Transcript of 'Trump Does Not Own Our Country': Greg Casar Speaks At Bernie Sanders Rally In McAllen, Texas

[Music] [Applause] mcallen how we feeling down here how we feeling up top i'm Greg Gasar and I'm proud to represent the heart of Texas and the United States Congress and to welcome Bernie Sanders back to our state you know there's some people who have told me they don't understand why Senator Sanders would fly all the way from Vermont down to South Texas there are some people and it's those people who have this Texas-sized hole in their vision of the future of our country they've just written us off there's those same people that say that the RGV has been bought off by billionaires by Elon Musk and that there's no getting it back short-sighted people who think that Texans are so divided that we just deserve this that Latino communities and small town communities in Texas deserve what we're getting i don't think that's right there's people who think that this is the best that we can do but y'all I refuse to believe that this is the best that we can do a state where our president and our governor work for the billionaires instead of the working class is that the best that we can do a state where it gets harder and harder to scrape by while campaign contributors and their Republican puppets get them tax breaks and government contracts is that really the best we can do a state where every damn Republican that we send to Congress instead of helping us is trying to kick us off of our healthc care in order to make their friends more money is that really the best that we can do a state where you have to worry about your family being ripped away from you on the way to school or on the way to work when they've done nothing wrong getting ripped away from you for no damn reason is that the best that we can do do we deserve that texas it's time for a change am I right it's time for a change anyone who wants you to believe that this is the best that Texas can do does not know their history texans won Junth texans won Roie Wade texas is the birthplace of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and Medicaid and Medicare and I'm going to tell you right now right here that this place Macallen Texas can be the birthplace of a new Democratic party that puts working people first kicks out the corrupt politicians regardless of party and saves our country for everyday people and here's how I know because I've seen Texans do it before i didn't start out my career in Congress or in the seauite or in the courthouse i started it as a labor organizer on construction sites and you all know what a Texas construction site looks like there's black workers brown workers white workers immigrant workers documented undocumented native born workers people that cross the border people where the border crossed us and it's a couple hundred guys with at least a couple hundred opinions but my job was to bring everybody together and we could all agree no matter who you were and where you come from that the guys out there working overtime in the hot Texas sun deserve a raise and the billionaires in the white big tall glitzy towers could afford to pay for a raise but sometimes we'd encounter a big-time real estate developer who just didn't want to pay you guys know the type the kind of guy that tried to say the rules didn't apply to him and tried to make himself feel bigger by saying stuff like "You're fired." You know the type you know with a cheap spray tan and they like to put their name on everything the type who got millions of dollars for his business from his dad and then likes to call himself a genius you know he's got tons of money and thinks that everybody was put on earth to make him richer but he tries to cut your healthcare so he can put another zero next to his paycheck you guys know the type and every time those developers would try to play the oldest trick in the book they would try to divide native workers from immigrant workers pitting brown against white against black they wanted people to fight each other so the rich could keep on getting richer all this is to say I've seen Donald Trump's playbook up close before but I have good news every single time that working people united and stuck together and didn't fall for the tricks we won i've seen Texans win win a raise win healthcare win retirement win child care win their rights we won because there's nothing more powerful in America than working people who refuse to be divided you see in Texas our playbook is old too when working people have stood together in this state we've won our country back let me tell you they're trying to divide us they're trying to say that the division will get worse and worse and worse so they can take over this part of our country but let me tell you right now Elon Musk does not own the valley monica de la Cruz does not own our votes donald Trump does not own our country he just doesn't and guys we can win this change we need this change badly we need this change today because being here in South Texas talking to y'all I know the devastation that Trump is wreaking every single day on our families we are the resistance let's hear it we know he's trying to intimidate us but I don't want to sugarcoat what he's doing ice showing up at schools and churches people here with legal status a man deported to a foreign prison because they called his autism awareness tattoo a gang symbol a 10-year-old US citizen Texas girl with brain cancer deported where she was out of reach from her doctors and I know so many mixed status families and undocumented people who have lived here for decades without doing anything wrong who are terrified that they could be next if you wake up every day afraid for yourself or afraid for a loved one I want you to know from me and from the senator I see you i hear you and we're going to fight like hell for you and what's just so sick about it is these right-wing politicians they eat food cooked by immigrants they get their fancy cars cleaned by immigrants they do their corrupt deals and buildings built and engineered and maintained and cleaned by immigrants and then they have the gall to turn around and say that immigrants are the problem give me a break guess what an