In NH, Elizabeth Warren Calls For Change, End To Shutdown

MANCHESTER, NH — Elizabeth Warren made her first campaign appearance in New Hampshire Saturday as she builds toward a likely presidential bid. The Massachusetts senator held a rally at Manchester Community College and laid out her populist platform, arguing the country is in need of "systemic change." It was one of several events the Democrat planned in the first-in-the-nation primary state in the coming weeks.

"What's wrong with an America where it works for drug companies and not for people who fill prescriptions," Warren said in broadcast remarks. "An America that works for giant oil companies? An America that works for a private prison system? I'll tell you what it is ... that's corruption, plain and simple."

Warren said she has put together "the biggest anti-corruption proposal since Watergate," which would "end lobbying as we know it, make the Supreme Court follow basic ethics rules and make everyone who runs for federal public office put their tax returns online." The last remark was the closest she came to criticizing President Trump.

Warren said more power should be given to unions, workers and consumers.

She added, "We need to attack head-on the causes that hard-working families face everyday — the high cost of health care, the high cost of housing, the high of childcare and the high cost of getting an education."

Following the rally, Warren attended a house party in Concord, where she called for an end to the government shutdown, according to The Associated Press.

"Federal workers are not pawns," Warren said, the AP reported. "(Opening the government) is the job right now of the U.S. Senate, and we have votes to do it, and (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell is holding us back."

Warren, 69, launched her presidential exploratory committee last month after she was re-elected to a second term in the Senate.

Warren will return to New Hampshire Feb. 22 for the New Hampshire Democratic Party's 60th McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner. Granite State Democrats will toast their wins in the November midterms, as they retook control of the House, Senate and Executive Council.

Photo: Elizabeth Warren speaks during an organizing event for her 2020 presidential exploratory committee at Manchester Community College on January 12, 2019. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)