WASHINGTON ― Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) spoke on the Senate floor for over 15 hours on Wednesday in protest of President Donald Trump’s policies, accusing him of shredding democracy and orchestrating an “authoritarian takeover” of the U.S. government.
“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 warned in his opening remarks.
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Merkley, who turns 69 this week, cited Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in U.S. cities that did not request them, including Portland, Oregon, as well as other federal agents to crack down on immigrants and other people of color.
“We’ve got an authoritarian president bent on being able to use military against the people of the United States,” Merkley said.
The Democratic senator pointed to the Department of Justice’s recent indictments of Trump’s political adversaries, including former FBI Director James Comey, former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, as well as his administration’s attacks on free speech and its abuse of the powers of Congress.
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“This is an extraordinarily dangerous moment,” Merkley added. “An authoritarian president proceeding to attack free speech, attack free press, weaponize the Department of Justice, and use it against those who disagree with him, and then seeking the court’s permission to send the military into our cities to attack people who are peacefully protesting.”
Merkley previously spoke for more than 15 hours on the Senate floor in 2017 against Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier this year, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) set the record for the longest Senate speech ever in protest of the Trump administration’s policies when he held the floor for over 25 hours.
