Elizabeth Warren tells Seattle Center crowd of about 15,000: Dumping Trump is 'not enough'

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks to thousands gathered for her town hall campaign event at Seattle Center, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. Warren is the first top tier candidate to hold a campaign event in Seattle. less Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks to thousands gathered for her town hall campaign event at Seattle Center, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. Warren is the first top tier candidate to hold ... more Photo: Genna Martin, Seattlepi.com Photo: Genna Martin, Seattlepi.com Image 1 of / 53 Caption Close Elizabeth Warren tells Seattle Center crowd of about 15,000: Dumping Trump is 'not enough' 1 / 53 Back to Gallery

Sen. Elizabeth Warren addressed a sun-drenched throng of about 15,000 people Sunday at the Seattle Center, arguing that it's not enough to dump President Donald Trump next year; America must rid itself of corrupt corporate rule and become an even playing field.

"We're not going to win this thing by saying, 'Not Trump!'" Warren said, in an unmistakable jab at ex-Vice President and fellow presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The country is in "serious trouble" and was before the 45th President took office, Warren argued, speaking of "not what's been broken the last two-and-a-half years but what's been broken for decades."

Voters in the Evergreen State were at last able to witness, question and have selfies taken with a front-rank Democratic presidential candidate, not someone headed for a $1,000 or $2,800 a head fundraiser at a Medina mansion.

"She cared enough to come," was a refrain often heard Sunday afternoon. "I am frustrated (other candidates) come here and ask for money, but don't meet with the public," Bill Sherman, an attorney, said.

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Warren is a master storyteller, and has weaved her hardscrabble Oklahoma upbringing with the central message of her campaign. The candidate's father suffered a severe heart attack and could not work. Her mother donned her best dress, declared "We will not lose this house," went off and got a minimum wage job at Sears Roebuck.

"A full time minimum wage job saved our house and, more important, saved our family," Warren said, whose career has gone from being a special needs teacher to a Harvard Law professor to the U.S. Senate.

The current $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage, which hasn't been raised in more than a decade, would not keep a family of three out of poverty, Warren argued, "but it works for giant corporations."

Jessa Lewis of Spokane, who ran for the State Senate in 2018, said the Warren message will reach voters who have become disengaged and cynical and do not see reason to cast their ballots. "What's gotten me involved is that she can get these people out to vote," said Lewis.

Lewis was a prominent Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016, but has accepted a role as volunteer coordinator for Warren in Eastern Washington.

Warren was having fun in her 128th town hall, in the 27th state she has visited. She toyed with the crowd, had it responding with spontaneous chants. She took questions, and a long line of selfie seekers snaked around the Seattle Center grounds once she was done.

A milepost was passed on the Center grounds when Warren posed for her 50,000th selfie of the budding 2020 campaign.

The message was that America has entered a new Gilded Age in which benefits flow to those at the top, who have worked to keep it that way. "That is corruption, pure and simple, and we need to call it out for what it is," Warren said, citing as example the energy industry's quarter century resistance to meaningful action on climate change.

The industry has invested in politicians, constructed front groups, "and paid for experts who deny climate science ... What is there to understand about the climate crisis we're in today? It's corruption in Washington, D.C."

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Warren went back into jest -- just for a moment -- with her favorite line: "I have a plan for that."

She is proposing to rinse rather than soak the rich. The key proposal, outlined from the stage, is a wealth tax.

"The first $50 million (of income) is free and clear," Warren said. "The tax would charge two cents on every dollar after that ... All we're saying is that those who make it big -- really big -- pitch in two cents so the rest of us can make it."

What to do with those 2 cents? The money will pay for universal child care, Warren said, raise the wages of every preschool teacher in America, and finance tuition-free community college, technical college and four year college -- and cancel 95% of student debt.

In other parts of her "Dream Big!" message, Warren promised that on her first day as president, she would sign an order: "No new (oil and gas) drilling, no mining on federal lands." She would invest heavily in climate science: "Much of what we need hasn't been invented yet."

The big turnout, following a 12,000-person town hall in Minneapolis, indicates that the Warren campaign has become airborne. The crowd was as large as last year's post-Parkland March for Our Lives that ended at the Seattle Center.

"I think Bernie Sanders has hurt himself by not coming out here early and often," said another Eastern Washington activist, who asked that his name not be used.

Derek Richards, chair of the King County Young Democrats, stood in the selfie line. Richards was an intense Bernie backer in 2016, but is supporting Warren this year.

"It was incredibly refreshing that Sen. Elizabeth Warren hosted an event free to the public," Richards said. "A lot of politicians talk the talk about fighting for the working class while only meeting with a class that can afford five-figure fundraisers."

Ex-State Sen. Rodney Tom, a Biden backer, wrote on his Facebook page: "Whatever you think of her policies, she has a great personal story that people can relate to and lots of spunk."

Warren was hitting the political bases. She met with Mayor Jenny Durkan, and described her as "a progressive mayor of a progressive city." She praised presidential dropout Gov. Jay Inslee as one of America's finest governors. She praised Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, who almost never hold open town hall-like events.

Erin Haick, on her Facebook page, joked: "You'll be able to tell who was here based on our sunburns."

The Warren town hall was a happening. It may seen like an impossible dream to transform American into an even playing field, or to rise the rich.

But Elizabeth Warren is dreaming big dreams, and carrying along big audiences.