Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Condemning The Trump Administration’s Anti-Democratic Attempt To Indict Members Of Congress For Exercising Free Speech
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) today spoke on the Senate floor condemning Donald Trump for his attacks on democracy as he weaponizes the Justice Department to target his political enemies. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
We gavel into session two days after learning Donald Trump’s Justice Department tried and failed to push criminal charges—meritless criminal charges—against two members of this body and four members of the House of Representatives.
The President of the United States tried to throw two US Senators in jail, senators of the opposite party, simply because he didn’t like what they said.
It is good these indictments failed—the grand jury, average citizens, in a rare moment, saw through these attacks on free speech and rejected what the prosecutors asked them to do. But the mere fact that these indictments were attempted should terrify every one of us. That's what happens in a dictatorship, the chief executive arrests people who speak out against him, legislators who speak out against him. It should not, cannot, must not happen here in America.
Unfortunately, we all know Donald Trump will keep trying.
A lot of members on this side of the aisle came to the floor yesterday as angry as I’ve ever seen them—and they were right to be angry.
But both sides of the aisle should be angry. This is an attack on America. This is an attack on democracy. This is an attack on the legislative branch. This is an attack on free speech.
If this happened to one of our Republican colleagues, they would want us to speak out, and they’d be right. Because when a President tries to jail Senators for speaking their minds just because he disagrees with them, that is not a Democrat or Republican problem—it’s a constitutional crisis of the highest order. It’s an assault on everyone who cares about free speech, who cares about basic freedoms, who cares about how our democracy has functioned for close to 250 years.
And look, this isn’t just about six members of Congress being indicted for one video—this is about Donald Trump destroying our democracy, destroying our democracy, from top to bottom.
His goons are arresting journalists and peaceful protestors. Masked agents are patrolling the streets of Minneapolis, launching raids in New York, shooting citizens in the streets. He’s raiding election offices in Georgia and demanding the states turn over voter rolls. He says there's fraud but has no evidence of it. It's a political heavy hand crushing our democracy.
Enough is enough.
The American people are tired of this chaos. They are tired of the corruption. They are tired of being lied to by this President. When he asks himself why he's so unpopular, it's not Democrats attacking him, it's not the press going after him, it's what he does. The American people, Donald Trump, do not like what you're doing. They don't like what you're doing on costs. They don't like what you're doing on chaos. They don't like what you're doing on corruption.
If Republicans and Democrats don’t take a stand in this chamber, then lawlessness, the chaotic lawlessness we’ve seen so far is not going to end—it’s going to get worse and swallow all of us up.
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