Hillary Clinton Delivers Remarks at Women for Hillary GOTV Event
Brooklyn, NY — Hillary Clinton delivered remarks this afternoon at a Women’s Get Out the Vote event in Manhattan, where she discussed her plans to break down the barriers holding Americans back, including women, raise incomes, keep Americans safe, and unite the country. Joined by U.S Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards, Clinton also reaffirmed her pledge to work hard for every vote ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary in New York, take nothing for granted, and make this campaign about the people she will fight for everyday as president.
The transcript of the remarks, as delivered, is below:
HILLARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you so much. I am so happy to be here with all of you and with my friends, elected officials and activists and advocates, some behind me, some around me. I am grateful to each and every one of you. And I want to thank Mary for introducing me. But more than that, I want to thank her for being a strong voice on behalf of working women and especially women who have the protection of a union to make sure they are treated right.
And I am always happy to be anywhere with Cecile Richards. Who has been a fierce, effective fighter for all of us – women and men. Because I will tell you, when the opposition organizes to go after one of us, they’re really going after all of us. They have gone after unions to undermine the American labor movement. They have gone after Planned Parenthood and the work that it has done. And the very basic constitutional right granted to women under Roe v. Wade to make our own decisions about the most personal health care choices.
And I cannot thank enough my friend, another woman of courage, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
AUDIENCE: Gabby! Gabby! Gabby!
HILLARY CLINTON: She and her wonderful husband, Mark Kelly, have been on a mission – a mission – to bring about commonsense gun safety reform. And together, we’re going to accomplish that mission, Gabby.
And finally, I want to thank and really salute my friend and senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand. Who has taken on some very difficult issues in the Senate for, again, all of us but particularly for women. And she’s been on the front lines day after day making change. She knows you don’t get up, you don’t make a speech and everything changes. She knows you’ve got to work it every single hour of every single day. Like me, she is a progressive who likes to get things done for (inaudible).
Now, it’s very exciting to be with all of you on the eve of the New York primary. I am so grateful for the chance I had to represent this state for eight years. The people of New York took a chance on me in 2000. You sent me to the Senate. We worked together. We dealt with the horrors of 9/11 together. We worked to bring opportunity to inner city areas and upstate rural areas. And it was the greatest honor of my life to represent you in the Senate. And I want you to know that New York has my back and I always try to have your back, and I will again if I am so fortunate enough to be elected your president.
I am focused on the issues that really matter to everybody. To some, an issue or two might be more important than others, but if you look at them all, they are interlocking and intersectional. They are really about whether or not we’re going to produce positive results in people’s lives. They are about whether or not we’re going to defend the rights we already have against a concerted assault on every one of them. They are about whether we will be united as a country or continue to be divided by those who gain from that division.
So let me just spend a few minutes talking about how connected this all is. I’m going to talk mostly about women’s issues, but I want you to understand how I see them and how committed I am to making the case that when we take a right from someone, when we erode it, when we make it impossible to exercise, then we hurt everybody – not just those who are directly affected.
So think with me for a minute about the kind of America we want to create together. Imagine a tomorrow where we do have enough good jobs with raised incomes – everybody gets a raise; everybody who works hard get rewarded. How does that happen? It happens by making sure that the government is playing a role in creating those jobs – jobs in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, clean, renewable energy and small businesses that we’re going to grow and help make more jobs from.
This is not a pipe dream, my friends. This is doable. We just have to make up our minds what we’re going to have an election about. It is easy. It is easy to diagnose the problems facing America. We need solutions (inaudible). That’s why throughout this campaign I have been laying out the plans for how we’re going to do this, what we will achieve together.
Now, I know some people that (inaudible). I very rarely sleep, but nevertheless I do. Some people have commented, like, oh my gosh, enough with the plans, Hillary. We don’t want to hear any more plans. Just go out and make speeches. Now, don’t talk too loudly, but don’t talk too softly. Well, look, I want you to know that for me, this election is not just about me. It’s about an agenda that we present to New York tomorrow, that we present to the country, that we vote on – because that will give us the chance to actually make the progress we all want to see.
And what I’m focused on is breaking down the barriers that stand in the way of people getting ahead and staying ahead. And of course there are economic barriers. That has to be one of our highest priorities – creating those jobs, raising those incomes, raising the minimum wage at the national level – absolutely has to be at the top of our list. But you know, economic barriers are not the only ones that Americans are facing today.
Take the issue of equal pay for equal work. Now, if it were just an economic barrier we would still not be talking about it. But it’s more than that. When you actually look and compare why women are still not being paid equally for the work we do, some of it is just not explainable other than good old-fashioned discrimination. And what you heard Cecile say is absolutely right. There is no women’s discount when we go to check out at the supermarket. I’ve been shopping a long time. And I’ve never been looked at by a cashier who said, okay, you’re a white woman, you only have to pay 78 cents. Or my friends, you’re a black woman, you’re a Latino woman, you don’t have to pay the full freight; you can pay 65 or 55. That doesn’t happen.
