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alex padilla
'Blindly Endorsing' Trump Crimes, Senate GOP Kills Venezuela War Powers Bill
"Senate Republicans continually fall in line behind Donald Trump, no matter how reckless, no matter how unconstitutional," fumed Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Jan 14, 2026
US Senate Republicans on Wednesday defeated the latest in a series of war powers resolution aimed at blocking President Donald Trump from further unauthorized military attacks on Venezuela, a result that came after the president pressured a pair of GOP lawmakers who previously voted to advance the measure to flip.
Vice President JD Vance's tie-breaking vote was needed to overcome a 50-50 deadlock on the resolution introduced last month by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “to block the use of the US armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress” as required by the 1973 War Powers Act.
Two GOP senators who voted earlier this month to advance the resolution—Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana—voted against the legislation on Wednesday. This, after Trump publicly lambasted five Republican senators who voted to advance the bill, ensuring its temporary survival.
Paul and fellow GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Democrats and Independents who caucus with them, Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in voting for the resolution.
"The chances of us getting into an endless war are even greater."
Hawley said he was swayed by Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told the senator “point blank, we’re not going to do ground troops" in Venezuela following the bombing, invasion, and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife earlier this month.
Young shared a letter from Rubio stating that Trump will “seek congressional authorization in advance (circumstances permitting)” if he decides on any “major military operations” in Venezuela. He also warned on social media that "a drawn-out campaign" in the Venezuela "would be the opposite of President Trump's goal of ending foreign entanglements."
The resolution's co-sponsors accused their Republican colleagues of enabling Trump's lawbreaking and endless wars.
"Senate Republicans continually fall in line behind Donald Trump, no matter how reckless, no matter how unconstitutional, no matter the potential cost of American lives," Schumer said at a press conference following the vote. "They go along with the president, who is defying what the Constitution requires."
"The chances of us getting into an endless war are even greater, because when the Republicans rubber-stamp everything [Trump] does, the restraints go away," Schumer continued. "Donald Trump said he's not afraid of putting boots on the ground in Venezuela when asked how long it would take—one year, two years, three years, even that wasn't long enough; he said much longer—that's not ambiguous."
"So why wouldn't our Republican colleagues just do what Congress is supposed to do, assert our authority, and let's have a debate?" Schumer added. "What has happened tonight is a roadmap to another endless war because this Senate, under Republican leadership, failed to assert its legitimate and needed authority."
Senate Republicans just BLOCKED the bipartisan War Powers resolution to end the illegal war in Venezuela. They voted for forever wars, and against the best interests of the American people.
— Senator Jeff Merkley (@merkley.senate.gov) January 14, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Other Democratic senators also decried Wednesday's vote, with Alex Padilla of California saying that the "Senate Republican majority just walked away from their constitutional duty and chose to rubber-stamp Trump’s ‘act now, plan later’ military intervention in Venezuela."
"They are blindly endorsing the actions of a president who cannot articulate a clear mission or long-term strategy in the region, putting American troops in harm’s way, and gambling with billions of taxpayer dollars," he continued. "Trump campaigned on ending endless wars, not starting new ones. He lied to Congress and the American people, cozying up to Big Oil while hiding behind claims of combating drug trafficking just after pardoning another head of state found guilty of helping smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into our country."
“If Senate Republicans were truly ‘America First,’ they would stand up for the Constitution they swore to defend and reclaim Congress’ authority instead of once again surrendering it to an out-of-control president," Padilla added.
Advocacy groups also condemned the Senate vote.
BREAKING: The Venezuela War Powers Resolution has failed in the Senate.J.D. Vance broke a 50-50 tied vote on a point of order to discard the resolution.70% of the U.S. opposes this war.This government isn't representing them. It's representing the oil & arms industries.
[image or embed]
— CODEPINK (@codepink.bsky.social) January 14, 2026 at 3:51 PM
"What we saw was an effort to dissuade senators from exercising their jurisdiction over war by threatening political careers and offering nonbinding assurances the administration hopes Congress will rely on, even though its actions give Congress no reason to do so," Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian said.
"Congress’ war powers don’t rest on trust," he added, "they rest on law, and legal obligations don’t disappear because of promises."
Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a statement that “Donald Trump and Senate Republican leadership can bully their way out of a war powers resolution but that doesn’t change the basic facts: Trump’s bombing of Venezuela and abduction of its leader was wrong, unconstitutional, and a screaming violation of international law."
"Trump has dropped all pretense that this is anything other than a military action for oil and empire," Weissman continued. "Neither has any support among the American people, whose opposition to intervening in Venezuela will only grow—especially as US oil companies demand taxpayer subsidies and guarantees as a condition of investing in Venezuela."
“The so-called America First president has become the America Bombs First president, making the world a far more dangerous place," he added. "Shame on Republicans for failing to stand up, yet again, to what they know are authoritarian and unconstitutional actions.”
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Shutdown Belongs to GOP, Say Dems, After Trump Responds to Talks With 'Racist AI Video'
Republicans, said one Democratic lawmaker, "would rather see the government shut down than negotiate a bipartisan deal to save your healthcare, to keep the government open, and to keep federal workers working, which is exactly why we are here.”
