Martin O'Malley tells crowd in Iowa: 'Old ideologies' and 'old names' won't move the country forward
Martin O'Malley has one message for his supporters in Iowa: "Hold strong."
During the CNN Iowa Democratic Town Hall on Monday, O'Malley fielded a few questions regarding his low poll numbers, but said he has a chance to win. "America's scanning the horizon," he said. "We cannot be this fed up with our gridlocked, dysfunctional national politics and think that a resort to old ideologies or old names is going to move us forward. I know this is a tough fight, but I've always been drawn to a tough fight."
O'Malley touted a few successes from his time as governor of Maryland, saying he restored voting rights to 52,000 people; decriminalized the possession of marijuana; and made his state the first south of the Mason-Dixon line to repeal the death penalty. He called for comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship, full employment for veterans, and "common-sense wage and labor policies that make wages rise again, things we used to do, Democrats and Republicans, together all the time, like keeping the minimum wage above the poverty line, paying overtime pay for overtime work. And how about this — the long deferred promise of equal pay for equal work for men and women."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Americans are "a great people," O'Malley said, "generous and compassionate," and reject the "fascist rhetoric you hear spewed out by Donald Trump. The enduring symbol of our country is not a barbed wire fence. It is the Statue of Liberty."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Grok in the crosshairs as EU launches deepfake porn probeIN THE SPOTLIGHT The European Union has officially begun investigating Elon Musk’s proprietary AI, as regulators zero in on Grok’s porn problem and its impact continent-wide
-
‘But being a “hot” country does not make you a good country’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Why have homicide rates reportedly plummeted in the last year?Today’s Big Question There could be more to the story than politics
-
‘One Battle After Another’ wins Critics Choice honorsSpeed Read Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