Look, this is not just a women’s issue. This is a family issue. If you have a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter who are working, you have a stake in making sure they are fairly treated.
When you think about how hard it is in our country, the richest country in the world, in fact doing much better economically than anybody else right now, when you think about how hard it is to be able to balance work and family, you have to ask yourself: why are we doing this to each other? Every other advanced economy has figured out how to have family leave – paid family leave. I started working on family leave way back in the 1980s and I was thrilled when my husband passed a bill that had been vetoed twice by President George H. W. Bush. Let us not forget – this is not ancient Roman history. It was not that long ago that even the idea of unpaid family leave was considered a bridge too far. Vetoed twice. So Bill became President. The Congress passed it, sent it to him; he signed it and 200 million-plus people have taken advantage of it. So that was a good first step.
But too many people couldn’t take advantage of it. They couldn’t take off time that they weren’t paid for. That new baby? That sick spouse? That ailing mother or grandparent? They couldn’t take time off. And it is time for us – and Kirsten has been a leader on this – it is time for us finally to pass paid family leave, and I (inaudible). This is something that is moving forward in the states. I want to applaud New York, applaud California (inaudible). And as your president, we are going to deliver on paid family leave for families in America.
We also have to really focus on education. Again, that’s an issue for everybody. That’s why I want early childhood education for everybody. And (inaudible) is here. I want to thank her and Mayor de Blasio for making sure that New York City has universal prekindergarten. This is an issue about whether or not we honor and nurture the potential of everyone. I think that’s what America should be about. Every single person deserves the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. And learning starts in those first five years. And then once we get to elementary and secondary school, I intend to be a good partner with America’s teachers to support our educators, to make sure we give them (inaudible).
And let’s spend more time trying to encourage young people, particularly young girls, to go into the STEM courses – science, technology, (inaudible). There are so many opportunities that are not being taken advantage of. And yet again, just 30-plus years ago, we had a very high percentage of women graduating from college with degrees in computer sciences. What happened? Well, some of what happened is the way women were treated in the workforce when they got into technology. Right now we know, looking at salaries and promotion opportunities, it’s not equal. So while we encourage more young women to pursue these careers, we’re going to work to get more transparency and more of a commitment from companies to treat women and men equally as they hire, as they promote.
We’re going to make college affordable for everybody in a way that will actually work to send middle class and working and poor (inaudible). There is absolutely a student debt problem that (inaudible). We want more national service so that young people can perform national service and actually get a free ride or a totally discounted ride or get their debts forgiven like (inaudible).
And we will continue to improve the Affordable Care Act. I will defend it. It is working. We’ve got to (inaudible) improve it, get the costs down. But again, this is something that is hardly ever talked about. It was not that long ago when clinical trials about how to treat diseases, including breast cancer, were only done on men. I know a lot of young people must be shocked to hear that. I was shocked when I first heard it. And so we had to change a lot. And now we have the Affordable Care Act, and one of the great changes was to absolutely guarantee that women would no longer pay more for our health insurance than men.
All of these battles – we’ve got members of Congress here who have been waging these battles. My great friend, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, has been on the front lines. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee has been a loyal (inaudible). I know it’s hard to believe there was ever a time like this. We just don’t ever want to go back. That’s why it’s so important to think about how far we’ve come to protect the gains we have made. And we still have disparities in health care treatment between men and women, but also particularly on the basis of income and access. And we’re going to tackle all of that, and we’re going to get the cost of prescription drugs down.
And let’s finally make a commitment to treating mental health problems like the health care issue (inaudible). We have to do more. Let’s do more to treat addiction. Let’s do more to save lives. There’s really exciting work ahead of us.
And practically everything I’ve said is opposed by the Republicans. They don’t think we need to raise the minimum wage. Donald Trump says wages are too high in America right now. They don’t believe equal pay is a problem. They sure don’t want to move toward paid family leave. So this is not just a free choice. There are consequences for how we vote and the objective we put forward.
And the other point about what’s happening with the Republicans, as I mentioned earlier, is they truly want to strip us of the right to our (inaudible). And I’ll tell where I stand because it is in opposition to Bernie’s. I will defend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. I will defend Planned Parenthood. I was honored to receive the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and the (inaudible) endorsements because I have been, as Cecile said, on the front lines on behalf of women’s rights for a long time. And when Trump said what he said about punishing women, I was appalled. That is a core issue. And when my opponent in this primary said it was a distraction, to talk about the real issues, I was appalled again. There’s nothing more important than defending our human rights and (inaudible).
And maybe if some of his people will either think it’s a distraction or who want to reverse it went to some of the places I’ve been over the last 25 years and seen how that is used to suppress women’s rights and their autonomy, and where the government makes decisions, that consequences are horrible, whether it’s Chinese government policy in the past for one child and forced abortions and sterilizations, or the policies of the Communist regime in Romania with forced childbearing, we cannot, we must not, ever let governments and politicians make those decisions. And as long as I’m around, we never will.
