Common Dreams - breaking news & views for the progressive community

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley issued the following statement in response to a report that the White House is considering withholding the backpay of federal employees furloughed due to the government shutdown:

“The frivolous argument that federal employees are not guaranteed backpay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act is an obvious misinterpretation of the law. It is also inconsistent with the Trump administration’s own guidance from mere days ago, which clearly and correctly states that furloughed employees will receive retroactive pay for the time they were out of work as quickly as possible once the shutdown is over.

“As we’ve said before, the livelihoods of the patriotic Americans serving their country in the federal government are not bargaining chips in a political game. It’s long past time for these attacks on federal employees to stop and for Congress to come together, resolve their differences, and end this shutdown.”

Warning that retaliation against the press is a tactic that “belongs to a society much different and more oppressive than our own,” the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of the District of Columbia filed a brief late last night in support of the Associated Press in their lawsuit against the Trump administration.

The brief supports the AP’s claim that the White House violated the First Amendment when it restricted the AP’s access to official events because the outlet refused to adopt the administration’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico. The brief argues that incursions on free expression, left unchecked, frequently lead to greater repression, as demonstrated by American history and the modern experience of other nations, and the brief catalogues the Trump administration’s alarming campaign of retaliation against dissenting voices.

“Attacking a free press is a key play in the autocracy playbook, as we have seen around the world in recent years,” said Scott Michelman, legal director at the ACLU of D.C. “When countries like Hungary and the Philippines have regressed from democracy toward autocracy, the punishment of journalists critical of the ruling party has been a harbinger of worse to come. By punishing the AP for refusing to parrot the administration’s worldview, Trump is taking a step down a dangerous road. The First Amendment exists to block any incursion against press freedom, and we are asking the court to heed the lessons of our own history and of world history by enforcing the First Amendment here.”

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to rename the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.” When the Associated Press chose not to use the new moniker, the White House retaliated by barring the AP’s reporters from participating in the press pool in the Oval Office or aboard Air Force One. The news organization filed suit in February and was granted reinstatement by a federal judge in April. Part of the judge’s decision was temporarily stayed by a panel of the D.C. Circuit.

“The president cannot punish a press outlet for its choice of words,” said Brian Hauss, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “The White House press pool guarantees the public’s timely access to important information about the president and the executive branch. If the president can banish any media outlet that refuses to parrot the administration’s talking points, the American public will hear exclusively from sycophants and stenographers.”

Participation in the White House press pool is historically managed by the White House Correspondents Association, and the president has not in recent history had the power to remove individual outlets based on the content of their coverage.

The AP’s suit, Associated Press v. Budowich, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It is currently before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where the ACLU and the ACLU of D.C. filed the amicus late Monday.

Related Documents

• AP v. Budowich Amicus Brief

This morning, corporate lobbyist turned U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi faces Senate Judiciary Committee questioning for the first time since her confirmation. The hearing comes as “[m]ore than 275 former Justice Department employees are demanding Congress increase oversight of the department following a mass exodus of career officials who question the integrity of the department's work.” Beyond these concerns from former colleagues over Bondi’s unwillingness to put the constitution above her loyalty to President Donald Trump, the Attorney General has also validated concerns raised in January over her inability to put the public interest before her former lobbying clients and wealthy friends.

During Bondi’s confirmation process, government watchdog Accountable.US revealed that at least five of Bondi’s direct lobbying clients have faced DOJ fines, investigations, or related scrutiny that could pose serious conflicts should they have business before Bondi’s DOJ. Bondi’s clients included Amazon, General Motors, The GEO Group, Uber, and Major League Baseball.

Now, in her first months as Attorney General, Bondi’s lobbying work continues to pose a wide variety of conflict of interest concerns, an Accountable.US review found—with Ballard Partners seeing a surge in DOJ lobbying work since her confirmation; with Bondi’s DOJ scuttling a major antitrust challenge in favor of a new Ballard Partners client; and with Bondi’s DOJ facing a lawsuit over a memo she signed allowing Trump to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar, who she represented while at Ballard Partners.

“In her eight months as Attorney General, Pam Bondi has confirmed all warnings about her treating the office as an enforcer for Donald Trump’s personal whims while also acting as a walking conflict of interest for her former lobbying firm and clients,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “It says it all that the former Qatar lobbyist Bondi penned a DOJ memo – i.e. corruption ‘get out of jail free card’ – allowing Donald Trump to use a gifted luxury super jet from the nation he’s doing billions of dollars in crypto business with during and after his presidency. During her first Senate hearing, will Bondi answer for all these sweetheart deals she’s supporting for the President and former lobbying clients while millions of working Americans are asked to choose between a continued government shutdown or losing their health care?”

HERE’S HOW BONDI’S CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ARE ALREADY COMPROMISING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC INTEREST:

• Since Pamela Bondi became Attorney General, Ballard Partners has become “the highest-paid lobbying shop” in Washington D.C. On top of this, Ballard has represented 10 different clients directly before Bondi’s DOJ in the first months of the second Trump administration—more DOJ clients than it had in the first Trump and Biden administrations combined.
  
• In March 2025, shortly after Bondi’s confirmation, Ballard Partners registered as a lobbying firm for American Express Global Business Travel, which paid the firm $200,000 to exclusively lobby Bondi’s DOJ in the first half of 2025 alone. Notably, in July 2025, Bondi’s DOJ dismissed the Biden Administration’s challenge against a $540 million merger that would have allowed American Express GBT to “eliminate its second-largest rival” CWT Holdings.
  
• While she was with Ballard Partners, Bondi was a foreign lobbyist for the nation of Qatar. Once she became Attorney General, Bondi “personally signed” a DOJ legal memo approving the legality of Qatar’s royal family gifting a $400 million “palace in the sky” jet to the Trump administration, for Trump to use as Air Force One. In July 2025, Bondi’s DOJ was sued by the Freedom of the Press Foundation for refusing to release the memorandum Bondi reportedly signed approving the gift.
  
