Keith Ellison on Trump’s Win: ‘I Could Tell by July 2015 that He Had a Lot of Momentum’

EXCERPT:

ELLISON: "You know, I -- I don't really welcome any praise from -- from President Trump. It really pains me to say those two words. (Applause) The -- the fact that I can ... But I can tell you this. I could tell by July 2015, that he had a lot of momentum, and that he was gathering large crowds, and that when he got up there and talked about trade -- trade, and TPP, NAFTA, when he got up there and talked about jobs, when he got up there and talked about infrastructure, even though he was bad on all those issues, he was gathering crowds and he was telling people what they wanted to hear. I believe that those are our issues. Free - fair trade is our issue. That's why the AFLCIO endorsed me. That's why the steel workers endorsed me. Leo Gerard, one of the people I really admired, said that in Baltimore, right after the disturbance with Freddie Gray, he said, 'Let me tell you, that -- we used to have 30,000 steel workers in Baltimore. Now we've got three.' We have been hit hard by policies over the last four decades. Wages have stagnated, and the Democratic party has got to be the party that is fighting for working people every single day. And we have always got to be on the side of the worker. (Applause) We have never -- we can never be found standing on the other side when working people are trying to make a living."