Sep 30, 2025
Anyone wondering "who owns" the looming government shutdown following negotiations between President Donald Trump and congressional leaders that went nowhere on Monday should "look no further" said one Democratic lawmaker, than the racist, artificial intelligence-created video posted by the president shortly after the meeting, which depicted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries with a Mexican sombrero and fake mustache.
"Democrats came to the White House to keep the government open," said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). "The president answered with a racist AI video."
Trump posted the video of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Jeffries, also of New York, after they emerged from the meeting, where Schumer said "large differences" remained between Democrats and Republicans over healthcare provisions in a government spending bill.
"Bigotry will get you nowhere," said Jeffries in response to Trump's posted video, before adding: "Cancel the Cuts. Lower the Cost. Save Healthcare. We are NOT backing down."
Democrats have consistently called for an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are slated to expire at the end of the year and to reverse Medicaid cuts included in the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Republicans including Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have falsely claimed the Democrats are pushing to fund "free healthcare" for undocumented immigrants in their budget proposal to keep the government funded through October.
The Democratic proposal would restore the eligibility of "lawfully present" immigrants for ACA subsidies, but would not change the fact that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for healthcare plans through the ACA or coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
In the fake video posted on Truth Social by Trump, Schumer was shown making statements he has never made about the Democrats needing to give undocumented immigrants free healthcare so they will vote for the party—which they're also not eligible to do.
Jeffries, who is Black, was also shown wearing a sombrero as mariachi music played in the background.
"This is peak Donald Trump and it’s a goddamn tragedy for our country," said Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.).
The Republicans need at least 60 votes in the Senate to pass their spending bill to keep the government funded through November 21, meaning they won't be able to pass it without at least eight Democrats joining them.
The GOP-controlled House passed the Republicans' funding extension this month, but it failed in the Senate. Johnson has adjourned the House until October 7.
On Monday, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) posted a video on social media as she arrived at the Capitol for what had been scheduled to be a "voting day" for members of the House.
"Republicans cancelled votes and didn't show up for work tonight," said Stansbury, "because they would rather see the government shut down than negotiate a bipartisan deal to save your healthcare, to keep the government open, and to keep federal workers working, which is exactly why we are here."
Democrats have warned that up to 15 million people could lose their healthcare coverage and 24 million could see their monthly insurance premiums rise by 75%—per an analysis by KFF—under the Republican spending plan.
Schumer said that at the White House meeting Monday, he and Jeffries "laid out to the president some of the consequences of what’s happening in healthcare."
"By his face, he looked like he heard about them for the first time," said Schumer. “It’s in the president’s hands whether we avoid a shutdown or not. He has to convince the Republican leaders."
Republicans are planning to force another vote in the Senate on the House-passed funding extension on Tuesday, ahead of the midnight shutdown deadline.
The Trump administration has said it will unleash a new wave of mass firings in the federal government if the government shuts down.
On social media Monday, The New Republic posted that the "tired punditry of shutdown politics doesn't adequately illustrate Republican villainy."
"This shutdown is happening because the aforementioned party of dictatorship wants it to happen so it can destroy the federal government and vastly reduce the number of things it does for people," said the magazine. "What that means: massive layoffs in many departments and agencies, with the hope of making as many as possible permanent. The Trump White House wants to cut the State Department by 84%, the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 43%, and the Labor Department by 35%. If the government shuts down Tuesday night, it wants to furlough as many people as it can get away with. Except, of course, in two areas: immigration enforcement and defense. There, it’s party time."
Republican leaders, including Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), have claimed Democrats will be responsible for a government shutdown, saying the two parties can negotiate over healthcare after the funding extension is passed.
But, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), "Republicans are still refusing to come to the table" regarding Democrats' demands.
"They control every chamber in Congress and the White House," she said. "This shutdown is on them."
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Trump Has Dismantled Anti-Human Trafficking Programs and 'Repeatedly Sided With Sex Offenders'
"The Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to our capacity to hold sex offenders to account and undermined support and services for crime victims," said Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Sep 17, 2025
Congressional Democrats and victim advocates took aim Tuesday at President Donald Trump's gutting of federal programs combatcing human trafficking, belying campaign promises to aggressively target perpetrators of such crimes.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday released an 18-page memo "detailing how the Trump administration has repeatedly sided with sex offenders and human traffickers over their victims—often rewarding sexual predators and elevating them to positions of power within the US government while crippling key offices, programs, and grants that combat sex crimes and support survivors."
This seemingly flies in the face of Trump's "Agenda 47" campaign platform, which vowed to aggressively crack down on human traffickers, and the groundswell of Trump supporters' unheeded calls for action and accountability in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Fighting child sex trafficking—both real and imagined—has long been an issue of passionate importance for the MAGA movement.
"Trump began his second term promising to 'make America safe again.' But safe for whom? Law-abiding citizens or dangerous criminals?"
Noting that "Trump and his supporters have gone from demanding the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files to doing everything in their power to prevent their release, openly tampering with potential witness Ghislaine Maxwell and calling the matter a 'Democrat hoax,'" the memo—titled Epstein Is the Tip of the Iceberg—begins by asking: "Trump began his second term promising to 'make America safe again.' But safe for whom? Law-abiding citizens or dangerous criminals?"
The memo notes that in the past seven months, Trump has:
- Gutted federal offices designed to combat human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual violence against women and children.
