Trump supporters applaud Warren in the heart of MAGA

KERMIT, W. Virginia. – It was an amazing sight in the heart of Trump's country: at least a dozen supporters of the president – some wearing MAGA stickers – nod, even applauding sometimes, to the applause of the liberal bourgeois Elizabeth Warren.

The only observation of a Democratic presidential candidate in this city of less than 400 inhabitants – in a county where more than four out of five voters voted for Trump in 2016 – was unusual. Warren's team was worried about how it would be received.

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About 150 people gathered at Kermit's fire and rescue headquarters to hear the Massachusetts senator and former Harvard professor talk about what she wanted to do to fight the opioid epidemic . Students supporting Trump wearing loose t-shirts, beaded housewives and fire chief dressed in uniform joined the liberal pensioners dressed in "Persist" and rainbow shirts. teachers with six-figure debt.

Kermit is one of the epicenters of the opioid addiction epidemic. The toll is visible. The community center is closed. Fire trucks are decades old. When Warren asked people at the beginning of the event to raise their hand if they knew anyone who was "trapped in the addiction," most hands got up.

"That's why I'm here today," she said.

Warren entered the room from behind a large American flag draped in the train station. Squeezing a circle of people sitting on folding chairs, she tried to find an equal tone of empathy and fury, while avoiding pity. She became completely populist, telling people that their suffering and suffering was caused by pharmaceutical predatory barons.

Wilburn "Tommy" Preece, fire chief, aged 63, warned Warren and his team in advance that the area was "the country of Trump" and that it was not necessary wait for a warm reception. But he also told him that the city would welcome anybody, any party, who would want to tackle the opioid crisis. Preece was the first responder to an overdose reported two years ago, only to discover that the victim was his younger brother, Timmy, who died.

Preece said after the event that he had voted for Trump and that the president had revitalized the region economically. But he gave Warren some accessories for showing up.

"She did well," he said.

Others have accepted.

LeeAnn Blankenship, a 38-year-old coach and supervisor in a home visiting business who grew up in Kermit and wore a bright pink suit, said she could now support Warren in 2020 after voting for Trump in 2016.

"She's a good old country girl like everyone else," she said of Warren, who grew up in Oklahoma. "She won where she is, it was not given to her. I respect that. "

But Warren did not come to rural West Virginia primarily seeking votes. The tiny state will probably not decide on the appointment, and is almost certain to support Trump in the general election.

Instead, Warren was here to try to send a message that she was serious about solving the problems of isolated communities like this one.

The "opioid war" is a medical rather than behavioral or police problem, Warren said. Her plan is inspired by the government's response in 1990 to the HIV / AIDS crisis, as she explained in a Medium article earlier this week.

"But we have a second problem in this country and that is greed," she said. "People did not become addicted on their own, they had a lot of business help. They have received a lot of help from companies that have made a lot of money by developing an addiction and maintaining it. "

Kermit was the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series in 2016, in which drug wholesalers provided a single pharmacy in this city of 392 with 9 million hydrocodones in just two years. Warren's plan would distribute $ 100 billion over the next decade to states, cities, and non-profit organizations, while additional funds would be given to cities and counties most affected by the overdose.

"Here even in Mingo County, people are on the front lines of this opioid epidemic and it's a way to draw attention to the urgency of the moment, "she told the press.

Warren's four-stop tour Friday and Saturday took her from the small towns of Kermit and Chillicothe (Ohio) to Columbus (Ohio) and Cincinnati. The narcotics problem of the latter is so serious that the local newspaper has assigned a journalist to beat the heroine.

Warren's approach to the opioid crisis – which calls for treating victims and punishing perpetrators – largely reflects his reaction to the financial crisis when he called for the incarceration of bankers and massive assistance for homeowners.

Her trip is the latest version of her campaign strategy to stand out as the most substantial and best prepared candidate in the sprawling democratic field. Whenever Warren presents a policy proposal – invoking almost invariably the theme of corporate power limitation and corruption in the state of Washington – his team is organizing field events to further attract attention. Warning.

When she announced her intention to dismantle major technology companies, Warren went to the South by Southwest technical conference, and then to Long Island City, in the state of New York, where Amazon had planned to build a head office. She whistled in Tennessee, Alabama and the Mississippi Delta after unveiling a housing proposal aimed at bridging the gap that exists between racial wealth and racial wealth.

A Republican demonstration – or "Trump Support Rally" – was held a few hundred meters from Warren's protest in Kermit. But inside the fire station was remarkably devoid of partisanship, even though the subject was political.

On Friday night, when asked what went with his visit, Warren said it was the moment when she asked who had been personally affected by the opioid crisis and where almost everyone was standing up.

"I was in the city where the pain of the government's decision not to intervene was badly felt," she said.

While Warren was posing for selfies after the town hall, several people put notes in her hand that she read later in the car. "Help our hometown of Kermit, West Virginia, help us reduce drug abuse," reads a letter.

"Many people have said," You are in the redest red here, "Warren said, but" I love being here. "