In washington, d. C. Ahead of the arraignment of former President Donald Trump. They highlight the charges, and also discussed putting rates and upholding democracy. [chatter] we want to welcome you all to todays press conference convened by the not above the Law Coalition in the day of Donald Trumps third arraignment. As we all know, on tuesday a grand jury indicted trump on four counts accusing him of three separate conspiracy crimes. To defraud the United States. To obstruct and impede the certification of the 2020 election and to deprive americans of our votes. His allies are predictably saying these indictments just continue the witchhunt, that this is an attack on a much beleaguered leader. I have a different frame. That is, donald trump committed obvious crimes before and during his time in office and the rule of law is working. Thats right. Donald trump has now been criminally charged for attempting to stop the peaceful transfer of power. The charges come from the very government he attempted to take over by force. The factors that President Donald Trump has the far managed to escape accountability for his historic crimes, despite an impeachment, despite devastating findings from the bipartisan january 6 select committee is a wrong that needs correcting. The charges from didio j are beginning that work. The doj are beginning that work. There can be no more serious crimes in a conspiracy to overturn the very foundation of our democracy, the right of all americans to cast our vote and have it be counted. So, we the people chamoli itself we the people, we deserve the try to be brought forward promptly. We are gathered here today to the more you live the simple fact. In these indictments the Justice System is working as it should. Holding the highest office in the land should not, according to the constitution, and does not provide immunity from accountability. As would be the case for any other american that committed such serious crimes, our legal system will judge Donald Trumps actions and determine what the consequences will be from here. To protect the integrity very democracy of our democracy its essential this case proceed like any other. It is true for the previous indictments trump has been charged with and likely the next one we will see from georgia, it cannot we set enough yet it is that the name of our coalition. No one is above the law and that includes a former president of the United States. So with that i am thrilled to bring up my comoderator, the president of people for the american way, a leader in the not above the Law Coalition, a citizen, friend, and later. Thank you. Good afternoon. I am the president of people for the american way. For four decades we have fought to make your every american enjoys the right to vote. And, to have that vote counted. So, we are here today. I will confess i was speaking to a reporter. I may have been smiling. They said, are you happy today . I had to think about that for a moment. Am i happy today . I am not happy because i am not satisfied. And i am also not happy because frankly its a dangerous moment. In a democracy, you have to arraign a former president , and thats a dangerous moment. So we are not happy. This is not a celebration. This is in fact a reckoning. A reckoning. A reckoning that has taken too far to get here. We are relieved it is here now. Because, the only thing more dangerous indiana raining than arranging a former president for his crimes is allowing a president to attempt to subvert democracy and get away with it. The true danger, as we all know, as the world knows. The world is watching what happens here today. We know what he attempted to do. Now, because of the facts in jack smiths indictment report we know jack smith knew what he was attempting to do. Donald trump was lying to supporters. Donald trump was mobilizing Government Resources to install say collectors and keep himself in the white house despite losing both the popular vote and the electoral college. Imagine where that ends. Do we really believe after a second donald trump term he would not do the same thing . And after a third donald trump term he would not install donald trump junior as president for life of the United States . It seems like a joke, doesnt it . But we have seen democracy slide this way before. We have seen strongmen, including some of Donald Trumps favorite world leaders, get reelected with 99 of the vote. We have seen what happens to a republic without checks and balances. Ladies and gentlemen, today we are saying donald trump be checked. We are seeing his attempted coup be rebalanced by a department of justice that for the first time in our nations has indicted a president for attempting to invalidate an election. I would be remiss if i did not say as a black american that it is not lost on me that donald trump is being arraigned today under the very same statutes used to prosecute the kkk. The very same. To reverse a man attempts to disenfranchise voters. The very same the doj used to put the plan under the ground the kkk underground being used by a former president that targeted atlanta, detroit, and milwaukee. They went to wear black voters voted and tried to have our votes thrown out. No, we are not celebrating. We are gearing up because as the doj doesnt their work we end our coalition will continue to do ours. To lift up their voices and remind americans the government still belongs to us. The nation still belongs to us and we will have the final say next november. And every four years after that. Thank you for being here. Welcome to the stage deVice President is the Vice President of the constitutional accountability center. Good to see you. Thank you. In a few hours startled trump will be arraigned on a new set of federal charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy to deprive people. A statute passed during