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And a finale with fireworks. | |
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| We're live today in Philadelphia, the site of the flagship No Kings protest, an event that organizers have expressed as a national day of defiance taking place in several cities across the United States. | ||
| Groups organizing the event are calling attention to what they see as the Trump administration's ongoing constitutional violations, from deportations without due process to abuses of federal power. | ||
| We expect this to get underway shortly. | ||
| Live coverage here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Don't think about it, think about it, think about it, think too hard. | ||
| Just do what feels right in the mind of a world | ||
| Welcome to the No Kings Rally. | ||
| Please note that there are water stations at 24th and Pennsylvania and Eakin's Oval and Martin Luther King Drive. | ||
| Also, there is a staffed medical tent at the far southwest end of Eacon's Oval. | ||
| In the event of a medical emergency, look for one of our event volunteers in the green reflective vests for help. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| In a moment, you'll hear from law enforcement officials who will share with you what they can as up-to-minute update on the situation here in Minnesota. | ||
| You're going to be joined by Commissioner Bob Jacobson, BCA Superintendent Drew Evans, State Patrol Colonel Christina Bogojevich, Champlain Park Police Chief Schneider, and Brooklyn Pars Police Chief Mark Brully, as well as the mayor of Brooklyn Park. | ||
| We're here today because an unspeakable tragedy has unfolded in Minnesota. | ||
| My good friend and colleague, Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, were shot and killed early this morning in what appears to be a politically motivated assassination. | ||
| Our state lost a great leader, and I lost a dearest of friends. | ||
| Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor, and a sense of service. | ||
| She was a formidable public servant, a fixture, and a giant in Minnesota. | ||
| She woke up every day determined to make this state a better place. | ||
| She is irreplaceable, and we've been missed by so many. | ||
| Minnesota's thoughts and prayers are with her family, her loved ones, her children, and her parents. | ||
| My prayers also go out to State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, who were each shot multiple times. | ||
| The Hoffmans are out of surgery at this time and receiving care, and we are cautiously optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt. | ||
| This was an act of targeted political violence. | ||
| Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. | ||
| We don't settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint. | ||
| In the state of Minnesota, and as recently as last week, in the most closely divided state legislature in the country, we sat down, we worked things out, we debated, we shook hands and compromised, and we served the state of Minnesota together. | ||
| We've proved that it's possible, even in these politically charged times, to find compromise in it here. | ||
| One step back. | ||
| Before I say anything today, I want us to take a moment and consider the violence that we heard about this morning in Minnesota. | ||
| I want to ask Reverend La Owens if she would come and read the name of those who are now deceased. | ||
| And we want to take a moment of meditation and reflection. | ||
|
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We remember state representative Melissa Portman and her husband Mark Portman because they were shot and killed. | |
| We remember State Representative John Hoffman and his wife, who were shot multiple times. | ||
| They have gone through surgery, and we are very optimistic about their survival. | ||
| Let us pray for them as they recover. | ||
| Violence, mean, cruel, premeditated violence has visited us again, and we have heard that lawmakers in Minnesota have been killed and shot, | ||
| killed by a deception, a person impersonating law enforcement, inflicting death. | ||
| And in this moment, my brothers and sisters, let us repent as a nation of all this violence and death. | ||
| Let us pray for the souls of those killed, the recovery of those who were hurt and harmed. | ||
| Can we pray for the families of those who've been shaken, the communities once again that have been rocked? | ||
| Let us pray for the law enforcement that are doing the right thing. | ||
| Pray for the capture of the killers, the quick capture, and any behind this murderous deed. | ||
| They claim they also had a, he had a manifesto of other names. | ||
| Let us pray that the hearts of elected officials to find the heart to set aside the politics of violence and greed and corruption and hate and death, and that we can find a way to do like we're doing here today and be one humanity. | ||
| My faith. | ||
| My faith in times like these says to be still and know that God is a very present help in the time of trouble. | ||
| My faith calls us to, and the faith of many others, to embrace love and to rebuke hate, to rebuke fear, to rebuke death. | ||
| And so let us do that together in this place in Philadelphia. | ||
| And let us also embrace what many faiths and people, even not a faith, but who believe in a moral arc of the universe, and that is the oneness of our humanity. | ||
| And let us be determined. | ||
| Let us be determined even the more, even the more, to be one people. | ||
| And let us declare it. | ||
| Would you grab a neighbor's hand or an arm or whatever part they'll let you hold for a moment? | ||
| And would you say to them, I love your life. | ||
| I hold your life dear. | ||
| I will protect your life. | ||
| I will embrace your life. | ||
| I will hope the best for your life. | ||
| I will stand up for your life. | ||
| We are one humanity, and we need each other to survive. | ||
| Ezra Klein and his wife and all you have gathered today, we the people cannot bow. | ||
| Two and a half centuries ago, Benjamin Franklin was at the name of a broad park where you could walk down from Love Park to this great gathering in the city of Brotherly Love. | ||
| Benjamin Franklin was a living, breathing human being in a city of 40,000 people, the largest city in the American colonies at the time. | ||
| By 1777, there were as many as 14,000 British troops in occupying Philadelphia. | ||
| More than a third of the population of the city because everyday people had linked up with everyday people in other colonies to declare their independence from tyrannical rule. | ||
| Two and a half, Two and a half centuries later, a would-be king has ordered U.S. troops to occupy Los Angeles and to parade down the streets of Washington, D.C. | ||
| To parade like the North Korean forces of Kim Jong-young. | ||
| But we are here to say, no, that is not who we are. | ||
| We are gathered in Philadelphia and in 2,000 cities and towns across America today. | ||
| We are everyday people of every race, creed, and community and political affiliation uniting in the great nonviolent tradition of those who came before us to demonstrate a better way, a way we have learned through this nation's painful struggles. | ||
| The struggles that have taught us that we either go forward together or backwards divided. | ||
| We are not a people who bow and give total allegiance to any ruler or policy because bowing is not freedom and bowing is not in our spiritual DNA. | ||
| We cannot be who we were made to be unless we are free. | ||
| We are not a people who give loyalty to a king. | ||
| No, we, the people of the United States of America, are at our best when we are striving to be united by our commitment to liberty and justice for all. | ||
| Now we must be honest. | ||
| America has never been all that she aspires to be, but every stride toward freedom, every step toward a more perfect union has been grounded in this commitment to freedom, liberty, and justice for all. | ||
| Declaring that we are created equal and endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. | ||
| Writing in our Constitution, we the people, in order to form a more perfect union. | ||
| Already that is a confession of our imperfection. | ||
| We want to establish justice, to provide for the common defense, ensure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare. | ||
| These are the principles that have always reminded us, pulled us, challenged us in the deepest recesses of our moral consciousness that we who believe in freedom cannot rest. | ||
| And in the face of any challenge that would have us bow and accept something less, we say no. | ||
| Truth is, these are not liberal or conservative commitments. | ||
| They are moral values that can unite us and connect us to the best of who we are and keep us from ever bowing to a wannabe king. | ||
| So today, we demonstrate with amazing clarity and speak the truth with strength. | ||
| And the truth is, Donald Trump's regime is not illegally deploying American troops on U.S. soils because he's strong. | ||
| He's abusing his authority as commander-in-chief, trying to pick a fight on America's streets because his agenda is incredibly unpopular. | ||
| His political positions and his claims are weak and failing and contrary to our moral values. | ||
| The truth is, you are the strength of America. | ||
| He said he could end conflicts in other parts of the world with the phone call, but wars of aggression rage on. | ||
| He said he could unite us, we're more divided. | ||
| He said he was going to stand up for working people, but he handed the government over to a billionaire before their big bad breakup. | ||
| He said he'd bring prices down, but his wild talk about tariffs has created economic uncertainty. | ||
| He said he could deal with Gaza and deal with Ukraine, and things have gotten worse. | ||
| He said his budget was big and beautiful, but the truth is it's big and greedy and ugly and destructive and deadly to the most vulnerable. | ||
| Edward joined us last week as we've been gathering for moral Mondays in D.C. since this big ugly budget bill has been before Congress. | ||
| They have arrested us, but they've not stopped our prayers or our prophetic critique to arrest the consciousness of America. | ||
| Americans are learning the details of how this big, ugly, deadly, bad bill would kill tens of thousands of people in our communities by stripping health insurance from 15 million Americans, closing hospitals, slashing nutrition assistance programs, leaving millions of hungry children, cutting thousands of jobs supported by green energy crisis. | ||
| And according to a report from the public health scholars at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, the cuts to health care alone would kill 51,000 Americans next year. | ||
| And the more people learn about his details, the less popular Trump signature legislation becomes law and his attempt to move more money from the poor and working poor to the wealthy than was transferred during chattel slavery. | ||
| And because of this, you cannot be silent. | ||
| And the cries of the people will not be silenced. | ||
| That is why this regime is in panic. | ||
| And when an authoritarian is weak, he will do anything to get attention. | ||
| But we don't have to give Trump and MAGA what they want. | ||
| We don't have to bow by waving a flag at his parade. | ||
| Our demonstration of moral strength is in opposition to the tyranny that threatens our very existence as a country. | ||
| And this kind of gathering can unite us in a moral movement to save America. | ||
| And we will not stand down, not now, not ever. | ||
| The truth is, when it comes to the need to stand up for the Constitution over a ruler who would ignore the courts, we are indivisible. | ||
| When it comes to the need to repair breaches between those who have health care and those who don't, we are indivisible. | ||
