Labor Secretary Tom Perez is rumored to be on the shortlist of potential Clinton Vice President choices, and he is already making quite the claim for himself.
In a speech at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Official conference in Washington, Perez made a few veiled remarks that seem directed towards a certain presumed GOP presidential nominee. Perez called for voters to reject the demonization of minority groups and made no mistake who those groups were:
“History will soon ask where we were in the face of unrelenting attacks on immigrants, unrelenting attacks on our Muslim brothers and sisters, unrelenting attacks on voting rights. History will ask if you spoke up for the rights of people who didn’t look like you.”
Don’t attack immigrants and Muslims? Hmm… That sounds oddly like what Donald Trump has done for the past year, doesn’t it? Perez then drove his point home by quoting Pastor Martin Niemöller, an anti-Nazi theologian.
“‘First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. And then they came for me. And there was nobody left to speak.’ We must always speak out against any injustice anywhere.”
Although Trump’s name was not directly connected with these remarks, the writing is on the wall. Seems like Tom Perez isn’t a big fan of Donald Trump or his policies.
That is a more mature and elegant way of disagreeing with someone than calling them a fraud or a liar, eh Mr. Trump?
Perez also sounded a call to action for Democrats to confront Republicans on restrictive voter ID laws and called for immigration reform. He ended his speech by referencing the Democratic sit-in on the House floor:
“Don’t ever get down. Get up. Do what John Lewis told you, what John Lewis does every day — day in and out — cause ‘good trouble’… That’s what we have to do, that’s the secret to our success as a nation.”
I like this guy already. Previously Maryland’s Secretary of Labor, Perez has a track record of stopping businesses engaged in fraud. Sounds like he’d be a perfect pick to call out Donald Trump on certain “business ventures,” right?
Watch Tom Perez’s interview with Bill Maher here:
Feature image via Youtube screengrab
