Politics

Rashida Tlaib: Matty Moroun 'Might Have Prepared Me for Trump'

September 22, 2019, 10:35 AM

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U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib talks to the Freep. (Screen shot from video)

Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has had practice going up against powerful figures.

In an interview with the Detroit Free Press editorial board, Tlaib, 43, talks about President Donald Trump going after her and how billionaire bridge owner Matty Moroun might have prepared her for that battle while she was in the state Legislature.

She served in the state House for six years and was first elected in 2008. 

Here's her comment: 

You ever go to school, and there's a bully? So it's like the school bully, right?

I remember the moment [in her first state legislative term] that Matty Moroun launched the recall campaign against me. ... That was very fearful, because I was only in office for six months. Ironically, he might have prepared me for Trump in some ways, psychologically. No, seriously, because he was like, I'm above the law, I don't care. . . .

I was like, Oh, my God, now my residents think that if you stand up to him [Moroun], that this is what happens. If [he] was to be successful, it would have been demoralizing for them.

And so for me, when I see the president kind of hit me like that, how can I push back very hard, very strong, very profound, and show the residents that you can't allow somebody like that to bully us like, you can't allow that kind of hate to overwhelm us?

So I keep that as a center of what drives me and not let that weigh on me. I think when we beat Moroun on the recall, it made Southwest Detroit even stronger . . . Anyhow, I would compare it to that: How do I show my residents?


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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