| When it comes to the conviction that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, we are indivisible. | ||
| When it comes to our commitment that no child should go hungry in this, the richest nation in the world, we are indivisible. | ||
| And when it comes to the central role of government to serve the people rather than to serve a king, we are indivisible. | ||
| Now, might I close as a preacher in the book of Daniel in the Bible, there is an ancient story where three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were thrown into a fiery furnace for their refusal to bow. | ||
| They refused to bow to a king that loved to put his name on buildings and ride around and make everybody bow to him. | ||
| They were thrown in and they were not consumed, however, by the flames of the furnace. | ||
| Instead, as they were thrown in, the people witnessed a fourth force come in and walk them through the fire. | ||
| My fellow Americans, I stop by this afternoon to remind you that when we tap into our moral power and refuse to bow, there is a greater power in the universe that will come and stand with us. | ||
| In the final years of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, they used to say, only a dying mule kicks the hardest. | ||
| So we must maintain discipline, refuse to meet violence with violence, and keep our focus on an agenda that lifts us all to higher ground. | ||
| We must join hands across all the lines that have been drawn to divide us and stand together as we the people. | ||
| And when we do, I know a force more powerful than any of our individual actions will come and stand with us in the fire. | ||
| That's what the best of American history has taught us. | ||
| I stop by to tell you to remind you today that the force of truth, the force of love, the force of justice, and the force of equality is more powerful than any would-be king. | ||
| More powerful, more powerful than brute force, more powerful than mean money, more powerful than big tech feudalism, more powerful than anything we know. | ||
| When we stand up and when we stand together and when we refuse to bow, we can build a movement to save the heart and soul of America. | ||
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Are you standing? | |
| When the founders refused to bow to King George, a fourth force stood with them. | ||
| When the slave abolitionists right here in Philadelphia, black and white, refused to bow to the king-like rule of chattel slavery and slave masters, a fourth force stood with them. | ||
| When women, black and white, refused to bow to those who didn't want them to vote, a fourth force stood with them. | ||
| When segregationists and Jim Crow politicians' lips dripped with the words of interposition and nullification, people like Rosa Parks and Viola Lawusa and Fannie Liu and Martin and Rabbi Heschel, men and women of every birth, refused to bow and a fourth force stood with them. | ||
| And I tell you, the force of truth and the force of love and the force of equality and the force of justice is more powerful than any would-be king named Trump or MAGA or anything. | ||
| And so it's time. | ||
| It's time for us to stand together like never before. | ||
| Because when we all get together, we have the power to reconstruct American democracy. | ||
| Did you know that if just 20% of us, if we organize 20% of the non-voters in the last election, especially poor and low-wage voters, who couldn't see how casting a ballot could make a difference in their lives, if we can organize them, we can up-end the whole political calculus. | ||
| If we go to every state, not just the so-called swing state, but every state. | ||
| And if we win back some of our confused friends, we can up in the whole political calculus. | ||
| We refuse to bow and stand up for policies that make life better for every American. | ||
| If we come together just one more round, just one more round in history to fight for the heart and soul of this democracy. | ||
| I declare unto you that when the work is done, when we finish organizing, when we've done praying and preaching, when we finish marching, when we finish registering voters, when we finish our nonviolent action, I guarantee you, truth will win. | ||
| Justice will win. | ||
| Equality will win. | ||
| Justice will win. | ||
| And on that day, we will truly be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. | ||
|
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Fall stand. | |
| Stand. | ||
| Stay. | ||
| to Congressman Jamie Raskin. | ||
| Hello, Indivisible. | ||
| Hello, Philadelphia. | ||
| Hello, America. | ||
| I represent Ezra and Leah in the United States House of Representatives, so I like to think of myself as the Congressman from Indivisible. | ||
| But I came to Philly because it's a tough and a loving city, and you know how to topple kings here. | ||
| You've been crushing tyrants since 1776. | ||
| We come together, as Reverend Barbara says, in the spirit of Democratic, nonviolent resistance. | ||
| We pray for the families of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and for Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife. | ||
| These are our brothers and sisters in the struggle for a more just America, shot down in cold blood and broad daylight. | ||
| And we pray for them and all of the people of Minnesota. | ||
| But the spirit of Philadelphia is the spirit of America. | ||
| We've got no kings here. | ||
| We've got no queens here. | ||
| We've got no emperors. | ||
| We've got no titles of nobility here. | ||
| President Trump, happy 79th birthday. | ||
| Sorry we couldn't make it to your party, but we did pay for it. | ||
| You are not our king, and we are not your subjects. | ||
| We will never be your subjects. | ||
| The people are sovereign and we are all equal in the eyes of the law. | ||
| All of us born here on this land are citizens, and your executive order is nothing but bad graffiti on the Constitution, and we're going to wash it off today. | ||
| We've got no kings, and we've got no slaves. | ||
| We've got no masters and no serfs. | ||
| Those of us who aspire and attain to public office are nothing but the servants of the people. | ||
| And the moment that somebody in public office begins to act like the master of the people, that is the moment to evict, eject, reject, impeach, try, convict, and start all over again. | ||
| Under Article 1, President Trump, your job is simple, to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| In the monarchies, Tom Payne said, the king is the law, but in the democracies and the free societies, the law is king. | ||
| You didn't get that memo, did you, Mr. President? | ||
| You've been violating the law. | ||
| You've been trampling the law. | ||
| You've been ignoring the law, acting as if it's irrelevant to the only thing that matters, which is your own wealth and power. | ||
| What if Thomas Jefferson were here? | ||
| What if Abraham Lincoln were here? | ||
| What would they say? | ||
| They would say, cut it out. | ||
| Stop violating the rights of the people. | ||
| Stop trespassing on the powers of Congress. | ||
| Stop staging provocations against the members of Congress and other parts of the government. | ||
| Stop violating the orders of the courts. | ||
| President Trump, your gangster state just threw Senator Padilla to the ground, kneeled on his back, and handcuffed him. | ||
| Your agents barged into Congressman Nadler's office and handcuffed and traumatized his young staffer. | ||
| Your guys arrested a judge in Wisconsin. | ||
| You indicted Representative LaMonica MacGyver from New Jersey on phony charges, and she now faces 17 years in prison. | ||
| You're terrorizing American communities with masked men in unmarked cars arresting people without warrants. | ||
| You pardoned 1,600 felon rioters and insurrectionists who brutally injured 140 police officers on January 6, 2021. | ||
| You're auctioning off pardons to Republican criminals in D.C. like they're selling cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. | ||
| You're a billion-dollar crypto king now who dropped dozens of charges against crypto scammers. | ||
| And now you want to fly around on Bribe Force One, an illegal $400 million jumbo jet gift grift from the emirs of Qatar. | ||
| You sent the Marines to California. | ||
| You hijacked the National Guard there. | ||
| You threatened to seize the lawful power of the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles, and the chief of police. | ||
| And you threatened to send heavy force to cities all over America this weekend to remind us of your love. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| I don't see anybody trembling in Philadelphia today. | ||
| I don't see anybody hiding behind the couch crying bone spurs today. | ||
| It's raining and I see nothing but tens of thousands of patriots wherever I turn. | ||
| And we pay for our own rally today. | ||
| It's not on the taxpayers. | ||
| We march with millions of people across America to celebrate not the people in power, but the power of the people. | ||
| We march in cadence with the great civilizing nonviolent movements of American history. | ||
| The abolitionists, the suffragists, the bonus marchers, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the labor movement, the peace movement, the women's march, the environmental movement, the LGBTQ movement, March for Our Lives, and the climate movement. | ||
| We may not be founding fathers in the 18th century, but we are founding fighters in the 21st century. | ||
| So what do you say, Philly? | ||
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unidentified
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You ready to fight back? | |
| You want a gangster state, or do you want free speech and democracy in America? | ||
| You want a king? | ||
| You want a king who thinks, like all kings, that women are his property and he can grab whomever he wants, wherever he wants? | ||
| Or do you want a democracy run by strong women and strong men, strong enough to be the allies of women and not their attackers and harassers? | ||
| You want a king who stages coups and insurrections and lies about elections? | ||
| Or do you want a constitutional right to vote in America? | ||
| Free from all the gerrymandering and voter suppression. | ||
| Do you want an imperialist takeover of Greenland and Canada and Panama? | ||
| You want statehood for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico? | ||
| Hey, you want a king who tries to erase history and disappear the truth? | ||
| Or do you want Bruce Springsteen who tells them the truth all over the world? | ||
| You know, Donald Trump never talks about the framers because he knows nothing about them. | ||
| But the framers knew a lot about people like Donald Trump. | ||
| Sometime between now and the 4th of July, Mr. President, you must read the Declaration of Independence because Thomas Jefferson could have been writing about you. | ||
| He told the people of America to rise up against King George and his lust for absolute tyranny. | ||
| Jefferson denounced a king who, quote, sent swarms of officers to harass our people, who kept amongst us in times of peace standing armies without the consent of our legislatures and quartered large bodies of armed troops amongst us. | ||
| A king who cut off our trade with all parts of the world and imposed tariffs and taxes on us without our consent. | ||
| A king who excited domestic insurrections against us. | ||
| A king who repeatedly obstructed the laws of naturalization of foreigners to our land. | ||
| The king who tried to make judges dependent on his political will alone. | ||
| Yes, Donald, the Declaration and the Constitution were written by people who wanted to stop criminal bosses like you from taking state power. | ||
| We, the people, in order to form more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and preserve to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty do hereby ordain and establish the Constitution of these United States of America. | ||
