Top 173 Quotes & Sayings by Keith Ellison - Page 3

We have to have a shared prosperity. We have to make that our job number one. People want a better economic playing field for working Americans. And they're voting for it. Our job is to make sure that people know that the Democratic party is the party that is going to deliver that for them. And that means strengthening the grassroots. That means strengthening the local precinct county level and making sure that we're all channeled on massive turnout for that program.

Donald Trump was tainted every kind of way you could imagine. I mean, no way in the world that Donald Trump is a champion of working people. He has hurt workers in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Florida, multiple bankruptcies, never showed his taxes. I don't know any good thing this guy's ever done. And yet, because he was able to throw hate and poison on Hillary Clinton, he was able to somehow prevail at least until the Electoral College. I think he was skilled at just sort of, like, keeping the attention on anyone but himself. He is the most outrageous person ever to win a presidential election.

Can't be all men, can't be all white, can't be all black, can't be all straight. [It has] got to be a wide range of people. Can't be all people of one faith group. We need diversity so we can have the views of all Americans reflected in congressional outcomes.

Trump himself stands to benefit dramatically from the tax cuts. One of the things they're cutting is the alternative minimum tax. Last time we have tax returns for him was in 2005, where he paid about $31 million because of the alternative minimum tax. He won't have to pay that, if this tax bill goes through. So, not only is he reordering our constitutional democracy, he is personally enriching himself - which is not new, because, of course, he's done it ever since he swore an oath to become president of the United States.

I'd say the most important criteria is vision. What is your vision for the party? Do you have a vision to strengthen the grassroots and help them turn out people in their local communities? That's the real thing. The real question is not about one person. It's not about an individual. It's about millions of people working all over this country to reach out in their local communities. And the DNC chair has to help them do that and have a vision for that and have the energy for that.

Over the course of the last quarter century I've learned a lot. And the main thing I've learned is that we're better together and that our society needs inclusion - right? - not exclusion.

We'll see if [Donald Trump] really means it though; he will get a chance to deliver on that promise. And if he doesn't, we'll make sure the people know about it.

I'm particularly good at turnout. So in my district, I had the lowest voter turnout in 2006.

You take for example the environmental movement is a big deal in my district. You know, you might say, yeah, more African Americans are suffering from asthma and air pollution-related illnesses, but there`s a lot of white folks, a lot of white kids with inhalers. So, you just got to talk to the reality of everyone, not exclude anyone. And make sure that people know that you care about them too. I think if you do that, we can get there.

I was very proud to be part of the Million Man March. I think it's one of the best things that I ever did.

What I hear people talking about are things that anybody of any color or any religion or any sexual orientation can get with. They cannot earn a decent living if they`re working class folks. They`re worried about retirement if they`re in their 40s and 50s. They`re worried about sending their kids to college. If we focus on what really matters, we can get there.

As chairman of the DNC, [Keith ] Ellison says he would replicate that kind of turnout on a national scale. But we spoke yesterday about some history that could stand in the way.

All I want to say is that anybody, well, from the Democratic side of the fence who thinks that - who's terrified of the possibility of President [Donald] Trump better vote, better get active, better get involved, because this man has got some momentum and we better be ready for the fact that he might be leading the Republican ticket.

[ Big infrastructure investment mentioned by Donald Trump] that would be a welcome development. We'll see if he wants to deliver on that. The truth is that if he does, we want to see infrastructure development too.

There're a lot of places that I can serve. And I'm going to serve. I'm going to be fighting to rebuild the Democratic party no matter what. I'm going to be fighting to make sure the Democratic party is known among working people that we are their champion no matter what. So I'm looking for a place to serve.

I think it's a good idea to be - to fairly identify where things could have gone better once you get the facts, once you get the data and once you're able to review.

I don't feel that I've been hampered by [ racism or discrimination], and the reason why is that we reach out to people on the basis of where everyone meets, and try to build common cause on that basis. Because of that, I think we've cut through some of the issues that normally divide people.

I've been talking to people all over the country, city council members, grassroots leaders, party leaders, members in Congress - and you know what? The truth is I'll have something to say real soon.

I think that you need all perspectives to reflect the needs of the country. If you only give people one perspective, inputting their views into the congressional process, you're going to have a skewed outcome.

The fact is, is that Americans don't hate their Muslim neighbors. They don't hate their Latino neighbors. We have got to build human solidarity in this country, because human solidarity is what's going to allow us to come together to protect our democracy and to protect our economy. So reject the hate. Turn it away. Don't buy it. And reach out to a neighbor. Trump is trying to sow division so that he can distract us from what he's doing to us.

