Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on the Senate floor to support his filibuster and call out Trump’s tightening authoritarian grip on our nation, highlighting the signs of American democracy under threat.
Schiff detailed the top 10 ways Donald Trump has put our nation on the road toward one-man rule: the misuse of the military in our communities and overseas, attacks on universities, eliminating the right of representation by attacking law firms and lawyers, abuse of the Justice Department to go after the president’s enemies, suppression of free speech, demonization of vulnerable communities, use of propaganda, corrupt use of government power for self-enrichment, usurpation of Congress’ power of the purse, the undermining of our elections, and an assault on facts.
Watch his full speech HERE. Download remarks HERE.
Read the transcript of his remarks as delivered below:
I thank the gentleman for yielding and for your extraordinary speech, and all that you have elucidated today. And for your powerful advocacy on behalf of our democracy. I think there are any number of signs of when a democracy is in trouble, when a country is descending into a kind of dictatorship. And books have been written about this subject. No one account I think, can comprise all of the elements of the deterioration of a democracy. But there are certain telltale signs that I think we are seeing all too clearly. And my question goes to some of the things that we are witnessing that I think are hallmarks of the decline of a democracy, and that ought to be sounding a three-alarm fire for the American people. And let me begin with a few of them.
First, is the misuse of the military at home and abroad. When a president begins to use a military for impermissible purposes. When a president deploys American forces in violation of the law to American cities. When a president assembles top leadership, flag officers, generals, admirals, and tells them that our cities are to be military training grounds, that there is an enemy within, it is as sure as anything a sign of a democracy in trouble, of a democracy in decline. When troops are repelling from Black Hawk helicopters, not in Somalia, but in Chicago, it is the most visible sign of a democracy in trouble. This is, as we all know, in violation of the law which prohibits the use of our military for domestic law enforcement purposes. Likewise, the misuse of the military abroad without the authorization of Congress. Another sign of deterioration of our democracy, when a president arrogates to himself the power to blow ships up in the Caribbean or now in the Pacific without any authority, in violation of law and Constitution. It is another sign of the president arrogating the military power to himself, to the person of himself, not to the Constitution, not to his core responsibilities, but to himself.
Number two among the dozen or so most virulent signs of the decline of our democracy, of the risk of an authoritarian regime taking hold in this country, are the attacks on our universities. We see this in Hungary and elsewhere. When rulers start to attack the independence, the academic freedom of our universities. It is a sure sign of a democracy in trouble when a president tries to dictate by withholding federal funds, the life blood of research universities. Withholds those funds unless an academic institution agrees to adopt its cultural agenda, or to fire certain faculty, or to allow it to have some kind of a monitor, some kind of a big brother, overseeing what takes place in our universities. It is a sign of a democracy in decline.
Number three, when an administration, when a ruler, goes after the right of representation by attacking lawyers, law firms, legal professionals, and saying, “Thou shalt not represent this cause which is deeply unpopular to me. You shall not take on this client who is antagonistic to me. You shall not hire this lawyer who is a personal enemy of mine.” That is antithetical to the history of our democracy and all democracies. John Adams, prior to become president, took on one of the most unpopular cases in American history, representing British soldiers who participated in the Boston Massacre. And why did he do that? Why take on such an unpopular cause? Because he understood the importance to a democracy of the right of representation.
Number four of the signs that our democracy is in deep, deep trouble is the abuse of the Justice Department to go after the president’s enemies and to protect his friends. It is in actions like in the state of Virginia, the firing of a U.S. Attorney who believes that a prosecution is not warranted notwithstanding the personal injunction of the president that thou must prosecute these people. That prosecutor is fired, another brought in to implement the president’s will to go after his enemies. But it is also, likewise a sign of the loss of democracy when the powers of the Justice Department can be used to protect the president’s friends. When a Justice Department can be told, “You shall not look further into the $50,000 in bribe money taken from a top White House official. Close down that investigation. You shall look no further into the corruption of the mayor of New York. Close down that investigation because that mayor is useful to the administration, politically.” That is as sure a sign as anything that we no longer have an independent Justice Department, but one in the thrall of the White House.