| That's our preamble. | ||
| That's our mission statement. | ||
| And the very next sentence, the very next sentence in Article 1 provides all legislative powers shall be vested in a Congress of the United States of America. | ||
| The people's branch, the lawmaking body for whom the president works as an executive. | ||
| Sometimes people say we're three co-equal branches. | ||
| Really, first of all, co-equal is not even a word, okay? | ||
| That's like extremely unique. | ||
| If we're co-equal, why is it Congress has the power to impeach a president for treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors, and he doesn't have the right to impeach us. | ||
| Congress has the power to pass budgets and taxes. | ||
| We've got the power to create departments and spend money. | ||
| We have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and therefore to enact tariffs, which is why his tariffs have been struck down by the United States District Court. | ||
| We've got the power to declare war, not the president. | ||
| If anybody's going to declare war on Venezuela, it's going to be the Congress of the United States, not Stephen Miller or Tulsi Gabbard or Pete Hagsep or anyone else in their signal chat room. | ||
| No, you don't get to be a monarch or a dictator in America, and you don't get to be on the payroll of monarchs and dictators from other countries. | ||
| Sorry, Donald, you don't get to keep the millions of dollars you've pocketed from Saudi Arabia, from China, from the United Arab Emirates or Qatar. | ||
| You've got to return all the money your golf courses and country clubs have gotten from the Secret Service, the Department of Defense and Commerce, and so on. | ||
| Our government is not your personal ATM machine. | ||
| His son, Donald Trump Jr., says, my dad doesn't even accept his salary. | ||
| I'm sorry, that's all he's allowed to accept. | ||
| The framers were clear. | ||
| You get paid by the people of the United States to whom you owe a duty, not Putin and the kleptocrats of Russia, not bin Salman and the theocrats of Saudi Arabia, not Orban or the autocrats of Egypt and Turkey. | ||
| The framers wanted an undivided duty to the American people. | ||
| You can't sell out our Constitution to build your luxury hotels in Gaza or a golf course in Greenland. | ||
| My friends, the people are winning all over America. | ||
| The bullies are on the run. | ||
| We ran Elon Musk out of town. | ||
| And Musk now says that Trump should be impeached. | ||
| And Trump says that Musk should be investigated for his tens of billions of dollars in federal contracts. | ||
| And for once, they're both right. | ||
| My friends, fascism will not be the end of American democracy. | ||
| American democracy will be the end of fascism. | ||
| We will stand up for democracy and human rights and freedom all over the world. | ||
| We will stand with President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine against Putin's filthy, bloodthirsty invasion. | ||
| We will stand with the people of Greenland, the people of Europe and Africa, the people of Canada and Mexico for our common right to trade with each other, to respect each other, to travel and migrate and seek asylum without fear and without terror. | ||
| We are the ones fighting against terror and tyranny today. | ||
| And I look at you today, Philadelphia, and I know we are winning. | ||
| We are winning. | ||
| I will leave you with the words of the great Tom Paine, who my son Tommy was named after. | ||
| And Tom Paine got to this beautiful city in 1774, two years before the American Revolution. | ||
| He fell in love with your city and he fell in love with this land. | ||
| He said, if America lives up to its values and its ideals, it will become, he said, an asylum to humanity. | ||
| Not an insane asylum, mind you, okay? | ||
| A place of refuge for people seeking freedom from religious and political and intellectual and economic repression from around the world. | ||
| And he wrote the greatest pamphlet in our history, Common Sense, which ignited the American Revolution against the kings and the queens and the lords and the dictators. | ||
| But 1776 was a tough year, and the country was split down the middle. | ||
| And half of the people were saying, you can't beat the greatest military empire that ever existed. | ||
| You can't overthrow a tyrannical king. | ||
| It won't work, they said. | ||
| But half the people said, let's give it a try. | ||
| Let's pledge to ourselves our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor to build a government that rests on the consent of the governed and the rights and the freedoms of the people. | ||
| But in 1776, Paine wrote another pamphlet called The American Crisis to give people hope to see it through all the way. | ||
| And I'm going to quote a little passage for you. | ||
| I'm going to update the language pursuant to instructions from Nancy Pelosi because she said Tom Paine was a feminist and he wouldn't mind. | ||
| And that he was. | ||
| He was fighting for women's voting rights in the 18th century. | ||
| But Paine said this. | ||
| He said, these are the times that try men and women's souls. | ||
| The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will shrink at this moment from the service of their cause and their country. | ||
| But everyone that stands with us now will win the love and the favor and the affection of every man and every woman for all time. | ||
| Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, but we have this saving consolation. | ||
| The more difficult the struggle, the more glorious in the end will be our victory. | ||
|
unidentified
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That victory will be ours, Philadelphia. | |
| Thank you, Indivisible. | ||
| Thank you, Philadelphia. | ||
| Thank you, America. | ||
|
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Please welcome to the stage Martin Luther King III and Andrea King Waters. | |
| Good afternoon. | ||
| On the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, thousands gathered on the mall, not in commemoration, but in rededication. | ||
| It was a magnificent sight. | ||
| All ages, young and old, in every color imaginable. | ||
| Families, sororities, fraternities, activists, and everyday people. | ||
| Not one instance of violence in the sweltering heat. | ||
| People unrolling prayer blankets towards Mecca, others walking to tents to observe Shabbat. | ||
| It was a beautiful day. | ||
| And 700 miles away in Jacksonville, Florida, a gunman with a swastika carved into his weapon opened fire in a predominantly black community and shot dead three people. | ||
| Same day, same country. | ||
| A tale of two Americas, much like the tale of two wolves. | ||
| You all have heard the story, right? | ||
| We talk about it a lot in our home, and it goes that a Cherokee grandmother told her granddaughter about a battle that goes on inside every person. | ||
| My child, she says, the battle is between two wolves. | ||
| One is full of anger, division, chaos, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. | ||
| The other is full of joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, community, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. | ||
| The granddaughter thought for a moment and asked, Well, which wolf wins? | ||
| The grandmother pulled her close and said, the one you feed. | ||
| Stand before you today, not in anger, but in love. | ||
| Not the sentimental kind, but a bold, unwavering, truth-telling love, a mother's love, a people's love, a love that says, I will fight for you, even when I don't know your name. | ||
| Because your liberation is bound up in mine. | ||
| We gather at a crossroads, one that asks us once again, is this America? | ||
| Is this America when tanks roll through our neighborhoods but health care doesn't? | ||
| Is this America when flashbombs fall on peaceful protesters but not on injustice? | ||
| Is this America when the First Amendment is honored in print but punished in practice? | ||
| Let me be clear. | ||
| This is not patriotism. | ||
| This is performance. | ||
| This is not leadership. | ||
| This is illusion. | ||
| And this, my brothers and sisters, is not democracy. | ||
| This is a creeping shadow of authoritism cloaked in power and pride. | ||
| But we will not be deceived by noise and spectacle because the true strength of this nation is not in its missiles but in its morality. | ||
| Not in his parade, but in his people. | ||
| Not in fear, but in freedom. | ||
| It's been a long few months, and I hear so many of us talking about anxiety and depression and despair. | ||
| But when I despair, I remember the words of Gandhi. | ||
| There may be tyrants and murderers, but in the end, they always fall. | ||
| Because true force, what he called soul force, is more powerful than any other weapon. | ||
| That's the force of love. | ||
| That's the force of justice. | ||
| That's the force of everyday people saying enough. | ||
| So I ask you again: where do we go from here? | ||
| Chaos or community? | ||
| That's right. | ||
| We choose community. | ||
| We choose the deep national healing that we so badly need. | ||
| We choose to realize the dream because it's not radical to care about all children, not just the ones who look, pray, or love like your own. | ||
| It's not radical to believe in the words carved on the base of the Statue of Liberty. | ||
| Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. | ||
| It's not radical to serve, to protect, to protest, to love. | ||
| No, it's not radical. | ||
| It's American. | ||
| And that's why we're going into communities across this country, not with closed fists or with tanks, but with open hearts and open arms. | ||
| We are showing up with truth in our hands and love in our voices because we love this country. | ||
| And we know that loving America means holding it accountable to its highest promises. | ||
| My father-in-law, Martin Luther King Jr., spoke of levels of love, the highest being agape. | ||
| And the highest level is not passive. | ||
| It's a force that challenges systems, not just sentiments. | ||
| That's the love that we need now. | ||
| That's the love that will unify us. | ||
| So let us raise our voices, not in hate, but in hope. | ||
| Let us march not to divide, but to build. | ||
| Let us love not to escape the struggle, but to endure it together. | ||
| We are one, one people, one nation, under God, indivisible with and justice for all. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Let me first say that we send all of our prayers and support to those families that lost their loved ones who are elected officials in Minnesota. | ||
| We also today must start because I come from the nonviolent tradition, as many of us do. | ||
| And I can't imagine what my father nor mother are thinking as we go through this period of history. | ||
| Beyond the fact that we must stay engaged and stay on the battlefield until truth, justice, freedom, and equality is exists for all humankind i am deeply honored to stand with you today in the city of brotherly love | ||
| A city steeped in the dream of liberty, a city that birthed a nation, and a city that has long carried the flame of resistance in the face of oppression. | ||
| Philadelphia, you are no stranger to struggle. | ||
| You were a sanctuary for runaway slaves, a refuge for the righteous abolitionists, a crossroads for the Underground Railroad. | ||
| And today you are once again a sacred ground where justice calls and freedom answers. | ||
| So it is only fitting that we gather here today, not in fear, but in faith. | ||
| Not in despair, but in defiance. | ||
| We gather here in the shadow of Independence Hall to declare that we the people still believe in democracy. | ||
| We still believe in justice and we still believe in a nation without kings, without tarot. | ||
