Democratic Senator Says ‘Now Is the Moment’ to ‘Take on Tyrant’ Trump
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) urged fellow Democrats to “take on” President Donald Trump on Thursday, arguing that “the best time to take on a tyrant is as early as possible, and this is the moment.”
Reacting on CNN’s The Arena to the controversial government spending bill, which has split Democrats in the Senate, Merkley argued:
You don’t stop a bully by giving over your lunch money and you don’t stop tyrant Trump by voting to give him more power. That is absolutely the wrong approach. There are others who say, you know, in a shutdown, the president may have more power than we’ve seen in any previous shutdown. There is a legitimate case to be made on both sides of this argument. But here’s what I am aware of, and that is, in history, as you see institutions degrade in republics where there’s an authoritarian president, is because the courts cave and you get an acquiescent legislature.
The senator then declared, “The best time to take on a tyrant is as early as possible, and this is the moment. We have the leverage as a Democratic caucus to insist on negotiations, to produce those bills onto the floor, those appropriation bills onto the floor. This is the moment to use that leverage.”
He concluded, “I think the concerns about the Republicans shutting down the government, because it will be the Republicans that do it, it will hurt them politically, it will be bad policy, and we will get back to using our leverage in an effective fashion.”
Just hours after Merkley’s comments on Thursday, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer announced that he would vote with Republicans to advance a government spending bill, despite opposition from other Democrats.
“I will vote to keep the government open, and not shut it down,” said Schumer. “While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse. For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a clean CR, it is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs, but I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
Watch above via CNN.
