2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren stumped in the shadow of the famous Washington Square Arch Monday night as a crowd of thousands — 20,000 according to her campaign — largely cheered her on. The presidential hopeful presented her plan to fight corruption in Washington, a message that included a cautionary warning about multiple layers of impropriety in the United States.
"Corruption has put our planet at risk. Corruption has broken our economy. And corruption is breaking our democracy," the Senator told a cheering crowd of supporters. "I know what's broken. I've got a plan to fix it."
Warren released her plan to take on corrupt institutions on Monday. Ingrained in the plan is the need to "end lobbying as we know it," which includes banning former members of Congress and White House officials from entering the sector after their service is done. She also plans to stop those who lobby for foreign entities and corporate lobbyists from working for the federal government.
Warren took a swing at President Trump during her New York event as she called on all presidential candidates to release their tax returns to the public. Trump has famously refused to do that, eschewing a long tradition of presidents who have voluntarily shared that information.
"Donald Trump is corruption in the flesh," Warren exclaimed.
The Massachusetts progressive has said this plan will be her first priority if elected president, built off of her Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, which she introduced on the Senate floor prior to her announcement of running for president.
Warren's rally was held just feet away from the location of the former Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, site of the infamous 1911 fire where 146 workers died, many of them immigrant women, because bosses had locked doors and provided few options to escape in an emergency. The outcry drew attention to the fight for better working conditions.
To that end, Warren said, "We're not here today because of famous arches or famous men. In fact. We're not here because of men at all. We're here because of hard-working women."
And in front of a massive crowd of diverse supporters from New York City, Warren added that it is not just corruption in Washington that is preventable, but in many facets of public life: healthcare, housing, and criminal justice, to name a few.
Warren was joined by 14 New York lawmakers who gave their endorsement for her White House bid. Answering the question if Warren's anti-corruption plan is similar to Trump's 2016 campaign promise to drain the swamp, New York State Sen. Gustavo Rivera told Cheddar, "The main difference between the two, is that, unlike Trump, she actually means it when she says that she would cleanse the federal government. So, I would say that the main difference is, this guy only wants to do things for himself, and his own cronies. In the case of Elizabeth … she has demonstrated that she cares about making sure that we have a transparent government that responds to the needs of actual citizens."
