Robert Weissman

Robert Weissman is the president of Public Citizen. Weissman was formerly director of Essential Action, editor of Multinational Monitor, a magazine that tracks corporate actions worldwide, and a public interest attorney at the Center for Study of Responsive Law. He was a leader in organizing the 2000 IMF and World Bank protests in D.C. and helped make HIV drugs available to the developing world.
Articles by this author
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Views Wednesday, January 06, 2021 This Is a Dark, Dark Day for America This is a dark, dark day for America. Earlier today, I went to the White House to see the rally that Trump had instigated with his false claims about the election. "Soon enough, this distressing episode in American history will be behind us. But its corrosive impact will remain." I saw thousands... Read more |
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Views Thursday, July 30, 2020 Trump's Election Delay Threat Is a Coup in the Making Earlier today, U.S. President Donald Trump floated by tweet the idea of delaying the November elections. This is a coup in the making. Trump’s tweet—now pinned at the top of his Twitter account—says that "Universal Mail-In Voting" means that "2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT... Read more |
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Views Friday, October 18, 2019 The Antidote to Trump's Corrupt G7 Deal? Impeachment and Conviction President Donald Trump no longer sees fit even to pretend that he is constrained by the law or the U.S. Constitution. It’s hard to imagine a more blatant violation of the Constitution’s anti-corruption provisions than the president steering foreign governments to stay at his luxury resort. Yet that... Read more |
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Views Thursday, July 18, 2019 Beware Facebook's Libra: A Corporate Surveillance Leviathan With No Precedent Outside the Realm of Science Fiction Editor's note: On Wednesday July 17, 2019, Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, was among those who testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee against Facebook's Libra proposal. Read a statement from Public Citizen and Weissman's full testimony to the committee here . "... Read more |
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Views Monday, March 18, 2019 Will McConnell Buck the Voters on Pro-Democracy Efforts? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has built a career on weakening our democracy. Nothing seems to bring out the passion in the famously stoic McConnell more than opposing pro-democracy reforms. Well, now he has the challenge of a lifetime. The House of Representatives has just passed HR1, the... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, February 27, 2019 We Can't Afford to Keep Our Failing Healthcare System. But We Absolutely Can Afford Medicare for All America’s healthcare system is a national disgrace. By almost every relevant metric, our system is the worst or nearly the worst among all rich countries. We are the only wealthy country to permit tens of millions to go uninsured . Far more people in the United States report skipping care because... Read more |
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Views Friday, February 15, 2019 Why We Must Stop an Unstable Trump and His Dangerous National Emergency Declaration Today's presidential declaration of a national emergency is an outrageous abuse of power – perhaps the most dangerous yet by the unstable and increasingly autocratic President Donald Trump. If this invocation of emergency on false pretenses is tolerated, it could justify almost limitless abuses of... Read more |
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Views Thursday, October 18, 2018 'Tough on Crime' Jeff Sessions Touts Plummeting Corporate Crime Enforcement Like It's an Achievement On Wednesday of this week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) touted the agency’s fiscal year 2018 enforcement record even as the figures show that prosecution of white-collar crimes and corporate misconduct have plummeted. "Sessions aims to criminalize immigrants and people of color, but he and... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, October 10, 2018 Fact Check: Trump Is Dead Wrong on Medicare-for-All Note: Today, USA Today published an op-ed by President Donald Trump that included several falsehoods about single-payer health care. Lies and deceptions from Trump are nothing new. Lies and deceptions from Trump about Medicare-for All are new, so it’s worth correcting his USA Today column attacking... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, May 01, 2018 An Open Letter to Jeff Sessions on Corporate Crime May 1, 2018 The Honorable Jeff Sessions Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice Robert F. Kennedy Building 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Re: Corporate Crime Database and Annual Report Dear Attorney General Sessions: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been clear about... Read more |