On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Weeknight,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) stated that “Democrats in the Senate, the House, everyone, all of us should be united in using everything that we can do and all of our power to stop what Trump is doing right now, not just in D.C., but across the country” including shutting the government down.
Co-host Laura Barrón-López asked, “Congressman, when we’re talking about the larger leverage or different avenues of leverage that Democrats can use, when you look at everything that is going on, including military in the streets in D.C. after being in the streets of Los Angeles and all the other things that Democrats say that the president is doing that are unprecedented, unconstitutional, do you think — I know you’re a House member — but do you think that your colleagues in the Senate, Senate Democrats, should refuse to fund the government? That deadline is coming up at the end of September. Should they refuse to vote on these spending bills, using that leverage, until they see President Trump reverse deploying troops in the streets of D.C.?”
Garcia answered, “Yes. First, that should be on the table. I don’t think we should be ruling that out. I think that Democrats in the Senate, the House, everyone, all of us should be united in using everything that we can do and all of our power to stop what Trump is doing right now, not just in D.C., but across the country. So, absolutely, that should be on the table. What’s happening right now in Washington, D.C., and in other parts of this country should be horrifying to every single person, what’s going on the actual street. People are being thrown to the ground, being picked up, American citizens are being attacked, American citizens, in some cases, are being sent to detention centers. And so, absolutely, the Senate should be engaged. And we’ve had — I know that our leadership is having conversations with Senate leadership, it’s happening today, happening ongoing about what that would actually look like. But we’ve got to be prepared for that action.”
Barrón-López followed up, “About what it would look like to withhold votes?”
Garcia responded, “Absolutely. And I think we’ve also got to be prepared, Democrats have got to be all in, if it means shutting down Donald Trump’s government and his actions, we’ve got to be prepared to do that.”
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