6 Terrifying Quotes From GOP Candidates’ Announcement Speeches

6 Terrifying Quotes From GOP Candidates’ Announcement Speeches

6 Terrifying Quotes From GOP Candidates’ Announcement Speeches

Who let these people run?

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“Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days,” Democratic National Committee press secretary Holly Shulman said in a statement on June 16. “He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward to hearing more about his ideas for the nation.”

1. “Our country needs a truly great leader, and we need a truly great leader now. We need a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal.   —Donald Trump

2. “It seems like liberals have so much compassion for the poor that they keep creating more of them.”   —George Pataki

3. “If you’re ready to join a grassroots army across this nation…I’m going to ask you to break a rule here today and to take out your cellphones, and to text the word ‘constitution’ to the number 33733. You can also text ‘imagine.’ We’re versatile.”  
—Ted Cruz

4. “In this country of ours, the most improbable things can happen as well. Take that from a guy who met his first president on the day he was born, and his second on the day he was brought home from the hospital.”     —Jeb Bush

5. “But when I hear the current president say he wants Christians to get off their high horse so we can make nice with radical jihadists, I wonder if he could watch a western from the ’50s and be able to figure out who the good guys and bad guys really are!”   
—Mike Huckabee

6. “Work is not punishment; work is the reward.”     —Rand Paul

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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