  
  • Meanwhile, the Trump Organization announced its first foreign deal in Trump’s second term, a new luxury golf resort in Qatar developed in partnership with a Qatari government-owned company.

Today Attorney General Pam Bondi is testifying before Congress amid mounting concerns that the Justice Department under her leadership is being weaponized to go after President Trump's perceived enemies.

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response:

“The abuse of the Justice Department under Bondi’s watch has been rampant, including the recent high profile and scandalous move to secure an indictment against former FBI Director Jim Comey after the President publicly demanded they do so, and despite the previous prosecutor's claims of insufficient evidence.

“The DOJ has been in constant turmoil since Bondi took the helm, firing prosecutors who worked Capitol riot cases or investigated Trump and pushing out senior officials at the FBI.

“At the same time, under her leadership, the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ, the section dedicated to fighting corruption from federal officials, has been reduced from a total of thirty-six employees to two. The Department of Justice is intended to be independent from the White House, not its revenge arm. Her tenure shows they have become exactly that.”

Two years after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the U.S. government has spent a total of $31 billion combined on military aid to Israel and U.S. military operations in the region, according to the latest research from contributors to the Costs of War project, housed at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs. The research series reveals that this U.S. spending in the post-10/7 wars has come with an extensive human toll: over ten percent of the population of Gaza has been killed or injured, while at least 5.27 million people have been displaced in Gaza and the wider region.

As of October 3, 67,075 people in Gaza have been killed and 169,430 people injured according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, out of the approximately 2.2 million people living there in July 2023. These 236,505 casualties (people who have been killed and injured) constitute more than 10 percent of the pre-war population of Gaza. The research underscores that the Gaza Ministry of Health numbers are “not an exaggeration,” as some critics argue; they are likely an undercount.

“Most of the deaths in Gaza have been civilians, many of them children,” said Neta Crawford, co-founder of Costs of War and author of the new report, The Human Toll of the Gaza War: Direct and Indirect Death from 7 October 2023 to 3 October 2025. “The pace and scale of direct killing and injury by the Israel Defense Force bombs and bullets will only be exceeded by the long-term death and misery due to starvation, displacement, destruction of health care facilities and the inadequate level of humanitarian assistance.”

Between October 2023 - September 2025, the U.S. spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel. This figure does not include the tens of billions of dollars in arms sales agreements that have been committed for weapons and services that will be paid for and delivered in the years to come. During the same period, an additional $9.65 - $12.07 billion was spent on U.S. military operations in Yemen, Iran and the wider region, totaling $31.35 - $33.77 billion in U.S. spending on the post-10/7 wars.

“The devastating damage the current Israeli government has done to Gaza and its people would not have been possible without U.S. financing, U.S.-supplied weapons, and U.S. assistance with spare parts and maintenance,” said Bill Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of the new report, U.S. Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023 – September 2025, co-published with the Quincy Institute. “But despite this dependence, neither former President Joe Biden nor current President Donald Trump have used Israel's reliance on U.S. weapons as a tool to pressure Tel Aviv to change its conduct.”

“The American public has a right to know how U.S. funding is used in conflict, and to recognize that our military activities in the Middle East carry significant costs that are often hidden,” said Linda J. Bilmes, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of the new report, Costs of United States Military Activities in the Wider Middle East Since October 7, 2023. “These financial and social costs should be weighed alongside policy decisions.”

Additionally, mass population displacement has been a significant feature of the violence experienced in Gaza, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, the West Bank, and other parts of the Middle East since October 7, 2023, where at least 5.27 million people have fled or been forced to leave their homes (as of early September 2025). This total includes an estimated 1.85 million displaced children under 18 years old. Some of these people have since returned home, while many others have not. (This figure does not include Syria and Yemen, where there is a lack of data documenting how the post-10/7 wars have caused displacement.)

“The displacement of over 5 million people to date plus the potential displacement of millions more underscores the urgency of ending the violence as quickly as possible, of allowing the displaced to return home as international law requires, of ensuring reparation for the displaced, and of holding the perpetrators accountable for crimes committed,” said David Vine, political anthropologist and longtime Costs of War contributor, and author of the new report, Mass Displacement since October 7, 2023: Flight from War, Genocide, and Expulsion in Gaza, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and the West Bank.

“For well over a decade, the Costs of War project has shed light on the costs of the so-called U.S. ‘war on terror’; now we’re examining the devastating costs of U.S. military spending and operations in the post-October 7 wars – which in the case of Gaza, many experts call a genocide,” said Stephanie Savell, Director of Costs of War. “Our research highlights numbers, but we must never lose sight of this key fact: what we’re talking about is human suffering. This research shows that the suffering is unthinkably vast. The research will inform efforts to stop the mass killing and displacement, move beyond the war paradigm, and explore true solutions towards peace.”

The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, on this morning’s announcement that Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano will also serve as CEO of the IRS:

“Frank Bisignano is so underqualified for the job of Social Security commissioner that his first move was to google ‘Social Security’. Bisignano’s decision to take on a second job running the IRS highlights that he has learned nothing. It also puts the lie to Donald Trump’s claim that he won’t hurt Social Security.

The Trump administration has already plunged Social Security into crisis by pushing out thousands of the most experienced, knowledgeable workers. They are causing chaos and real harm, including ending paper checks for Americans who have previously shown they need them. Now, Bisignano’s divided attention will create a bottleneck that makes the inevitable problems that arise even harder to correct.

Never in Social Security’s 90-year history has a commissioner held a second job. Bisiginano’s new role will leave a leadership vacuum at the top of the agency, especially since Trump hasn’t even nominated a deputy commissioner.

It always takes less time and effort to destroy something than to build and maintain it. By denying the system a full time commissioner, the Trump administration is allowing Social Security to rot through sabotage and neglect.”

Our authoritarian theater lurches on amidst the forging of a police state by an avenging "Peace President," equally deranged and malignant, who conflates lies, raves, phantasms - see wacko AI videos - with reality. The five-time draft-dodger, with his neo-Nazi Secretary of War Crimes, just rabidly urged a roomful of silent generals to join a "war from within" against their own citizens, now in Portland. Reviews of his new reality show: "Fat Man and Little Boy bombed." Also, "The commander-in-chief is not okay."