- Terminated the programs and grants designed to support the victims and survivors of human trafficking networks and crimes of sexual violence.
- Made it systematically harder for law enforcement to prosecute sex offenders and dismantle sex trafficking networks.
- Repeatedly used the powers of his office to pardon individual sexual predators and give official protection, aid, and comfort to accused rapists and child pornographers.
- Rewarded numerous individuals who have a personal history of sexual predation and domestic violence by appointing them to his administration and elevating them to senior positions within the government.
Senior administration officials including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and former de facto Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk have been accused of either committing or enabling sexual crimes or misconduct.
Trump has also been found civilly liable for sexual abuse and has been accused of rape, sexual assault, or harassment by more than two dozen women.
"President Trump in office has repeatedly taken the side of criminal sex predators and violent abusers against their victims, and this pattern goes well beyond his strenuous efforts to bury the Epstein Files," Raskin said Tuesday in a statement. "Trump is systematically dismantling the offices and programs we rely on to combat human trafficking and prosecute sex crimes."k
"Our memo shows how the Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to our capacity to hold sex offenders to account and undermined support and services for crime victims," the congressman added. "Far from aiding victims and survivors, President Trump consistently sides with their abusers. His all-of-government policy to aid traffickers and sex criminals and abandon survivors has made American women dramatically less safe."
Following whistleblower claims "that the Trump administration concealed information about the safety of unaccompanied Guatemalan children they tried to deport in the dead of night," Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday called for an oversight hearing to examine the US Office of Refugee Resettlement's "mass child deportation efforts and apparent lies under oath."
"The urgent call for a hearing comes after the disclosure alleged that at least 30 of 327 unaccompanied Guatemalan children the administration attempted to deport without due process 'have indicators of being a victim of child abuse, including death threats, gang violence, human trafficking, and/or have expressed fear of return to Guatemala,'" Padilla's office said in a statement Wednesday.
An investigation published Wednesday by The Guardian also detailed how the Trump administration "has aggressively rolled back efforts across the federal government to combat human trafficking."
Jean Bruggeman, executive director of the advocacy group Freedom Network USA, told The Guardian that “it’s been a widespread and multipronged attack on survivors that leaves all of us less safe and leaves survivors with few options."
Numerous critics have warned of the dangers of Trump's diversion of federal resources and personnel dedicated to combating human trafficking to enforcing mass deportations.
As Raskin told Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel during a charged Wednesday hearing, "When Trump decided that rounding up immigrants with no criminal records was more important that preventing crimes like human trafficking of women and girls, drug dealing, terrorism, and fraud, you ordered FBI’s 25 largest field offices to divert thousands of agents away from chasing down violent criminals, sex traffickers, fraudsters, and scammers to help carry out Trump’s extreme immigration crackdown."
"You ordered hundreds of FBI agents to pore over all the Epstein files," Raskin said, "but not to look for more clues about the money network or the network of human traffickers, pulled these agents from their regular counterterrorism, counterintelligence, or anti-drug trafficking duties to work around the clock, some of them sleeping on their office desks, to conduct a frantic search to make sure Donald Trump’s name and image were flagged and redacted wherever they appeared."
"Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are," Raskin added.
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'Trump Is Making Your Life More Expensive': Tariff Chaos Engulfs US Economy
“Poor and working people are paying the price" of the president's tariff policies, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Sep 16, 2025
US consumers are increasingly feeling the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs, and the head of the Congressional Budget Office said on Monday that they are fueling inflation.
During an appearance on CNBC, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) director Phillip Swagel said that the president's tariffs have pushed up inflation more than the agency initially anticipated, although he emphasized that their impact on inflation so far was "not by a lot, but by enough to show" in the numbers.
Swagel also said that the higher-than-expected inflation was a surprise because there are signs that the US economy has slowed significantly since January.
CNN on Tuesday published an analysis using numbers from the Yale Budget Lab estimating that Trump's tariffs will cost US households an average of $2,300 extra per year, which is nearly three times as much as the $800 US households are projected to receive on average from new tax provisions contained in the Republicans' "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that passed earlier this year.
The combined distributional impacts of the Trump tariffs and the GOP tax law are also highly regressive. According to CNN's analysis, a household with annual earnings of $38,840 would be $2,560 worse off thanks to the tariffs and the tax law, while households earning $517,700 would be $8,180 better off.
The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that Trump's tariffs aren't just hurting Americans in the US, but those living abroad as well.
As explained by the Post, Americans living abroad have been unable to send mail to the US without paying hefty fines thanks to the chaos being caused by Trump's tariffs. The reason for this, writes the paper, is that Trump earlier this year canceled a policy known as the de minimis exemption, effective August 29, that "allowed the tariff-free flow of goods under $800 into the United States."
This has led not just to increased shipping costs for Americans living abroad, but has also resulted in foreign nations slowing or even outright halting shipments to the US because they are unsure about how to calculate the costs.
"Confusion about the rules have led to issues since the exemption was lifted on August 29," the Post wrote. "At first, national postal services in more than 30 countries temporarily suspended sending some or most US-bound packages. Since then, restrictions have eased, and the Universal Postal Union deployed a tool this week to help operators calculate duties and resume services."
Reacting to fresh revelations about the impact of the tariffs, many progressive Democrats hammered Trump for increasing the cost of living for working-class families.
