Melanie Stansbury: "Here in America THERE ARE NO KINGS"

If you need some inspiration in these challenging political times, stop whatever you're doing and go watch this absolute banger of a speech by U. S. Congressperson Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat who represents New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, which includes Albuquerque and its surroundings. Stansbury spoke on Thursday at a meeting of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Before tearing into Trump and his administraion, she began by speaking directly to the immigrant community:

I want to say to everyone out there who is living in fear, we see you, we love you, we respect you and we are fighting for you and every community that is being targeted by this administration and this Congress. We also want all of you out there to know that you have rights, you are protected by the law and you should not have to live in fear and wonder whether or not you're going to be safe if you leave your home or if your family is going to come home at night. We see you, we are fighting for you, you have rights.

She then used the rest of her five-minute speech to excoriate the Trump administration's love of made-for-tv-and-social-media spectacle, their deplorable treatment of immigrants, and the "gross and disgusting abuse of power" enacted in Trump's deployment of Marines and National Guard troops against "the American people who are exercising their constitutional rights." She reiterated this last point, stating that sending the military to Los Angeles and other cities in the United States constitutes:

a disgusting abuse of power by fake tough guys, fake tough guys who think that they can intimidate our communities while taking away their rights. And this is from the same man, the same man who dodged the draft and called our military service members suckers and losers. That's your commander in chief. And these folks here, and the President want to say they're for our military and our veterans? While they're illegally deploying service members, violating state sovereignty, gutting the VA, firing generals and lifelong service members?

Next, she chastised Trump for spending $45 million dollars on a "fake military parade" and rattled off a list of "grievances" focused on Trump's abuse of authority, including:

obstructing the administration of justice

refusing to assent to the laws for the public good

sending swarms of officers to harass our people

keeping standing armies without consent of our legislatures

transporting Americans overseas to be tried for pretend offenses

She then asks Chairman James Comer (R, KY) if he knows where these offenses come from, and when he says no, she informs him that they're from the Declaration of Independence, stating that her colleagues across the aisle "might want to bone up on that in the US Constitution before they go attacking our communities, especially as we head into the Fourth of July holiday and celebrate our independence from an abusive and mad king."

She further hammers the point that "here in America THERE ARE NO KINGS." And, further, that "we reject people who believe they are. And no one is above the law and we will hold them accountable."

She concludes her absolute kick-ass speech by stating unequivocally that what Trump is doing "an abuse of power, an abuse of the military, and an abuse of our citizens." She then reminds colleagues that according to a poll taken earlier this week, two-thirds of Americans are opposed to Trump's actions with regard to both immigration and the deployment of the military into cities across the country. She ends by clearly condemning Trump's actions: "It's wrong, it's immoral, it's illegal and it's a violation of our rights."

Wow, what a speech – this is exactly what we need right now! Thank you, Representative Stansbury! Go watch the speech here.