MALDEN — She is a Democrat who has no problem criticizing the president, but U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark has at least one thing in common with Donald Trump.
“I agree with the president,” she said. “Health care change in America is complicated. It is like a giant ball we chase and can’t catch.”
Like Sen. Elizabeth Warren who was in Revere last week, Clark is taking advantage of the slow summer to hold town meetings such as the one she attended Wednesday in Malden Square.
“I truly believe we live in the best district in the best state in the country,” she said. “We are going to resist, persist, and we are going to fight for what is best for our family, friends and fellow citizens.”
The winner of a 2013 special election and a former state legislator, Clark met last week with constituents to hear their views on national issues and outline her perspective.
“There is so much to take in, so many distractions from the real issues facing every American,” she said.
The 5th district she represents stretches from Revere and Winthrop through Malden, Medford and Melrose, where Clark and her family live, to suburbs west of Boston.
She acknowledged the battleground in Washington where traditionally bipartisan legislation faces difficulty working in a Congress dominated by a Republican majority.
“We have had our problems, but we are in the minority,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that we fold our tents. We push back harder.”
She said the Trump administration has created chaos and has been destructive and distracting.
“We can’t lose track of the issues that affect every one of us,” she said.
More than 200 people attended the Malden town meeting and several quizzed Clark on her positions, including her willingness to take a pledge of not accepting any campaign money from fossil fuel companies.
Clark said she is not certain she accepts such contributions and said she is adamant about addressing climate change.
“We’ve got to kick this up in urgency, in the future and for the future,” she said. “By the end of this century, the water level on Boston’s coast is forecast to rise seven feet. East Boston and Winthrop may not exist anymore when that happens.”
Clark said solving the high costs of health care reform can be accomplished if a way can be found to “move the cost curve.”
“We can do this maybe in parts, but we have got to do it to give all Americans some relief,” she said.
Colleen Cook, the mother of two daughters whose story went viral when she described how they were punished for wearing extensions in their hair at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in Malden, asked Clark if she would address cultural training and more oversight at charter schools.
Clark praised the Cook family.
“We must stand up for students like Colleen Cook’s inspirational and brave daughters,” she said. “We are using public dollars to fund charter schools, which are in the public domain as well. They have to accept and educate all students.”
