Ahead of Mike Pence’s arrival for a photo op today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper, Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown, former UAW Local 1112 shop chair Ben Strickland, and Rev. Monica Beasley-Martin slammed the Trump administration’s broken promises to working families in Lordstown and across the state. See for yourself:
WYTV: Democrats Criticize VP Visit.
- David Pepper: “The hard part to stomach is the president, who responded to nobody and blamed the workers, is now sending Pence in to try and have a photo op at the very end, in an election year, when the truth is it really did matter. People were really hurting.”
WFMJ: Ohio Dems on Pence Visit.
- Ben Strickland: “He came into the Valley and gave a lot of empty promises to the members — to the people in the community — to get their votes. And then he walks away.”
- Mayor Tito Brown: “I can’t just do lip service anymore. I need to see some tangible turnaround investments.”
WKBN: Ohio Democrats speak virtually prior to Pence’s Lordstown visit.
“‘Donald Trump told Ohioans, he told folks in the Valley, ‘Don’t move. Don’t sell your homes. It was all coming back,’ but that’s exactly what so many folks have had to do,’ said David Pepper, chair of the Democratic Party in Ohio.”
Associated Press: “State Democratic Chairman David Pepper called the visit a ‘photo op’ in an area where Trump failed to keep promises to 1,700 GM workers displaced by the plant’s closure. ”
WFMJ: “Democrats are revisiting their criticism of the timing of the closing of the GM Lordstown plant last year. Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said in a statement, ‘On the very first day of Donald Trump’s presidency, GM laid off 1,200 workers at the Lordstown plant.’ He also said, ‘now that thousands of workers have lost their jobs or left family behind to move jobs at other plants, Mike Pence shows his face in the Valley.’”
Mahoning Matters: “In a Wednesday roundtable including Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper and Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, Democratic leaders criticized the Trump administration for neglecting the region. […] Pepper called today’s visit ‘too little too late for the people of the Mahoning Valley.’”