I will also defend marriage equality and work to end discrimination (inaudible). We are going to work and pass the Equality Act in Congress this (inaudible). I will defend voting rights and work to reverse and end Citizens United. I will defend the right to organize and bargain and the right of unions to represent people (inaudible). The American labor movement helped to build the American middle class, and those who have forgotten it conveniently are undermining what it takes to make sure people are represented.
I stopped at a carwash in Queens on my way here because the car washers have been unionized, and for the first time they’re getting a decent salary. They’re getting (inaudible). The most important thing we can do is to give everyone the dignity and the purpose that a job brings, a job where they have the opportunity to continue to improve their standard of living, to provide a good middle class lifestyle for themselves and their children.
Now, we’re also going to fight for comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. I have said I will start this work immediately upon becoming president, and I will. I am so proud of New York. Lady Liberty stands in our harbor. We are a city of immigrants, a city of immigrants and a nation of (inaudible).
And yes, we are going to fight together to take on the gun lobby for common-sense gun safety (inaudible). This is an issue that knows no boundaries. I have met too many people, fathers and mothers, siblings, children, close friends and loved ones, who have lost people. On average, 90 people a day are killed by guns in America. That is 33,000 people a year. And there are many powerful lobbies in Washington. As I said in the debate the other night in Brooklyn, I said, look. Senator Sanders talks a lot about the greed and recklessness of Wall Street, and I agree with that, and I’ve got the toughest plans. And they know I mean it because they’re actually trying to beat me, running ads (inaudible). These guys are good at making their assessments, and they know I’m trouble for them. (Inaudible.)
But what about the greed and recklessness of the gun manufacturers? I couldn’t believe that Senator Sanders said the parents of the Sandy Hook children did not deserve their day in court. Partly because he voted for the bill that gave special protections, immunity from liability, to the gun makers and sellers. I was in the Senate at the same time. So was Barack Obama. I voted against it. Barack Obama voted against it. Bernie Sanders voted for it. This has to be a voting issue. We have to organize ourselves to take on this powerful lobby. They know I’m coming after them. They’re already – they’re already coming after me, and I consider that a badge of honor. I will stand (inaudible).
So my friends, we have work to do. I see the folks from Take a Stand. We’re going to protect Social Security and confirm (inaudible). I can’t do any of that work without you. And really, when I think about the tests the next president faces, the first one is, can you produce positive results? And that’s why I’m telling you what I will do and how it will change your lives. The second is, can you protect us? And you know there is nothing more important right here in New York. And I think what you are hearing from Trump and Cruz is not only offensive, it’s dangerous.
When Donald Trump says no Muslims can come to America, a nation founded on religious liberty, in case he hadn’t been taught that, that doesn’t only offend us. That sends a message to the rest of the world. If we’re going to defeat, as I intend to do, terrorism, and ISIS in particular, we need a coalition of nations to stand with us (inaudible). I know how hard it is to create a coalition because I did create the coalition that imposed sanctions on Iran, including China and Russia, to force them to the negotiating table. So I know that this is hard. And it doesn’t help to have somebody running for president insulting the religion of a number of the nations we need to have in the coalition to help defeat ISIS (inaudible).
And when we’ve got Ted Cruz, Ted Cruz, saying let’s have special police patrols profiling on religion American Muslims, I mean, it’s beyond absurd. And that’s what the chief of the NYPD said. He said, “Well, what am I going to do with the 1,000 NYPD officers who are American Muslims?” And Commissioner Bill Bratton summed it up by saying, “Ted Cruz doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”
So yes, we have to protect ourselves and we have to lead the world in accordance with our values. And finally, we have to unify our country because there is just too much demagoguery and hate-filled speech going on. And it is just so impossible to imagine people running for president would be saying what they’re saying, inciting violence between and among Americans. I will go anywhere, any time, to meet with anybody to find common ground. We will find that common ground. We will find those (inaudible). But I will also stand my ground on your behalf, protecting our rights, making sure we’re moving forward together.
There’s a lot that is special for me about this primary tomorrow because I did run here and because you were all so supportive. But there’s something else that I want to end with. The first state ever recorded in human history that set forth a rationale for women to have rights happened in Seneca Falls, New York. Susan B. Anthony (inaudible) separates governments, who joined forces with the women who were claiming that they too should have a right to vote, that they too should have the right to serve on juries, to be fully citizens.
That Declaration of Sentiments – you can Google it later, and I’m sure you will – kicked off the suffrage movement. And again, it didn’t come easily. There were protests, demonstrations. Eventually women chained themselves to the fence around the White House, going to prison, going on hunger strikes, to claim the right to vote. And yes, eventually that was granted. We will celebrate the 100th anniversary in 2020.
When I think about the sacrifices of the suffragettes, when I think about the sacrifices of the leaders of the civil rights movement, when I think about the sacrifices of those who were trying to form unions against extraordinary violent protest, when I think what all these Americans did starting in the 19th and going into the 20th century to make a very simple claim on the idea that we are all created equal, we all have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we all have a stake in America, that (inaudible) is what this election is about. Please, come out! Vote tomorrow (inaudible)!
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