Summary
- Senator Jeff Merkley speaks on Senate floor for 19 hours.
- Warns Trump acting as an authoritarian, deploying military locally.
- Criticizes Trump’s use of National Guard in Portland, Oregon.
The 68-year-old lawmaker spoke uninterrupted into Wednesday morning after starting at 6:20 p.m. on Tuesday. With signs that read "authoritarianism is here now!" and "Trump is violating the law," Merkley has been standing on the Senate floor all day, pausing only to answer questions from other Democratic senators.
“I’ve come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells. We’re in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the civil war. President Trump is shredding our constitution,”
Merkley said as he began his speech.
Merkley's remarks came a day after a federal appeals court granted the president permission to bring the national guard into Portland despite local officials' protests that the administration's assertion that the city is a "war zone" is without merit.
In Chicago, where federal officials are conducting a vigorous crackdown on individuals they suspect of being unauthorized immigrants, Trump has also ordered a similar army deployment.
The senator discussed those deployments to Democratic-heavy cities and other cases where the president is perceived to be retaliating against his political rivals, such as the accusations made by a US lawyer who was handpicked against former FBI director James Comey and New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
“Equal justice under law – that’s the vision here in America. Not unequal injustice, which is what the president is pursuing by taking the power of the government and going after individuals that he does not like or perceives to be political opponents,”
Merkley said.
“That’s what you read about in authoritarian governments far away, and you go, that would never happen in the United States of America, but it is happening right here, right now.”
The senator intends to speak "as long as he can," according to a spokeswoman for the lawmaker.
Merkley's speech is the second time a Democratic senator has delivered a protracted floor speech denouncing Trump's actions this year. A new record for the longest speech ever given by a lone senator was achieved by Cory Booker of New Jersey, who talked for 25 hours and five minutes around two months after Trump's inauguration.
The senator from Oregon stood on a lectern Wednesday morning, holding a copy of How Democracies Die, a 2018 book by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt that describes the breakdown of democratic democracies worldwide, and a little glass of water.
Democratic senators flocked to the floor as Wednesday progressed to ask Merkley, who has stood the entire time, questions that also served as a platform for them to voice their own complaints about the administration.
“We are seeing a time now that if we do not ring the alarm bells, more and more Americans will be hurt by a president who is acting more like an authoritarian leader than a democratically elected executive,”
Booker said.
Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut compared Trump's partial destruction of the east wing of the White House to the financial cuts and layoffs he has mandated throughout the government.
“This destruction that Donald Trump is doing to the White House is emblematic of the wrecking ball he is taking to our democracy. Put aside the waste of money that could be used to improve our education system, solve food insecurity, guarantee the election integrity of this nation – the damage that he’s doing to this iconic symbol of America is so costly to our image and esteem around the world,”
Blumenthal said.
Ron Wyden, Oregon’s senior senator, said in an interview that his counterpart was “making some particularly, relevant and important points about the threat”.
Asked if other Senate Democrats were planning such lengthy speeches, Wyden said:
“You take them one at a time, but I think what senator Merkley is doing is very important.”
Having failed to agree on legislation to extend funding past the end of September, Democrats and Republicans started a government shutdown at the beginning of the month, which is now in its 22nd day.
A Republican-backed package to extend funding through November 21 has been the subject of 11 fruitless Senate votes. Democrats have opposed the bill because it excludes healthcare spending, which they are demanding, and it also limits Trump's use of rescissions to cut down on congressionally approved funds.
How have Portland officials reacted to claims about military deployment?
Portland officers have explosively condemned the military deployment plans and conduct by the Trump administration. City councilors representing Portland neighborhoods blamed the civil government’s use of military helicopters and deployment of troops as intimidation tactics aimed at creating a false narrative that Portland is unsafe.
For instance, District 4 Councilor Eric Zimmerman called the helicopter deployment expensive and “ deeply un-American, ” while fellow Councilor Mitch Green described the helicopters as residents.
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek labeled the planned National Guard deployment an “ abuse of power ” and asserted there was no public trouble, emphasizing Portland was “ safe and calm.”.