reconstruction, a time of our nations history so significant that historians often refer to it as the second founding. This law was originally passed primarily to allow the federal government to prosecute those who tried to prevent formerly enslaved black americans from voting or from having their vote be counted. And, in the past century, the statute was used countless terms by the department of justice under republican and democratic administrations to promote and protect Voting Rights and help preserve the multiracial participatory democracy that is our nations promise. The lessons from our history cannot be forgotten. The framers of the reconstruction era statute recognized the danger to our nation when a threat to voting was not taken seriously. The threat is that some will use fraud, intimidation, corruption, and, yes, violence to prevent people from voting or having their vote be counted. As the meticulously crafted indictment from prior special counsel . Special counsel jack smith and his colleagues demonstrates, the threat remains painfully real today. When such offenses ocher, they must be prosecuted. A trial should proceed without delay. And, the American People deserve nothing less. If the law is to mean anything in our nation it must mean that the laws that find you and me find the powerful. Yes, that includes former president trump. No one is above the law. Thank you. Feel the impact of these crimes. A different way from the People Living in the 50 states. Our federal government, the only representation we have in washington, d. C. As our three votes in the electoral college. We are locked out of the senate. Our voice in the house is just that, a voice. We have no final vote on the policies under which we live. The only time our voices count is in the eyes of the federal government when we cast them for the president of the United States and had this succeeded we have would have had that right ripped away as well. We feel the impact of these crimes because they happened in our home and will be tried in our court made of a jury of our neighbors. The people in d. C. Will be asked to rise to decide one of the most consequential cases in American History and we will. There are those that will again try to cast the people of d. C. As part of the problem. That is because they do not know us. They do not know our neighborhoods. They paint us with a broad brush claiming we are all alike beholden to the government or a part of the swamp. But we are a proud people truly representative of the nation from all backgrounds, all incomes, all races, all sexual orientations, gender identities, and political parties. Like no other place in the country we are proud to be the Nations Capital and believe in the ideals that built it. We never take for granted our democracy. We have fought for too long for the little scraps we have been given and the people of d. C. Deserve the full and equal representation of statehood because we are fully and equally representative of the nation. We, the people of d. C. , will ensure our democracy is protected even as we continue to be blocked from it. We always have and always will. Stand with us. We demand it d. C. Statehood right now. Thank you. [applause] washington dc will be our 51st state. We will be equal as all the states are equal. We love them all the most. If we did not, we would acknowledge new york state was the best. Our next speaker has experience looking at the highest levels of new york State Government and now she is taking her talents to mobilizing people across the country as executive director of standup america. Please, welcome Christina Harvey. [applause] good afternoon, everyone. I am Christina Harvey. Good afternoon and thank you for coming out today. It is awesome to see so many folks out here. Im Christina Harvey the executive director of standup america and the former Senior Advisor to the new York Attorney general here today on behalf of our newly nearly 2 million members across the country fighting everyday to protect and strengthen our democracy. This afternoon donald trump will be arraigned for the third time. This time, for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election to cling to power. Even after he knew he had lost. Donald trump and his maga cronies are trying repeatedly to lie about donald trump plus crimes and many are focused on the political theater, who is up and down on any particular day. It is important for us to step back and think about what is fundamentally at stake with this indictment. What this indictment is actually about. It is about we as americans, when we cast our ballot, can actually be confident our vote will be counted no matter what Political Party we belong to end no matter who we voted for. It is about whether or not a president and his allies can throw out the votes of voters they do not like in order to stay in power. It is about whether we are a democracy or an authoritarian regime. Where elections are just for show and the same people seem to stay in power no matter the will of voters. The answer should be tier that we, the American People, choose our leaders, not the other way around. That we decide whether or not our leaders stay or go. Because, this is a democracy. And, that is something most of our elected leaders have seemed to understand until recently. Over the last week we have seen Many Republicans rushed to defend donald trump including Many Republican president ial candidates that have said that if they become president , they will interfere with the department of justice and in processes like these. Accountability for donald trump and his coconspirators is crucial if we want to stop the next trump from undermining the will of voters again. Now that donald trump has been indicted for crimes against our democracy finally we must let the department of justice and the court do their