asylum seeker did not raise your rent a Wall Street hedge fund did a dreamer did not cut your healthcare but a big-time campaign donor and their Republican puppet politician sure as hell did and it's got to stop and we've got to stop them we've got to vote him out we got to vote him out [Applause] keep it going we're going to vote him out and I'm here to tell you how we're going to do it the people who supposedly represent you right here in McAllen Texas like Republican Congresswoman de la Cruz like your Republican senators they're doing a very dangerous but also a very unpopular and very stupid thing they're trying to pass a billionaire budget and everybody needs to know and tell all of their neighbors about this budget there's three things you need to know first it's the biggest tax cut for billionaires in American history second it's the biggest cut to health care in American history and third it's the biggest cut to food assistance in American history right here in the La Cruz's district she's trying to kick 66,000 people off of their health care and raise the cost of health care for everybody else for about by about $2,000 does that sound like what people voted for does that sound popular if you look up oligarchy in the dictionary there should just be a big picture of this bill oligarchy is this the billionaires get richer everyone else here gets screwed that's what they're doing and that's where we all come in because Texas Democrats independents Republicans progressives conservatives all of them they hate this kind of a scam that's why me and Bernie are here in McAllen we're That's why we're here because Donald Trump built support here by lying to everyone to their face he said he was going to be on the side of workers and he's only on the side of his rich friends and he's proving it he's proving it that's why right after this we're headed to Amarillo and Fort Worth traditionally conservative areas because we are in a moment where it's not just left versus right it's the billionaires versus everyone else and we have to go talk to everyone else everyone that feels betrayed and lied to and people ask me all the time Greg what should I do here's something you can do you can do the exact same thing that Bernie and I are doing raise your hand if you know someone who voted for Donald Trump it's basically everyone here keep it raised raise your hand if you voted for somebody that sat out this election keep your hands raised now keep your hand raised now only lower your hand if the person you're thinking about is a billionaire okay keep tell everybody if you have your hand raised because the person you're thinking about isn't a billionaire that means you have someone to go talk to you know someone that's been screwed over you have someone whose vote you can change the person you're thinking of is might get kicked off their healthcare might have their hospital closed they've had their costs go up and if they're not a billionaire they're not getting anything good out of this deal that's right that we know that Trump said he was going to go after gangs but he's coming after our families he's coming after teachers and firefighters and moms and dads and kids citizens and non-citizens alike they didn't vote for that nobody voted for that so McGallen our job is to go and talk to our family go and talk to our co-workers some of those folks may even be here in this room have a conversation we may not be able to convince everyone but person by person we go and build a bigger team you can be that organizer that labor organizer you can build a bigger team when working people stand together when we look past some of our differences we can defeat the corrupt politicians and their billionaire donors we need to do it because if we don't do it in Texas we're screwed all over the country it's up to each and every one of you we're going to put it all on the line each and every one of us has to put it on the line we can save people's healthcare save countless lives save our families from being ripped apart save our democracy save our country it's in our hands guys it's in our hands but there's one last thing I want to say to y'all before I call Senator Sanders up if if we do this and we win back the valley we transform our party we kick out people like Monica de la Cruz and Greg Abbott if we do that I if we do that the Democratic Party cannot leave places like McGallen behind ever again i'm going to say it again the Democratic Party cannot leave the valley behind ever again cannot forget working people ever again cannot cater to corporate interests instead of the people pulling 712s here in the valley working harder than any damn politician we can't leave them behind first order of business we got to raise the minimum wage from $725 to $17 an hour second order of business we've got to tax billionaires to cut costs of child care housing healthcare and create great jobs and great schools right here in the RGV and maybe we stop picking on gay Americans and women and immigrants and instead expand people's rights the right to reproductive freedom the right to a union a pathway to citizenship for our families let's make people's lives better there can be a better world after this one here in Texas and to make it all stick here's the big revolutionary idea we get big money out of politics that means banning stock trading by politicians getting these super PACs out of our elections and making it so that some lobbying group doesn't get to pick your politician voters get to unelect and elect your leaders that's how it should be in the RGV i know it feels hard right now i know it can feel far off i know that the road is long and you've probably been promised stuff like this by tons of politicians the road is long it can feel sometimes like you just got to give up and I feel that way sometimes but then when I have that thought cross my mind I think about a guy who has never given up a guy who's been spreading this message day after day after day no matter what people say he keeps telling the truth he's our champion for working people in this country he's our warrior against the corruption and the cruelty he's all of our senator McAllen i'm proud to call up our senator Senator Bernie Sanders