"Under Donald Trump’s economy: coffee is up 26%, beef is up 14%, oranges are up 17%, bananas are up 6%, chicken is up 6%, chocolate chip cookies are up 5%, potato chips are up 4%, milk is up 4%," wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). "But average worker pay is only up 2%. Trumpflation is eating up your paycheck."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) added that “from school supplies to gas to groceries, Trump is making your life more expensive."
"Poor and working people are paying the price of his reckless policies," said the congresswoman.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, took to the Senate floor on Monday to single out a different Trump policy that he said was also raising prices for US consumers—namely, his attacks on green energy projects.
"This administration is shamelessly working to block one of our best defenses against rising energy bills: renewable energy," Padilla said. "And I say so because renewable energy is absolutely affordable, renewable energy is abundant, and whether you want to admit it or not, renewable energy sources are our future."
The senator also pointed to his home state of California as an example of what can happen when the government encourages the development of green energy projects.
"[California is] harnessing the power of solar and wind and hydroelectric power and nuclear, geothermal, even hydrogen power to our state," he said. "And it’s exactly because of those investments that even in a year like 2024, just last year, when we experienced record heatwaves that we also saw record renewable energy generation, and we kept the lights on."
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Top Democrat Launches House Probe Into FBI Role in 'Disgraceful' Arrest of Padilla
Rep. Jamie Raskin described the incident as "the most recent in a string of increasingly flagrant abuses of power by the Trump Administration to deter congressional oversight and intimidate Members of Congress."
Jun 19, 2025
A top House Democrat is launching a probe into the FBI's forcible removal of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) from a public press conference in Los Angeles last week, the latest in a pattern of arrests and physical assaults by the Trump administration against Democratic politicians.
Padilla was tackled to the ground and dragged out of the Wilshire Federal Building in handcuffs when he attempted to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question about the outsized federal response to protests in Los Angeles against increasingly aggressive raids and tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
According to Axios, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is leading a probe into the incident and calling on the FBI to launch a formal investigation.
In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, Raskin demanded that the Bureau "immediately provide answers" regarding the "disgraceful and indefensible assault."
In the aftermath of the arrest of Padilla, the White House has made false claims about the events leading up to the shocking display, many of which are disproved by video of the encounter.
Noem has said that Padilla "burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice, and was stopped, did not identify himself, and was removed from the room."
However, video of the incident shows that Padilla identified himself, by name, as a U.S. senator. There is no evidence of him "lunging" toward the secretary.
Raskin has described the incident as "the most recent in a string of increasingly flagrant abuses of power by the Trump administration to deter congressional oversight and intimidate members of Congress."
On June 10, the Department of Justice brought charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers outside an ICE detention facility the previous month. Noem accused McIver of "body slamming" a female ICE officer, but this claim was disproved by a Washington Post review of video evidence.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was also charged for trespassing as part of the same incident, though the charges were later dropped.
But Democratic politicians have continued to be roughed up by federal law enforcement. Earlier this week, New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by masked ICE agents as he escorted a man out of immigration court.
"You don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens," Lander said in the video of his arrest.
The agents refused to provide a warrant despite repeated requests from Lander, who is a U.S. citizen. After he was released, the Department of Homeland Security released a brazenly false statement, claiming that Lander "was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer," which is also disproved by video evidence.
Raskin called out these incidents and other aggressive actions against political dissenters in his letter. He called on the FBI to disclose whether an internal investigation was underway and whether the officers involved in Padilla's arrest or other incidents like it would face discipline.
"Like it or not, the people of the United States enjoy broad and robust First Amendment rights and now deserve urgent answers from their government about these high-handed authoritarian tactics," Raskin said.
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Attack on Padilla Proves We Are Living in an Early-Stage Police State
Dictators can’t be dictators without first cowing the people, terrifying even elected officials, and asserting their absolute and unlimited power to use violence any where, any time, and under any circumstances they choose.
Jun 14, 2025
We’re now living in an early-stage police state.
After California Sen. Alex Padilla was assaulted for saying, “I’m Senator Alex Padilla and I have question for the Secretary,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary and notorious puppy murderer Kristi Noem went on Fox “News” and lied to the American people, saying that he hadn’t identified himself, she didn’t know who he was, and that he was “lunging into the room.”
The violence inflicted on Padilla was the point. And it’s being celebrated in real time by MAGA, Fox, and the Trump administration.
After all, dictators can’t be dictators without first cowing the people, terrifying even elected officials, and asserting their absolute and unlimited power to use violence any where, any time, and under any circumstances they choose.
“We are not going away,” Noem said in a snarling comment that provoked the question from Padilla. “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor [Gavin Newsom] and that this mayor [Karen Bass] have placed on this country.”
For the record, the job of the federal government is not to “liberate“ cities from the leaders they themselves have elected. That’s what Russian President Vladimir Putin did when he forced all the elected governors of the Russian states (oblasts) to resign and replaced them with men he had appointed. Even suggesting it is deeply and profoundly un-American.
This is the Trump administration once again nakedly asserting that they are above the law, are committed to acting without ethical or moral restraint, and that they have no obligation to honor the constitutionally-defined oversight role of members of Congress. That they are intent on running a dictatorship here in America, not a democratic republic.