| without rulers who place themselves above the law. | ||
| We are here to say this land belongs to the people, not to the monarchs, not to the autocrats, not to strong men, but to the people. | ||
| Just as the generation of 17 and 76 cast off the crown and proclaimed a republic, we the generation of 2025 pledge to keep faith with that sacred inheritance and let it be known to every corner of this land. | ||
| We will not let democracy die on our watch. | ||
| Yes, we're deeply troubled, my friends, by efforts to use fear as a weapon, to use immigration as a scapegoat, to silence the voice of the people through martial force. | ||
| But we are not afraid. | ||
| We're not intimidated. | ||
| And we will not be moved. | ||
| We will stand. | ||
| We will march. | ||
| We will sing. | ||
| And we will speak peacefully, powerfully, and persistently until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. | ||
| Let us be clear. | ||
| Let us be perfectly clear that to deport anyone without due process is not only illegal, it is immoral. | ||
| It is a betrayal of our Constitution and of our highest values. | ||
| We are one nation under God, indivisible, not with division and detention, but with liberty and justice for all. | ||
| We reject the militarization of our streets. | ||
| We say to those in power, if you want to honor our armed forces, do not parade them through the streets like palms on a chessboard. | ||
| Honor them by caring for their bodies, their minds, and their futures. | ||
| Honor them by protecting democracy, not parading over it. | ||
| Let us use those hundreds of millions of dollars not to inflate egos, but to uplift the people. | ||
| Use it to fund our schools, to heal our sick, to protect our elderly, to care for our veterans. | ||
| That is real patriotism. | ||
| That is real love of our country. | ||
| I say to every protester, every marcher, every dreamer in this moment, commit yourselves to nonviolence, not merely as a strategy, but as a way of life. | ||
| My father taught us that nonviolence is the sword that heals. | ||
| It is the weapon of the strong. | ||
| It turns enemies into friends and injustice into redemption. | ||
| Every gain of the modern civil rights movement that was made was won through discipline, determined nonviolence, nonviolent love, I should say. | ||
| Remember, the forces of repression are watching for us to slip up. | ||
| They're waiting to point at a broken window and ignore a broken system. | ||
| They're waiting for an excuse to crush what they cannot control. | ||
| We must not give it to them. | ||
| Even one acts of an act of violence can undo the moral power of a thousand voices. | ||
| So let our protest be loud, but let it also be loving. | ||
| Let it be fierce, but let it be faithful. | ||
| Let it be firm, but never fueled by hatred. | ||
| So train your hearts in the discipline of peace. | ||
| Prepare your minds for the long road ahead and walk together. | ||
| Children, don't you get weary. | ||
| But there's a great camp meeting in the promised land of justice. | ||
| So as I close this afternoon, I want to say to you: have faith in democracy. | ||
| Have faith in the power of the people. | ||
| Have faith in truth over lies, light over darkness, love over hate. | ||
| We walk not alone, for God walks with us. | ||
| And if God be force, who can be against us? | ||
| So let us rise up with faith. | ||
| Let us march on with courage. | ||
| And let us keep climbing toward that great day when liberty is no longer a promise, but a lived reality for all. | ||
| And so we will never give up. | ||
| We will never give out. | ||
| We will never give in. | ||
| We must keep marching until freedom, justice, and equality exist for all humankind. | ||
| Thank you, and God bless each of you always. | ||
| Please give a warm Philadelphia welcome to the president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Art Steinberg. | ||
| Yo, Philly! | ||
| Welcome to all of you who are here with us in the cradle of liberty from Southeast Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and beyond. | ||
| I'm sure you know the response to this. | ||
| Show me what democracy looks like. | ||
| Show me what democracy looks like. | ||
| My name is Arthur Steinberg, and I'm a special education teacher right here in Philadelphia. | ||
| I'm proud to serve as the president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, the mighty PFT, and AFT Pennsylvania. | ||
| We represent more than 36,000 workers across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. | ||
| Yesterday was the last day of the school year. | ||
| Can we give it up for our graduating students, rising students, their families, and our members? | ||
| Teachers, paraprofessionals, coaches, nurses, counselors, food service managers, and secretaries. | ||
| Let's also thank the public school educators who pour their hearts and labor from Head Start to 12th grade students throughout the school year and beyond. | ||
| And let's not forget our members in higher education. | ||
| In amendment, I'll introduce my friend and sister in labor, Randy Weingarten, president of the AFT. | ||
| But first, let me represent Philly for a minute. | ||
| Philly is a vibrant, growing, and welcoming city. | ||
| We are a championship city. | ||
| Can't do without this. | ||
| Go Birds. | ||
| And we are the birthplace of American democracy. | ||
| Philly is a city that doesn't tolerate bullies. | ||
| We don't do tyrants, and we sure as hell don't do kings. | ||
| So it's fitting that tens of thousands from across the region chose to be in Philadelphia today. | ||
| I want to thank Vicki Miller and the entire team from Indivisible Philly for putting this together. | ||
| In moments like this, we can choose to stay in our homes out of fear, or we can come outside, be with community, and draw strength and hope from one another. | ||
| Thank you to the organizers for making that choice easy for millions of Americans here and across the country today. | ||
| It is a deep personal honor to have the Reverend Dr. Barber here and a really special honor to have the King family join us. | ||
| The PFT feels a special connection and debt of gratitude to Dr. King. | ||
| His endorsement in 1965 was instrumental in the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers obtaining recognition as the exclusive bargaining agent for Philadelphia educators. | ||
| Today in our nation's capital, a gross misuse of public resources is occurring, all in service to Donald's ego and insecurity. | ||
| I have a suggestion for fixing your unpopularity, Donald. | ||
| Stop running the most corrupt, incompetent, and violent administration of our lifetimes. | ||
| And keep your armed federal agents from our agents away from our schools and students. | ||
| Trump and his fellow oligarchs seek to rule us like kings. | ||
| They believe their wealth gives them the right to pick and choose who among us gets to eat, goes to school, receives life-saving vaccines, and medical care, and who is able to leave freely, cuts the Medicaid and snap with literally a steel-feed medicine from the mouths of babes. | ||
| You can see my union's members wearing our signature PFT red here today. | ||
| Check out our signs. | ||
| Trump is not the first one-to-be king we've had to resist. | ||
| Power-hungry billionaires like Jeff Yass have been trying to buy our democracy. | ||
| Yass is a billionaire and the richest man in Pennsylvania. | ||
| He's been getting rich off K-12 education for years. | ||
| He's also a tax dodger. | ||
| When we leave here today, Google Jeffrey Yass and then ProPublica, who uses his obscene wealth to attack public education so that only kids of the wealthy will have access to college and careers of their choice. | ||
| If we want to take back our democracy, we need to take back power, not just from Trump, but from all the mini Trumps correcting government for their own enrichment. | ||
| I'm going to end on a high note and one of optimism. | ||
| You can organize your way to better government at the local level, and those wins build towards bigger wins. | ||
| In towns not far from here, we've seen neighbors who value public schools take on religious ideologues on school boards who are banning books and win. | ||
| Taking back power is up to each and every one of us. | ||
| In the words of our two-time Super Bowl champion, Philadelphia Eagles, we all we got, we all we need. | ||
| Let's become the agents of hope and aspiration. | ||
| Win a fairer, freer America, and give our communities the resources they need to thrive. | ||
| It is now my great pleasure and honor to call up Randy Weingarten, president of the 1.8 million member strong AFT. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| This is what democracy looks like, all of you here. | ||
| I've been asked Art to hold my flag. | ||
| Now, on April 5th, I was here. | ||
| I feel like I live here. | ||
| But I was here on April 5th. | ||
| We were in another park. | ||
| And I wanted to start by actually talking about what we in the labor movement, it's unbelievable the scene that I see right now. | ||
| It's just unbelievable because it's the people. | ||
| But this exactly, this is what we say in the labor movement. | ||
| It is the people united will never be defeated. | ||
| It's not just that we'll never be divided, we'll never be defeated. | ||
| So can we do a big Philly shout out? | ||
| The people united will never be defeated. | ||
| The people united will never be defeated. | ||
| The people uniting will never be defeated. | ||
| So I want you all to know in Philly that our brothers and sisters and siblings in Minnesota are watching us. | ||
| And I want to say to them, we love you. | ||
| And we will never, ever, ever tolerate political violence. | ||
| it's wrong. | ||
| As Martin Luther King's son said, we need to practice, not just as a strategy, but as a way of life, peaceful nonviolence. | ||
| Now, Philly, you know this. | ||
| You don't need a social studies teacher to tell you this. | ||
| You are the birthplace of our nation. | ||
| You are the birthplace of our democracy. | ||
| You are the birthplace of our Constitution. | ||
| And you're the birthplace of Rocky. | ||
| And while, and this was a few years before I was born, while the colonists and colonies in 1774 and 5 and 6 were really different, one of the things that binded them together was the conviction that they wanted to govern themselves. | ||
| No nobles, no monarchs, and no kings. | ||
| Now, Congressman Raskin said a little bit of this already. | ||
| He quoted the Declaration of Independence already, but there's one statement of it I want to re-quote, which is, a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. | ||
| We need the current president to actually read that language. | ||
| Well, I think he knows how to read. | ||
| We just want him to read it. | ||
| Now, our founders, and excuse the social studies lesson, but our founders said no to kings 250 years ago, precisely because they believed in the consent of the governed. | ||
| And they were far from perfect. | ||
| They did believe in the values we now try to make real today. | ||
| Freedom, liberty, justice, and opportunity for all. | ||
| So, what does that mean? | ||
| It means not detaining high school students in Detroit or Connecticut before they're about to graduate. | ||
| It means not detaining children who are in playgrounds. | ||
| It means not disappearing day laborers who are trying to make ends meet. | ||
| It means not handcuffing seamstresses who are trying to be at work or arresting a union leader trying to stop this cruelty. | ||
| It means not assaulting a U.S. senator trying to peacefully fight for the people he represents. | ||
| Or arresting a mayor or a congresswoman because they're just doing their jobs. | ||
| America, Americans don't need this abuse of power. | ||
| We need power to be vested in the people. | ||
