Last night, Rachel Maddow interviewed Elizabeth Warren. Warren endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Presidency and, toward the end of her comments, spoke of Clinton’s character and what she has shown through the long primary fight. (counter 8:00)
She won because she’s a fighter. She’s out there. She’s tough. I think this is what we need. Look at who she is. For twenty-five years she’s been taking the in-comings, the right wings have thrown everything they possibly can at her, and what does she do? A lot of people just hang up their spurs. No, I’ve had enough of this. She doesn’t. What she’s done is she gets back up and she gets back in the fight. As a Democrat, one of the things that frustrates me the most, there are a lot of times we just don’t get in a fight. We ask pretty please if we can have things, or we make the arguments for why it is the best thing to do, and then wait patiently for the other side to agree to come along. We negotiate, we start our opening position by negotiating, and you know I get it. I get the reason why we should be willing to negotiate sometimes, but we should also be willing to throw a punch. A lot of things people say about Hillary Clinton, but nobody says that she doesn’t know how to throw a punch…. I think having a fighter in the lead—a female fighter in the lead—is exactly what we need.
Also yesterday, President Obama hosted the LGBT community at the White House to mark LGBTQ Pride Week. Among other people for whom he called a shout-out was Bayard Ruskin. Obama quoted Ruskin saying (counter: 35:10), “We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers.”
And, to suggest the mood of those in the East Room and perhaps the mood of LGBTQ people everywhere on LGBTQ Pride, the President said (counter: 31:51), “Today we live in a world where Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell don’t exist no more.” The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.