- 1 year ago
During an event in El Paso, Texas on Wednesday night, former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) spoke about President Trump's agenda and Texas Republicans' redrawing Congressional districts.
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00:00From time to time. But then I remember that they want us to feel hopeless. They want us, as Robbie said, to feel helpless. They want us to think that what's happening right now is inevitable and impossible to stop. That's how these people win power, hold on to power, grow that power, and leave the people completely out of God.
00:24From the day that he was named Chancellor in January of 1933, it took Hitler just 53 days to destroy German democracy.
00:38His constitutional authority, every time he defied the German constitution, every time he wrote the law of that land, the German press, the German politicians, and most importantly the German people,
00:51did far too little, far too late. Every time, in those 53 days, there was an opportunity to stop. There was nothing about him that was inevitable.
01:02But in 53 days, he goes from being this, you know, buffoonish thug who can barely hold power to the undisputed master.
01:12Those who lived there at that time felt hopeless. They felt hopeless. They thought this was inevitable. They didn't believe that they could stop him.
01:21In the seven months since Donald Trump has been sworn into the highest position of public trust in this land, he has defied the co-equal federal courts.
01:33He's dismantled congressional chartered and mandated agencies and departments. He has colluded with corrupt public officials.
01:42He's covered up the crimes of potentially his complicity with child sex traffickers and rapists in this country.
01:49And he has dispensed with nearly every constitutional protection and state guard that for the last 249 years has kept us a nation of laws and not one of kings.
02:04And now he seeks to grab even more power. It sees five congressional districts right here in the state of Texas.
02:13And let me make sure that everyone understands the states and the terms of despite, because I guarantee you, he does.
02:21If he's unable to maintain control of the House of Representatives in 2026, if he can steal that election now in the summer of 2025,
02:31then there will be no check on his lawlessness. There will be no accountability for his crimes and his corruption.
02:38There will be likely free and fair elections going forward in 2028 and beyond.
02:44Those are the terms for him. For us. Those of us who are alive right now and so lucky to be on this planet and in this country
02:52and have the chance of 15 months to go to get everything we have, no matter where we are in this beautiful place.
02:59And we happen to be in the most beautiful that I can think of. If you look out these windows.
03:03And I'm so glad that Jasmine and my team are off on the stage.
03:06I can see the mountains and see our valleys, this river valley, these people.
03:10You know, some folks despair. They're like, why was I so unlucky to be around right now in Donald Trump's second term?
03:18Why do I have to go through all these things that we just heard about from after-speaker who received me?
03:22Excuse me. My bad luck. Don't fuck that up. Our extraordinary fortune to arrive and bring it.
03:31How many American generations have the chance to save their country at its moment of truth?
03:40We plenty of us who were not born in this region. We did not have the chance to fight the mother of all battles for the future of our country.
03:49That is who we are here today. So we need to understand that as well because if we fail to win a majority in the House of Representatives in 2026,
03:59I believe, and that's why I gave you that analog from German history in 1933, that the consolidation of authoritarian power in the hands of this president will be nearly unstoppable.
04:15And what that means for all of us is wore masks, plain clothes, federal agents without warrants or badges, sweeping our fellow Americans up off the streets.
04:26It means that wore out Trump's political opponents and retargeting for vengeance and retribution. And yes, even for political violence.
04:36And it means more likely that the Republican majority of Congress will roll out the royal red carpet for a Trump third term.
04:45That is our future. That is our fortune. That will be our fate unless we stand and fight right now.
04:52And look, those folks can be forgiven for thinking that we are going to submit and to bend the knee.
04:59Because look at the Ivy League universities, Harvard, which is settled for $500 million, Columbia for $200 million.
05:09Look at the big law firms on the East Coast that have committed hundreds of millions of dollars of pro bono work for the president's chosen priorities.
05:17And will never again defend anybody who challenges this move being autographed or a target.
05:24Look at Paramount and CBS firing Stephen Colbert are the last places we do get the real news on our television.
05:31Yeah, exactly.
05:32Look at even some present company included and excluded in our own party who seek to conciliate and compromise and yet sometimes submit or even are advised to roll over in the face of what's happening in this country.
05:48So they can be forgiven if we're thinking that that might happen here.
05:52But that was more important than the Texas Democrats.
05:55Who are ready to crack the right of the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States.
06:04For those of us in Colorado people who have started one of the largest voter registration organizations in the country.
06:13In the state where it's harder to cast a ballot or register a vote than any other in the union.