| And that's what I see today. | ||
| And that's what this split screen is today. | ||
| Thousands of people standing up peacefully for our values, for American values, including the values of making sure everyone can speak and peacefully assemble. | ||
|
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And why? | |
| And that's why many of us are holding an American flag, because we care about our country. | ||
| We care about opportunity. | ||
| We care about the people of America. | ||
| And we care about each and every one of our pathways to the American dream. | ||
| I see thousands of people paying tribute to an army, an army formed on June 14, 1775, to fight a monarchy. | ||
| And we're doing this not out of anger, but out of resolve. | ||
| The collective resolve of millions of people at over 2,000 events to say, we believe in our democracy and we are willing to fight for it peacefully. | ||
| The collective resolve to reject a wannabe king, to reject $40 million worth of birthday parties that should be going to pay for kids who need nutrition. | ||
| We reject the diminishment of our rights to assemble and associate and speak. | ||
| Philly, this is what democracy looks like. | ||
| Organized, hopeful, and bold. | ||
| Literally the rule of the majority. | ||
| And let me talk for one minute or two about my union. | ||
| The AFT, yes. | ||
| We stand at the intersection of democracy and opportunity, public education and the labor movement. | ||
| These are the ways that Americans can get to a better life, a shot at a better life. | ||
| And paving those opportunities makes us a target. | ||
| Their attacks on public education are relentless. | ||
| And why? | ||
| Because they fear knowledge. | ||
| Why do they feel school teachers? | ||
| They fear us because we teach critical thinking. | ||
| We teach honest history. | ||
| We teach pluralism because their brand of greed and power and privilege cannot survive in a democracy of diverse educated citizens. | ||
| So that's why they go after education opportunity. | ||
| They fight us on economic opportunity. | ||
| They're going after equal opportunity. | ||
| They're going after unions because this current president sees us as a threat to his vision of America. | ||
| He sees us as a threat because they believe in us versus them, and we believe in us, the people. | ||
| So look, this is about hope versus fear. | ||
| But to get to hope, we must address the fear and show people that a better life is possible. | ||
| Without a voice in our democracy and a voice at work, frankly, our fight against kins would be hollow. | ||
| So we're not just fighting back, we're fighting for a better day. | ||
| So as they fight for tax cuts for billionaires, we fight for tax cuts for the working class. | ||
| As they cut snap and Medicaid, we fight to make sure that families have decent housing and decent health care and decent education. | ||
| They got their seas, chaos, confusion, corruption, and cronyism, and we got ours. | ||
| The courts, the court of public opinion, the Congress, and the courage of this community. | ||
| Because this community understands how to fight back. | ||
| No one is going to save us but ourselves, but it takes courage. | ||
| So my friends, rather than yield on bended knee, we stand up. | ||
| We all care. | ||
| We all act. | ||
| We do it together in solidarity. | ||
| So I want to end with a quote from the father of our last speakers, specifically Martin Luther King's final book. | ||
| He wrote, where do we go from here, chaos or community? | ||
| Well, Philly, you are the community to this president's chaos. | ||
| And together, we build a future of opportunity and justice for all. | ||
| Hope over fear, aspiration over anger, the promise of America for each and every American. | ||
| That is what we are fighting for today. | ||
| So I say the people united will never be divided. | ||
| The people united will never be divided. | ||
| I get to introduce who in my judgment is the foremost authority on democracy and how to keep it and on authoritarianism and how to fight it. | ||
| And that is the Honorable, you've read some of his books, the Honorable Professor Tim Snyder. | ||
|
unidentified
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First of all, | |
| I want Philadelphia. | ||
| I have never seen a more beautiful sight than this today. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| Can we hear it again for the leader of the president of my union, Randy Weingarten? | ||
| And for her amazing, amazing words. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So I need some help. | ||
| I need some help. | ||
| I have one thing to say to you, and it is no kings, freedom. | ||
| No kings, freedom. | ||
| But as if Randy says, and she's right, that I know something about authoritarianism, the thing that I know is that it can only be fought together. | ||
| So I'm going to say no kings, and I want to hear if there's anybody out there who can say freedom. | ||
| No kings, no kings, no kings, that's right. | ||
| We don't want kings. | ||
| We don't want fascists. | ||
| We don't want oligarchs for very simple reasons. | ||
| Those people cannot represent us. | ||
| They are surrounded by the hirelings, by the minions, by the bootlicking billionaires. | ||
| And what they will do and what they are doing is taking away the future, taking away our health, destroying the environment around us, taking away our rights. | ||
| That is what they are bringing to us. | ||
| No kings. | ||
| No kings. | ||
| Freedom. | ||
| No kings. | ||
| Freedom. | ||
| Freedom means hands off. | ||
| Freedom means no deportations in the streets. | ||
| Freedom means no violence against peaceful American citizens and everybody in this country. | ||
| But freedom also means a nature with which we're in harmony. | ||
| Freedom also means a government that works. | ||
| Freedom also means equality, health care. | ||
| Freedom also means the American dream. | ||
| No kings. | ||
| When I was a little kid, my parents brought me to this city to see the Liberty Bell. | ||
| And that was very meaningful for me because we had a bell on the farm and I thought about that bell as the Liberty Bell and I rang it as a little kid. | ||
| We came, we saw the Liberty Bell, and that was wonderful. | ||
| But as I grew up, I learned some things. | ||
| I learned that the Liberty Bell wasn't called the Liberty Bell in 1776. | ||
| You know this, right? | ||
| You're from Philadelphia. | ||
| It was called the State House Bell. | ||
| It was the abolitionists who called it the Liberty Bell. | ||
|
unidentified
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It was the people who met the challenge of slavery who called it the Liberty Bell. | |
| And then it was the woman's suffrage movement who called it the Liberty Bell. | ||
| And it's because of them that we now all call it the Liberty Bell. | ||
| And what do we learn from that? | ||
| We learned that in history, first no kings and then freedom. | ||
| And we learn that you only make progress for freedom with struggle. | ||
| And you learn that you only make progress for freedom with allies who you learn from, who you learn from. | ||
| So no kings is today. | ||
| Freedom is tomorrow. | ||
| No kings today, freedom tomorrow. | ||
| We act together today, and we keep acting tomorrow. | ||
| We make a new friend here today and we do something with them tomorrow. | ||
| We meet somebody we admire today and we do something with them tomorrow. | ||
| We meet somebody who's a little more courageous than us today and we do something with them tomorrow. | ||
| Today no kings, tomorrow freedom. | ||
| There is a better America out there. | ||
| There is a better America underneath. | ||
| There is a better America that we can see. | ||
| There is a better America that we can make. | ||
| History is in our hands. | ||
| No kings, no kings, no kings. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Please welcome to the stage the co-president of Community Change, Lorella Praley. | ||
| My name is Lorela Preli, and I'm here today as the co-president of Community Change, where we organize every day for a multiracial democracy and an economy rooted in dignity and justice. | ||
| I'm proud to stand with you because this is our America. | ||
| And in our America, we don't do kings. | ||
| That might sound like a slogan, but it's more than that. | ||
| It's a moral line in the sand, a declaration of what we refuse to become. | ||
| Because what we're living through right now, what we saw in Los Angeles this week, is not normal. | ||
| This is authoritarianism in motion. | ||
| On marked vans, masked agents, people disappeared without notice, no names, no charges, mothers torn from their children, no lawyer, no phone call, and suddenly they are gone. | ||
| That is not our America. | ||
| And let me tell you something else. | ||
| My presence here today, it wasn't guaranteed. | ||
| When I was two and a half years old, I was in a car accident that resulted in the amputation of my right leg. | ||
| At that time, my family lived in Peru, and my mother made a courageous decision. | ||
| She dreamed that her daughter would live a full life, and she believed the place where I could do that was right here in the United States of America. | ||
| So we came. | ||
| She started over. | ||
| She cleaned houses. | ||
| She cared for people's children. | ||
| She worked tirelessly so that her own children could have something more. | ||
| My mother believed in an America that had room for her daughter's dream. | ||
| And that welcoming America, her America, is why I stand before you today as a citizen, as a mother, as a fighter, as your partner in this struggle to build a country where everyone can live with dignity and thrive. | ||
| But the America we're seeing unfold right now, it's a nightmare. | ||
| And we have to name it for what it is. | ||
| Not an aberration, but a strategy. | ||
| This is the blueprint of authoritarianism, the violation of rights, the erosion of norms, the manufacturing of fear, the targeting of the most vulnerable. | ||
| So let's be clear. | ||
| In our America, we say no to kings with secret police. | ||
| We say no to separating mothers from their children. | ||
| We say no to rounding up workers while billionaires get another tax break. | ||
| We say no to turning neighbor against neighbor. | ||
| So say it with me loud enough for every would-be king to hear. | ||
| No hate, no fear. | ||
| Immigrants are welcome here. | ||
| No hate, no fear. | ||
| Immigrants are welcome here. | ||
| No hate, no fear. | ||
| Immigrants are welcome here. | ||
| No hate, no fear. | ||
| Immigrants are welcome here. | ||
| No fear. | ||
| Immigrants are welcome here. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So I also want to talk about another truth in this moment, which is that there are a lot of people hurting. | ||
| Rents have skyrocketed. | ||
| Childcare costs more than your mortgage. | ||
| Health insurance doesn't cover your health. | ||
| You go to the grocery store and you ask yourself, how am I supposed to feed my family this week? | ||
| That pain is real. | ||
| And Trump is exploiting it to consolidate power. | ||
| When people are hurting, it's easy to look for someone to blame. | ||
| And that's what he's counting on. | ||
| Because he doesn't want you to look at him or the billionaires he's shielding. | ||
| He wants you to blame your neighbor, to fear the immigrant, to believe that someone else's survival is a threat to your own. | ||
| But here is the truth. | ||
| Trump is cheating working people. | ||
| He is using immigrants as scapegoats to distract us while he steals from all of us. | ||
| We have seen wannabe kings before. | ||
| They rise by stoking fear, by criminalizing the vulnerable, by looting from the many to enrich the few. | ||
| We believe in something different. | ||
