Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called Trump the gravest threat to American democracy and blasted Senate Republicans for their silence.
Schumer said on the Senate floor:
Now, everyone from school children to the most senior among us know that the peaceful transfer of power is one of democracy’s core attributes. There is no democracy without it. And like the rule of law, the separation of powers, checks and balances – everything we have ever learned that is great and noble about our system of government – President Trump has sullied, diminished, and now he threatens to actually dismantle.
The gravest threat to American democracy right now is President Donald Trump.
The president issued similar threats in the run-up to the 2016 election and he’s doing it again now. If I win, he proposed, then the election is legitimate, argues the President, but if I lose, it’s rigged.
That’s what he’s saying now. Again, if I win, the election’s legitimate, but if I lose, it’s rigged. Oh and by the way – I may just stay in office and not count the ballots. Unbelievable.
The gravest threat to American democracy right now is President Trump.
And save for a few, the Republican majority here in the Senate practically brushes it by. They don’t know the full context. The president says crazy things! Maybe he was joking, they say. And they’re willing to continue ramming a Supreme Court Justice through who the president said was needed “before the election…because [the election] will be before the United States Supreme Court.”
Where are our Republican colleagues?
This is not a partisan issue. Democracy is at stake and every constituent from every corner of the land, regardless of party or ideology, should be asking their Republican Senators to speak out and demand that Donald Trump not be allowed to do what he says he’s going to do and say they will join all of America in standing in the way if he tries.
The most innocent interpretation of the president’s comments is he’s just trying to get people not to vote.
‘Mail in voting is rigged! I’m gonna stay anyway.’ He cries. ‘12 more years!’ They chant at his rallies.
All to erode Americans’ faith in the election and discourage Americans from voting.
It doesn’t matter how false, it doesn’t matter how un-democratic, it doesn’t matter how corrosive it is to our democracy. The president doesn’t care. It’s his own ego, and nothing else. The president says it if he thinks it will help him win. And that’s the most innocent interpretation!
If you take the president at his word—he wants to throw out ballots, refuse the peaceful transfer of power, and rush through a Supreme Court Justice to ensure it could rule in his favor if the election is contested. That’s him in his word.
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Schumer was correct on all fronts. Those who are voting for Joe Biden don’t need to be told that Trump is the biggest threat to American democracy, but for all of the closely contested Senate races across the country, it is important to link Joni Ernst in Iowa, Martha McSally in Arizona, Thom Tills in North Carolina, Cory Gardner in Colorado, and Susan Collins in Maine to the attack on democracy.
Trump can’t overthrow democracy alone. It takes the assistance of a complicit group of Republican Senators to destroy our system of governance.
Any American that wants to protect democracy needs to vote against incumbent Republican senators.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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