job without interference from anyone. We cannot let anyone interfere and we cant let donald trump and his cronies rewrite history. I have read all 45 pages of the dojs indictment and it is simple. All trump deliberately donald trump deliberately lied about voter fraud and used the lies to push state elected officials to overturn the will of voters and create fake slights of electors. Then he pressured mike pence to throughout real votes throw out real votes and except for collectors instead. When every plot failed, he instigated violent insurrection as a lastditch attempt to overturn the will of the American People. I will finish by quoting Mitch Mcconnell, someone i dont often quote. Mitch mcconnell set in 2021 that this was an intensifying crescendo of very where that seems determined to either overturn the voter decision or else torch our institutions on the way out. Even less frequently do then i quote Mitch Mcconnell do i agree with Mitch Mcconnell, but that was well put. Stand up america and our members will continue lifting this truth, standing up against the lies being told about Donald Trumps crimes right now. We will continue to make sure our elected officials stand up for our democracy instead of sabotaging it. Thank you all for coming out today. [applause] thank you so much christina. It is fantastic to see a bipartisan quote on this stage. The issue is and should be bipartisan. Pursuing the truth and getting accountability. Im thrilled to bring up christian nunez, president of the National Organization of women to speak. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much of the knot above the Law Coalition for having this press conference and rally today. It is so important. Martin luther king said it best when he said our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Past fu years we have seen our democracy under attack. We have seen Fair Elections undertake under attack. We have seen violence, racism, and misogyny used as weapons to scare anyone who stands up to justice. Now we are here to remind everybody what unwavering commitment to justice looks like. Can i get an amen on that one . Today we have seen our system of justice prepared to hold donald trump accountable for his crimes against democracy. But donald trump cannot wait for his trial to begin. We must all be willing to stand on the lines of truth and justice. We must all be willing to stand on the line for truth and justice. We must continue the campaign for trees to protect our freedom , to stand up for forces against oppression and marginalization and the discrimination that donald trump feeds on. Donald trump has been indicted for conspiracy and obstruction. But it is his contempt for the law that screams from the rooftops, contempt for democracy and our elections, contempt in cash for everything that stands in his way. But it is time we hold him accountable, hold him accountable for all the violence he has been inciting the past few years, inflaming Voter Suppression and violence in country. Donald trump is not above the law and has not stood alone in this. He stands among the line of people that have been helping him. He stands on the structural bills of the country. White supremacy, homophobia, misogyny, jet xenophobia. For all of this, we must be held accountable as well. If we can ensure everybody can equally enjoy justice and equality, we cannot have a former president be able to operate on his own set of rules. We cannot allow continued attacks on our democracy go unchecked and uncontrolled. To keep everyone safe, we will demand that no one be held above the law. And, we will continue to call out everyone that will try to maintain systems of oppression and disenfranchisement. I cannot speak of anything more antiamerican and antifreedom than attacking the very foundations of democracy. But we will not bend. We will not break. I want you want to say that. That is why we will continue to hold him accountable and his associates accountable. We also need to dismantle the very systems of oppression and whites premises that perpetuate injustice in this country. Donald trump was facing prison time today because he try to subvert the election. We cannot let this be normal behavior in the country. We cannot let our democracy continue to be hijacked by voter restrictions and laws that disproportionately affect young people, persons with disabilities, lgbtqia persons, underserved communities, and people of color. We cannot allow that to happen. Within each of these communities women are most harshly impacted and we have to make sure Congress Passes the freedom to vote ask, essential to free and Fair Elections. So, we need to make sure we all join together in inclusive solidarity. We need each other. We need our power. We cannot at the special interest of money and power lead. Let the special interests of money and power lead. We dont deserve we deserve leaders fighting for equality and justice. We need you all to be there because donald trump and no one and no one else is above the law. I want to introduce president for the last eight years of the citizens for responsibilities and ethics in washington. Hello. Apparently, there was an indictment this week . So, the reason we are here today is not because a former president was indicted for the third time, because thats remarkable. Though, thats remarkable. We are here talking about this indictment because this is the big one. This one talk about Donald Trumps efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and validate the votes of tens of thousands of americans and keep himself in power by force after an election he lost. That is about the most serious offense a leader can commit in our republic. If it went unaddressed we risked that becoming accepted in america, something that could and will happen every time someone power hungry does not like the results