Seth Moulton, representative for the 6th District of Massachusetts, announced his bid for the 2020 presidential election on Monday in a video posted on his 2020 campaign website.
The Democrat’s video cited the need to defeat President Trump and restore American values and morality to the country. Moulton served four tours in the Marines in a war that he characterized as a lie, since it was based on the false assertion that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, he said.
“I returned home and decided to run for Congress because I realized that a lot of Americans are feeling betrayed by Washington the same way that I did in Iraq,” Moulton said.
If elected, Moulton would cut the weapons budget in order to have funding for investing in other areas, including the economy and measures to prevent climate change, he said. The 40-year-old also said the government should prevent Russian hackers from interfering with our elections.
“Decades of division and corruption have broken our democracy and robbed Americans of their voice,” Moulton said. “It’s all led to an administration that’s turned away from our values and is shredding our moral authority.”
The greatest generation saved us from tyranny, but now it’s time for this generation to do the same, he said, noting that there are already teachers fighting for fair wages, women advocating for equal rights, and students marching for stricter gun laws. Moulton carried a gun as a Marine but does not believe that “weapons of war” should be allowed to civilians in the United States.
His website has information on his stances regarding foreign policy and national security, jobs, health care, climate change, and leadership in Washington. It also has a store with hats, tote bags, t-shirts, stickers, and onesies.
“I’m running because we have to beat Donald Trump, and I want us to beat Donald Trump because I love this country,” Moulton said. “We’ve never been a country that gets everything right. But we’re a country that, at our best, thinks that we might.”
Moulton is the 19th Democrat to announce his campaign, and the second current Massachusetts politician to announce a run for president—Senator Elizabeth Warren announced her campaign in December. William Weld, a Republican and former Mass. governor, has also announced his plans to challenge Trump.
Featured Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
