Rep. Maxine Waters Warns Trump is Carrying Out A COUP

I believe that what we are experiencing feels like a coup d'etat, one that if not stopped threatens the very fabric of our democracy. Trump has undermined our constitutional freedom of the press, freedom of speech, the process, and an independent judiciary. He's taken full control of the Department of Justice and with executive orders is exacting revenge on anyone he considers an enemy. His efforts to undermine this government also extend to the private sector where he is threatening corporations and law firms to bend the needs of him. If Trump's effort to undermine the freedom of the press, in his efforts, one of the first actions was to revoke the Associated Press's access to the White House press briefing room after AP refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. He also cut funding for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and has filed lawsuits in courts against media outlets. In a speech at the Department of Justice, he threatened the press by describing two major outlets as quote, really corrupt and illegal. And just last month, he fired numerous journalists at the boss of America and as he's suppressing the media, he's stacking the White House press briefing room with Trump loyal outlets who will parrot every word he says. This pattern of intimidation is a direct attempt to silence dissent and replace truth with propaganda. Trump is also attacking freedom of speech, thought, and expression as well as due process by threatening the funding of universities and abducting, imprisoning, and endangering the lives of immigrant students who hold views that Trump just does not like. He's attacking our independent judiciary for daring to uphold the law and block his illegal actions. He and his regime are threatening impeachment of judges and dismantling of the judiciary. He has fully asserted his control of the Department of Justice and has made clear his attempt to use all levers of the DOJ to exact revenge on anyone he disagrees with. He's weaponizing the Department of Justice to make good on his campaign promises to prosecute Democrats and anyone he considers quote, the enemy from within, which is eerily remnant of Nazi Germany. And finally, he's turned his eye to the private sector employing the DOJ and his executive orders to force parts of the private sector to bend knee or suffer the consequences. This includes seeking revenge by revoking the security clearances and security details of President Biden, Secretary Clinton, Vice President Harris, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Miley. And he's targeting law firms that have represented Democrats, forcing them to capitulate or to be barred from appearing before judges. Before I close, I want to put out one of his executive orders that prohibited foreign aid to South Africa as a political favor to Elon Musk. Elon Musk is threatening the president of South Africa. He wants to put his battery factories in South Africa. As a result of apartheid, and we got rid of it, then there was reconciliation. In that reconciliation, it points out that the black South Africans in particular, who have been prohibited from being a part of contracts and government and all of that, that he wanted Ramaphosa to get rid of that. And if he didn't, he would tell Trump to stop all foreign aid. And that's what Trump has done, used USAID to stop the aid to South Africa because Elon Musk won his battery factories there without a 30% participation by black South Africans. And then you had the audacity to stir up the Afrikaners, the white South Africans, and tell them, if you don't like what's going on, come on to the United States. While he's deporting people, he's inviting this. This is what is going on. This feels like a coup d'etat. This feels like all of what we understand about how coups take place is what is happening with the President of the United States of America. And so, ladies and gentlemen, while we are dealing and trying to make stable coins, something that will not be a ripoff to the citizens of this country, and that we have safeguards around it, all of this that I'm describing is going on, and you know it is. You know this feels like a coup d'etat. With the press, with the judiciary, with private law firms, on and on and on, and even education, that he is dismantling and threatening and intimidating. We had better beware, and I am very concerned. And I yield back to Mr. Faust.