of an election. If that happens, our democracy breaks down and we lose our ability to choose our own leaders. All the indictments of donald trump are important but that is why this one is essential to the future of our democracy. I used to be a federal corruption prosecutor. I prosecuted senior officials and low level government employees. People that used positions to enrich themselves are disrupted government functions for their own gain. Accountability was crucial to make sure we safeguarded a government that works for us, the American People. That was a while ago now and i dont remember everything. But i am pretty sure of this. As important as those cases were, not a one of those people are prosecuted was a billionaire that used the American Government to enrich themselves. Not a one of them tried to keep themselves in power after losing an election. Not a one of them threatened that the continued viability of our republic. Yet, they were appropriately prosecuted. Do you know why donald trump also needs to be prosecuted . You know. Because no one is above the law. So, what happens now . Its crucial prosecutors like jack smith successfully bring trump to justice, and convict if that is what the law and the facts dictate. And i believe they will. Its crucial litigators like us and state officials successfully enforce donald trump disqualification from office under the 14th amendment to the constitution for engaging in insurrection and i believe we will. And its crucial you go out there and spread the word. Donald trump and his supporters will argue he is being persecuted. That the prosecutors are biased. We have to get out there and tell the world these were thorough investigations by prosecutors with integrity. That these charges are not just supported by fact and law, but necessary for the survival of our democracy. You need to tell the world no one is above the law. You need to be louder than they are. I believe you will. Thank you so much for coming out today. Thank you, noah. That line was spot on. This is necessary for the survival of democracy. As everybody said, no ones above the law. Now i want to hand the microphone to our last speaker shot thomas, the legislative Affairs Leader outlet america vote. Hello, everyone. My name is rashafd\\ Rashad Thomas and i am here for that america vote, dedicated to protecting the freedom to vote and rooting out corruption in the government. I am honored to be here on a momentous day with many great allies and leaders here today to join the chorus of voices for accountability for donald trump in his coconspirators. On january 6 donald trump turned his oath to the constitution of the United States of america showing no regard for the rule of law and the democratic process. American democracy faced an unprecedented threat when donald trump released a mob of insurrectionists on the capitol. 140 seven republican members of congress voted to deny the wood of the people and overturn the results 100 47 republican members of congress voted to deny the will of the people and overturn the results of the election. January 6 was a direct attack on what the country was built on. Free and Fair Elections and the peaceful transfer of power. We commend special counsel jack smith and the Justice Department for Holding Donald trump to account for his heinous crimes. The indictment is through and unequivocal in making the case against trump. Todays arraignment is the next step in the fight for justice and accountability. Nobody is above the law, not even former president s. While justice is being served, the ringleader of that conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election is still the frontrunner for the 2020 form about 2024 republican president ial nomination and election deniers are seeking power across the country. Maga republicans in congress have introduced an election denier wishlist to severely restrict american access to the ballot box. Threats to democracy persist and remain a top concern for ordinary americans coasttocoast. Thats why we need to continue to confront to them just as prosecutors did this week. Safeguarding the freedom to vote is fundamental to preserving democracy. Congress must Pass National standards including in included in hr 11 the freedom to vote out some attacks on this sacred freedom never come to fruition. If we do not pass these commonsense measures, election did nihilism will take root in the country. This nations noble experiment in selfgovernance is too precious to allow a mendacious former president to attack its very foundations and walk away unscathed. We will never stop fighting to protect american democracy. We hope you will join us in continuing the fight. Thank you very much. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our program this afternoon. Thank you for being so committed to this fivespeed to this fight. All of our partners in the not above the Law Coalition, check us out. For people for the american way, the National Organization for women, citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington, and a Citizens United let america vote, i would rather be on our side than any other in the world. You people are amazing. Thank you. We will see what happens. Announcer cspans washington journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy, from washington and across the country. 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Announcer cox supports cspan as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Announcer next, secretary of state Antony Blinken delivers remarks on famine and global Food Insecurity at the u. N. Security council. Part of the meeting focuses on russias region drawback from the black sea green initiative, an agreement that allowed ukrainian grain and other food to be exported to developing countries
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