'He Has To Be Brought Down': Al Green Torches Trump At Press Briefing For Texas Dems Who Fled State

5 months ago

At a Texas Democrats press brifing in Chicago, Illinois, Rep. Al Green (R-TX) slammed a Republican gerrymandering plan and responded to the issuing of warrants for the civil arrest of Texas state lawmakers who fled the state.

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00:04Thank you, Representative Rodriguez-Ramos.

00:07Friends, after her profound words,

00:12it just seems to me that we ought to give her another expression of appreciation.

00:22And to all of my colleagues who have traversed some great distance to be here,

00:27and I'm talking about these state representatives now, I consider you my colleagues,

00:33it's easy to do something when you don't have to do it.

00:38They are leaving their homes, they're leaving their families,

00:42they have jobs, they have responsibilities,

00:46and this is courage that is uncommon.

00:51And with this kind of courage, they ought to be commended as well.

00:55Let's give them a big hand, please.

00:59Thank you, Representative, thank you.

01:03Yes, we have a challenge before us.

01:08Dr. King reminded us that life is an inescapable network of mutuality,

01:13tied to a single garment of destiny.

01:16What impacts one directly impacts all indirectly.

01:19And that's what we're facing now, this challenge of it not being Texas.

01:25It's not just Texas.

01:27It really is the United States of America, because if they succeed in Texas,

01:32they will take this to other states, they will take this to the county court level,

01:37they will take this to the commissioners, the school boards,

01:40they will take this across the length and breadth of the country,

01:43but they'll do it if we only stand by and watch them.

01:48But if we take a stand, we can stop them.

01:51That's what we're doing today.

01:52We're taking a stand and we're going to prevent them from going forward in Texas.

02:00Here's why we have to take this stand.

02:03Because one vote makes a difference.

02:05One vote makes a difference.

02:07It was one vote that allowed them to get the big, ugly steel out of the House.

02:14One vote.

02:15And it was one vote in the Senate with the vice president casting that vote

02:21that allowed it to get out of the Senate and back to the House.

02:25Friends, I regret to tell you that the 18th Congressional District was not represented

02:31when that first vote took place.

02:33It was not.

02:35If the 18th had been represented, they'd have to find that one vote someplace else.

02:42One vote makes a difference.

02:44And in Texas, they are trying to silence five Democratic voices

02:49in the Congress of the United States of America.

02:53They have already made an effort to eliminate some of the districts.

02:59There are no longer going to be, there's no possibility of Democrats being elected.

03:03They are doing what the president has insisted be done, and I want you to know that we didn't introduce the race card.

03:11When this message was sent by and through the Justice Department to the State of Texas, to our Attorney General,

03:16they mentioned the race card because they talked about racial gerrymandering.

03:22They brought it up, and when they brought it up, they did it knowing that this was a buzzword.

03:28They knew that if they could use the race card in Texas, where we've had white primaries, and when the Supreme Court said,

03:36well, you can't do that, then we had white pre-primaries, where we've had all sorts of obstacles to voting.

03:42They knew that that's a buzzword that people would respond to in Texas, but we are going to respond to that buzzword by telling them

03:50that your racism is not going to change democracy in the state of Texas, it's not going to change it in the United States of America.

03:58Racism is going to be met with our taking a stand for democracy.

04:03You take a stand for racism, we will stand for democracy, and we will win.

04:07We will win. Democracy is going to win.

04:11My final comment is this.

04:14As you know, the President and I don't exchange Christmas cards.

04:22The President is a very vindictive person.

04:28He is a don't bring me any bad news person.

04:30Just fired someone because he got bad news.

04:33We, friends, have to understand what we're dealing with.

04:39And if we understand what we're dealing with, we can stop what we're dealing with.

04:46We're dealing with an egomanical person who believes that he has to be right,

04:57and if he's not, then the world is wrong.

05:00He would impeach judges that differ with him.

05:05He would fire people that don't give him good news.

05:09He would change congressional districts just to get rid of people that have challenged him.

05:17But I want you to know this.

05:19The challenge is not over.

05:23It is not.

05:24Yes, we have brought challenges against him.

05:27And I want to assure you of this.

05:30There are no circumstances that will prevent me from continuing to challenge the bigotry emanating from the presidency in policy.

05:40I will not stop, and I promise you, this president is going to, he's going to be brought down.

05:50He's going to be brought down.

05:51He has to be brought down.

05:53And I don't mean physically.

05:55I'm talking about politically.

05:57We will bring him down.

05:58He will be impeached again.

06:00I thank you.

'He Has To Be Brought Down': Al Green Torches Trump At Press Briefing For Texas Dems Who Fled State

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