Despite his manifest unfitness and underwater approval ratings- "People hate this mad king shit" - he and his vile cohorts are busy erasing rights and building an internal legal and military force aimed at silencing skeptics, opponents and "terrorist networks," aka most of us, in the time-honored name of "national security." This week he also got to play peacemaker with a war criminal, spewing "fatuous bleats" as he proclaimed "one of the great days ever in civilization" at the signing of a Gaza "peace plan" that included no Palestinians, leans hard into Israel's genocidal vision, and puts a bloody "stamp of legitimacy" on their effort to "achieve through politics what the war of extermination could not achieve on the ground." Hamas must take it or leave it: "There is no negotiation here. There is an American plan." If Hamas rejects it, Israel will "finish the job" thanks to the plan's convenient loopholes; Trump eagerly affirmed they'd "have our full backing to do what (you) have to do."

Mostly, the alleged master of the art of the deal has just been refusing to negotiate at home. The current shutdown is the unsurprising result of a so-called president who in response to queries about discussions of differences, said one official, "read (sic) all the shit they’re asking for, and said, ‘On second thought, go fuck yourself'"; then he reversed himself, talked to Jeffries and Schumer, but seemed unaware of the ACA health insurance stalemate that largely triggered the crisis. The last few days, as his party literally ran away from the fray "on vacation" rather than try to hammer out an agreement, he helpfully contributed to the discourse on keeping government open by posting a series of what-the-actual-fuck, "straight-up-Orwell's-1984" deep fake videos, each more bizarre and offensive than the last, thus confirming the widespread belief that, "Donald Trump has always lived in his own world of lies and ignorance and growing misinformation - he has no idea what reality is."

Thus, his batshit post announcing, “MEDBED HOSPITALS: THE NEW ERA IN HEALTHCARE," offering us all magic, imaginary "medbeds" that cure cancer, reverse aging, regrow body parts, and keep a zombie JFK Jr. alive. The news grew from a longtime QAnon conspiracy theory that government elites have been hoarding this medical marvel in tunnels for themselves so, say, after a hard day of trafficking children out of a pizza parlor, Hillary Clinton can go home, lie on her medbed, and regrow her missing limbs. No more: Now, "Every American will soon receive their own MedBed card," with grifters selling $11,000 "medbed generators." This, to be clear, as Trump and the GOP actively work to gut health care protections for millions. His post was deleted after about 12 hours, long enough for many to wonder, "Is it bad when the leader of a country is so cognitively impaired he can no longer determine what's real?" and for Gavin Newsom to re-post with, "DONALD TRUMP HAS LOST IT."

That was premature. There was more. Soon after, there was Trump's re-post of a video titled, “The Great Replacement is no longer conspiracy theory!” Based on a Newsmax segment, it blamed Dems for encouraging hordes of undocumented migrants to come here to vote, with over two million getting illegal Social Security numbers. That was followed by a now-infamous, grotesquely racist, staggeringly juvenile post, "one of his most demented ever" and National Embarrassment #742, featuring a deep fake (Jewish) Schumer and (African-American) Jeffries, with inexplicable Mexican music, sombrero, waxed moustache, telling reporters,. “We have no voters left because of all of our woke, trans bullshit." Etc. America: "This is sick." Jeffries: "Next time you have something to say to me, say it to my face." He noted House and Senate Dems "are here, on duty, ready to fund the government. Bigotry will get you nowhere. Do your job." Then he posted a photo of the pedo besties with, "This is real."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Speaking of: In more weirdness, pardoned Jan.6 QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley sued Trump - also Musk, Israel, the NSA, IMF, World Bank etc - for $40 trillion, claiming he's the rightful president, and at this point why not; he also trashed Trump for not releasing the Epstein files. Meanwhile, Trump's so out of it he thought Whiskey Pete's Warrior Fest was for other countries' top brass: "Isn't it nice people are coming from all over the world to be with us?" Then he veered to "It's just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily." Maybe that's because Kegseth is reportedly both "crumbling" and out of control: Spooked, paranoid, "even more manic, dude is crawling out of his skin" since Kirk's killing; into vain "total princess shit"; throwing "full-blown tantrums" if challenged - on his "pussy-ass-bitch" Department of War name swap, extra-judicial killings of fishermen in the Caribbean, critics deeming his ideas for change "myopic and potentially irrelevant." Each time, "He just WENT OFF."

So sure, great to see a loose cannon and "drunken freak" Secretary of Bravado with the power to unilaterally summon to Quantico from around the world, at the cost of millions of dollars, over 800 U.S. generals and admirals with much-decorated decades in the service and unequaled command expertise to serve as extras for a MAGA pep rallED talk/ lecture about meritocracy, "warrior ethos" and "a return to the highest male standards" from a greasy, wildly unqualified former Major in the National Guard and ex-host of a Fox News weekend program with a messy history of alcoholism, incompetence, sexual infidelity, rape, and threatening national security by butt-dialing classified information to a reporter - all of which could have been "accomplished," a term doing a lot of lifting here, in a simple email or leaked Signal chat. No wonder, standing before a gaudy massive flag like a knock-off of George C. Scott in Patton, the ignoble Pete "gave off a lot of small dick energy."

Once he opened his mouth, it got worse. Lamely citing Trump's "Liberation Day" for his botched tariffs, Hegseth declared. "Today is another Liberation Day - the liberation of America’s warriors." Rattling off a list of tired culture war grievances, he vowed no more DEI, identity months, "frivolous complaints" about ethics or misconduct, "dudes in dresses," "climate change worship," "stupid rules of engagement...We are done with that shit!” "Every day, we have to be preparing for war, not defense. We're training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not defend," he raved. "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy...We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country." In short, no more Mr. Nice Legal Guy. "You kill people and break things for a living," he snarled. "You are not politically correct, and don’t necessarily belong (in) polite society.” So: Let your bigot flag fly. Make war crimes, sexual assault, hazing great again.

