By John DiLillo, Izzie Ramirez, and Devin Wright
Thousands gathered in Washington Square Park Monday evening to see 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren speak.
The senator from Massachusetts, fresh off the third Democratic debate last Thursday and steadily rising in national polls, gave an energetic address despite threatening rain clouds overhead. She focused the majority of her speech on the anti-corruption plan she unveiled that morning, which she referred to as “the biggest end-corruption plan since Watergate.” Warren has forged a place for herself in the Democratic primary as a dedicated policy wonk who “has a plan for that.” That repeated mantra provided the backbone of Warren’s speech.
“Corruption in Washington has allowed the rich and the powerful to tilt the rules and become richer and more powerful,” Warren said after invoking the history of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The fire, which claimed the lives of 146 employees in 1911, incited the fight to improve New York State labor laws; the building now houses NYU’s Brown Building.
The 3-hour long wait for the speech didn’t seem to bother most audience members, with many sitting down with books or even knitting. A half-hour before Warren was slated to speak, several elected representatives, including State Senator and NYU alum Alessandra Biaggi and State House Representative Yuh-Line Niouh, took the stage to highlight New York’s fight against corruption and how they see it as running parallel to Warren’s fight in Washington. Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party, introduced Warren and reiterated the party’s endorsement of her.
“A little tweak here and there is not going to the trick,” Biaggi said. “We need big, structural change.”
The senator’s speech was framed by the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, with Warren linking the greed of bosses and elected officials to the deaths of working women. She concluded the speech by telling the story of Frances Perkins, who saw the fire firsthand and fought for workers’ rights her whole life, becoming the first female cabinet member in Franklin Roosevelt’s Department of Labor. Warren’s description of Perkins as “one persistent woman,” a reference to her Senate-floor confrontation with Mitch McConnell, prompted another audience cheer.
Warren also talked about her wealth tax on the ultra-rich and what it could possibly pay for. Policy proposals included Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and canceling student debt, which also got a huge cheer (presumably from NYU students hoping for a break).
Victoria Griffiths, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman who wandered into the speech with a friend, thought it was an engaging introduction to Warren’s campaign and policies. “I feel like I should probably do more research,” Griffiths said. She’s considering voting for Warren or Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
A small group of Trump supporters near the back of the crowd made an attempt to disrupt the speech, but were quickly subdued by the shushing Warren fans who surrounded them. In the run-up to the speech, a brief confrontation ensued between Trump supporters and Public Policy NYU student Elizabeth Propst.
Propst, a member of the Cherokee tribe, took offense at one protestor’s attack on Warren’s DNA-test controversy. Propst felt the protestor’s sign (which read “Elizabeth Warren DNA Result: 100% Phony”) used Native identity as political leverage against Warren without advocating for Native communities themselves. “It just pisses me off that people pretend to care about Native issues,” Propst said.
While Propst was frustrated with Warren’s handling of the DNA test, the senator’s apology has convinced her that if nothing else, she will now use her platform to draw attention to Native issues. “[It] brought an issue to light,” Propst said. “She has a public obligation now.”
Warren did allude to the systemic problems plaguing Native communities along with communities of color during the course of her 42-minute speech. (She released a more comprehensive policy package surrounding Native issues in August). “This is our moment in history,” she said during her closing remarks. “Our moment to dream big, fight hard, and win.”
