AOC and Bernie Sanders condemn Trump in Wisconsin: 'We need to get our people together' | US elections 2024

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared Donald Trump's anti-immigrant comments to the words of Adolf Hitler and tried to rally progressive support for Kamala Harris at a Bernie Sanders rally Monday night in Madison, Wisconsin.

The New York congresswoman called the election an “abyss” and condemned the former president's rally at Madison Square Garden, where a comic called Puerto Rico “trash,” sparking widespread outrage on the island.

“They knew exactly what they were doing; Let’s move away from the idea that this is a joke,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She accused Trump's guests of saying “absolutely terrible things” about women and minorities.

“It's the same kind of logic that says a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx has no business engaging with the community of Madison, Wisconsin,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a speech that aimed to reject Trump's racist rally and project a vision of unity.

“When we hear a person, be it Donald Trump or one of his cronies on a stage, talking about our fellow Americans like a pile of trash, we know he's talking about us, he's talking about you,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “When he calls us, our service members and veterans, suckers and losers, he’s talking about you.”

She urged voters to recognize the New York rally not as a deviation but as evidence of the Trump movement's fascist ideology, accusing him of “repeating the words of Adolf Hitler.”

Madison and its suburbs reliably generate broad support for Democratic Party candidates — and the Harris campaign is particularly focused on turning out as many voters there as possible to help hand the swing state to the vice president on November 5 .

“A victory in this state, if you haven't heard, is decided by about three votes in every single county,” said Gaby Schmidt, regional organizing director for the Democratic-coordinated campaign in Wisconsin. Schmidt described Wisconsin's shockingly narrow electoral margin and encouraged viewers to text 10 friends or family members to vote for Harris before the event ended. “We all know that’s the difference between winning and losing.”

“Tonight is about making a progressive argument for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” said Mark Pocan, a progressive U.S. Congressman who represents Dane County voters. For Pocan — and subsequent speakers — this meant underscoring Trump's authoritarian rhetoric and impulses and portraying Harris as open to the bold policies of the progressive left.

“Trump takes on the role of the fascist authoritarian and he wants to scare the hell out of you,” Pocan said.

Bernie Sanders opened with a similar remark. “Mike Pence says I can’t support the man I worked with for four years,” Sanders said. “We cannot allow someone to be president of the United States who is a pathological liar and who works day and night to undermine American democracy.”

For the rest of his speech, Sanders focused on his most important themes: protecting the working class and his vision of a social safety net for Americans. He addressed the Biden administration's efforts to lower prescription drug costs and staff the National Labor Relations Board with pro-union administrators, and called for bold action to combat poverty and inequality. He condemned the student and medical debt crises and called for tax increases on the super-rich.

“We need to cancel all of America’s medical debt,” Sanders said, noting that many Trump supporters have good reason to be upset. “There are a lot of angry people in America, and you know what, people have the right to be angry.”

Sanders accused Trump of deflecting legitimate anger over “corporate greed” onto minority communities and called Trump’s rhetoric a form of demagoguery.

“We must bring our people together,” Sanders concluded, “to create an agenda that meets the needs of the working class of this country.”