And if you don't like it, resign. Given the stony silence, many didn't, especially once he went after the beardos - usually Black and/or Muslim men - and the fatsos, warning of new physical fitness standards: “If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard (work outs), so can every member of our joint force." The reviews - this is a reality TV show, right? - were brutal. "Hegseth brought the generals before him to fat shame them (and brag that he can do push-ups)...I fucking want my money back, asshole," read one. Also, "Pete will always be a National Guardsman assigned to a civil affairs unit who got a bunch of Crusader tattoos in his 40s because he wants you to think he's a cool, war-criming operator instead of an online wife-beating loser saying what it means to be a WARFIGHTER to a roomful of legit guys who all outrank him," and, "I would posit it’s more unacceptable to see a Christo-fascist, tattoo-festooned Fox dunk-tank clown in the halls of the Pentagon, frankly, but maybe that’s just me."

Military critics called his appearance "embarrassing,” “ridiculous,” "shocking," "insulting," "offensive," "self-aggrandizing." Jamelle Bouie called it "some of the most loser shit I have ever seen." A veterans advocate noted "people (who) have served 20 or 30 years in uniform do not need (Hegseth) to tell them about warrior ethos" or "lethality": "He's barely qualified to host Fox News. Has he no honor?" Navy commander Bobbby Jones tore into a sleazy "Sec bro" who thinks push-ups can replace "critical thinking under pressure...honor, courage and commitment." On his bigoted, divisive views on race, gender, DEI: "WHAT?! You're kidding me. You have the nerve to think you have the right to be the arbiter if someone of color or a woman deserves to be there? When you weren't even good enough to make my rank? And you try to erase their history? You need to take the example of the people you tried to lecture today and hopefully live your life more like them. The world will be better off."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

You'd think it couldn't get more cringe after Hegseth ended with a histrionic, Dr. Strangelove-like, "WE ARE THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR! GODSPEED!" (Cue, "There's no fighting in the War Room!") Improbably, it did when the world's most famous five-time draft dodger, criminal and pedophile lumbered onstage to join "a middle manager dry drunk cosplaying tough to lecture US generals on the Constitution and loyalty." "A drunk and a rapist walk into a bar..." noted one online sage. Another: "Hegseth: No fatties in the chain of command! Trump: Waddles onto stage." The seemingly heavily sedated Private Bonespurs spoke slowly, slurring words in "an unusually meandering speech," "a disgraceful and unnerving performance" and "a nakedly partisan appeal that violated every standard of American civil-military relations." It was also "an inexcusable strategic risk (to) convey an inane message" and "a waste of time for people who emphatically had better things they could and should be doing."

He insulted Biden 11 times: "They looked at him falling down stairs every day," with a long weird detour about stairs and how Obama - "I had zero respect for him" - would "bop down those stairs. I’ve never seen it. Da-da, da-da, bop, bop." There was his love of the word “tariff," America becoming "rich as hell," "PEOPLE COMING IN FROM INSANE ASYLUMS," the wars he ended and “millions and millions of lives” he saved, the rigged election, the autopen, the fecking Gulf of America, "the concept of battleships" like in Victory At Sea, the “beautiful paper, the gorgeous paper, with the real gold writing" when he signs things: "Everyone loves my signature," Most significantly, he "told a roomful of silent generals to join a war from within," that "we're under invasion," it's a "big part of war now," "we should use some of these dangerous (blue) cities as training grounds for our military," and their first priority is "defending the homeland," which has a vague Germanic ring to it we can't quite place.

Takeaways: "The president told the military American citizens are the enemy and he wants them to practice war on them. I think this is called Treason." "We want you to wage war on your fellow Americans. Also in 13 hours you aren’t getting paid." "Bad actors, bad movie. The director should be ashamed. 0/10." “He billed the taxpayers millions to fly every general to Washington to hear this weirdo drivel." "The commander in chief is not okay," wrote Tom Nichols of his "farrago of fantasy, menace, and autocratic peacocking." "It's one thing to serve it up to an adoring MAGA crowd, but another to aim this kind of sludge at military officers" used to treating presidents with respect, and assuming they're "basically normal. You have to wonder who will shield them from the impulses of the person they just saw on stage." He cites a famed 1973 moment when an Air Force nuclear-missile officer asked in a training, "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?”

One of many cartoons about Hegseth's Warrior JamboreeFrom Democratic Underground

And here we are. The stoic, professional top brass in Quantico sat dead silent, stone-faced, through the madness. At its end, some limply applauded but most remained silent; in the limited images released, they look pissed, as if "'Bitch, please' were a photo." Still, with or without their approval, the regime's "war from within" goes on apace. On Sept. 27, Trump announced he would "provide all necessary Troops to protect War-ravaged Portland" and any ICE Facilities "under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists" with "Full Force, if necessary." He was reportedly hepped up from watching an earlier bogus segment on Fox showing two hostile scenes in Portland that turned out to be from 2020 BLM protests. But who needs facts? "I didn't know that was still going on," he yammered. "Portland is unbelievable - the destruction of the city. These are paid agitators...What they’ve done to that place...They just burned the place down. It's just, it’s like living in hell." JD nods along.

Hours after announcing the deployment of 200 National Guard to hellish Portland, city and state officials sued Trump, Hegseth, and ICE Barbie to block their "patently unlawful" move based on "wildly hyperbolic pretext...Their characterization of Portland as ‘war-ravaged’ is pure fiction." Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on their "fruitless show of force: The number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city...The president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it." The threat drew several hundred protesters - far more than the handful that have been turning up for months - overseen by federal snipers on rooftops. "We are average, everyday citizens tired of (Trump's) illegal actions," said the wife of a veteran, who called the deployment "a moral injury." Around then the addled, reality show nitwit who makes policy based on what he sees on biased, bigoted, fantastical Fox News was dumbfounded to learn that he, and they, might be wrong.