| We believe every person has worth, that families belong together, that workers deserve dignity no matter where they were born. | ||
| That democracy isn't guaranteed. | ||
| It is something we build together. | ||
| And above all, we believe our solidarity is stronger than their fear. | ||
| So what do we do? | ||
| We rise. | ||
| We organize. | ||
| We show up. | ||
| We link arms across race, across faith, across difference. | ||
| We hold the line and then we move the line. | ||
| Because we are not just resisting. | ||
| We are reshaping and rebuilding this country from the ground up. | ||
| Ahora yo quiero hablar con mi gente latina. | ||
| Si, nos están atacando por tener la piel morena, por hablar español, por existir con orgullo, nos quieren borrar, pero no podrán. | ||
| Porque veimos de fuerza, del lucha, de esperança, de campos embrados y calles marchadas, de madres que no se rinden, y pueblos que no se doblang. | ||
| mi familia latina este es el momento de unirnos de alzar nuestras voces porque aquí estamos aquí seguimos y no nos vamos | ||
| So, we're going to wrap this up, or I'm going to wrap my part up, and we're going to say no hate, no fear. | ||
| Would-be kings aren't welcomed here. | ||
| Are you ready? | ||
| All right, let's do this thing. | ||
| Make it loud. | ||
| No hate, no fear. | ||
| Woody kings, our mother here. | ||
| No hate, no fear. | ||
| Woody kings are motherfucking. | ||
| Oh, hey! | ||
| No fear! | ||
| One of the kings of... | ||
| Welcome to Army Veteran with Common Defense, Naveed Shah. | ||
| Good afternoon, everybody. | ||
| My name is Naveed Shah, and I'm the political director of Common Defense and an Army veteran. | ||
| I'm honored to address you today on behalf of veterans everywhere. | ||
| You know, as a veteran, I swore an oath to the Constitution. | ||
| Not to a person, not to a political party, and especially not to a king. | ||
| Donald Trump thinks his rule is absolute, but in America, we have no kings. | ||
| I'm a veteran of the war in Iraq, where I served 15 years ago. | ||
| When I was there in March of 2010, it was when Iraq held their second ever national elections. | ||
| For many young Iraqis, it was their first time ever casting a ballot. | ||
| For once, the insurgents weren't not targeting the American soldiers like me who were providing security. | ||
| They were targeting their own people who were simply trying to exercise their fundamental right to vote. | ||
| In that moment, the sanctity of our rights became clear to me, and I promised never to take them for granted. | ||
| So, when I saw what happened in Washington at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, I was more than just shocked and appalled. | ||
| I was scared. | ||
| I was scared for what could happen to our country if we allowed the big lie to continue to fester, and for what would happen if insurrectionists took power. | ||
| And unfortunately, we're seeing that play out right now. | ||
| Recent events in Los Angeles have made it evident it's necessary now more than ever for us to stand up against authoritarianism. | ||
| As of now, the Trump regime has federalized 4,000 National Guard soldiers, 700 Marines. | ||
| But we've seen this playbook before. | ||
| When troops are deployed to suppress dissent, history shows us that such actions only make the situation worse, not better. | ||
| The militarized response to protests is a dangerous escalation that undermines the state and local governments, endangers civil rights, and betrays the very principles that we swore to uphold. | ||
| It's important to note that everybody from Governor Newsome to Mayor Bass, even the LAPD, have said that there's no need for military intervention in LA. | ||
| But the president and his regime are manufacturing a crisis. | ||
| We've heard that in places like Texas and Virginia, governors have activated their National Guard, so there's a potential for more troops to be deployed this summer. | ||
| And that's why, now, more than ever, in the face of such oppression, we must commit to deliberate strategic nonviolence. | ||
| Seeing all of you out here today in Philadelphia, my second favorite city after D.C. is a powerful moment to protect democracy in our communities. | ||
| While Trump and his cronies are watching the show in D.C., Americans are stuck choosing between health care and child care and feeding their families. | ||
| And yet again, veterans' benefits, benefits that my brothers and sisters earned, are on the chopping block. | ||
| The Trump administration wants to cut 15% from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which millions of veterans and military families rely on for their health care. | ||
| But that's right out of the MAGA playbook, isn't it? | ||
| Pretend you're honoring the troops with a parade while gutting the services that they need. | ||
| What's the point of a military parade if you're going to disrespect the troops and their families? | ||
| 250 years ago, the Army that I love was founded by the Continental Congress to stand up against King George. | ||
| Almost nothing makes me prouder than to say, go Army. | ||
| But today, Trump's birthday parade isn't about patriotism, it's about his power. | ||
| And here's the truth: in a recent poll that we did, 70% of veterans, including Republicans and Independents, are opposed to Trump's birthday parade. | ||
| Because we know you don't honor the troops by making them props. | ||
| And that's why Common Defense and our veterans are gathered here today and across the country to reaffirm our commitment to the Constitution of the United States. | ||
| Not a politician, not a political party, and no kings. | ||
| Despite our nation's history of oppression and racism, but the ideals that we took an oath to rise above all of that. | ||
| When I took my oath to join the Army, I did so because I believed that America stood for something better, and I still do. | ||
| And that's why it's so important for me to protect this country and its Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. | ||
| If we are to be the shining city on the hill, then we must set the example. | ||
| Before we send our troops to promote democracy abroad, we must protect democracy here at home. | ||
| Liberty and justice must truly be accessible for all. | ||
| The men and women of our military uphold the oath every single day. | ||
| And as veterans, we're here to commit to continue upholding our oath. | ||
| And we call on all members of Congress, left, right, and center, to do the right thing because the future of democracy depends on them. | ||
| And independently, all of you out here going beyond just today, continue to show up because this is not just the end. | ||
| This is just the beginning. | ||
| Because in America, we have no kings. | ||
| Please welcome to the stage, from the ACLU, Anu Joshi and Mike Lee. | ||
| Joshi, and I am with the American Civil Liberties Union. | ||
| And I'm here to say to you that no matter what, the ACLU is in this fight alongside you to save our democracy. | ||
| Over the last four and a half months, we've watched in horror as masked men snatch Mahmoud Khalil and other students from their families for exercising their First Amendment protected speech in support of Palestinian human rights. | ||
| We watched as they have spent billions of dollars to detain people thousands of miles from their families in private for-profit detention facilities. | ||
| We've watched as they've trampled all over people's due process rights and zip-tied children and ripped families apart. | ||
| And just this week, we watched as the president federalized National Guard troops against the wishes of the state's governor and sent active-duty military to an American city in my hometown, Los Angeles, California. | ||
| And two days ago, we watched as this administration handcuffed a sitting United States senator for having the audacity to ask a question. | ||
| And this is only a part of a larger intimidation campaign as they arrest, charge, and detain not only elected officials, but journalists, universities, judges, union leaders, students, nonprofits, law firms, immigrants, and everyday Americans. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| This isn't the president's country. | ||
| It's ours. | ||
| And like all of you, in those moments, we didn't just sit on the sidelines watching as she tried to use the immense power of the federal government to try and silence us through fear. | ||
| We got to work. | ||
| We have filed more than 100 lawsuits since the inauguration to challenge their extreme, cruel, and illegal actions. | ||
| And we are winning and we are not slowing down. | ||
| We worked with governors and attorneys general and mayors all across the country to pass policies that serve as a firewall against the president's overreach. | ||
| We hacked town halls. | ||
| We took to the streets to physically protect our immigrant family members. | ||
| We uplifted the stories of trans joy in our nation's capital. | ||
| And we trained hundreds of thousands of people to know their rights and to use them. | ||
| The actions of this White House are un-American, an abuse of power, and just damn wrong. | ||
| But just looking at the thousands of people here and the millions of people joining events like this all across the country, it is very clear to me that we cannot be silenced and we are not afraid. | ||
| Never let anyone tell you that protesting is not patriotic. | ||
| In fact, it is the most patriotic action you can take in these trying times. | ||
| It is our constitutional right to do so. | ||
| When we know our rights, when we exercise them, when we protest, when we dissent, when we speak freely, when we act to protect our families, our friends, and neighbors, when we show up, we make progress for everyone. | ||
| Thank you all so much for being here and for supporting the ACLU. | ||
| And we know we couldn't do any of this work without the leadership of our incredible ACLU affiliates. | ||
| And so I'm so excited to be standing here with a champion of Pennsylvanians, a lifelong Philadelphian, and the executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Mike Lee. | ||
| You say speech. | ||
| Free. | ||
| Free. | ||
| Speech. | ||
| Free. | ||
| Free. | ||
| Speech. | ||
| That's what's up. | ||
| That's what's up. | ||
| That's Philly right there. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| My name is Mike Lee. | ||
| I'm the executive director of ACLU of Pennsylvania. | ||
| Proud Philadelphian, born and raised. | ||
| Happy Pride Month. | ||
| Happy Early Father's Day. | ||
| Academy Democracy. | ||
| Cities and countries, cities across this country standing up, pushing back against President Trump and his enablers while they try to pull out all the stops unconstitutionally, trying to scare us, put us on our heels, knock the democratic breath out of us. | ||
| They're even trying to do it here in Philly, threatening funding cuts if we don't change our local policies, deportation without due process. | ||
| Jupiter's in our streets. | ||
| But guess what? | ||
| You're messing with the wrong city. | ||
| You've seen our local government. | ||
| You've seen our elected officials. | ||
| We're here to stand up and push back. | ||
| Philly, as you've heard throughout today, we're known for our fighting spirit and our brotherly love. | ||
| And two-time Super Bowl champion Eagles. | ||
| Let me tell y'all, real quick, while these are called the Rocky Steps, it's not because of how many people Rocky knocked down, it's because of how many times he stood up. | ||
| Against the odds, he stood up. | ||
| Stand up, fight back, right? | ||
| So, when they try to give us a parade, no, we want Medicaid. | ||
| We're going to stand up. | ||
| Don't give us a statue. | ||
| They're for tourists. | ||
| We love the grind. | ||
| That's why we talk about these steps. | ||
| That's why we bring our champions to these steps because we respect and love the grind, the underdog. | ||
| It doesn't matter what the odds are. | ||
