Governor hopeful rejects Trump, Amazon HQ
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Massie joined Boston Herald Radio’s “The Rundown” program yesterday to talk about how he would deal with the Trump administration and the bids to bring Amazon’s new HQ to Massachusetts:
Q: What kind of relationship would you want to have with the White House if elected?
A: This is a dangerous president who does not believe in the Constitution of the United States. Although he swore to preserve and protect and defend it, I don’t believe he understands the Constitution or that he is willing to stand up for its provisions — freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, all of those key elements — and frankly I find it shocking that (Gov. Charlie Baker) has refused to speak up on critical matters related to our democracy over and over and over again ... He’s not going to speak up when the president says the only reason that he lost New Hampshire was because millions of people from Massachusetts went up and cast their vote. I mean, the governor should have said, “I’m sorry Mr. President, that’s slandering my citizens.” The governor just said, “I don’t know what goes on in New Hampshire.” He didn’t go to the Women’s March, he doesn’t stand up for the unconstitutional so-called Muslim ban. I mean the president does one grotesquely objectionable thing after another and we see Baker keeping his mouth shut.
Q: Amazon put the request for proposals out for cities and municipalities to lure their second headquarters. Where do you think it should go, if at all, in the commonwealth?
A: So, I am a bold progressive with a doctorate from Harvard Business School, and what that means is I strongly support small business, putting money in the hands of people in local communities so they can expand, hire more people. I’m very gung-ho about that. But I am not in favor of handing hundreds of millions of dollars to lure companies that have hundreds of billions of dollars as a way — you use the word lure, bribe is another way of talking about it — to get them to come. There are hundreds of reasons to come to Massachusetts. I mean we have a unique profile in terms of our universities, our talented workforce and so forth, and we can come compete on that. Now that doesn’t mean I oppose Amazon flat out, but we have to look very carefully at what this does to the overall economy. And Amazon has destroyed more small businesses than anything else ... so I would be a very tough negotiator.