06:19An organization has also been supporting this fight to stop the steal of these five congressional seats.
06:25That fight has brought the wrath of Ken Paxton on our back.
06:29Who sued us in Tarrant County to try to put us out of business.
06:34But what Ken Paxton, Donald Trump, Ray Abbott don't understand is that in this state, especially in this city, our knees do not bend.
06:42But I am really excited.
06:43So we have to put us out of business.
06:48Just called Chris Paul and put him behind bars and accused me of criminal contempt.
06:57My hearing is later this month.
07:00Depending on what happens, you won't mind me mailing me a kick.
07:03I'm going to get a cake.
07:08We did not react.
07:10We didn't respond.
07:11We didn't fight back.
07:12We got off the back foot on the front.
07:14On the defense.
07:15On the offense.
07:16We took the fight to him.
07:18We sued him here in El Paso.
07:26So thanks to our ladies and attorney, Lynn Coyle.
07:30We're going to be a team-class team.
07:32And I'm still going to be a team-class team.
07:34Thank you very much.
07:49We are not used to people like that.
07:53When we fight them, we will win.
07:56I promise you, but we have to commit ourselves to this fight.
07:59No matter how intimidating it seems.
08:01No matter how hopeless we are sometimes tempted to feel.
08:06As Jasmine said, the real power in this country is with the people.
08:10For as long as we are a government of, by, and for the people.
08:15This room right here is the real center of power in America.
08:20But we have got to use it.
08:21So, in addition to joining all of the organizations that Veronica Escobar is going to hold us accountable for.
08:28She's going to check your registration before you leave.
08:30I'm sure I'm sorry.
08:31There is a congressional seat that is part of El Paso County that we have to win.
08:37And flip blue.
08:38Tony saw us.
08:39As soon as we have a candidate, Ron, you're going to tell us who that person is.
08:49We all have to get behind.
08:50I want everyone in this room to commit to block walking, knocking on doors, meeting people who live in the district community.
08:57I want to get that down there.
08:59I want to see that Republican.
09:01They only have a few votes advantage in the House of Representatives right now.
09:06That's why they're trying to steal these five seats.
09:08Because, well, I'm keen to make it clear.
09:10It is not popular to cut millions of people off of Medicaid.
09:13It is not popular to run these disabled tactics all across this country.
09:18It is not popular to add nearly $4 trillion to the debt.
09:21It is not popular to take a trillion dollars of your hard-earned wealth
09:25and said that to be wealthiest 1%, as that bad bill just did.
09:30It cannot win on the merits of their policies, on the character that they present to this country.
09:37And so they're trying to steal the election of 26 in the summer of 25.
09:42You and I together have 15 months not only to stop and then fight with everything we've got,
09:49but also to offer our friends and family, neighbors and federal pastors and Texans and Americans something to fight for.
09:59The mission that Donald Trump has is so damn aggressive, right?
10:05Does anybody in this room want to go backwards?
10:07No!
10:08No!
10:09I won't go back!
10:10And I don't even want to go backwards to the Biden administration, or the Obama administration,
10:14or the Clinton administration, as great presidents as they were.
10:19I think this country demands, rightfully so, big, bold, radical change in America.
10:26That's the same thing that we are going to do.
10:29In future, we are going to share with Ron Miller about how this became a better
10:35when we stop the bad guys in power and elect more Democrats to request it.
10:41So I want you to imagine, instead of saving a democracy, which is really confusing for people in 2024,
10:48what democracy are you trying to save?
10:51In Texas, millions of people are disenfranchised.
10:55In America, Long Island has spent $300 million trying to elect his preferred presidential candidate.
11:03In America, corporations are people, money, speech, and corporations are spending unlimited amounts of it,
11:10purchasing the outcomes of elections, and the policies that those officials pursue,
11:14and the future that all of us should be building together over lockdown.
11:18So how about a democracy, where we get big money out of politics,
11:22where we won't have citizens, you know,
11:26so all kinds of organizations will pay for a number of federal education in America.
11:30We set tournaments on every single caucus at any level of government,
11:34and on the way we are.
11:36And we put some juniors, recognize the peace match,
11:39and we're going to ask them.
11:41And after we win power, we get the politicians out of redistricting,
11:45and return that power, all of that power, back to the people.
11:50That is a democracy.
11:51That is a democracy.
11:52We have no hope of a political democracy,
12:00but we can also create an economic movement.
