Democratic SOTU Response Rebukes Trump Trash-Talking: ‘Bullying People on Twitter Doesn’t Fix Bridges, It Burns Them’

In the Democratic response to the State of the Union address, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer rebuked President Donald Trump for a record of low-paying jobs, reduced health care access, and failing infrastructure, as well as his constant online insults: “Bullying people on Twitter doesn’t fix bridges, it burns them.”

Whitmer, who was elected in 2018 on a pragmatic campaign promise to “fix the damn roads,” encouraged Americans to look past the president’s rhetoric and instead watch what he and his allies in Congress actually do.

“All across the country, Democratic leaders are rebuilding bridges, fixing roads, expanding broadband, and cleaning up drinking water. Everyone in this country benefits,” she said. “When we invest in infrastructure. Congressional Democrats have presented proposals to keep us moving forward. But President Trump and the Republicans in the Senate are blocking the path.”

“Bullying people on Twitter doesn’t fix bridges, it burns them. Our energy should be used to solve problems,” she added, taking dead aim at Trump notorious habit of slinging insults and partisan smears via social media.

Speaking to her own personal experiences of struggling with caring for the well being of both her children and her parents, Whitmer listed the many efforts by Democratic governors to expand Medicaid and ensure everyone had access to quality health care.

“President Trump, sadly, has a different plan,” she explained, before alluding to a Supreme Court case where the Trump administration is attempting to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act. “He’s asking the courts to rip those life-saving protections away. It’s pretty simple. Democrats are trying to make your health care better. Republicans in Washington are trying to take it away.”

She then pivoted to jobs and the massive tax cut Trump signed that overwhelmingly favored corporations and wealthy Americans.

“It doesn’t matter what the president says about the stock market. What matters is that millions of people struggle to get by or don’t have enough money at the end of the month after paying for transportation, student loans or prescription drugs,” Whitmer said. “American workers are hurting. In my own state, our neighbors in Wisconsin and Ohio, Pennsylvania and all over the country, wages have stagnated while CEO pay has skyrocketed. So when the president says the economy is strong, my question is: Strong for whom?”

Finally, she targeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for blocking a vast number of bills passed by House Democrats, many of which directly address issues Trump himself brought up in his speech.

“Who fights for working, hard -orking Americans? Democrats do. In the US House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats pass a landmark bill on equal pay, another bill to give 30 million Americans a raise by increasing the minimum wage, and groundbreaking legislation to finally give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices for America’s seniors and families,” she noted. “Those three bills and more than 275 other bipartisan bills, are just gathering dust on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk. Senator McConnell, America needs you to move those bills.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.