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MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE — A boisterous crowd of over 2,000 gathered outside Saint Anselm College in Manchester on Monday afternoon to show their support for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other public officials, including New Hampshire Congresswomen Annie Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter, joined Clinton in promoting her bid for the presidency. The speakers drew cheers from the crowd numerous times throughout the afternoon as they delivered impassioned speeches.
Clinton, in typical fashion, made a point of referring to Republican nominee Donald Trump only by his first name, and told the story of a woman she met who was fired from her job when she requested time off after giving birth.
“Donald is not on the side of American workers or American families,” Clinton said after emotionally recounting the mother’s story.
Warren, a crowd favorite who had the audience cheering and laughing throughout her time at the podium, listed several reasons why she supports Clinton.
“We’re here today with someone who has spent her life … fighting for those who need us most,” Warren said. “Hillary Clinton fights for us. It is now time for us to fight for her.”
Warren criticized the government for benefiting from student loan debts instead of enabling more people to access education.
“The federal government is making billions of dollars in profits off the backs of our students,” Warren said. “It is obscene to make money off people who are trying to get an education.”
In perhaps the most applauded moment of the day, Warren expressed disapproval of Trump, not just because of policy disagreements, but also because of his apparent disrespect of “more than half the human beings in this country.”
“He thinks that because he has money, that he can call women ‘fat pigs’ and ‘bimbos.’ He thinks because he is a celebrity that he can rate women’s bodies from one to 10. He thinks that because he has a mouthful of Tic Tacs that he can force himself on any women in groping distance,” Warren said as the crowd cheered her on.
While the crowd grew more and more energetic, Warren declared women have had enough with Trump, and that “nasty women” are especially fed up with his behavior.
“Guess what, Donald?” Warren said, her voice shaking with emotion. “Nasty women are tough, nasty women are strong and nasty women vote. And on Nov. 8, we nasty women are going to march our nasty feet to cast our nasty votes to get you out of our lives forever.”
During her half-hour long speech, Clinton stressed the importance of providing affordable education, and said it would be a top priority for her if she were elected.
“Let’s not have kids and families going into debt to get an education,” Clinton said. “This should be an investment that we make on behalf of them and our country’s future.”
Clinton took time to highlight positive aspects of this election, including the fact that more than 50 million young people are registered to vote, the highest number ever for that demographic.
“You only see numbers like this when people are standing up for what they believe in, and I am proud to see Americans coming together … to reject hate and division,” Clinton said. “We are more than our disagreements, we Americans. There is so much more that unites us than divides us.”
Before the rally, Clinton supporters expressed excitement in hearing from Warren. Timothy Horrigan, 60, a state representative from Durham, New Hampshire, called Warren “hilarious,” while Matt Saffle, 27, of Providence, Rhode Island, said she is “brilliant” and “a fighter.”
Sexual assault survivor Shannon O’Neill, 57, of Merrimack, New Hampshire, said she attended the event to support Clinton after being unable to forgive Trump for his 2005 comments about his relationship with women.
“Everybody knows somebody who has been affected by sexual assault,” she said after the rally. “I can’t, in all consciousness, vote for someone who promotes that in any way shape or form. He’s a disgusting human being.”