12:03In the last five decades, $50 trillion, with a T,
12:10has moved from lower and middle-income Americans to the very wealthiest people in this country.
12:16And it is continuing to pace right now.
12:18I mentioned $1 trillion just is flowing right now from all of us in this room
12:23to the wealthiest 1% in this country.
12:26If people in this country cannot get what they need,
12:30and they're not asking for much,
12:32from a governance of the many,
12:34soon enough they're only getting what they need from a government of the few,
12:38or a government even of only one.
12:41So let us talk about what this democracy can deliver for our fellow Americans.
12:45What if all those trillions of dollars were actually in return to the Americans
12:49who created that wealth in the first place,
12:51with their hard work, with their dedication to this country,
12:54with the need to justify, with the honest scale,
12:57with the ability to each and every place.
12:59So you're guaranteeing that one job is enough,
13:01and you're going to work two or three just to make it easy,
13:04especially if you're teaching school, and you're going to have success.
13:08So you're going to have to be sick,
13:11and you're going to have to be really sick,
13:13and so that you don't get sick at all,
13:15access to fresh and healthy food and clean drinking water,
13:19no matter where you live,
13:20the ability to buy a home if you're working for it,
13:24because too many of our fellow pastors right now are working for it,
13:27and cannot afford one.
13:29And most importantly,
13:30ensuring that your child can go to a world-class public school
13:34where you're going to grow up to the same place,
13:37and you're not.
13:38So you're going to have to be with you.
13:40And if you have a student,
13:44starting at home,
13:45Jasmine was so eloquent about this,
13:47looking in the mirror,
13:48and looking at our neighbor,
13:50and our friend, and our family member,
13:52and making sure that we see ourselves in them.
13:56And so when that transgender American is being charged with our top,
14:00he's sitting next to us,
14:01and he's sitting next to us,
14:02and hanging out with the other side of the leaders of the President,
14:06and everybody,
14:07who has been told of a thug,
14:13an animal,
14:14a rapist,
14:15a criminal,
14:16and who has reckoned he's toughest job in America right now,
14:19breaking his back,
14:20busting his ass,
14:21to make sure there's food on our table,
14:24a roof over at home,
14:25that this economy and country works
14:27when he shows up at the Federal Court House tomorrow
14:30for his appointed time in front of that judge
14:34with those ice agents, with their masks and their caps
14:37and their sunglasses and their tactical mess
14:39and, you know, armed for war
14:41are waiting outside to take him out
14:42you show up and stand right next to you
14:45and make sure that you tell his family
14:47where he is, where he is standing up
14:49and standing in touch with him
14:50make sure that he is not alone
14:52you know, when he goes to Texas
14:54it's not where it says
14:57that in 1973
15:00abortion was just as illegal in the state of Texas
15:04as it is today
15:05but no one came in from outside of the state
15:08to rescue the women of Texas
15:11with in fact three very young Texas women
15:14you know, Jane Boesling, right?
15:16Linda Koppi, one of the attorneys
15:18started writing to 26 years old
15:20most complicated case she had ever tried
15:22was a no contest divorce
15:24the three of them prevailed upon an all-male
15:27South-Name.
15:29We're.
15:30United States Supreme Court
15:31to render a Roe vs. Wade decision
15:32ensuring that everyone
15:34in their own position
15:35and our own money
15:36and their own government
15:37and their own country
15:39thanks to 07.3.3.3.4.3.3.3.4.3.4.5.2.2.4.2.
15:45Even as a woman, and as the most powerful country on the planet, she reminds me of God.
15:58Imagine this, in America there's no more complicit in a bombing, and a starving, and a slaughtering
16:04and tens of thousands of children and thousands of thousands. And in fact, we need the most powerful
16:11power of this country. To give you the reason you're going to have to, to ensure that this
16:16is a sovereign, independent state, the Palestinian people, over-exceptive, the citizens, and people,
16:23and everyone in that region, setting peace and victories are struggling not just for them,
16:28but for all of us. And to bring that same logic back home. And to reconvite ourselves to
16:33the Constitution, to due process, to the Bill of Rights, those protections that are being
16:39erased and destroyed right before our eyes over the last set of months, and in this one.