They have arrested and are prosecuting a member of the House of Representatives who was simply doing her job at an immigration detention center. They are ignoring explicit orders by federal judges and the Supreme Court. They are literally disappearing people, including American citizens, off the streets of our cities. And now they’ve taken an United States senator to the ground.
This is not what the people who fought and died to create and sustain this country had in mind.
The genius of the Founders was Montesquieu’s idea of three branches of government with checks on each other’s power. It’s essential to democracy.
President Donald Trump (second branch) has been trashing judges (third branch) and has now violently attacked a congresswoman and a U.S. senator (first branch). He’s spitting on the graves of the Framers of our Constitution.
And to emphasize their ignoring the Constitution and its requirement that both Congress and the courts can exercise oversight of the president, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said:
The courts should have no role here. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process.
Similarly, they refuse to respect the right of American citizens to protest that’s laid out in the First Amendment, “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Trump came right out and said that if anybody in Washington, D.C. tries to protest his birthday parade, he will meet them with violence:
For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force. Very big force!
That wasn’t a threat against vandals or even people who might try to disrupt Dear Leader’s birthday celebration: It was a threat against people who may “protest.”
This echoes the behavior of Hitler’s goons in the early 1930s as they set out to violently intimidate anybody—particularly members of Parliament—who may challenge him. Or Bull Connor as he bloodied protestors in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s.
Under Trump and Noem, federal agents have been given carte blanche to use violence against nonwhite people (it’s probably no coincidence that Sen. Padilla is a brown-skinned son of Mexican immigrants), including kidnapping them in broad daylight and sending them to foreign concentration camps with no access to due process whatsoever.
Noem could easily have taken the senator’s question, or just said, “I’m happy to meet with you after this press conference.“ Instead, she chose escalation and violence, which is why Democrats are calling on her to resign.
Right now the only people who can stop America’s descent into tyranny are the Republicans in the House and Senate. If just a small handful grow a spine, Trump could be stopped in his tracks.
Now, in response to the violence Noem and the FBI directed against a U.S. senator, the professional propagandists at Fox “News” are peddling rationalizations and repeating Noem’s lie that she didn’t know who Padilla was. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino issued a statement “thanking” the men who beat Padilla to the ground. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) implied Padilla was trying to inflict violence on Noem and called for him to be censured by the Senate.
It appears that Republicans are circling the wagons, defending the assault on Padilla, Trump’s illegal infliction of armed troops on the streets of Los Angeles over the objections of the governor and mayor, and his and Noem’s efforts to stir up trouble in California that they can then exploit Reichstag Fire-style.
Are there any John McCain Republicans left? Any patriots who revere the Constitution and respect the rule of law? Any who are willing to call out Trump’s brutal dictator-inspired corruption and excesses?
The question is an urgent one, because right now the only people who can stop America’s descent into tyranny are the Republicans in the House and Senate. If just a small handful grow a spine, Trump could be stopped in his tracks.
Will it happen? History suggests that massive public opinion holds the answer to that question. It ended, for example, both the presidency of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War.
As Abraham Lincoln famously said in his debate with Stephen Douglas:
In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions.
Saturday will be this era’s most visible expression of public opinion. Stay tuned and stay peacefully active.
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Is This the Moment We Become a Fascist Country? Not If We Say No!
Every decent American looking at the images of Sen. Padilla pinned to the ground should think: “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”
Jun 13, 2025
I think I’ve read five hundred articles in the last four months asking: Is this the moment that we became a fascist country?
A better question to ask is: Is this a teachable moment? And yesterday we had one, so stark in its imagery and so perfect in its timing that it should help us for many years in the drive against authoritarianism.
By now you’ve seen the images of California Sen. Alex Padilla pinned to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents for the crime of Asking Questions at a Press Conference. Every decent American looking at those images should think: “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.” (It’s hard to imagine what Hispanic Americans looking at the scene must think). But what makes the scene so exemplary is what happened right before, and what will happen shortly after.
They allow people everywhere, from many different backgrounds, to join in what till now has always been the basic American message: No Kings. Not George, Not Elon, not Don.
The before: Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, previously best known for gunning down her puppy and for posing in front of caged prisoners in El Salvador, had just finished the most un-American sentence imaginable. She and her various neck-gaitered federal agents in LA, she explained, “are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
The Trump administration, in other words, considers it its right to “liberate” Californians from their elected leadership. And it demonstrated that prerogative by tackling and handcuffing one of the Golden State’s two Senators—a man who had received 6.6 million votes (compared with, say, the 217,000 votes cast for Noem the last time she ran for governor of South Dakota, and second only to his California colleague Adam Schiff for the most votes any Senator has received). No federalism, no respect for other branches of government, just the raw exercise of power through the use of troops and police. I can think of no starker challenge to America’s basic freedoms in my life.
And, happily, it comes at the right moment. Because we are now just a few hours away from what may be the biggest outburst of antiauthoritarian sentiment in America since—I don’t know. Maybe the uprising against the Intolerable Acts in 1774, when King George closed Boston Harbor and began the process of uniting colonial America against his rule.
