Gov. Maura Healey ripped into former President Donald Trump, calling him a “con man” and slamming him as someone who “swindles people” during a brief speech at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night.
Healey was one of three women political leaders from Massachusetts who went after Trump at the convention in Chicago on child care, affordability, reproductive rights, and his conviction on felony crimes. It was a night that emphasized the Bay State’s political prowess.
The first-term Democratic governor was preceded by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, who spoke for a few minutes only moments before Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to accept her party’s presidential nomination.
Healey’s speech marked one of her most high-profile moments in the national spotlight this election cycle. Clad in a blue suit, she used it to highlight the “stark choice” voters face in this presidential election between a “felon and con man or dedicated prosecutor.”
“The contrast between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is clear. He obstructs justice, she upholds it. He swindles people. She serves them. He thinks he’s above the law. She actually understands the law. That’s what this election comes down to, one candidate who’s out for himself or Kamala Harris for the people,” Healey said during a short address.
The governor’s remarks came more than a month after she became one of the first state executives to suggest that President Joe Biden should step out of the race for the White House. Healey had served as a top surrogate for Biden’s re-election bid.
Healey endorsed Harris shortly after the vice president became the immediate frontrunner to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. Healey is now a surrogate for Harris and vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
At the Democratic National Convention, Healey pointed to Harris’ time as a district attorney.
“When she was DA, mothers of children who’d been murdered, whose cases had gone cold, would come to her office saying, I’ll only speak to Kamala because they knew she would listen, because they knew she would help them find justice, and she did. That’s the Kamala Harris I know,” Healey said.
Shortly before Healey took the stage, Warren appeared to briefly tear up as she received a minutes-long standing ovation from the crowd of thousands at the United Center. But she soon regained her composure and quickly ticked off reasons why voters should back Harris.
“She’ll take on drug companies that charge an arm and a leg for prescriptions. She’ll take on corporate monopolies that rip off consumers and billionaires who don’t pay taxes. And she’ll take on right-wing extremists who think they should decide who has access to abortion or IVF. Kamala will protect abortion rights nationwide,” Warren said.
Warren then made an apparent reference to a false rumor connecting Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, with a sex act and a couch.
“Trust Donald Trump and JD Vance to look out for your family?” Warren said. “I wouldn’t trust them to move my couch.”
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U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark criticized former President Donald Trump on child care during a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Clark criticized Trump on child care.
The Massachusetts Democrat said when her children were young, she sat down with her husband to go over their bills and realized that her entire income went to paying for child care.
The couple asked “how on weather will we make this work,” Clark recalled during her convention speech.
Many parents tell a similar story, Clark said.
“Child care makes our economy run,” Clark said. “And yet, Donald Trump’s Project 2025 will eliminate Head Start, close classrooms, raise the cost of care and JD Vance, JD Vance says affordable child care is class war against normal people.”
Top aides in Trump’s campaign have criticized and attempted to distance themselves from organizers of Project 2025, a coalition of organizations that has drafted an ultraconservative playbook they want the former president to use if he wins this year’s election.
But Clark said “normal people want a president who understands this shouldn’t be so damn hard.”
“That’s Kamala Harris. She’s seen this firsthand,” the Massachusetts Democrat said to the crowd of thousands.
Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.
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