Number five, suppression of free speech, suppression of free speech. Something not just in any amendment, but in our First Amendment. When an administration uses its’ power to coerce an ABC to pay him personally or coerces a CBS to pay him personally for the right to continue its broadcast license, or for the opportunity of its’ parent to have a merger. These are overt efforts to censor the press. When it uses its regulatory power and threats to try to take off the air a comedian or two comedians, it is a sure sign of the loss of press freedom. And equally, we see in other repressive regimes an effort to concentrate power, to concentrate the media itself in the hands of friendly oligarchs, or to create a kind of state-run media. Which we are deeply at risk of, and we see in the development of TikTok. And the course of power of the government to decide who the future owners of TikTok will be, to make sure that they are of the same political persuasion as the president. Or we see reflected in the oligarchic control of Twitter, now X. Or we see in organizations that are buying up stations like Sinclair and using its mass power for the purpose of censorship.
Next, in a declining democracy, in a budding autocracy, we see the demonization of vulnerable communities. And what could be more visible in America today than the demonization of immigrant communities by this administration. The demonization of the other, the false portrait of people who come to this country as all murderers and rapists and drug smugglers. The demonization of some of the most vulnerable people in America, also in the LGBT community, in the trans community. We see this time and time again in history, in countries becoming dictatorships that they build their power on the backs of people they dehumanize.
We’re seeing at home another powerful sign of a budding authoritarianism, of a growing authoritarianism, and that is the use of propaganda, the use of taxpayer money for propaganda. You see banners with the president’s glowering face now on public buildings in violation of law. You see Kristi Noem doing Hollywood looking produced ads that are played at airports falsely blaming Democrats for the shutdown. Political propaganda paid for by you the taxpayer. Or highly produced immigration videos featuring Kristi Noem thanking the president. More political propaganda.
Another sign of the decline of our democracy, of the growth of our authoritarian regime, is the corrupt use of government power for self-enrichment. This we saw from the very first days of this administration. The meme coin dinners in which the premises of the White House are used, but private donors are encouraged to buy the president’s meme coin, a cut of which the president gets. Using the power, the prestige of that office, sometimes even the venue of that office, to enrich himself. The receipt of aircraft, a $400 million aircraft from Qatar, a nation that has a keen interest in U.S. policy. The president acquiring a plane in plain violation of the Emoluments Clause. Soliciting private donors for ballrooms, the real estate deals in the Gulf, the rampant conflicts of interest, the crypto money coming in from the Gulf to the first family, the use of government power and position for corruption and self-enrichment.
Another powerful sign of a democracy in decline is the usurpation of Congress’ power of the purse. The illegal withholding of funding, the impoundment of funding, the illegal rescission of funding, the illegal termination of grants. And I would say beyond that, the mass firing of federal employees, the lawless firing of federal employees. The use of Congress’ power to appropriate money, one of the most important powers, arguably the most important power we have now taken by the administration. And without a fight in this body. Certainly not a bipartisan fight. That is surely a sign that we are losing our democracy. The undermining of elections and voting. Another key ingredient in dictators around the world cementing their position in power is the undermining of the foundational right to vote. We see it in its various forms now. We see it in this push to engage in gerrymandering around the country. But we see it in closing down of polling stations in urban areas. We see it in efforts to suppress the vote of certain communities. We see it in the purging of voter rolls. We see it in affirmative efforts to discourage people from voting. We see it in the demonization of election workers, the interference with election boards.
And finally, although the list is much longer, I would end with this, the attack on truth itself. The attack on facts, the attack on science, the purging of people from our scientific agencies. The rampant falsehood, the fire hose of falsehood coming out of The White House and our agencies daily, provable, palpable falsehood, eroding the very idea of truth and fact. If you can persuade people that nothing is true, then what are we to use to decide who should govern? If there is no shared experience, then how do we decide what policy should be? How do we avoid just falling back on political tribe, or worse, political violence, if there is no truth, if there is no fact, if there is no accountability? And so, Senator Merkley, I thank you for shedding a light on the risk, the risk to our precious democracy, the risk to this incredible inheritance from our founders. Because part and parcel of saving our republic, part and parcel of saving this country, is to understand the dangers so that we can confront them. Future generations are going to ask what we did in this hour when our democracy was most vulnerable, when our parents and their parents went off to World Wars to protect our democracy, our task is far easier on the one hand, but no less important on the other. And so I ask you, are you seeing these same signs I’m seeing of the danger to our democracy, of the degradation of our democracy? And what do you feel we can do to save this inheritance?
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