Sanders supporters in Sioux City.
A fervent crowd of more than 1,100 supporters turned out to cheer Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Sioux City tonight.
Sanders took a shot at rival Hillary Clinton, who said in response to a question at last weekend’s debate that “everybody” should love her, including corporate America. Sanders told the Sioux City crowd he doesn’t need Wall Street’s love.
“We’re going to put a tax on Wall Street speculation,” Sander said, to cheers. “When Wall Street destroyed our financial sector, Wall Street came begging to the middle class to bail them out. Well, today, it is Wall Street’s time to help the middle class.”
Sanders spoke for more than an hour, drawing a huge response for saying he’d let states decide whether marijuana should be legal.
“I do find it interesting that millions of people over the last several decades have gotten police records for possessing marijuana,” Sanders said, “but not one CEO of a Wall Street bank has gotten a criminal record for destroying the American economy.”
Sanders also talked about foreign policy, promising as president he’d build coalitions that would ensure ground troops from Muslim countries rather than from the U.S. respond to the threat of ISIS.
“What I will not do is get the United States of America into a perpetual war in the Middle East,” Sanders said.
Sanders spent some time criticizing Republican candidate Donald Trump, suggesting Trump is using old “political tricks” to denigrate minorities like Muslims and Mexicans.
(Reporting by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)