During a Congressional Democratic press briefing on Wednesday, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) spoke about President Trump’s first 100 days in office.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00To the great Reverend Dr. Senator Raphael Warnock from the great state of Georgia.
00:14It didn't take us long to see what this Trump administration is all about.
00:19This is the worst first 100 days that this country has seen in a very, very long time.
00:28We are witnessing an all-out assault on our Constitution, an all-out assault on our norms and our values, an assault on the pocketbooks of ordinary people.
00:45But in a real sense, an assault on the spirit of the American people.
00:52They are trying to convince us that our neighbors are our enemies.
01:02We should know better than that by now, and we do.
01:04We went through a deadly pandemic in which if my neighbor was sick, while she was sick, I was potentially imperiled because it was an airborne disease.
01:16That didn't make my neighbor my enemy.
01:20That means I have an invested interest in my neighbor's health care, in my neighbor's ability to be covered.
01:28And so while there are politicians who want us to be worried of our neighbors, we ought to be worried of politicians who want us to be afraid of each other.
01:35They're trampling due process, striking fear in communities all across our country.
01:43They're firing the federal workers who serve our veterans.
01:49Many of them are veterans themselves.
01:51They have had the honor necessary to fight for us.
01:57And then they come back and they've got to fight with us to get ordinary respect for the work that they've already done and the work that they're trying to do.
02:05They're trying to shut down Social Security offices in Georgia and all across the country, drinking water safety offices.
02:16And why are they doing all of this?
02:18Because they're doing all of this in order to pay for a tax cut for billionaires, all the while adding billions of dollars, trillions of dollars over time to our national debt.
02:36But here's the thing that they're really trying to do.
02:40They are trying to weaponize despair.
02:43They're trying to so beat us down that we will be too so weary to fight.
02:50And it's our job to prove them wrong.
02:53This country does not belong to the people in power.
02:56The power is in the people.
03:02So I want the American people to be clear that we are fighting.
03:06In many ways, you will see our fight.
03:08Sometimes you will not see what the fights that we're engaged in, but know that we are fighting for ordinary people.
03:15Because we believe that if you center the people rather than the politics, you have a chance at getting the public policy right.
03:23That's right.
03:24So we invite our Republican colleagues to join us.
03:29The doors of the church are open.
03:35The time is always right to do what's right.
03:37It's never too late to be on the right side of history.
03:39And so we want you to rise up to this moral moment and to recognize that we will not give in to wannabe autocrats who want to convince us that they have already won.
03:53If they can convince you that they've already won, then you won't fight.
03:57You won't raise your voice.
03:59The great Andy Young, who's now in his 90s and is a great source of wisdom for me, tells the story of how after they had passed the civil rights bill and the law, Dr. King and his team went to visit with President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
04:20Dr. King said to President Johnson, I need a voting rights law.
04:23My people are being disenfranchised and we've got to pass a voting rights law.
04:30And the president said, Martin, I agree with you.
04:33But the sad political reality is I don't have the power to do that right now.
04:38I just passed a civil rights law.
04:41I've used all of my political capital to muster that through the Congress.
04:45There's no way I can get a voting rights law passed.
04:47I don't have the power to do that.
04:52And they left the meeting and the team was feeling all dejected.
04:55And somebody said to Dr. King, what are we going to do now?
04:58He said, well, the president says he doesn't have any power.
05:03I guess we're going to have to go and get the president some power.
05:08And so I've been thinking about that story a lot lately because everywhere I go, and I know my colleagues have the same experience, people are asking us, what are we going to do?
05:16Will you fight for us?
05:17And the answer is yes, we are fighting for you.
05:20But Selma was about creating the context for the change that you want to see in the world.
05:26And so know that as we fight on the inside, we need you to fight on the outside.
05:32And we will prove once again that this is the United States of America.
05:36And at the end of the day, it's the people who have the last word.
05:39Love has the last word.
05:41Justice has the last word.
05:42Righteousness has the last word.
05:45We will continue to fight.