In an interview, he described talking to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who tried to set him straight. "I said, 'Wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'" he exclaimed. "My people tell me different. They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place...it looks like terrible.” Reality bites, and #WarRavagedPortland bit back. Last weekend, Portlanders - "Stay safe, stay weird" - flooded social media with images of their hellish life: Gardens, picnics, drummers, runners, street fairs, cherry blossoms, food, bikes, dancing, Taco trucks, dystopian bread lines, pastry-filled farmers markets, blissed-out dogs rolling in grass: "Here’s our dog writhing in agony on the killing fields of war-ravaged Portland." There were trees wrapped in multi-hued knitting - "We knit at dawn" - marauding hordes amidst sun-dappled roses - "Oh, the demise of humanity!" - and a brave beer in a koozie: "It's unsafe to even walk your beer down the street without protection!"

Chilling tales emerged of violent kittens attacking toilet paper - "WAR AND DEVASTATION HAPPENING IN PORTLAND! KITTENS DESTROYING VERY EXPENSIVE TP !" - long lines for brunch - "Hellscape doesn't begin to describe it" - and "leaves not staying on the trees anymore from so much violence. Good God, it's horrific." At an outdoor fair, "kids were chasing geese, people were selling tie-died shirts, and one sick son of a bitch was selling Nepalese food. It was crazy." Video revealed an empty, silent ICE building "under siege" - "By that definition, my house is under siege"; one from Sen. Ron Wyden showed the same placid scene, with a few protesters across the street. One harried victim described "sipping my iced pumpkin latte and strolling past historic Victorians, boutiques selling $300 clogs, women in Eileen Fisher cardigans debating olive oil varieties (and) too many options for artisanal cheese, and so many dogs who eat better than I do. I couldn’t help but wonder - if this is war, where do I enlist?"

Survivors from other cities sent thoughts and prayers: From "war ravaged DC," "post-apocalyptic Los Angeles," "the liberal hellscape of Denver, where they're eating the dogs!" Many sent moral support - "The Portlish are a strong and noble people. We stand with you" - and one eager citizen said she "can't wait for the National Guard to come clean up Seattle - there is litter everywhere." There were searing war dispatches. "We barely survived today. Everything is in chaos. We began the day with huckleberry pancakes...They were terrifyingly delicious." "Dearest Mother, I write to you from the front lines (where) our batallion bravely holds the line between the artisanal kombucha stand (and) the enemy, armed with reusable tote bags and passive-aggressive signage. Our oat milk rations are low." "My dearest wife, These barbarians will not yield...We have severed the cords of their latte machines but they are making cowboy coffee in their camps...A Golden Retriever has stolen my ammo belt."

On Wednesday, Trump announced 200 National Guard troops were "now in place" at a small protest at Portland's ICE facility, and they have "begun restoring LAW AND ORDER." But NBC News affiliate KGW reported "none can be seen," and lawmakers said they'd been told troops still need a few days to prepare, maybe by wending their arduous way through the artisanal breads. Guard officials say the deployment, expected to cost at least $3.8 million, is to "protect federal facilities," a slight discrepancy from a White House release declaring troops would "crush violent radical left terrorism" in the tranquil city. "I know this isn't easy," Oregon's adjutant general told Guard members of a mission neither they nor residents seem enthused about. "We don't get to pick and choose." For now, five Portlanders, some in bathrobes, held a pastry protest - "We're here for the hellscape" - as other stalwarts struggled to endure the war's hardships. "They have forced us to listen to music and revel in community," they said. "Pray for us."

Today, Public Citizen filed a complaint against the Small Business Administration (SBA) for a message on its homepage blaming “Senate Democrats” for causing a government shutdown. The complaint alleges this is a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of taxpayer money for partisan political purposes.

Public Citizen filed a complaint against the Department for Housing and Human Services yesterday on similar grounds. Experts are reviewing other instances of agencies using taxpayer dollars to fund partisan shutdown messaging.

Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen who filed both complaints, stated:

“The message being broadcast at the top of the Small Business Administration’s website is an obvious Hatch Act violation. The SBA and other agencies increasingly adopting this illegal, partisan tactic think they can get away with it because Trump has gutted any and all ethics oversight of the federal government.

“Ethics officials — as lacking in power and status as they may be under Trump — must act immediately to prove them wrong. The American people deserve better.”

The full complaint is available to review here.

The Trump administration today announced a coordinated attempt to keep the struggling U.S. coal industry alive slightly longer, including opening more than 13 million acres of national public lands for coal mining, reducing royalty rates paid by mining companies to taxpayers and $625 million in federal funding for uneconomic coal plants across the country. In response, David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s climate program, said:

“President Trump’s coal giveaway is exactly the wrong direction for the country. It is clear that solar, wind and battery storage will provide nearly all affordable, clean energy in the near future, and expensive, dirty coal will be a relic of the past.

“Trump’s effort to block renewables and keep fossil fuels on life support only hurts Americans. It forces us to pay for unduly expensive energy and wasteful corporate subsidies, harms our health by polluting our air and water, and neglects to build up domestic manufacturing and supply chains for the energy technologies of the future while China races ahead.

“Other forms of energy are simply far less expensive than coal—as well as cleaner, cheaper, and safer for a climate habitable for humans. This bailout is nothing more than a wealth transfer from the American people to Trump’s billionaire friends sitting atop a failing industry.”

Today, the Department of Energy announced a $625 million effort in retrofitting aging coal plants.

The Trump administration has slashed billions of dollars in clean energy investments and issued multiple stop work orders on clean energy projects, while exempting toxic, dirty coal plants from lifesaving guardrails.

