Shame on the Republican Governors Supporting Trump’s Authoritarian Power Grab
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, the Republican governors of South Carolina, West Virginia, and Ohio announced that they were deploying hundreds of National Guard members to Washington, D.C. to support the Trump administration’s power grab.
Public Citizen co-presidents Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert issued the following statement in response:
“The emergency in Washington, DC right now is the authoritarian power grab that Donald Trump is carrying out, according to a pre-written script. The crisis is the escalating democracy crisis he is manufacturing.
“The solution is for Congress to pass the resolution, introduced by Reps. Raskin and Garcia and Delegate Holmes Norton, to ending the fake state of emergency in DC. That would send the National Guard home and let federal law enforcement return to their actual jobs. It would be a first step to returning governing authority to the District, which should be followed immediately by releasing blocked federal funds and, ultimately, by making DC the nation’s 51st state.
“With this deployment, Donald Trump aims to intimidate and silence the people of Washington, DC – and, by extension, the entire country. In this, he will fail. We will not forfeit our freedoms or silence our protest.
“Donald Trump is increasingly unpopular – precisely because of his authoritarianism and pro-billionaire policies – and his desperate efforts to project force will only fuel the growing opposition to Trump and Trumpism.
“Shame on the governors of South Carolina, West Virginia and Ohio for allowing their National Guard members to serve as shock troops – and be put at risk – in Donald Trump’s authoritarian power play. National Guard members signed up to address genuine national security threats and actual emergencies, not to be political pawns. They should be in their home states, ready to deal with inevitable climate and other disasters that will need attention in the weeks ahead, and otherwise home with their families.”