Washington (February 4, 2020) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address and on the eve of the U.S. Senate vote on the Trump articles of impeachment. 

Senator Markey’s guest at the address was renowned violence prevention expert and peace pioneer Chaplain Clementina “Tina” Chéry. Chaplain Chéry founded the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute based in Dorchester in 1994 after the murder of her fifteen-year-old son Louis. She is an internationally recognized expert in the field of homicide response and has served families of murder victims for more than two decades.

“What matters more is not what President Trump said in his lie-laden State of the Union address, it’s what he didn’t say – gun safety, climate change, clean energy, diplomacy, equal justice, reproductive rights, asylum – the list goes on. We can count on President Trump to lavish praise on himself and his destructive agenda as much as we can count on him to neglect the most pressing issues facing American families and the planet.

“We can count on Donald Trump to bloviate about the trillions in tax breaks he gave to his billionaire and special interest cronies and to neglect the cuts he wants to make to Medicaid and health care.

“We can count on Donald Trump to extol the virtues of dirty fossil fuels but to ignore the potential of wind, solar, and energy efficiency.

“We can count on Donald Trump to pretend that the economy is thriving for all Americans even though the gap between the richest and the poorest Americans is now the largest it’s been in the past 50 years.

“We can count on Donald Trump to aggrandize the building a hateful border wall but to forget how he imprisoned immigrant children in cages at the southern border.

“We need a Green New Deal. We need comprehensive immigration reform. We need commonsense gun safety legislation. We need Medicare for All and reproductive freedom. We need the Equality Act, paycheck fairness, and to expand Social Security. These are the values, principles, and programs that will truly make the state of our union strong.

“President Trump’s lies know no limit or boundaries. His abuse of power and cover-up have led to his impeachment, and tomorrow I will vote to remove him from office. His lies tonight only reinforce his fundamental corruption. 

“Donald Trump is not fit to be President of the United States of America.” 

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