Dem senator still haranguing Trump after 18-hour marathon floor speech
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) was still speaking after 18 hours of a marathon speech given on the House floor in protest of President Donald Trump's "authoritarian leadership," NBC News reports.
Merkley said the republic faces its biggest threat since the Civil War under Trump as he gave his opening remarks Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. EST.
"President Trump is shredding our Constitution. Is it okay for masked federal agents to arrest people off the street because of their skin color or their accent? No way, not in a free America," Merkley asked in his opening remarks.
The Oregon senator then went on to condemn the Trump administration for weaponizing the Department of Justice to attack his political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, (D-CA), and canceling research grants to universities in an attempt to gain control over what can be taught.
Still speaking Wednesday morning, Merkley said that the takeaway from his speech, he hopes, is that "tyranny has already arrived. It is not down the street. It is not around the corner. It will not be encountered on the path tomorrow. It is here at this very moment."
Merkley said that conditions in America right now are ripe for tyranny.
"Suddenly, you have the three elements that create tyranny in place of freedom, or authoritarianism in place of a republic," he said. "And those are a rubber-stamp Congress, a deferential court, and an aggressive authoritarian personality with a good plan."
An aide for Merkley, who was still speaking at the time of this writing (11:57 a.m. EST), said the senator planned to speak for as long as he could go on, just as Sen. Cory Booker, (D-NJ) did months ago, delivering marathon remarks for 25 hours and 4 minutes, breaking the record for the longest floor speech in Senate history.
