'College Students Have Disappeared Off The Streets': Rep Johnson Accuses Trump Of 'Dictatorial' Acts

2 days ago

At today's House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) accused President Trump of acting in a "dictatorial" manner.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for your appearance today.

00:08Special shout-out to former Speaker Newt Gingrich from the great state of Georgia.

00:14Professor Gingrich, good to see you.

00:17Of the many troubling actions the Trump administration has taken in its first 71 days,

00:23among the most damaging are his authoritarian,

00:27dictatorial, and unprecedented use of presidential power to instill fear, intimidate,

00:36exact revenge against, and punish those who dare to stand up to him and hold him accountable to

00:45the laws of our nation. A climate of fear and trepidation has descended upon the nation.

00:52The people of America are more afraid today for our democracy and for their personal safety

01:01than ever in our lifetimes. College students have disappeared off the streets paramilitary-style

01:08by plainclothes, mask-wearing individuals, and held incognito for days before they are discovered

01:17thousands of miles away in some private for-profit ICE detention facility. Why?

01:24For exercising their free speech First Amendment rights.

01:29Universities, bastions of free thought, have been punished for having the wrong ideology

01:36by having their federal funding revoked. And major law firms that dared to have brought

01:42cases against King Trump have been targeted with blatantly unconstitutional executive orders that,

01:50if allowed to stand, would shut those law firms down. Unfortunately, mega law firms

01:58Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps chose to settle with the King by pledging to represent pro bono

02:06only those persons and causes that the King approved of. Shame on them. Then there are other

02:13law firms that have stood up to King Trump and they have challenged his executive orders against

02:19them in court and they have won. Kudos to the lawyers at Perkins Coie, Covington and Burling,

02:26and Jenner and Block, among others, for standing up for themselves and for the rule of law and for

02:34our democracy. Although federal courts have consistently ruled against these numerous

02:42unconstitutional executive orders of President Trump, the mere existence of these retaliatory

02:50executive orders should be chilling to all of us. There has been no semblance of due process or

02:57fairness in any of these cases. Trump acts first. He deports first. He revokes funding first. He

03:07blacklists law firms first and then questions anyone who challenges him later. Somehow, in spite

03:14of this, we are here today to talk about the, quote, overreach, end quote, of the federal courts,

03:22not the overreach of the executive branch official who is doing the overreaching. Our

03:29Republican colleagues want us to believe that simply because the courts are exercising their

03:34Article III power of equitable relief to temporarily halt some of Trump's most excessive

03:42executive actions, it is a sign of rot in our judicial system that it is somehow our courts

03:50and judges, not the president, who have gone rogue and are overreaching. I disagree, but more

03:59importantly, so do the numbers. Since day one of his second term, Trump has attempted to rework our

04:05constitutional system of government through presidential fiat, issuing a record 107 executive

04:14orders in his first 71 days in office. As I mentioned, many of these executive orders are

04:20unlawful or unconstitutional, and the president does not have the power to change the constitution

04:27through executive order, even if his name is Donald Trump. Naturally, they have been challenged in

04:34court, and of the over 150 cases filed against the Trump administration, judges have ruled against

04:42him 46 times. Of those 46, only 17 are nationwide injunctions. The cases are spread across district

04:53courts throughout the country, and judges appointed by Democrat and Republican presidents

05:00have all ruled against Donald Trump. What we are seeing playing out in courts across the country

05:07today is the judicial system working exactly as it should. America's federal courts have been

05:15handed case after case, challenging executive orders, standing on questionable legal footing,

05:22and yet the proportionally small number of nationwide injunctions shows the restraint

05:29exhibited by the judges considering those cases. I don't know what Donald Trump thought would happen

05:36when the cases made their way to the judicial branch, but clearly he has had enough with losing

05:43in court. Instead of letting the rule of law play out, Trump and his allies here in Congress now

05:50have chosen to go on the attack. Trump and his cronies have called federal judges rogue and corrupt.

05:58It was suggested that a judge supports terrorists, and they've called judicial rulings

06:12judicial coups. MAGA Republicans in Congress have called for judges to be impeached,

06:19not because they committed a high crime or misdemeanor, but simply because they ruled

06:23against Trump. And far-right media personalities have attacked the judges' families, publicizing

06:31their personal information for millions of their riled-up followers on social media.

06:36What I had just described is nothing less than a full-scale assault on our entire judicial system,

06:44and it is putting judges, their family, and their staff lives at risk. We don't agree on much

06:53on this committee, but we should be able to agree that this is wrong, and we should be able to agree

07:00to back away from language demonizing the judicial branch, no matter what political party

07:06we belong to. Today's hearing is not just about helping Donald Trump undermine the judicial

07:14branch, though, well, let me say that this hearing is not just about helping Donald Trump undermine

07:22the judicial branch, though certainly it is about that. But Republicans on this committee are

07:29sending a message to anyone who dares to stand up to Donald Trump. If you step out of line,

07:35they will target you next. We cannot afford to allow what Donald Trump is doing through

07:42retaliatory executive orders, through targeting immigrants, through threatening lawyers,

07:49through vilifying judges, to become the normal. Our Constitution is being tested,

07:55and throughout American history, it has stood up to attempts to weaken its protections.

08:02Americans across the country are watching, and they know they didn't vote for Trump to destroy

08:08our democracy. They voted for Trump because he promised to lower the cost of living,

08:14and Trump has betrayed their trust. Prices are going up, and our economy is headed towards

08:21recession as co-president Musk threatens to take away people's Social Security,

08:28Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP benefits, and veterans care. Trump is doing nothing to deliver on the

08:37promises to the American people. I stand with my fellow Americans, with the federal judges who

08:43continue to bravely do their jobs in the face of criticism, and I yield back.

'College Students Have Disappeared Off The Streets': Rep Johnson Accuses Trump Of 'Dictatorial' Acts

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