"Back then, the Democrats were the champions of the constitution of civil rights."
"The Democrats stood against authoritarianism, against censorship, against colonialism, imperialism, and unjust wars."
"We were the party of Labor, of the working class. The Democrats were the party of government transparency and the champion of the environment."
"Our party was a bulwark against big money interests and corporate power."
"Drew to its name. It was the Party of Democracy."
"As you know, I left that party in October because it had departed so dramatically from the core values that I grew up with."
"It had become the party of war, censorship, corruption, big Pharma, big tech, big ag, and big money."
"I wanted to abandon democracy by canceling the primary to conceal the cognitive decline of the sitting president."
"I left the party to run as an independent, the mainstream of American politics and journalism derided my decision."
"Conventional wisdom said that it would be impossible even to get on the ballot as an independent."
"Each state poses an insurmountable tangle of arbitrary rules for collecting signatures."
"I would need over a million signatures, something no presidential candidate in history had ever achieved."