| We're here to fight peacefully and do so in a constitutional way because that's what it's all about. | ||
| Last thing, Philly. | ||
| Last thing. | ||
| Only love can drive out the hate that we're seeing. | ||
| I see love here. | ||
| And just remember, when you're in Philly, sometimes love hurts. | ||
| Please give a warm Philadelphia welcome to State Representative from Georgia, Rua Roman. | ||
| How's everybody doing? | ||
| Thank you for being out here to make clear that we bow down to no king. | ||
| As we gather here today and all around the country, we face a pivotal moment in our history. | ||
| I know it seems dark and scary. | ||
| We're watching families torn apart all around the country. | ||
| We saw photos of Marines detaining a vet on his way to the VA. | ||
| We've seen ICE detain citizens. | ||
| And now we're seeing a world-triggering escalation in the Middle East. | ||
| And this morning, Minnesota state legislators were hunted down and gunned down. | ||
| And all of this comes after we watched a genocide unfold in Gaza for almost two years, while our elected officials cheered it on or gave mealy-mouthed reasons of why they couldn't oppose the atrocities that we paid for. | ||
|
unidentified
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We did not arrive here in a vacuum, and it's important to understand how we got here so we can change the trajectory of where we go. | |
| Our leaders have failed us. | ||
| Republicans want children to starve and the poor to die. | ||
| And too many of my colleagues still think that people will magically support us if we just compromise a little more, found that magic road. | ||
| But compromise on basic rights of people and lack of principles will never win. | ||
| And all it did was help pave the path towards fascism in our country. | ||
| And I will say this. | ||
| Remember, this is the re-emergence of fascism because we have seen so much of this before. | ||
| Nothing happening today is new. | ||
| The illegal detentions, the crackdown on protesters and free speech, the disappearings of people and deportations. | ||
| In a weird way, it kind of gives me some solace, but it also fills me with fury and deep anger because it's a reminder that everything we see around us is a choice. | ||
| And it's a choice that we can make differently. | ||
| And my fury comes from the reality that those who can make the world better are actively choosing not to. | ||
| But I'm here today to remind myself and all of you that we are not alone. | ||
| Just look at you. | ||
| When my community had pushed me to run for office, and for those who don't know, I kind of got bullied into this, I knew I wouldn't be doing it alone. | ||
| And it was because of them that I had the courage to do this. | ||
| But now that I'm in it, I see all the time and all the ways that we can make a massive difference. | ||
| And look, I get it. | ||
| I was talking with some friends last night about the state of the world, and I told them about how, as someone who's on the inside, the thing that keeps me up at night is to see all of those opportunities that if more people had just shown up, we could have made a huge difference. | ||
| And here's the thing. | ||
| They rightfully said, look, there's so much cynicism. | ||
| People are tired of the corruption. | ||
| And I get it. | ||
| I totally get it. | ||
| But hear me when I say to you today, those who actually engage in that corruption want nothing more than for us to leave them alone. | ||
| They want us to turn away. | ||
| They want our cynicism to convince us into inaction. | ||
| But I'm not going anywhere, and neither should any of you. | ||
| I'm here today to implore all of you not to allow our cynicism to lull us into an action. | ||
| Do not allow this moment of feeling overwhelmed to paralyze you. | ||
| And again, I know so many people are scared today. | ||
| I know some of you are seeing the deployment of military personnel, the escalation of ICE, and the targeting of protesters and wondering what power you have. | ||
| But I'm telling you right now, in this moment, this will be the easiest time to be brave. | ||
| Right now is the moment to insist on our rights. | ||
| Right now is the moment to push back on anyone, anyone who attempts to normalize this in any way. | ||
| Now is the time to loudly remind those around us, as close as they are and as far as they are, that none of this is normal. | ||
| And why do you ask? | ||
| Because our opposition works. | ||
| The administration, after ripping families apart, is already shifting who they are targeting. | ||
| And it's because of all of you showing up in the streets. | ||
| And I remind you that even those that have been detained for standing up for Palestinian rights like Romesa and Mohsen have already been released. | ||
| But we cannot let up until we are all safe, until we are all free. | ||
| We cannot let up until Mahmoud Khalid is reunited with his child. | ||
| We cannot let up. | ||
| We cannot let up until we not only stop the cuts to Medicaid, but make sure we finally have universal health care. | ||
| We cannot let up. | ||
| We cannot let up until we not only stop the genocides in the Congo and Gaza and Sudan and all around the world, but also end the endless wars. | ||
| And we cannot let up until we stop this never-ending march to an increasingly extractionary economy that squeezes all of us for everything that we barely have to benefit some unnamed shareholder who'll never know our stories, will never know our names. | ||
| So today, I am asking you to think about three things and your role in them. | ||
| Three places. | ||
| First, your community. | ||
| Get to know your neighbors, because if you don't already, it is one of the most beautiful experiences in my life. | ||
| It is so lovely to know them. | ||
| And make sure that you build a support system with those literally and physically closest to you. | ||
| And support your local food banks. | ||
| Support literally anyone who might need it in your neighborhood. | ||
| And talk to each other. | ||
| These algorithms continue to silo us and isolate us from each other. | ||
| And that is extremely dangerous. | ||
| Now is the time that we need each other more than ever before. | ||
| Second, and I gotta say it, y'all, your local politics. | ||
| My city council member won by four votes in a runoff. | ||
| Getting involved politically from school boards to state legislators to county parties is world-changing. | ||
| It's where you have the most power. | ||
| And I'm not just talking elections here. | ||
| I'm talking about committee hearings. | ||
| I'm talking about school board hearings. | ||
| I'm talking about every possible hearing you go to. | ||
| Go and make your voice heard. | ||
| Because I promise you this, every national policy you have hated has started locally somewhere. | ||
| And third, take care of yourselves. | ||
| This is a long, long road. | ||
| I need us to learn to do this work at a pace that works for multiple years. | ||
| Figure out what that pace looks like for you. | ||
| Figure out what you have to offer if you cook, if you bake, if you're artistic. | ||
| There is so much of you that you can offer to those around you. | ||
| Now is the time to lean into that. | ||
| And I'm going to end with this. | ||
| To my colleagues all around the country who are reeling from the news in Minnesota, I say again, now is the easiest time to be brave. | ||
|
unidentified
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Too many people want to silence people like us. | |
| But now is the time to stand up to them and say, you will not make us cower in fear. | ||
| Our communities need us more now than ever before. | ||
| Because I promise you, that is where our power is. | ||
| Today we marched. | ||
| Tomorrow we changed the world. | ||
| And to the cynics that shrug and say, this is the way the world has always been, I remind them to look at history and compare it to where we are today. | ||
| But also, if a Palestinian can get elected in a state like Georgia, I have a hard time believing anything is impossible. | ||
| Thank you, Philly. | ||
| Please welcome to the stage, from the Human Rights Campaign, Wendy Stroud. | ||
| Before I start, I just wanted to say a special happy birthday to Rua. | ||
| Today is her birthday, so please wish her a happy birthday. | ||
| So I am Wendy Strout. | ||
| I use she, her pronouns, and I am with the Human Rights Campaign. | ||
| We, woo! | ||
| We are the largest LGBTQ plus civil rights organization in the country. | ||
| Now, I'm guessing that you all know the colors of the pride flag, the rainbow colors. | ||
| I am here to tell you that those colors do not run. | ||
| And the LGBTQ plus community that that flag represents, we don't run either. | ||
| And we do not bow to wannabe kings. | ||
| And we will not be forced back into the closet. | ||
| Trump wants to erase us. | ||
| He may try and erase our history from his websites or remove our names from battleships. | ||
| He may try to legislate us out of existence, but he will never succeed. | ||
| You all know our community has a history of fighting back and standing up against bullies. | ||
| LGBTQ members and our allies continue to fight and stand up for each other. | ||
| We will continue to fight for our trans siblings' right to exist and live their authentic lives. | ||
| We will continue to stand up for our children so they can be safe and welcome in their schools. | ||
| And we will continue to speak up for immigrants like Andre Hernandez-Romera, a gay stylist who was just looking for a better life. | ||
| He was doing everything the government asked of him to be here. | ||
| However, one day, Trump disappeared him and many like him without cause or due process. | ||
| If Trump thinks that he can erase us, then we've got news for him. | ||
| We will show up for our LGBTQ plus community in court, in the halls of Congress, throughout our local communities, and here in the streets. | ||
| We are not going anywhere. | ||
| And despite how he acts, this country does not have a king. | ||
| So here is my call to you. | ||
| Call your member of Congress. | ||
| Now, I don't care if you don't think they're going to listen, just call them anyway. | ||
| Tell them to do their job and listen to their constituents and do what their constituents need, not what the billionaires need. | ||
| Make your voice heard. | ||
| Call them today. | ||
| Call them tomorrow. | ||
| Call them every day until they listen to you. | ||
| Thank you, everyone. | ||
| Remember, these colors do not run. | ||
| Please give awards. | ||
| Philadelphia, welcome. | ||
| Co-Chair of Public Citizen, Rob Weissman. | ||
| Sisters and my friends, here today in the cradle of liberty to reaffirm principles. | ||
| First, we are all created equal, no matter where we were born, no matter who we love, no matter what religion or race, we are all created equal. | ||
| Second, we are all endowed with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. | ||
| And that means a right to health care, a right to clean air, a right to a decent job, a right to be treated respectfully. | ||
| And third, our government and every government's legitimacy relies on only one thing, the consent of the governed. | ||
| In America, there are no kings. | ||
| Donald Trump, you may not snatch people off the streets because you don't like what they think. | ||
| Because say it with me, in America, there are no kings. | ||
| Donald Trump, you may not shut down agencies that protect us from financial fraudsters or deliver foreign aid for the hungry and those who need health care because in America there are no kings. | ||
| Donald Trump, you may not take money away from people or threaten to put them in jail because you do not like what they think or say because in America there are no kings. | ||
| Donald Trump, you may not treat the military as your personal security force and deploy it on a whim and with a bare hint of pretext because in America there are no kings. | ||