In response, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams issued the following statement:

“Rather than investing in affordable and clean energy, Chris Wright is taking taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars and giving it to wealthy executives in the coal industry. This is a transparent wealth transfer from everyday Americans, who are already making tough decisions at the kitchen table, to the millionaires that run the fossil fuel industry. If Chris Wright, or anyone in Donald Trump’s administration, truly cared about bringing down the cost of electricity, they would be investing in affordable clean energy instead of taking a sledgehammer to the progress our country has made. By handing out millions to the coal industry, the Trump administration is divesting from Americans’ health, from our environment, and from our path forward to a cleaner, healthier future.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser issued the following statement in response to today’s Religious Liberty Commission hearing on religious freedom in public education:

“Yet again, President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission demonstrated that its true purpose is to advance a Christian Nationalist agenda and impose one narrow religious view on the nation’s public school children. The speakers at today’s hearing made that clear – from the former high school football coach whose attorneys spun what one federal judge called a ‘deceitful narrative’ to recast his coercive post-game prayer rallies with public school students as quiet, personal, private prayers, to a public high school history teacher who has likened public schools to a ‘mission field’ where she engages in ‘spiritual warfare’ to oppose LGBTQ+ students’ identities.

“The majority of speakers at today’s hearing are affiliated with Christian Nationalist organizations working to obliterate church-state separation, turn public schools into Sunday schools and misuse religious freedom as a license to discriminate. The commission continues to ignore the true threats to religious freedom in public education: Christian Nationalist mandates to display the Ten Commandments, teach the Bible as truth, infuse curricula with Christianity, install school chaplains and impose coercive prayer on students, to name just a few.

“Today’s meeting has been an outright assault on our country’s promise of church-state separation. That promise is central to true religious freedom. It means that families – not politicians or public school officials – get to decide how and when children engage with religion. The commission should be joining Americans United in demanding a national recommitment to church-state separation as the best way to defend religious freedom for all – our inclusive public schools and our democracy depend on it.”

Americans United submitted extensive written public comments to the commission on Sept. 22 and Aug. 30 that explain the true threats to religious freedom in public education. The most recent comments explain public school officials’ rights and responsibilities regarding religious freedom; dispel the myths surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (in which AU represented the school district); and how private school vouchers undermine both public education and religious freedom.

President Trump is expected to announce a next step in his plan related to “most favored nation” drug pricing, potentially including an unpublished Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services drug pricing pilot program.

The White House had previously given drugmakers until September 29th to offer “most favored nation” prices matching those of other developed nations.

As part of a flurry of Truth Social posts yesterday evening, President Trump also announced his plan to place 100% tariffs on patented pharmaceutical products on October 1st, unless drug companies have “broken ground” or are building manufacturing plants in the United States. The announcement appears to be connected to the Commerce Department's Section 232 investigation on pharmaceutical imports, though the public has not yet had the chance to see the results justifying such tariffs.

“Raising drug prices abroad will do absolutely nothing to lower them at home, and of course drugmakers have not lowered prices on their own,” said Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen Access to Medicines director.” “Making medicine affordable and reliably available depends on public investment and serious legislation, not tariff chaos and bullying countries that have the good sense to negotiate affordable prices for their people.”

“Trump is continuing his pattern of grabbing headlines using the word ‘tariff] while engaging in secretive ongoing negotiations and opaque exemptions processes that are ripe for corporate corruption,” said Melinda St. Louis, Public Citizen Global Trade Watch director. “While strategic tariffs can be used to support domestic manufacturing and good jobs, they must be paired with real public investments and support for workers’ rights, which Trump has systematically undermined.”

In May, Public Citizen published a backgrounder on President Trump’s “most favored nation” executive order and filed comments to the U.S. trade representative on a related policy that falsely claims that prescription drug prices are high for Americans because they are lower elsewhere. Public Citizen also filed comments in the Section 232 investigation on pharmaceuticals.

Public Citizen experts Peter Maybarduk, Access to Medicines director and Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch director are available for comment.

In response to the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, Ben Olinsky, senior vice president of Structural Reform and Governance at the Center for American Progress, shared the following comments:

The prosecution against Director Comey is nothing short of political retribution. President Donald Trump recently fired the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, his own appointee, after they made clear that prosecutors lack evidence to seek an indictment against former Director Comey. He then installed his own personal attorney, who has never prosecuted a case before, to the prosecutor’s office to carry out the president’s revenge tour.
President Trump’s government is operating more like a “banana republic” than a thriving democracy, and that should deeply alarm all Americans.

The Trump Administration’s threat to illegally fire more workers if the President doesn’t get his way is blatant extortion: using working people and their families — as well as the important public services those workers provide — as pawns in a power play with no concern for who gets hurt.

Let’s be clear about what’s going on here: the Trump Administration has repeatedly shredded the last bipartisan funding bill — illegally canceling or freezing funding that Republicans and Democrats agreed to (e.g., for medical research, education, or mental health treatment), and keeping it from reaching the people and communities it’s meant to serve.

Republicans are claiming their short-term continuing resolution is business as usual, but nothing about this moment is normal. We’ve never seen a President unilaterally and unlawfully ignore bipartisan budget laws and then expect Congress to do nothing to stop him.

Meanwhile, the President and Republican congressional leaders are doing nothing to address a looming, massive health care cost spike for more than 20 million people. They have so far refused bipartisan negotiations to prevent families across the country already struggling to afford health care and other basics from taking this hit. Indeed, they have rejected bipartisan discussions on anything related to year-end spending bills, even as they need bipartisan support in the Senate to pass short- or long-term funding bills.

Congressional Republicans and the President need to come to the table with Democrats to reach a deal that prevents health care cost spikes for millions of people and ensures the Administration can’t unilaterally or illegally undo parts of bipartisan funding laws simply because the President dislikes them.

The White House is threatening mass firings of government workers amid a shutdown. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“The Trump administration is threatening to inflict massive harm on all of us unless Democrats in Congress surrender in the funding fight. A temporary lapse in funding does not provide grounds for an agency to fire federal workers indiscriminately – and really, this is just a threat to harm the public if Republicans don’t get their way.

“Senator Schumer correctly pointed out that the Trump White House has been firing federal workers since Day One and shows no sign of stopping, whether or not there’s a shutdown. But the administration is begging workers it already fired to come back, not because a court made them do it, but because these workers are essential and indispensable. Desperation is the only word for this latest bullying move from the White House.

