech tonight, he sounded like some two-bit dictator of some country that you couldn’t find on a map,” Warren said.

    In response, Colbert joked that he sounded more like a “billionaire dictator” and that “two-bit dictator” is “insulting to the man.”

    “He sounded like a dictator of a small country,” she continued, “rather than a man who is running for the highest office of the strongest democracy on the face of this earth.”

    In his speech, Trump lamented that the system was “rigged” against Sanders, in an attempt to win over supporters of Hillary Clinton’s former rival.

    “I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders — he never had a chance,” Trump said. “But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade.”

    Colbert asked Warren why Sanders’ supporters would not start backing Trump if he’s able to connect with them emotionally. After all, both believe the democratic process in the U.S. is rigged to favor establishment candidates like Clinton.

    Donald Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination on July 21 at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)
    Donald Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination on July 21 at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

    “The game is rigged. It fundamentally is,” she said. “Washington works for those who can hire armies of lobbyists, armies of lawyers. It works for billionaires like Donald Trump. For the rest of America, it’s not working so well.”

    She said Democrats want to use their voices and votes to take back the government and make it work for all Americans. But Trump, she said, tells his supporters to fear “every other American.”

    Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, was live-tweeting during Trump’s speech using #RNCwithBernie and provided a similar explanation for why his supporters won’t climb aboard the Trump train: His campaign was built around bringing people together instead of driving them apart.


    According to Sanders, Trump’s economic plans amount to the “same old, same old, trickle-down economics” that have not worked in the past. He further called Trump a hypocrite for vowing to “fix” trade even though the business mogul continues to make products in low-wage countries overseas. And he expressed concern over Trump’s failure to address issues that were central to his own campaign, such as combating climate change, making college affordable and expanding health coverage to millions of Americans without insurance.





    Sanders similarly suggested that Trump sounded more interested in being a dictator rather than president. He cited the line “I alone can fix this,” saying Trump might not understand that he needs to work with Congress.


    Meanwhile, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said that Trump’s speech made it clear that “we must elect” Clinton in November.


    And Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta, accused Trump of exploiting the problems facing the nation without providing solutions.

    “Tonight, Donald Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline. And his answer — more fear, more division, more anger, more hate — was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States,” he said in a statement.

    In his speech, Trump focused on turmoil abroad and rising crime rates domestically, blaming Clinton’s performance as secretary of state for the former. But Podesta said the United States is “better than Donald Trump” and that the Democrats would offer a more optimistic alternative at their convention.

    “Next week in Philadelphia, Democrats will focus on issues, not anger,” he continued. “We’ll offer a positive vision for the future based on lifting America up, not tearing Americans down.”