During a virtual press conference today, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, DNC Small Business Chair Andrew Lachman and Georgia small business owners slammed Donald Trump’s five years of broken promises to small businesses and his failed coronavirus response. On the fifth anniversary of Trump’s campaign launch, Georgia’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed into the double digits, with over two million Georigans filing for unemployment.

This call is part of the DNC’s five-week campaign marking the five-year anniversary of Trump’s candidacy. To kick off this campaign, the DNC War Room released a new television and digital ad campaign running in battleground states.

Tom Perez, Chair, Democratic National Committee:

“While our nation is gripped by not one, not two, but three different crises, we have a president who simply wants to distract. He’d rather be the tweeter in chief  than the problem solver in chief. […] He promised relief to working families and small business owners like you. That turned out to be another broken promise. A May survey showed that only a third of Georgia’s small businesses that applied for PPP loans said they received the money. And minority-owned businesses have been even less likely to get what they need. […] The only thing more staggering than these numbers is the incompetence that caused them. None of this was inevitable. It didn’t have to be this way. If the president would’ve paid attention in December and January and February […] he could’ve so mitigated the damage, but he did virtually nothing to stop it.”

Andrew Lachman, DNC Small Business Chair

“More than anything else, what government can do to help small businesses in these times is listen to the scientists, do what’s best for the public health and support small businesses through these difficult times. […] This administration and the state of Georgia failed on both of those cases. They didn’t listen to the science, they pretended that if they shut their eyes that this pandemic would go away. […] They fell short and they didn’t live up to that side of their contract, either.”

Jeanette Flores-Katz, Owner of Buenos Dias Cafe, Atlanta

“We are looking for a leader who actually can take us out of this hole. My husband has been working 100 hours on a computer applying for the PPP. We finally got it at the second round. We didn’t get it at the first round, so it was very scary to know that we are not going to be able to support ourselves nor our employees. Also, the uncertainty that we don’t know what is going to happen. […] So, what happens if we cannot pay them? What happens if this continues and it doesn’t change? Those are the things that worry us.

Mary Blackmon Campbell, Owner of a Kid to Kid franchise, Buford

“When the crisis happened and I shut down,  I was going into the most profitable time of the first six months of my year. […] My business that normally does about a million dollars a year, […] I’m actually looking at a quarter of a million dollar drop in revenue this year.  […] When I decided to close my store, which I did about two and a half weeks before the governor issued the shelter in place, I set two rules for myself, two things that I had as a guiding principle —  none of my team was going to get sick and none of my team was going to lose their job. […] I feel confident that nobody will get sick […] However, I am not very confident about being able to keep everybody employed. […] People shouldn’t have to choose closure in a pandemic and a crisis.”

Lisa Bobb, Owner of Squash Blossom Boutique, Decatur

“I did receive PPP funds in the second round, and it just plain and simple wasn’t enough. […] It’s really uncharted territory. It’s really unsettling. I just hope that I’m making the right decisions day by day, and I hope that the economy can come back to the extent that my customers will come back and shop and I can try and reclaim some of those lost dollars.”