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  • 6 months ago
During a press conference on Thursday, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) spoke about a plan to redistrict Texas's congressional maps being pushed by President Trump and the Texas GOP.
Transcript
00:00Next we'll hear from Congressman L. Greene.
00:06Thank you very much.
00:09And I thank my colleagues who are here representing the state of Texas as representatives and senators.
00:18I thank you because you're making a difference.
00:23And I thank you for your hospitality that you've shown us since we've been here.
00:28It means something to me to come to Austin, Texas and see you at work.
00:36But I'm also proud of something.
00:39I am very proud to be a Democrat.
00:42And I'm proud to be a Democrat because Democrats will stop the move to privatize Social Security.
00:52We just had a Republican administrative official who has indicated that the privatization of Social Security is on the table.
01:04I'm a Democrat. Democrats own Social Security. We gave birth to it.
01:10I'm not going to surrender Democrats. We're not going to surrender as Democrats and allow Social Security to be privatized.
01:16Social Security is needed. Our people need it.
01:20By the way, people of all hues need it. This is not something for minority people. Of all hues, Democrats fight to protect Social Security.
01:30I'm proud to be a Democrat because Democrats are fighting to protect your health care.
01:37We're going to continue to fight to protect your health care.
01:40And I'm proud of what I did when I stood up before the President and told him,
01:46you're not going to, you don't have a mandate.
01:50You don't have a mandate to eviscerate, I didn't use that term then, but you don't have a mandate to eliminate Medicaid.
02:02And then I went on to say Medicare. And I went on to say Social Security. And I'm proud of this.
02:08I am not ashamed to be a Democrat who's on the front line to protect the needs of all of the people in the state of Texas.
02:16Democrats are not just fighting so that we can have Republican opportunities or Democratic opportunities.
02:23We are fighting to make sure that all of the people in the state of Texas are protected with good health care,
02:31good retirements, and that includes Social Security, good education, and that includes everybody should have a good education.
02:41And we also want to make sure that injustice does not take place in Texas as it will under this map.
02:51This map is a gross injustice.
02:54Dr. King reminded us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
02:59That means that if this map goes through, if it passes, it will then be an opportunity for the injustice to move to the county level,
03:07might move to various commissioners' courts, or to city council level, or school boards, or to the state reps, or to state senators,
03:18and not just in Texas, but around the country.
03:21Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
03:25And finally, the president was being very, very clever when he sent his letter by and through his agent in the Justice Department,
03:36indicating that racial gerrymandering had taken place in Texas.
03:42Now who believes that?
03:47Who believes that the Texas legislature and the Texas Senate drew maps so that they could intentionally allow minorities to have seats?
04:00Intentionally.
04:01The Attorney General himself said that's not true.
04:04That's not true.
04:05Senator, prominent Senator, said that the map was colorblind, and it still is according to them.
04:14So the president used that term because he knew that it would incite people.
04:21He wanted to incite people to believe that what he wanted done would be justified because minorities were somehow being given a privilege that they shouldn't have.
04:34That's what he was doing.
04:35That's what he was doing.
04:36He knew what he was doing.
04:37Very clever.
04:38But we're going to stand up against this.
04:41And the truth of the matter is, somebody has to have the courage to say that it's racism.
04:47Unfortunately, we have grown to the point in this country where you can use racism against people of color, but people of color can't respond and say, that's racism.
04:59If we do, you're not going to print it.
05:03You're not going to carry it.
05:05What you're going to do is allow the racist statement to prevail, and what we try to do to fight it by indicating that it is racist, you allow that to just be words that evaporate into nothingness.
05:21So I just challenge you, the members of the press, none of these friends of mine are doing it.
05:26They're not doing this.
05:27This is Al Green.
05:28I'm a liberated Democrat.
05:30I challenge you, tell the truth.
05:34Let the world know that President Trump is using race and that we're responding to it.
05:40I'm a liberated Democrat.
05:43I thank you.
05:44I thank you.
05:45Amen.
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