Last night, Otto Voit, Republican candidate for State Treasurer, spoke at the Donald Trump rally in Wilkes Barre where he announced that would “not waver or back down” from his endorsement of Donald Trump. Otto Voit then went on to make jokes, never denouncing or even referencing Donald Trump’s lewd and disgusting comments about women, Trump’s promise to jail his political opponent, and Trump’s urging of supporters to watch “other communities”.
Democratic candidate for State Treasurer Joe Torsella released the following statement regarding Otto Voit’s behavior:
“Last night, my opponent said he will not waver or back down from his support for Donald Trump. Otto Voit demanded the jailing of Hillary Clinton and her political supporters. This is not locker room talk. Unfortunately, this is par for the course, as Donald Trump has used hate speech and disgusting personal attacks. Otto Voit has traveled across the state and not only refused to denounce Trump’s disqualifying behavior – but wholeheartedly participated in and endorsed it.
“As the Founding CEO and former President of the National Constitution Center, I find Otto Voit’s behavior in the past 24 hours — including demanding and joking about the incarceration of one’s political opponents and standing with Trump as he dog whistles about ‘other communities’ — deeply disturbing. The framers of our Constitution gathered here, in Pennsylvania, and decided we should be, ‘We, the People.’ Not ‘Us, some of the People, and Them, those other People.’ The Constitution applies to all of us — no matter where we come from, what political differences we have, or what we look like. Otto Voit should immediately apologize to everyone in the Commonwealth and denounce Donald Trump.”
Otto Voit boasts that he was the first candidate for statewide office in Pennsylvania to endorse Trump. At numerous rallies for Donald Trump, Otto has promoted fringe conspiracy theories and has also led attendees in chants calling for the incarceration of Hillary Clinton.
Prior recordings of rallies show Voit saying, “We have had the worst economic recovery since 1949 and it is because of Obama’s socialist and one-world order policies…and Hillary Clinton will double-down on those policies and remove all hope and opportunity for a generation. What should we do to Hillary Clinton? [“Lock her Up” chants from the crowd] You got it right!”
Background
Video of Otto Voit’s Speech in Wilkes Barre on October 10, 2016 is availablehere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Transcript:
MC:
It is absolutely my pleasure to introduce a man that almost at this point needs no introduction, our next Treasurer for the State of Pennsylvania, Otto Voit.
Otto Voit:
Hello my fellow deplorables! And hello adorable deplorables!
Are you ready to make America great again?
Then you’ve come to the right place.
I am Otto Voit and I am running for State Treasurer and I am proud to be the first statewide candidate to endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States!
I will not waver nor will I back down in my support of Donald J. Trump!
I stand with him for 3 reasons – the same way you do – Our military, our security and jobs.
I am a former military officer and desert storm veteran. How about a shout out to all our veterans, all of our first responders, for ambulance and firemen!? [cheers] Thank you!
There is no doubt in my mind that Donald J. Trump will defeat ISIS and he will make us safe home and abroad. He’s going to bring good jobs to our economy and he’s going to end the war on coal and he’s going to end the war on energy.
Did you know…did you know that more people believe in Big Foot than they do in the trustworthiness of Hillary Clinton? What should we do with her? [Voit leading a chant of Lock her up! Lock Her Up!] You bet! You bet! Hillary’s next rally is going to be from a prison! [crowd cheers]
So let me ask you this – are you tired of the status quo? Ye’ tired of the culture of corruption? Are you just plain old tired of Hillary Clinton?
Then let’s send a message to the Clinton News Network right now – that We want Trump! We want Trump! We want Trump! [chants of We Want Trump!] We Want Trump for President of the United States. Let’s shout out to the world right now that We Want Trump for President of the United States. Let’s do it. [chants of We Want Trump]
Thank you. God Bless you and god bless America!