Tomorrow is No Kings Day, a loosely organized set of protests set for every corner of the nation. Scheduled to coincide with his absurd tank parade through the streets of D.C., it’s now the perfect opportunity to react to the LA mess. If you don’t know where to go in your community, here’s the map. The demonstrations will be different across the country (I’m going to be in a rural corner of Elise Stefanik’s upstate New York district, a red region). But they allow people everywhere, from many different backgrounds, to join in what till now has always been the basic American message: No Kings. Not George, Not Elon, not Don.
And Sen. Padilla has reminded us of how to play it: firm, dignified, and peaceful. Had he started swinging at police he would have lost the day; instead he demonstrated yet again the power of courageous nonviolent resistance. His image now hangs next to those of John Lewis and Rosa Parks in the pantheon of entirely civil and entirely powerful disobedience. It may not be easy tomorrow—one Florida sheriff threatened to “kill” protesters “graveyard dead.” But I have no doubt it will be overwhelmingly peaceful, dignified, and crucial.
Once the day of demonstrations is past and the grind of steady opposition returns on Monday, we’ll be able to think in the slightly longer term.
If you don’t like what the assault on Sen. Padilla represents, then help build the power of states and cities everywhere to run themselves on the energy that falls nearby.
There is a very real chance that President Donald Trump’s plummeting popularity will start changing the political dynamic. We’ll know as we watch the fight over the Big Beautiful Bill (a phrase I confess, given my first name, to feeling some affection for…) It’s the dumbest piece of legislation advanced in my lifetime, on so many counts—in a moment of gross inequity it accelerates the distribution of wealth toward the richest. And it also threatens to, as the Center for American Progress put it yesterday, “crush America’s energy system” by removing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding for clean energy just as it began to hit its stride. Solar and wind are what we can build fast—and the BBB will stymie all that. (Here’s an excellent guide to organizing against the repeal of the IRA).
Which, in turn, lets us think a little about the political meaning of different kinds of energy. The best reason to build lots of clean power is to slow catastrophic global heating, and the second best is to spare the 9 million humans who die each year from breathing the combustion byproducts of fossil fuel. (That’s one death in five). But the third best reason is because, by its nature, this is liberating energy, in sharp contrast to coal and gas and oil.
Indeed, fossil fuel has an inherent quality that we focus on too rarely: It’s only available in a few places around the world, where the biology of ancient times (all those plankton and ferns) piled up to create the deposits of coal and gas and oil on which we currently depend. In the real world, that means that the people who control those small and scattered deposits have way too much wealth and power—which they have used to dominate the rest of us.
How did we get to Trump and Noem? No one played a bigger role in degrading our democracy than the Koch Brothers, and they got their power from their sprawling network of refineries and pipelines. Or think about Russian President Vladimir Putin; were it not for oil and gas, he’d have no way to intimidate Europe and the world. Or think about the rulers of the Middle East, so awash in oil cash that they’re able to bribe our leaders with spare 747s. As Samuel Miller McDonald pointed out in his 2024 book Progress, as the 19th century began the richest 1% held just 8.5% of America’s wealth; by the time it ended, the top dogs had 50% of the money, “partly thanks to fossil fuels, which could be easily concentrated, controlled, and transformed into liquid capital by a small management class.”
By contrast, the sun is everywhere, a liberating force precisely because it can’t be hoarded or held in reserves. No one will ever fight a war over the sun (worth thinking about as oil prices spike this morning on news of Israel’s attack on Iran). No one will ever be able to embargo it; decentralized power is a key part of the fight against the centralized power that Trump represents. Gandhi used the spinning wheel as a symbol (and tool) of the fight against centralized British power—it represented the ability of people and communities to make what they need on their own. If Gandhi were alive today, I have no doubt that his symbol would be the solar panel.
Which, of course, is a good reminder that No Kings Day won’t be the last important date on the resistance calendar. One to circle right now is September 21, SunDay—in no small measure because it celebrates the potential freedom that sunlight represents. If you don’t like what the assault on Sen. Padilla represents, then help build the power of states and cities everywhere to run themselves on the energy that falls nearby—register an event at the SunDay website. To inspire you, here’s the Sun of the Week, from the ten thousand now available in the global gallery, and it gets across the message of the moment.
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'It's Time for Kristi Noem to Resign,' Say Lawmakers After Assault on Padilla
"Every day," warned Sen. Elizabeth Warren, "Donald Trump is making this nation look more and more like a fascist state."
Jun 13, 2025
Sen. Elizabeth Warren put herself alongside other Democratic lawmakers and outside critics who say Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem should resign from office following the assault on Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) at a press event she was holding inside a federal building in Los Angeles on Thursday.
"It's time for Republican Senators to speak up and support an independent investigation into what happened to Senator Padilla," Warren said Friday. "And it's time for Kristi Noem to resign."
"This is not a drill. This is an assault on our democracy." —Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Appearing on MSNBC's "All With With Chris Hayes" Thursday night, Warren explained that the attack on Padilla, who simply wanted to ask Noem questions about the ongoing Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raids taking place in Los Angeles and elsewhere, is "something bigger" than a case of mistaken identity or the poor training of the officers who wrestled the Democratic lawmaker to the ground and put him in handcuffs.
"Why was Senator Padilla handcuffed?" said Warren. "He was handcuffed for asking a question. He was handcuffed for doing his job as a senator."
