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PDA National Director Tim Carpenter tim@pdamerica.org 413-320-2015
PDA Deputy Field Director Andrea Miller andrea@pdamerica.org 443-878-2071
Progressive Democrats of America is joining the 99% Spring. This spring we will help train 100,000 people across the country to participate in sustained non-violent, direct action in the spirit of Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez and other movement leaders. We will stand with the 99%, and begin to create an American economy that will work for all of us.
From April 9-15 we will gather across America in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to join together in the work of reclaiming our country. We will organize trainings to:
1) Tell the story of our economy: how we got here, who's responsible, what a different future could look like, and what we can do about it
2) Learn the history of non-violent direct action in the tradition of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, and
3) Get into action on our own campaigns to win change.
You can read more about 99% Spring here: https://the99spring.com and follow #99spring
We are at a crossroads as a country. We have a choice to make. Greater wealth for a few or opportunity for many. Tax breaks for the richest or a fair shot for the rest of us. A government that can be bought by the highest bidder, or a democracy that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.
National Director Tim Carpenter explained, "Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) is proud to join the 99% Spring mobilization. Working both inside and outside the Democratic Party we can build the necessary street heat to bring about the fundamental reforms we need to move this country to provide jobs and health care for all. We want an America that works for everyone".
Participating organizations include: Progressive Democrats of America, Jobs With Justice, National People's Action, National Domestic Workers Alliance, MoveOn.org, the United Auto Workers, New Bottom Line, Service Employees International Union, The Other 98%, Greenpeace, Rebuild the Dream and many more.
Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and U.S. politics by working inside and outside of the party by working to elect empowered progressives and by building the progressive movement in solidarity with with peace, justice, civil rights, environmental, and other reform efforts. For more information about PDA, please see PDAmerica.org.
Law enforcement sources subsequently told CNN that "the suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk confessed to his father that he was the shooter."
This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
US President Donald Trump was the first to assert Friday morning that law enforcement officials have apprehended a suspect in the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
During an appearance on "Fox & Friends," the president said that he believed "with a high degree of certainty" that law enforcement had the suspect in custody.
"I just heard about it five minutes before I walked in, as I'm walking in, they said, 'Looking real good,' they have the person they wanted," he said. "So you have breaking news, don't you?"
Trump: "I just heard about it five minutes before I walked in ... they have the person that they wanted. So you have breaking news, don't you eh? You always have breaking news, Ainsley. Sean's gonna be very disappointed that we're not doing it on his show." pic.twitter.com/0mBjZk0sNR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 12, 2025
Trump also said that a person who knew the suspect provided information on him to law enforcement officials that led to his arrest, although he offered no details. He said that the FBI would likely make an announcement on the suspect later on Friday.
Shortly after Trump made this announcement, law enforcement sources gave CNN some additional details that seemingly corroborated Trump's claims about having a suspect in custody.
"The suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk confessed to his father that he was the shooter," wrote CNN's Kristen Holmes in a social media post. "His father told authorities and secured his son until they could arrive to pick him up."
While much remains unclear, several outlets—including NBC News, The Daily Beast, New York Post, and others—identified the individual in custody as a 22-year-old with the name Tyler Robinson. Many of the other details surrounding the individual's arrest could not be independently verified by Common Dreams.
In the hours after Kirk's assassination, law enforcement officials took two people into custody, only for those people to be released shortly after officials determined they had nothing to do with the killing.
Trump has a lengthy history of telling lies, falsehoods, and exaggerations, and as of this writing, no law enforcement agency has made an official announcement about the arrest of a suspect in the Kirk killing.
"It means that you cannot convince people of the correctness of your ideas, and you have to impose them through force."
In an online video address posted one day after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Sen. Bernie Sanders offered a solemn message to the country denouncing political violence in all its forms, calling it a threat to the very foundation of democratic ideals and the freedoms upon which the nation claims it was built.
"Freedom and democracy is not about political violence. It is not about assassinating public officials. It is not about trying to intimidate people who speak out on an issue," says Sanders, who represents Vermont as an Independent. "Political violence, in fact, is political cowardice. It means that you cannot convince people of the correctness of your ideas, and you have to impose them through force."
The ability for people to speak their minds and express their political views, said Sanders, "without worrying that they might be killed, injured or humiliated" for doing so, "is the essence of what freedom is about and what democracy is about."