16:44And I don't have to tell Jasper, and I don't have to tell Joaquin, and definitely don't
16:48even tell the wrong words. But the next time, the Democrats hold the cup. Because the present
16:53company excluded. They had to talk a big game. And when we had the White House, and the House
16:58and the Senate back in 2008, when we had the same in 2020, we did great things. But we
17:04did not move an inch on the immigration. So with a lot of your own self, and others who
17:09go and live in this experience, we're going to make sure that every dreamer is
17:14people for life, or if you're a part of the U.S. citizens. And we held arms. And in response,
17:30he said at a town hall we were having in Milwaukee last week, when we win power again, we need to
17:36drive the car, or be sold. Right? Everything we got, from everything that we care about, from
17:45every group on the farm right now, when we be so successful, not just for themselves, but
17:50in this country, when their potential is finally unleashed. We can do this, right? Now, they don't
17:57want us to believe that we can. They want to intimidate us, they want to leave us hopeless, they want
18:02us to think that this is inevitable. It is up to us to decide differently. 1858, Lincoln's
18:09had one of those great debates with Douglas, and they're debating the essence of power in
18:14this country. And Lincoln says something to the effect that, when you've got the presidency,
18:19pretty damn powerful. The Congress, the courts, the state legislatures, but more powerful than
18:25all of that is all of us. He called it public sentiment. And he said it is everything. With
18:31it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. So, signing up for these groups,
18:38campaigning in Tony's office district in 23, registering our Federal of Texas here because
18:44of these statewide races for our Attorney General, Governor, U.S. Senate, our votes now pass
18:49and count just as much as most in any other part of the state, and we need to make sure that
18:54we get people out. Going to these protests, which are breaking through to our couple of Americans
18:58right now, Winnie King's out, and he dropped out, and he's not. He's not. He's right.
19:03And he's getting people that have taken a chance, that some is really up to our rights. It is
19:08mainly around people seeing as president. Hugh Donaldson just came out. His numbers wrapped
19:13at all time, but the lowest for any president except for Donald Trump, version 1. On your
19:20On immigration, his signature issue going into the 2024 election, he's polling at 35%.
19:28When you amplify what he is doing, who it is hurting, how un-American it is, this stuff
19:34is breaking through.
19:36Last thing, for that battle that still remains in your head, looking at the board up against
19:42you right now, let us remember who we are at the end of the day.
19:48I mean, here in El Paso, we had our Florence Nixon, who wrote The White Planner.
19:54He fought that game from 1923 to 1924.
19:57Any of those elections here are the passing of the state.
20:02We have no words.
20:04We were states before a different state judge integrated in higher education for all offenses
20:09in 1954.
20:11We have no words.
20:13We can vote in Paso, of course.
20:15We can vote for all offenses to de-seperate places of public accommodation anywhere in
20:19the United States of America, the capital of the United States of America and the United States.
20:23From 2924 to 66 years, we write down on our minds, and we have fought against anyone, and we're
20:30Americans.
20:32And for the last 249 years, no matter what they have grown at us, when we have chosen to come together, we have overcome it.
20:42We've freed ourselves from the most powerful force on the planet, the British Empire, to ensure that we were free from ever being ruled by kings.
20:51But 80 years later, we defeated the armies of the Confederacy to ensure that no longer did one American propose to own another.
21:00300,000 human dead in that effort, giving their last full measure of devotion to this country.
21:08Another 80 years, and men from this very community, including those in Company Eve, landed on those beaches in Normandy on the city of the United States.
21:18To defeat the country, to protect the democracy for the allies of the West here at home, and the generation that came off after them, who marched in the streets,
21:29who took to the state house steps, who got behind John Lewis on the 7th of March of 1965,
21:35and had a lot of pictures of people.
21:37Peacefully, non-reveling, democracy, brought this country to the citizens,
21:42and showed that the first president from the state of Texas, LMHA, would pass civil rights in the next day of the U.S. Act.
21:49And it's going to be, that is who we are.
21:53And all of us today, by our good luck as Americans, have inherited all that service, all that struggle, and all that sacrifice.
22:03And what we do, with this great inheritance, is going to define us in the eyes of history, and will determine what is possible for this country going forward.
22:13So, no pressure, but this one is on us, and it cannot be found wanting.
22:21And my lesson for every turn of the page in that history book, whether it's 1944, or whether it's 1933, or whether it's 2025,
22:31you cannot allow the money to pass before you begin to fight.
22:36So today, and every day that follows, for the next 15 months,
22:41so that election is called in November of 2026,
22:44I ask you to do all you can with what you have, wherever you are.
22:49If we hang together, we're going to overcome these bastards,
22:53we're going to win this for you, guys, and we're going to set down new doors.
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