Murphy: Trump's Authoritarian Takeover Isn't Coming. It's Here.

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate to lay out President Trump's ongoing five-part plan to convert the United States from a democracy governed by the rule of law to an authoritarian state governed by force, censorship, and personal favor. Murphy's speech came as Trump deployed the California National Guard to Oregon and the Texas National Guard to Chicago, against vehement opposition from Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Murphy connected the militarization of law enforcement to Trump's broader actions to reward loyalists and punish enemies, highlighting the baseless indictment of former FBI Director James Comey on federal criminal charges, the censorship of regime critics like Jimmy Kimmel, and Trump's corrupt deal to protect New York City Mayor Eric Adams from federal criminal charges in exchange for political loyalty. He called on his colleagues in both parties to recognize the extreme crisis our democracy faces and take action to protect it.

Discussing Trump's conversion of our justice system into a political witch hunt operation for targeting perceived enemies, Murphy said: "We are seeing this at scale right now. The indictment of James Comey for no crime - not a single prosecutor in that office in Virginia would sign the indictment, not a single one, until President Trump sent his personal lawyer to take over that office, because only she would sign the indictment. We see this in the arrests that are being readied for at least one Democratic senator, for the Soros family, for the Attorney General of New York, for behavior that is not criminal."

He continued: "But what also happens is that if you are loyal to the regime, you get away with crimes. See what happened to the mayor of New York, Eric Adams. He allegedly had committed a crime. He had committed significant corruption, but was exonerated by President Trump only after the mayor pledged his political loyalty to the president… This is how totalitarian regimes control speech. They punish through the legal system dissent. They immunize corruption amongst those who are loyal.

Murphy explained how Trump corrupted regulatory powers to consolidate control over the media, incentivizing media companies to push his agenda or censor criticism: "The second part of the plan is to eliminate free press and replace it with state-run media. Now, I don't know that I'd go so far to say that we have state-run media in the United States yet, but there is an attempt underway to try to use the vast regulatory powers of the administration to censor media. And again, the administration isn't hiding it. They are going on TV and celebrating the fact that, in the latest instance, they threatened to pull the licenses of TV stations that didn't take off the air one of the President's loudest critics, but we also see it through the consolidation of media into the hands of allies of the President… So you get to state-run media, not necessarily through the state owning and operating media, but by the state using its regulatory powers, its control of licenses and mergers, to make clear to the billionaire class that they can own media, that they can make a lot of money off of media, but only if it propagates Trump's narrative and suppresses criticism. It's happening right now. We're watching it happen."

Murphy emphasized the recent deployment of the National Guard to blue states is meant to chill free speech and intimidate Trump's political opposition: "The deployment of the military to Chicago, and to Portland, to Los Angeles, is illegal. It is illegal, but it is designed to try to, once again, quell dissent and protest. This isn't about public safety. This is about political intimidation, and you're just naive if you think that folks aren't going to be a little bit less interested in showing up at a protest if they are worried about getting roughed up by law enforcement. You are naive to think that there isn't an impact on speech when the military is patrolling your streets. The signal that is being sent is that if you speak up in opposition to this President, you are going to be greeted by troop deployments and tear gas and military helicopters."

Murphy argued Trump's seizure of Congressional spending power is part of the president's plan to punish political opponents: "Trump is seizing spending power from us, canceling grants unilaterally. Most recently, brazenly deciding to refuse to spend money only in the states represented by Democrats. The day after the shutdown began, they announced that they were first suspending billions of dollars' worth of projects in just one city, New York City, not coincidentally, represented by the Democratic Leader in the House and the Senate. And then, hours after, they released a list of canceled energy projects, they listed the states that they were being canceled in, and every single one of those states was represented by two Democratic senators. Everybody knew what was happening. It was an effort to use the spending power seized by the executive to punish representatives of the people who oppose the president politically.

Murphy also elaborated how President Trump is rigging the rules of our democracy to ensure he and his allies stay in power: "President Trump is going state by state and demanding that congressional lines be redrawn in the middle of a 10-year cycle in which traditionally, we leave lines as they are. Why? Again, he's been totally honest and transparent about it. He just wants more Republicans elected. Even if the majority of people in a particular state favor Democrats, he wants the line drawn in a way that would elect more Republicans to Congress. Now in this case, it's of course, forced Democratic states to do the same, but it was Donald Trump that started this cycle of changing the rules in order to make sure that his party stays in power no matter how unpopular he gets."