"You have a point of view, that’s great. I have a point of view that is different than yours, that’s great," he continued. "Let’s argue it out. We make our case to the American people at the local, state, and federal level, and we hold free elections in which the people decide what they want. That’s called freedom and democracy. And I want as many people as possible to participate in that process without fear."
The murder of Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Points USA, who was gunned down by a sniper's bullet on Wednesday during an appearance on a college campus in Utah, has rattled the political landscape over recent days. While the assailant, as of this writing, remains unidentified and potentially still at large, President Donald Trump said during a Friday morning appearance on "Fox & Friends" that a suspect was in custody, though he offered few details and suggested the information was preliminary.
In his address, Sanders said Kirk's assassination "is part of a disturbing rise in political violence that threatens to hollow out public life and make people afraid of participating" in civic life.
"From the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, to the attack on Paul Pelosi, to the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, to the murder of Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband, to the arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, to the shooting of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson and the shooting several years ago of Rep. Steve Scalise," said Sanders, "this chilling rise in violence has targeted public figures across the political spectrum."
The murder of Charlie Kirk is part of a disturbing rise in political violence that threatens to hollow out our public life.
A free society relies on the premise that people can speak out without fear or humiliation.
No more political violence. pic.twitter.com/SR71FJkiDz
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 11, 2025
"This is a difficult and contentious moment in American history. Democracy in our country and throughout the world is under attack," said Sanders.
While the various reasons for that deserve serious consideration and debate, he said, the bottom line is more straightforward.
"If we honestly believe in democracy, if we believe in freedom, all of us must be loud and clear," concluded Sanders: "Political violence, regardless of ideology, is not the answer and must be condemned."
"Congress is supposed to be a check on the Executive Branch, not a rubber stamp," said Sen. Alex Padilla, Democrat of California. "We won’t forget it."
In a move that allowed for confirmation of a bloc of 48 nominees to a variety of sub-cabinet positions across the executive branch that require Senate approval, Senate Majority Leader John Thune triggered what's been called the "nuclear option" on Thursday by lowering the threshold for passage and allowing group confirmations, an unprecedented change to chamber rules that will now hamper the minorities ability to slow or stop objectionable or unqualified candidates.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the group of nominees "historically bad," and was among those on the Democratic side to warn the move would forever change the nature of the Senate.
As NBC News explains:
The rule applies to executive branch nominees subject to two hours of Senate debate, including subcabinet picks and ambassadors. It will not affect judicial nominations. Republicans say they'll allow their own senators to object to individual nominees in any given block, but the rule will strip away the power of the minority party to do the same thing.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., initiated the process by bringing up a package of 48 Trump nominees, which under longstanding rules has been subject to the 60-vote threshold. The vote to advance them failed due to Democratic opposition. Then, Thune sought to reconsider and Republicans subsequently voted to overrule the chair, setting a precedent and establishing the new rule.
Thune had telegraphed the move for weeks, accusing Democrats of creating an "untenable situation" with historic obstruction of Trump's nominees. The vote was held up for hours Thursday as the two parties engaged in last-ditch negotiations to strike a deal to avoid a rules change.
In the end, those negotiations failed and Thune went ahead with the rule change, which passed along party lines in a 53-45 vote.
"You remember that 'nuclear option' that Republicans warned Democrats to never use because it attacked the fundamental structure of the Senate and put government at risk?" asked Democratic strategist and podcast host Max Burns. "Senate Republicans just used it."
Democratic senators denounced the move in the strongest terms, vowing to remember when political winds shift in the future.
"This 'nuclear' move," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), "allows Republicans to vote through Trump’s unqualified and unfit nominees in bunches—“en bloc”—so they can’t be held directly accountable for the worst and smelliest stinkers in the bunch."
"Republicans have permanently blown up the rules of the Senate to jam through Trump's unqualified nominees," said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). "Congress is supposed to be a check on the Executive Branch, not a rubber stamp. We won’t forget it."
The GOP effort, said Schumer in his remarks, "was not so much about ending obstruction, as they claim. Rather, it was another act of genuflection to the executive branch... to give Donald Trump more power and to rubber-stamp whomever he wants whenever he wants them, no questions asked."