"Anyone who isn't already convinced that the Trump administration is trying to undermine free speech in this country; trying to shut down anyone who doesn't agree with Donald Trump and doesn't bend a knee to Donald Trump—anyone who doesn't believe that's what the Trump administration is doing," said Warren, "needs to watch that video of Senator Padilla being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed simply for trying to ask a question. That's why this is a big deal."
Warren was far from alone in her call for the immediate resignation of Noem, who, following the incident, claimed not to know who Padilla was and falsely stated that he did not identify himself, despite the video showing that he did.
"Kristi Noem should resign in disgrace," said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who also accused the secretary and her underlings at DHS of lying about the incident.
"Resign now, Kristi Noem," echoed Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) in a social media post.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the pro-democracy watchdog group Public Citizen, called the attack on Padilla "utterly unacceptable" and held the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible.
"This was an open event, and the senator was there to do his job and represent his state," said Gilbert. "Answering the questions of a sitting U.S. senator with assault is a blatant abuse of power, demonstrating the Trump administration's increasingly brazen authoritarian tendencies."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also weighed in, saying that those responsible for the treatment of Padilla must be held to account.
"The assault in California by federal agents against my colleague Sen. Alex Padilla was outrageous, and those responsible must be held accountable," said Sanders. "Tragically, what happened to Sen. Padilla today is becoming normal behavior for a Trump administration which is moving us toward authoritarianism."
In a floor speech in the U.S. Senate following the assault on Padilla, Warren called on her Senate colleagues to condemn Noem's actions and the increasingly authoritarian moves by Trump's cabinet and federal agencies under his command.
"Every day, Donald Trump is making this nation look more and more like a fascist state," Warren warned.
"This is not a drill. This is an assault on our democracy," she declared. "I am calling on my Republican colleagues to join us in demanding a bipartisan investigation into this incident. What happened at this press conference was disgraceful. It was un-American. And every member of the United States Senate should condemn it and condemn it now."
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'This Is INSANE!': Senator Padilla Forcibly Removed From Kristi Noem Press Conference
"This isn't just shocking," said Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.). "It's a threat to the rule of law and democratic accountability."
Jun 12, 2025
Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed from a press conference being held by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on Thursday—footage of which immediately went viral and sparked outrage.
"I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary," Padilla can be heard saying as men in plain clothes, though one possibly with a badge on his hip, push him out of the room. Outside the room, law enforcement agents also put their hands on Padilla, and the senator can be heard saying, "Hands off!"
Watch the moment Padilla is forced from the room:
Senator Alex Padilla is forcibly removed from Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference in LA.
"Hands off!," Padilla can be heard yelling. pic.twitter.com/pNAlKahF6y
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 12, 2025
The footage of the incident immediately hit social media, generating grave concern among those alarmed about the increasingly violent and authoritarian nature of the Trump administration, which has deployed thousands of California National Guard troops in Los Angeles and an order by President Donald Trump to also send in U.S. Marines.
Padilla appeared to be trying to ask Noem about immigrant raids in the state, which are the primary source of the protests that have drawn national attention since last weekend.
"Holy shit, this is INSANE!" said one observer on X. "U.S. Senator Alex Padilla was just forcibly removed from a press conference held by cosplay DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. What the fuck is going on? He is a fucking Senator."
Members of Padilla's staff also shared photos of the Senator being handcuffed by police:
"THROWN TO THE GROUND AND ARRESTED," declared Rep. Jimmy Gomez, in response to what happened. "Padilla was forcibly removed from a DHS press conference—an elected U.S. Senator who represents the PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA. This isn't just shocking, it's a threat to the rule of law and democratic accountability."
"Padilla is conducting oversight over the lawlessness of the Trump administration and the violations of the rule of law," he added. "If this can happen to immigrant communities, it can happen to anyone."
In remarks to the press outside the federal building where the incident took place, Sen. Padilla said that while he was forced to the ground and handcuffed, he was neither placed under arrest nor detained by law enforcement.
"I will say this," said Padilla. "If this is how the administration responds to a senator with a question; if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question—you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country."
"We will hold this administration accountable," vowed Padilla, who said he would have more to say on the matter in the coming days.
Rep. Norma Torres of California also spoke out.
Let’s call it what it is: a disgraceful abuse of power. Senator Alex Padilla was dragged and handcuffed out for daring to question Secretary Noem. This wasn’t a threat—it was dissent. They’re not keeping us safe—they’re silencing us. pic.twitter.com/SbSpwfuIHL
— Rep. Norma Torres (@NormaJTorres) June 12, 2025
"Let's call it what it is: a disgraceful abuse of power," said Torres. "Senator Alex Padilla was dragged and handcuffed out for daring to question Secretary Noem. This wasn’t a threat—it was dissent. They’re not keeping us safe—they’re silencing us."
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'The Fight Continues' as Appeals Panel Rules Against DACA
"It is long past time for DACA recipients, and so many others, to have a pathway to citizenship," said one migrant rights advocate.
Jan 18, 2025
Migrant rights advocates vowed to keep fighting after a federal appeals court on Friday dealt a blow to a program providing work permits and deportation relief to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children—shortly before the Monday inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been ensnarled in legal battles since it was first introduced by the Obama-Biden administration in 2012. Friday's ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit stems from Republican-led states challenging the Biden-Harris administration's attempt to strengthen the program in 2022.
