Elizabeth Warren capped her big anti-corruption speech in New York with 4 hours of selfies
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) held one of the biggest rallies of her presidential run on Monday night, drawing a crowd her campaign estimated at above 20,000 to New York City's Washington Square Park. The centerpiece of her speech was the anti-corruption plan she had released just hours earlier, and on the role of women in enacting change.
Warren briefly mentioned President Trump, calling him "corruption in the flesh." But the arc of her speech tied together the nearby 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire and Frances Perkins, who was moved to fight for labor rights by the death more than 140 Triangle factory workers — mostly women — before she became President Franklin D. Roosevelt's labor secretary, the first female Cabinet member in U.S. history.
"What did one woman — one very persistent woman — backed up by millions of people across this country get done? Big structural change," Warren said. "Social Security. Unemployment insurance. Abolition of child labor. Minimum wage. The right to join a union. Even the very existence of the weekend."
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Warren spoke for about 42 minutes, then stayed after for selfies. She appeared to reconsider her selfies-for-all tradition from the stage, telling the huge crowd, "Tonight is a little something different." Nevertheless she persisted in her custom, The New York Times notes, and she "finished taking pictures around 11:40 p.m. — nearly four hours after she finished her speech."
"With each big rally," the Times says, "Warren is solidifying her place in an exclusive club of presidential candidates who have become crowd magnets, exhilarating fans at events that can sometimes feel like rock concerts." Trump, who is part of that club, held his own rally in New Mexico on Monday night, and fellow 2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also draws large audiences, including to a rally at least as large as Warren's in Washington Square Park right before he lost the 2016 New York primary to Hillary Clinton.
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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