“This whole saga demonstrates exactly who is to blame for a shutdown: Trump and Republicans in Congress. Instead of negotiating a funding deal in good faith like every White House and Congress in history has managed to do, Trump and Republicans are threatening the American people with ruin if they don’t get their way. This is how dictators and comic book archvillains behave. Congress must not back down in the face of this reprehensible and unAmerican threat against all of us.”

The General Services Administration (GSA) today announced a multi-year agreement allowing Elon Musk’s Grok AI to be deployed across federal agencies. Under the deal, agencies can procure Grok through March 2027 as part of the administration’s “OneGov Strategy” to accelerate AI adoption. Grok’s inclusion comes despite repeated warnings from lawmakers, civil society groups, and AI experts that the chatbot has a documented history of generating racist, antisemitic, conspiratorial, and false content. It even comes after the sworn testimony of OSTP Director Michael Kratsios who said multiple times during a recent Senate hearing that Grok violates the Trump administration’s Woke AI Executive Order. Public Citizen has previously warned of the danger of using Grok in the federal government, leading a coalition of more than 30 advocacy organizations in a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) urging the administration to bar Grok from federal use, citing violations of OMB’s own guidance and the administration’s AI principles.

J.B. Branch, a Big Tech accountability advocate with Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response:

“The record is well documented: Grok has generated racist, antisemitic, conspiratorial, and false content, along with deepfakes and other abuses. The OMB’s own guidance requires agencies to discontinue unsafe and untrustworthy AI systems. Grok does not meet standards of accuracy, neutrality, and risk mitigation required for federal procurement. The American people demand tools that are factual, safe, and ideologically neutral. Grok has proven itself to be none of these. GSA’s decision undermines public trust and compromises the credibility of government operations.

“The administration must reverse course and bar Grok from federal use immediately. Anything less invites chaos, bias, and national security risks, not to mention the very governmental systems the American people rely on.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, and its Washington chapter (CAIR-WA) today welcomed a decision by Microsoft to disable services used by units of the Israeli military to spy on civilians in Gaza during its ongoing genocide.

Microsoft said it disabled a set of cloud and AI services used by a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense after an internal review found preliminary evidence supporting media reports of a surveillance system in Gaza and the West Bank. A joint investigation published in early August by the Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call reported that an Israeli military surveillance agency used Microsoft’s Azure to store large volumes of mobile phone call recordings from Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.

SEE: Microsoft disables services to Israel defense unit after review | Reuters

In a statement, CAIR-WA Executive Director Imraan Siddiqi said:

“This is a welcome step and a point of vindication for those brave tech workers who stood up and protested. However, Microsoft and all tech companies must completely divest from their activities supporting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and ensure that their employees who speak up against human rights abuses are protected.”

CAIR National Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:

“No American corporation should be providing resources to a genocidal government, let alone resources that directly aid in their criminal endeavors. We welcome this decision by Microsoft and urge them and all American companies to fully cut ties with the genocidal Israeli government.”

Sabrene Odeh, CAIR-WA Community Legal Advocate said: “Though a step in the right direction, this is not enough to end Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide perpetrated by Israel. Tech workers, across the board, have been sounding the alarm for two years with serious concerns over how technology is being used against civilians. If Microsoft is ready to end its complicity, it must listen to the brave tech workers in its base—who have been discriminated against, let go, and even quit their jobs because they no longer can be accomplices to the crimes Israel is committing—and end all ties with Israel.”

CAIR previously hosted a news conference by No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) at which fired Microsoft workers, No Azure for Apartheid organizers, and community members spoke about the arrests and firings that resulted from their participation in a sit-in at the office of Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, in which they demanded Microsoft cut its ties with Israel’s apartheid and genocide.

SEE: CAIR-WA to Host NOAA News Conference with Workers Arrested, Fired for Sit-In at Microsoft President’s Office

CAIR also previously called on Microsoft to deny Israel the use of its servers to store data reportedly used to carry out its genocide in Gaza.

SEE: CAIR-WA, CAIR Call on Microsoft to Deny Israel Use of Servers for Gaza Genocide

CAIR also previously condemned Microsoft for their apparent censorship of the word “Palestine” from company emails.

SEE: CAIR-WA Condemns Microsoft’s Censoring of the Word ‘Palestine’

Four Washington, D.C. community members and the national immigration organization CASA sued the Trump administration today on behalf of themselves and a class of similarly-situated individuals, alleging that the federal government has engaged in a pattern of illegal immigration arrests since August.

In their lawsuit, the residents challenge the administration’s policy of arresting people without a warrant and without probable cause of unlawful immigration status and flight risk, as required by immigration law. Agents can arrest someone without a warrant only when they’ve established probable cause that the person is in the United States in violation of the law and that they are a flight risk. The filing alleges that federal agents have systematically arrested people in Washington, D.C., without a warrant and without probable cause.

People who have experienced these illegal arrests will speak at a virtual press conference on Friday, September 26, 2025, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. Reporters can RSVP at the following link.

Each person who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit was indiscriminately arrested without a warrant, detained, and ultimately released. The national immigration advocacy organization CASA is also a plaintiff in the case. Its members have been impacted by the illegal arrests, and the organization has had to divert resources from its core social service work to engage in crisis response for people in detention.

The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, American Civil Liberties Union, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, CASA, National Immigration Project, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP.

“On my way to a life-saving dialysis appointment, I was detained by ICE one mile from the hospital. They ignored my U.S. driver’s license and left me without critical treatment that day, putting my health in immediate danger,” said Elias, a CASA member. “I was detained for over eight hours without food or access to my necessary medicine. Since then, I have lived in fear that I could be torn from my family and deported to a place where I cannot get the medical care I need to survive. No one should be treated this way. I am standing up in this lawsuit to make sure ICE is held accountable and stops these unlawful arrests from destroying more lives.”

“Families should not have to live in fear that simply walking to school, going to work, or attending a doctor’s appointment will result in being abducted and dragged away by federal agents without cause,” said Adina Appelbaum, program director of the Immigration Impact Lab at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “ICE’s wide-sweeping arrests in D.C. are not just cruel; they are blatantly unlawful. No one, including federal agents, can operate above the law, and the government must be held accountable. This lawsuit seeks to ensure that immigrant families in the District are treated with the dignity, fairness, and due process that every community member deserves.”

