Steyer slams skyrocketing gas, food, and mortgage costs, calling out special interests, like AIPAC, for backing the conflict
SAN FRANCISCO – Today, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer hosted a press conference criticizing the impact of President Donald Trump’s Iran war on working Californians, who are seeing plummeting stock prices and a surge in oil and gas prices.
Steyer also criticized organizations such as AIPAC for cheering on Trump and Netanyahu’s war in Iran, a conflict that is driving up costs for everyday Americans, especially Californians who are already struggling with the state’s affordability crisis and experiencing cuts to safety net programs.
Watch Steyer's full remarks here or read them below:
I want to talk about Donald Trump's speech last night and where we are in Iran.
He is very clearly doubling down on failure, too scared and too arrogant to tell the truth about where we are.
He's taking $200 billion of our money and burning it, half a world away from the people of California.
He literally said yesterday, “we don't have the money for daycare, we don't have the money for Medicaid. We don't have the money for Medicare, because we're fighting wars.”
Wars that don't help anyone in the United States.
The only impact they're having on us is bad.
We’ve already seen the price of gasoline at the pump go up in California by $1.50.
We've already seen that. It's not over.
The price of oil went up $10 last night. But it's not just about the price of gasoline.
The other thing that's going on is an amazing amount of fertilizer is now trapped in the Persian Gulf.
This is what's called planting season, which means the cost of food next fall is going to go up dramatically for the people of California.
It's going to be a huge deal. This is the fifth week in a row that mortgage rates have gone up in California.
All of these things are gut punches to Californians already stressed and strapped around money and the cost that comes through at the end of the month.
And let me say this, Netanyahu’s right-wing government and its supporters in the US think this is positive, and they continue to support Donald Trump and his failures.
Ask yourselves, “how is that helping Californians?”
I stand firm on my position on AIPAC. They're cheering on Trump and Netanyahu.
They're attacking progressive Democrats every chance they get. We do not have the same interest.
They remain a dark money organization that has pushed us very hard in the wrong direction.
We should stop listening to them. They should not be part of this conversation.
Every Democrat should say no to their money, including Eric Swalwell.
Why are people not talking more forcefully about this war?
Why is he not talking more forcefully about the war?
Let me say this, the establishment, including the leaders of the Democratic Party, are talking about how it's been done: the fact that Donald Trump didn't ask Congress about the way that he's doing it.
That's not the question.
The question is: why is he doing it at all?
This is a real question where we need leadership.
We need the establishment to stand up. And they're not standing up.
We're not seeing the CEOs come out about this.
Nobody's coming out about this.
We're not seeing people absolutely saying no to this, and that's exactly what's needed, and that's exactly what I'm saying right now.
I won't stop speaking out.
There's $25 million of independent expenditures coming after me, because I keep telling the truth and going after these special interests that keep ruining the lives of working Californians.
I'm not going to stop [...]
I'm not going to back down.
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