Marty Walsh: Working-class Trump voters ‘forgot where they came from’

POLITICO's Off Message

POLITICO

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4.5 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

Marty Walsh is a college drop-out and recovering alcoholic who grew up in a union household and worked his way up through organized labor and local politics. In many ways, he fits the profile of the kind of white working-class man who put Donald Trump in the White House. He also happens to be the Democratic mayor of Boston, and he has a bracing assessment of the blue-collar white voters backing Trump: They “forgot where they came from.” Walsh says it bothers him how many of the people he grew up with and worked with—or fit that same profile all around the country—support Trump policies. And he talks about what Democrats can do to turn things around. Read more at politico.com/podcasts/off-message Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Off Message. I'm Isaac DeVair.
0:04.1	But you must know people who were in the union with you who...
0:07.3	I do.
0:08.1	So what...
0:08.7	It bothers me.
0:09.7	Why is it bothering you?
0:11.0	Because I think they forgot where they came from.
0:13.1	And I think the fact that, you know, I said the story in Labor Day.
0:16.0	I was talking about, you know, when I see a truck go by me down the street and on one side of the
0:21.4	truck, it's the local union number.
0:23.4	And then on the other side of the truck, it's Trump.
0:25.2	And those numbers represent working people and those numbers represent representation of people
0:30.6	and helping people struggling and trying to make somebody's life better.
0:33.4	And the other sticker on the other side, in my opinion, has nothing to do with helping people. I think it's all about, it's all about, I can't even say he want, Trump wants to help his friends because it clearly doesn't.
0:43.7	I don't even, it's about ego.
0:45.1	And I think that that's not what the office of president is or any elective office.
0:49.8	I think if you think you're bigger than the office, it's time for you to go. And that's any politician, including myself in the United States of America.
0:56.2	Today's guest, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.
0:59.4	Walsh is a college dropout, a union guy who grew up working class and still largely is.
1:04.4	He's also a progressive and proud of it on union issues, immigration, gay rights, and more.
1:09.5	So that's what I wanted to talk to about when I saw him in Boston recently.
1:12.4	He seems to be the profile of a Trump voter, the ones who bled from the Democratic Party in 2016
	...

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