Ahead of Donald Trump Jr.’s visit to Maine yesterday, the Maine Democratic Party hosted leaders from across the state and Mainers who have been impacted by Trump’s presidency to call out the administration’s four years of failed leadership and broken promises.

Read more below:

WGME: Democratic leaders discuss how they believe Trump administration has failed Mainers

  • Representative Chellie Pingree says President Donald Trump has broken his health care promises. “He promised us a beautiful health care plan and he would switch us over to a healthcare plan. Well I’ve been in Congress every year and they never put anything in front of us and when they do, it’s just a big stack of empty paper,” Pingree said.
     
  • Other participants of the round table say President Trump is mishandling the coronavirus pandemic. This includes Belfast resident Valarie Tate, who lost a family member to COVID-19. “She got sick probably late February, early March and if she had known what the president and the vice president knew back in January, I know she would have taken precautionary measures,” Tate said.

WABI: Maine democrats hold roundtable discussion ahead of Donald Trump Jr.’s visit

  • State Representative Genevieve McDonald highlighted the 2018 tariffs that she says negatively impacted Maine’s lobster industry. “Our wholesale dealers are the sector that have scrambled to replace those markets, to invest in advertising, to invest in marketing and make sure Maine lobsterman have something to fall back on," McDonald said. "As a Maine lobsterman I am absolutely tired of being used as a political pawn in Donald Trump’s lies.”
     
  • Members of the roundtable said they’re disappointed with how the Trump administration has handled the pandemic, too.
     
  • “Although Trump’s failed leadership has been disastrous on nearly every issue, his failures on the pandemic, COVID-19 and reckless trade wars with China have been particularly harmful for Mainers," said Chair of the Maine Democrats Kathleen Marra.

WVII: Maine Democratic Party reacts to Donald Trump Jr.’s visit

  • Victoria Spencer-Keene says she can’t afford private health insurance is trying to keep up with paying off two expensive hospital bills. “One of those bills is about $1700 and I‘ve been paying it $25 a month. If my math is right, it will take me about 56 years to pay it off and the smaller bill is $6,000,” said Spencer-Keene.

Bangor Daily News: Democrats slammed the visit ahead of time, with Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra hitting Trump for his management of the coronavirus pandemic and other areas by saying he has “abdicated his responsibility to lead.”

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