In 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen from the Southern District of Texasfound that the DACA rule from the previous year was unlawful and issued a nationwide injunction, though he left the program in place for current recipients. On Friday, the panel partly agreed but limited the injunction to Texas and blocked its decision from taking effect pending further appeal.
"We demand Congress find a way to urgently pass permanent protections for as many people as possible."
"The ruling restores DACA in 49 states, providing temporary relief for thousands of young people who study, work, and contribute to our nation. And all current DACA recipients remain protected, and able to renew their DACA grants, until this case concludes its journey through the courts," explained Nina Perales, vice president of litigation at MALDEF, which represents DACA recipients—often called Dreamers, due to related federal legislation that's never made it through Congress.
MALDEF president and general counsel Thomas A. Saenz said that "the panel's overreliance on the 5th Circuit's previous flawed analysis of standing and of the legality of DACA in its entirety make this decision itself ill-informed and nonconforming with respect to current federal law. Thus, we will be carefully considering, with our clients, the best options for preserving the work authorization (and forbearance) of all DACA recipients and DACA-eligible immigrants."
Saenz added that the panel's unanimous decision "presents squarely the question to be answered by Congress and the new administration: Will you finally accede to the expressed desires of bipartisan supermajorities of voters nationwide to preserve and protect the national asset that is made up of our DACA recipients and other DACA-eligible immigrants?"
Advocates for Dreamers, including some Democrats in Congress, also criticized the panel's ruling and called for legislative action.
National Immigration Law Center president Kica Matos
said Friday that the "ruling, just days before Donald Trump takes office, adds to the cruel uncertainty that immigrant youth have endured throughout years of politicized attacks on DACA."
"We also recognize that the incoming administration is likely to resume its assault on DACA and immigrant youth," Matos continued, referencing the Trump-Pence administration's effort to kill the program. "We will confront these attacks with the same force we used to defeat Trump's last attempt to end DACA. It's past time for politicians and courts to stop playing games with the lives of immigrant youth."
FWD.us president Todd Schulte said the new decision "is important and should be read in full," stressing that even the conservative court "made clear in its ruling the deep value of DACA by highlighting that ending the policy would do substantial harm to DACA recipients."
"A few weeks ago, President-elect Trump made welcome comments acknowledging that providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers is the best path forward for our country," he noted. "He now has a unique opportunity to protect DACA recipients and secure permanent protections for Dreamers."
"First, he should ensure that DACA stays in place by continuing to enact the policy as president and not supporting litigation against it," Schulte argued. "Second, he should also work with Republicans and Democrats to pass narrowly targeted legislation that specifically provides Dreamers the permanent protections that are best for them and all Americans."
"No one should have to live their life from court decision to court decision, nor in two-year increments. DACA has transformed the lives of so many. It is long past time for DACA recipients, and so many others, to have a pathway to citizenship," he added. As of October, there were over 537,000 active DACA recipients, according to federal data.
Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream, said that the panel's decision "continues to baselessly attack immigrant young people, while also proving that our communities are essential to the economy and the future of the United States. This is why the 5th Circuit Court has kept renewals alive."
The advocate, who is undocumented, asserted that "the court's insistence on attacking DACA is especially concerning given" that 10 Senate Democrats on Friday joined Republicans in advancing the Laken Riley Act, "a bill that will put the lives of millions of people in danger of racial profiling as well as inhumane and indefinite detention."
"All the while, Trump is set to take office in just two days, pledging to carry out destructive mass raids and deportations quickly and forcefully," she pointed out. Late Friday,
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump-Vance administration is set to begin its promised deportations on Tuesday with an operation targeting residents of Chicago, Illinois.
"The pieces of Trump's destructive agenda have been laid out clearly," said Martinez Rosas. "Congress cannot continue to willfully ignore Trump's goal to target as many immigrants as possible and wreak complete havoc on families, cities, local economies, workplaces, and more nationwide. We demand Congress find a way to urgently pass permanent protections for as many people as possible, and for elected officials at every single level—from governors, mayors, and more—to seize every opportunity to reject Trump's agenda now and immediately shore up protections for immigrants nationwide."
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement about the Friday ruling that "the 5th Circuit is a renegade court. To say DACA is unconstitutional is not only cruel but way out of the mainstream of legal thinking."
"President-elect Donald Trump has said that he wants to do 'something about the Dreamers' and that he will work with Democrats on a plan, something I will take him up on while he is in office," he pledged.
Schumer wasn't alone. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said the "terrible" ruling "is another harsh reminder of the constant uncertainty DACA recipients face," while Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)—who has fought for Dreamers on Capitol Hill for over two decades—declared "the 5th Circuit DACA decision creates a force that will require a Washington response."
Even Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who helped Republicans tee up the Laken Riley Act for a final vote next week, said that "I strongly disagree" with the ruling and called for a legislative fix.
In the House of Representatives—also narrowly controlled by Republicans—Democrats similarly urged action. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants whose district includes part of Chicago, said that the ruling "only adds to the uncertainty and fear of countless immigrant and mixed-status families."
"If you are eligible, renew your DACA—don't wait!" she said. "To our Dreamers—¡Esta lucha no termina aquí! The fight continues until each of our immigrant neighbors has the safety, stability, and dignity they deserve."
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