U.S. Sens. Ossoff, Durbin headline Democrat rally, tout legislative wins, slam Trump

Months removed from assuming power over the U.S. Senate and the executive branch, Democrats celebrated their early accomplishments at a rally Wednesday in Springfield.

Hundreds attended the event, highlighted by speeches from U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, and Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. Both senators reflected on the recent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, blaming former President Donald Trump, who was impeached and accused of directing the insurrection, while touting the legislative accomplishments of the President Joe Biden-led caucus.

"In a country deeply wounded by the politics of fear and division, faced with the task of building a just and sustainable and flourishing world, now is the time to make fully real, at long-last, Americans’ foundational promises of equal rights and equal justice for all. … Now is the time to believe again, Illinois, to push this country to higher and higher heights," Ossoff said in closing at Wednesday's rally.

Ossoff, who became the first Jewish senator from the south in more than a century when he was elected in January, quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who called for peace following the bombing of Atlanta's Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple by anti-Semites in 1958.

Read more: https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/2021/08/18/senators-ossoff-and-durbin-highlight-early-wins-democrat-led-senate/8180304002/
(Springfield State Journal Register)