| And Donald Trump, you may not accept tribute from foreign powers or bribes from corporate oligarchs because in America there are no kings. | ||
| This petty individual, he thinks he should be a king. | ||
| He wants to be a monarch, maybe a czar. | ||
| But let me tell you, my friends, this would-be emperor has no clothes. | ||
| He has no clothes because in America the power only comes from all of us. | ||
| It only comes from us. | ||
| So when Donald Trump says he wants to take health care away from millions of Americans, we say no. | ||
| When Donald Trump says he wants to slash taxes for the rich and corporations, we say no. | ||
| When Donald Trump says he wants more money to separate families, build detention centers, and hire jackpoo thugs to rip people off the streets, we say no. | ||
| When Donald Trump says more subsidies for big oil, let's race to climate catastrophe, we say no. | ||
| And when Donald Trump says, I want to take food away from hungry people in America, we say no. | ||
| But my friends, consent to the governed is not just about a veto authority. | ||
| It's about getting what it is we want. | ||
| It's about getting what it is we want. | ||
| When it comes to health care for all, health care is a right. | ||
| We say yes, yes, yes. | ||
| When it comes to our clean environment and investing in the clean energy revolution we need to avert climate catastrophe, we say yes, yes, yes. | ||
| When it comes to a good job for everyone, a living wage, and a right to organize a union, we say yes, yes, yes. | ||
| When it comes to guaranteeing a good education for every child in America with well-paid teachers who are respected for what they do, we say yes, yes, yes. | ||
| When it comes to decency and democracy and love and solidarity and justice for all, we say yes, yes, yes. | ||
| We will together when we organize and mobilize, as 100,000 of us have done here in Philadelphia today, as millions of us have done across the country, when we organize and mobilize. | ||
| we will defeat this would-be emperor who has no clothes and we will deliver on the promise made here almost 250 years ago of the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for every single human being. | ||
| Yes, yes, yes, yes, and you will welcome to the stage our final speakers, Co-executive directors of Indivisible, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin. | ||
| I'm Leah. | ||
| Hey, and I'm Ezra. | ||
| And we represent a movement of thousands of indivisible groups organizing all over the country to fight for our democracy. | ||
| And we're all out here today because we are watching Donald Trump dismantle American democracy in real time. | ||
| Masked men are grabbing students off the streets for their social media posts. | ||
| They're kidnapping moms as they take their kids to school. | ||
| They're disappearing innocent men into foreign torture gulags without a shred of due process. | ||
| They're terrorizing our communities, our friends, our neighbors. | ||
| In Los Angeles, they responded to peaceful protests with violent repression, putting U.S. troops on the streets to stop Americans from exercising our right to peacefully protest. | ||
| And meanwhile, meanwhile, while he sends the National Guard to California, Donald Trump is sending tanks to DC so that he can have the birthday party that he's always wanted. | ||
| Parade Did anyone ask for this? | ||
| Meanwhile, they are telling us that there is no money for Social Security. | ||
| There is no money. | ||
| That there's no money for Medicaid. | ||
| That there is no money for veterans. | ||
| That there's no money for special education. | ||
| There's no money for cancer research. | ||
| No money for clean air or water. | ||
| No money for you, for us. | ||
| But somehow there's always money. | ||
| When a billionaire needs a tax cut. | ||
| When Elon Musk needs a fat government contract. | ||
| Or when Donald Trump wants a Lux new plane or a big birthday party. | ||
| Now these things are connected. | ||
| Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, their MAGA cronies, they know Americans hate this stuff. | ||
| They know we don't want our neighbors disappeared off the streets. | ||
| They know we don't want Medicaid and Medicare gutted. | ||
| They know we don't want them stealing from us. | ||
| They know keeping the gravy train running depends on ripping our rights away and turning us against each other. | ||
| So they deploy these divide and conquer attacks. | ||
| They sabotage democracy. | ||
| They retaliate against anyone who stands up and they try to shut us down. | ||
| Now this is not a rally for one party. | ||
| We've got Democrats here today. | ||
| Republicans and independents here today. | ||
| Because even today there are folks in my party who think we should roll over and play dead. | ||
| She and John are looking to each other. | ||
| Now Trump wants to look strong today with his guns and his tanks and his threats. | ||
| He wants you to think that he is a king and America belongs to him. | ||
| He wants you to think resistance is pointless. | ||
| But we're here because we know true power is not staged on the streets of DC. | ||
| It lies with the people. | ||
| And it earned millions. | ||
| And today there are millions and millions of us standing up and calling us bluff because we know that courage is contagious and that as we step forward, more will step forward with us. | ||
| So I need you to tell me, do we have kings in America? | ||
| No. | ||
| Do we bow to billionaires in America? | ||
| Whose country is it? | ||
| Right. | ||
| Leah Greenberg, everybody. | ||
| Co-executive director of Indivisible and my spouse, I'm a lucky guy. | ||
| Let me start by saying something. | ||
| Happy Flag Day, everybody. | ||
| Can I see the flags? | ||
| I want to tell you a story. | ||
| I want to tell you a story. | ||
| 250 years ago, today, today, a ragtog army came together to beat back a mad king, and they had to ask themselves one simple question. | ||
| How many kings? | ||
| How many kings? | ||
| But it wasn't as easy as a chant, y'all. | ||
| Two years after that army formed, two years, we were losing to the king. | ||
| We were suffering defeats. | ||
| Morale was low. | ||
| The dream of freedom was slipping away. | ||
| And yet, during that dark moment, when it looked like we weren't going to win, on this very day, in this very city, 248 years ago, there was a Continental Congress that adopted this flag. | ||
| That's why today is flag day, y'all. | ||
| It was defiant. | ||
| It was bold. | ||
| It was a signal of hope in the face of despair. | ||
| They believe now, they believe then, as we believe now, as Leah said, courage is contagious. | ||
| They raised the flag not just as a symbol of a nation, but as a resistance to tyranny. | ||
| That's what that flag stands for. | ||
| And when they did that, you'll never guess what happened next. | ||
| We beat the bastards. | ||
| We won. | ||
| Whose flag? | ||
| Whose flag? | ||
| The story didn't stop there, y'all. | ||
| This flag became the flag of the abolitionists. | ||
| The Union soldiers carried this flag into battle to crush a rebellion built on white supremacy and bondage. | ||
| This was the flag of the D-Day soldiers, black, white, immigrant, native, who crossed oceans in order to crush fascism and liberate Europe. | ||
| And we don't have to whitewash our history to be proud of our progress, y'all. | ||
| This flag, this flag has flown over injustice and inequality, but it's also been claimed time and time again by those who are demanding better of our country, that it lives up to its ideals. | ||
| This is the flag. | ||
| This is the flag that civil rights activists carried as they marched from Selma to Montgomery, demanding, demanding that this nation lives up to its ideals. | ||
| liberty and justice for all liberty and justice for all liberty and justice for all We fly this flag together with our pride flags, our Black Lives Matter flags, our Mexican flags, our flags of heritage, because, e pluribus unum, out of many one, one nation, indivisible. | ||
| A few years, look, a few years after this flag was adopted, in this very city, yet again, it seems like Philly's important to this story. | ||
| In this very city, there was a constitutional convention, and Ben Franklin left that and was asked the question, what kind of government do we get? | ||
| What y'all set up here? | ||
| And he gave a challenge to all of us, a republic, if you can keep it. | ||
| This right here, right now, in this moment, this is where we keep it. | ||
| This is where we keep it. | ||
| We keep it by showing up, by marching together, not in lockstep, but in solidarity. | ||
| We do it by saying this flag, this flag, if it doesn't belong to all of us, it doesn't belong to any of us. | ||
| Today, we are doing the most quintessentially American thing you can think of. | ||
| We are showing up peacefully together, proudly, defiantly, to say freedom means something. | ||
| To say that justice demands action and that we are not done fighting for the country we know it's possible. | ||
| How many kings? | ||
| Whose flag? | ||
| There are millions of Americans marching today under the same banner. | ||
| But Philly, Philly, yet again, this is the flagship event. | ||
| Pardon the pun. | ||
| This is, though. | ||
| The national cameras are on us. | ||
| They are here. | ||
| So if you will indulge me, I'd like to send a very clear message to the world. | ||
| Thousands of us with one voice. | ||
| Leah, would you lead us in a pledge of allegiance? | ||
| All right. | ||
| I pledge allegiance to the flag of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | ||
| Thank you, Leah. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| This is an incredible display of powerful people showing up for their constitutional rights. | ||
| This is not the end, but this can be an inflection point for our democracy. | ||
| So I'm going to ask you to take some action. | ||
| If you've ever worked with Indivisible, we're not just about speeches, we're about action. | ||
| Take out your phone. | ||
| Take out your phone. | ||
| How are we going to coordinate after this movement? | ||
| How are we going to push forward? | ||
| How are we going to be the persistent force for democracy? | ||
| We're going to text No Kings, NO, K-I-N-G-S, to the number 59-798. | ||
| No Kings, 59-798. | ||
| Then on Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, we're all gathering together to talk about the next steps, how we carry this movement forward. | ||
| Donald Trump's not done. | ||
| Are we done? | ||
| Are we done? | ||
| Thank you for being part of what is a historic movement for liberty and justice for all. | ||
| We are stronger than the forces seeking to divide us. | ||
| There are more of us than there are of them. | ||
| Together, we will win one last time. | ||
| How many kings? | ||
| How many kings? | ||
| I'll see you all Monday. | ||
| kare tv eleven in minneapolis is reporting that following the killing of two elected officials in minnesota governor walls is asking people not to participate in no kings rallies in the state Organizers then announced the cancellation of all events and activities, saying, out of an abundance of caution and inadherence to guidance from Governor Walls and the Minnesota State Patrol, all remaining No Kings events in Minnesota are being canceled immediately. | ||
| The statement continues. | ||
| This decision comes in light of the ongoing shelter-in-place order and the tragic shooting that targeted two elected officials and their spouses. | ||
| We are doing this in accordance with local and state guidance, given that the suspect is still at large impersonating a police officer. | ||
| Our hearts are with the victims, their families, and the communities shaken by this violence. | ||
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