Quote of the Day

President Trump tonight has told us why he believes we need the wall. It gives me no pleasure to tell you what most of you already know. President Trump lies all of the time – and in his remarks tonight, and in recent weeks regarding immigration and the wall, he continues to lie.

In terms of immigration in this country, what we need to do is not to waste billions of dollars on a wall, but to finally address the need for comprehensive immigration reform – including improved border security. It is inhumane that tiny children at the border have been torn away from their parents. It is disgraceful that 1.8 million young people, raised in the United States, and who know no other country but the United States, have lost their legal protection under the DACA program because of Trump’s actions. It is heartbreaking that almost 11 million undocumented people living in this country, the overwhelming majority of whom are hard-working and law-abiding, worry every day about being deported and separated from their loved ones.

Sadly, what President Trump is trying to do is to create fear and hatred in our country. Instead of trying to bring us together as a people, he is trying to divide us up. And, in the process, divert our attention away from the real crises facing the working families of this nation.

President Trump, you want to talk about crises. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, tens of millions of workers in our country are earning starvation wages and are unable to adequately provide for their families.

You want a national emergency? Thirty million Americans have no health insurance and many more are under-insured. Thousands die each year because they don’t go to a doctor when they should and our life expectancy is actually in decline. While the pharmaceutical industry makes tens of billions a year in profit, 1 in 5 Americans can’t afford the medicine they need. Now, that’s a crisis we should be working on right now.

And here’s another crisis. Too many of our seniors are living in desperate poverty, and about half of older Americans have no retirement savings. Hundreds of thousands of kids cannot afford to go to college and over 40 million are trying to deal with outrageous levels of student debt. What are we going to do about those crises?

And maybe, here’s the biggest crisis of all. The scientific community has made it very clear in telling us that climate change is real and is causing devastating harm to our country and the entire planet. And they have told us that if we do not transform our energy system away from fossil fuel the nation and planet we will be leaving our kids and grandchildren may well be unhealthy and even uninhabitable.

Mr. President, we don’t need to create artificial crises. We have enough real ones. Let us end this shutdown and bring the American people together around an agenda that will improve life for all of our people.

– Senator Bernie Sanders
Quoted in Jake Johnson's article,
"Bernie Sanders Rebukes Trump for Stoking
'Fear and Hatred' With Lie-Soaked National Address"
Common Dreams
January 8, 2019

Related Off-site Links and Updates:
Bernie Sanders Responds to Trump’s Border Wall Address, Debunking President’s Lies About Immigration – Democracy Now!, January 9, 2019).
Trump Went on National TV and Lied to Americans About Immigrants – Melanie Schmitz (Think Progress, January 8, 2019).
'Trump Is the National Crisis': Primetime Address Denounced as 'Bigoted, Childish Con Job' on American People – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, January 8, 2019).
Not One Network Should Have Aired Trump’s Immigration Speech – Peter Certo (Common Dreams, January 9, 2019).
Pelosi and Schumer Played by Trump's Rules in Their Rebuttal; Bernie Sanders Did Not – Shane Ryan (Paste, January 9, 2019).
What’s The Matter With the Democratic Party? Just Watch Pelosi and Schumer Respond to Trump’s Wall Speech – Briahna Gray (The Intercept, January 9, 2019).
Trump Calls Those Who Don’t Support His Wall ‘Criminals’ – Mary Papenfuss (The Huffington Post, January 5, 2019).
On the Border, Little Enthusiasm for a Wall: ‘We Have Other Problems That Need Fixing’ – Simon Romero, Manny Fernandez, Jose A. Del Real and Azam Ahmed (New York Times, January 8, 2019).
Trump's Border Wall Isn't About National Security. It's About Stoking Racial Resentment – Jason Sattler (USA Today, January 10, 2019).
There Is No Crisis at the Border – and DHS Stats Prove It – Stuart Anderson (Forbes, June 25, 2018).
Retiring Border Chief Calls Trump's Wall a Waste of Time and Money – Bran Ross, Brian Epstein and Paul Blake (ABC News, January 23, 2017).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Christmas in America, 2018
• A Prayer for Asylum Seekers Being Tear-Gassed at the Border
• Opposing the Trump Administration's Inhumane Treatment of Immigrant Families
• Something to Think About – November 27, 2018
• "What We're Seeing Here Is a Tipping Point"
• No Room for Them
• Something to Think About – December 25, 2016
• 2000+ Take to the Streets of Minneapolis to Express Solidarity with Immigrants and Refugees
• Something to Think About – December 25, 2012

Image: Photographer unknown.