The lawsuit has been filed as a class action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The residents seek a court ruling to prevent the government from conducting such unlawful arrests against them and others in the future.

“The government’s policy and practice of arresting people without probable cause are illegal and have disrupted everyday life in the District,” said Aditi Shah, staff attorney with the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “The policy and practice disregard important limits Congress has established for immigration arrests and have sown terror among immigrant communities and neighborhoods in D.C. Federal agents, like the rest of us, must follow the law.”

In August, President Trump declared a “crime emergency” in D.C. that led to significant deployments of federal law enforcement agents, including ICE agents, to patrol the District and invoked a clause in the Home Rule Act that allowed the Department of Justice to direct the Metropolitan Police Department to assist with immigration law enforcement. While the declared emergency period has expired, the federal government has continued its aggressive immigration arrests in the District.

“For weeks, immigrant communities in D.C. have been living in a state of terror and disruption caused by a policy of indiscriminate targeting being carried out by immigration officials,” said Yulie Landan, staff attorney with the National Immigration Project. “D.C. residents deserve better. Through this lawsuit, our plaintiffs seek the court’s intervention to put an end to this dragnet enforcement, which is not only unlawful but also cruel and inhumane.”

“CASA members who live and work in D.C. are being targeted by immigration officials simply for existing,” said Ama Frimpong, legal director at CASA. “With this lawsuit, our members are making it clear: they have had enough of the federal government’s lawlessness and abuse of power. They will not be intimidated or silenced. They will continue to fight until the government is held accountable.”

“The federal government has created a culture of fear in D.C., including among U.S. citizens and immigrants with legal status,” said Madeleine Gates, associate counsel at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. “People are justifiably afraid to go to work or even to walk their kids to school. We are determined to end this unlawful policy.”

The complaint filed in this case, Escobar Molina et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al., is available here: https://www.acludc.org/app/uploads/2025/09/Escobar-Molina_complaint_stamped.pdf

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley today issued the following statement:

“While politicians are playing games, real Americans’ jobs, paychecks, and access to vital services are being threatened by a looming government shutdown. Now, White House OMB Director Russell Vought has announced his intention to pursue another DOGE-like round of illegal mass firings in the event of a shutdown, adding to the chaos.

“The truth is simple: Republicans cannot fund the government without Democratic votes. That means the only path forward is compromise. The president and congressional leaders must sit down and negotiate in good faith to keep the lights on for the American people. Nothing less is acceptable.

“Federal employees are not bargaining chips. They are veterans, caregivers, law enforcement officers, and neighbors who serve their country and fellow Americans every day. They deserve stability and respect, not pink slips and political games."

A new Lake Research Partners poll, commissioned by Free Speech For People, of likely 2026 voters in swing Congressional districts, has revealed nearly half (49%) of all swing-district voters support the impeachment of President Donald Trump, with 45% claiming “strong support” for impeachment. Additionally, a majority 56% disapprove of the job Trump is doing as President.

As the polling firm states in a memorandum accompanying the findings: “It is remarkable and, as far as we know, unprecedented for such a large proportion of voters in swing districts to support impeachment of a president in the first year of their term.”

These results arrive in the wake of President Trump’s authoritarian assault on the Constitution and rule of law, as catalogued by Impeach Trump Again, a non-partisan campaign led by Free Speech For People. The Constitutional lawyers spearheading the campaign have outlined twenty-five distinct grounds for Trump’s impeachment.

Among the most urgent threats:

• Trump has used military force to occupy two American cities, and he is threatening “WAR” against another. Our troops—sworn to protect our country—are, under Trump’s authority, threatening those they are sworn to protect.
• Trump has hollowed out once-respected, once-nonpartisan federal agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and turned them into tools of oppression and of his own agenda. In recent days, he has fired a federal prosecutor who refused to prosecute two of Trump’s political adversaries, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James B. Comey, announced his plans to nominate a member of his personal legal team (who has no experience as a prosecutor) to the role, and publicly ordered his attorney general to prosecute James, Comey, and Senator Adam Schiff.
• Trump has waged continuous attacks on the First Amendment, including his recent weaponization of the FCC to censor Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show by leveraging the threat of federal action against ABC affiliates that aired Kimmel’s program.
• Trump, with his Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has carried out a broad scheme to undermine public health and safety, dismantle America’s public health infrastructure, and decimate public health protections, expertise, research, and safeguards—and millions of lives, particularly those of our children, are at risk.
• Across multiple fronts, he is censoring and distorting facts, crippling our government’s data collection initiatives, and depriving the public of accurate information about Trump, his presidency, science, and our own history.
• Trump continues to attempt to smuggle refugees—most recently hundreds of refugee children—out of the country behind the backs of their attorneys and our courts.
• Trump also continues to embolden and empower ICE to violate the rights of American residents and citizens, disrupt our communities, and silence his political opponents.

“Trump is actively dismantling the public institutions and constitutional protections that safeguard our democracy,” said Courtney Hostetler, Legal Director at Free Speech For People. “His assault on the Constitution and the rule of law are purposeful, and they are impeachable. Congress cannot stand idly by.”

“This is an existential moment for our nation and our democracy. We either have a Constitution, or we don’t,” said John Bonifaz, President and Co-Founder of Free Speech For People. “Donald Trump has already engaged in multiple abuses of power. We demand that our elected officials in Congress carry out the mandate of their oath to protect the Constitution at this critical time by standing up and demanding impeachment proceedings against this lawless president.”

Alongside nearly one million signatories from all across the country, Free Speech For People is calling on Members of Congress to fulfill their constitutional obligation to uphold the Constitution, defend the republic, and impeach, convict, and remove Donald Trump from public office.

For more information, and to read the full case for Trump’s impeachment, click here.

To read a memo from the Lake Research Partners about the poll, click here.

To see the toplines, click here.