I do believe that we should have to - make the voters first; not the donors first.

I'm not here to say what [Clintons] did wrong. I mean, there's going to be plenty of post-mortem review of what should have gone differently.

Our message of strengthening the middle class, working people, we just didn't penetrate well enough and we didn't have the kind of turn out that we really needed or expected.

Hopefully folks will look at the good things that I've done over the years, you know, my 10 years in Congress, my 12 years in state legislature, my many years of community organizing for the environment, for police accountability, for criminal justice reform, economic empowerment, trying to fight for small-business people, all these things.

We've got to build a durable relationship of trust with voters around the things that they are most concerned about.

If people are given a TV-educated idea of what Islam is, I have the opportunity to push back on that and say ISIS does not speak for the Muslim world, and in fact, you have people right here in front of you who are much more representative than homicidal maniacs.

[Coming back for Democrats] is simply a matter of energy and resources.

The First Amendment says that we can protest and call to - on our government to address grievances.

Publicly criticizing people, even when I don't have the facts, is not that good of an idea.

Do you have the vision to help empower and channel the energy at the grassroots level?This is not about one person; this is about millions of people all working together to protect and advance the interests of working Americans.

I'll just say, you know, over the course of the last quarter century I've learned a lot.

Vision and the ability to mobilize and inspire people at the grassroots. That's what the most important criteria is going to be for any DNC chair.

We do know that [Hillary Clinton] was probably attacked and smeared as much as any candidate ever has been. We know that.

To strengthen the grassroots at the party - at the party unit, at the county level, at the precinct level, and then to help motivate and facilitate the local grassroots to get out there and turn out the vote and boost turn out. And then to help govern in places where we do hold city councils and state legislatures.

I was very proud to be part of the Million Man March. I think it's one of the best things that I ever did. Just the fact that, you know, at the time I didn't pay close enough scrutiny to some of the other things that he was saying. You know, that's something I just live and learn.

I think that Donald Trump picked on people's fears, their anxieties and he gave them somebody to blame, and some folks just really turned out for him for that.

I'd rather frame [Clintons] in terms of what I think we need to do going forward.

I'm not here to cast aspersions on anyone. I'm trying to unify the party, not find fault.

One time, the Library of Congress was giving books to local libraries around the country on Islam. The library of a guy named Walter Jones, who's a member of Congress from North Carolina, got some books and resource materials, and he got up in the press and said he didn't want any Muslim books in the library. And the people said, "Wait a minute, that's kind of anti-Muslim." He said, "Oh no, Keith Ellison is a friend of mine." And I said, "You know what? We are friends, but you're wrong about this.

One of the most important things we can do right now is empower ordinary working Americans who really do deserve a fair shot in this economy. But I'm not afraid to talk about any issue. But I do believe it is a distraction.

What I'm saying is we [Democratic Party] need to get much more granular.

These folks are telling Donald Trump that if he tries to move out on his plan to have a deportation squad, to harm Americans, and if he does - and if he has - he tries to do that, we're going to be there to stand and say no. We don't - we oppose his misogyny. We oppose his picking on people of different ethnic and religious groups.

We think all over this country we need to rebuild everything from transit, fiber optic broadband in our rural areas and urban areas.

I didn't pay close enough scrutiny to some of the other things that Louis Farrakhan was saying, that's something I just live and learn.

I'm particularly good at turnout. So in my district, I had the lowest voter turnout in 2006. And now I have the highest turnout in the state of Minnesota. And Minnesota is the highest turnout state in the country.

I'm happy to talk to anybody about anything.

I - to say the word "scared", I don`t know if I`m scared because, I have faith that we will see this through. But I take Donald Trump seriously. He has literally millions of people who support him.

If you ignore somebody's record and only focus on something that happened 25 years ago when all they were doing even then was trying to stand up for a minority group that felt excluded and discriminated against, then I don't - I think that is a distortion of a person's record. I mean, a person's record is full, not just the parts that you want to use against them.

We need young people to be involved, and we have to expect that young people are going to be impatient, they don't want to wait, and they've got new ideas and new ways of looking at problems.

We had Jesse Ventura in Minnesota win the governorship, nobody thought he was going to win. I'm telling you, stranger things have happened.

I hope what we can talk about is something that happened, you know, within the last 25 years, the things that are relevant to our country right here, right now, including all people, fighting for the rights of working people, fighting for the rights of people struggling for dignity and respect in our society.

We need to invest at the local party unit and focus our energy on turn out. That's how we come back, and we can come back.

This is what people do in America. They get out. They demonstrate. They let their voices with heard.