Murphy concluded urging his colleagues to recognize our democracy is in a crisis moment and respond accordingly: "You can't see the indictment of Comey, the cancellation of Kimmel, the troops in Chicago as different events. They are all part of the same story. They are all part of a plan, a well thought out plan to try to destroy American democracy and create a new set of rules that will allow Trump and his allies to rule forever. I know this sounds extreme. It is. But if you connect the dots, if you allow yourself to see the whole story, the totality of this story, you will see the grave danger that we are in… The authoritarian takeover isn't coming. It's here. We're in the middle of it. But it is not too late for everybody to see it and for us to stop it."

A video of the speech is available HERE. A full transcript of the speech is available below.

Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues.

I think there is a tendency in this place, but probably in the country writ large, to compartmentalize each news cycle, to get outraged by every new contest to free speech or to the rule of law or to the power of Congress, but to really never see the full picture. Yesterday's assault on a particular democratic norm is forgotten, and we just wake up the next day to some new outrage. And I know that when people like me start talking about creeping authoritarianism in America, a lot of my Republican colleagues tune out. They think it's hyperbole or just politics. But I think it's time for all of us, Republicans and Democrats, to really step back and come to terms with the full picture of what is happening right now in America. I know that there are many Republicans in this chamber who are not ready to give up on democracy, but there are a group of radicals surrounding the president who have convinced him to operationalize a plan that is designed to try to crush political opposition and dissent in this country.

When democracies die, sometimes it's in a coup, sometimes it's through violence, sometimes it's the occupation of the parliament building, sometimes it's the cancellation of elections. But normally, that's not how democracies wither and vanish. In countries that have lost healthy democracy, normally, what happens is that, over time, the regime, the party in power, just contracts the space for dissent, for speech for political opposition, such that while elections still happen, the opposition party can never win. The rules get rigged, essentially, so that the party in power never ever loses. That is the plan. That is what President Trump and the radicals around him are trying to do to America.

I know that many of my colleagues aren't on board for this plan, but I worry that many of my colleagues refuse to see it in its totality, because they deal with one outrage at a time, they justify one assault at a time, without seeing the full scope of it. We aren't on the verge of an authoritarian takeover. We are in the middle of it. Now, it's not a fait accompli. It is not certain to be successful, but if we aren't clear eyed about what is happening, then we have no chance to arrest it. If my Republican colleagues don't force themselves to pull back and see the totality of what is happening to the political opposition, it's hard to see because it's not happening to you. It's happening to your colleagues. You're not in jeopardy of being arrested. My colleagues are. Your allies are not being taken down off the air. Ours are. If we don't all pull back and see this for what it is, we will wake up and there will be a day where our democracy is gone.

And so I want to talk to my colleagues today about the totality of this plan, and it really happens in five steps.

The first step is to convert the justice system into a political witch hunt operation. Every totalitarian relies on the justice system to punish dissent, but also to immunize illegality for loyalists, that's the deal you get in a totalitarian state. If you speak out against the government, well, then the legal system comes crashing down on you, but if you are loyal to the government, then you can get away with crimes.

We are seeing this at scale right now. The indictment of James Comey for no crime - not a single prosecutor in that office in Virginia would sign the indictment, not a single one, until President Trump sent his personal lawyer to take over that office, because only she would sign the indictment. We see this in the arrests that are being readied for at least one Democratic senator, for the Soros family, for the Attorney General of New York, for behavior that is not criminal, for behavior that apparently, reportedly, has been engaged in by plenty of other people. But you also see it in the way that it ultimately plays out in a very quiet way. The goal here is not to arrest everybody that opposes Donald Trump. The idea here is to just put enough fear into the ranks of those who might speak truth to power that they stay quiet.

And it's undoubtedly happening. There are undoubtedly people in this country who see what is being threatened to Senator Schiff, what has happened to James Comey, and they have just decided to remain silent. This is a tried and true tactic of a totalitarian state, is that they threaten people with arrest if they speak up, and lots of people just decide not to speak up in the first place.

But what also happens is that if you are loyal to the regime, you get away with crimes. See what happened to the mayor of New York, Eric Adams. He allegedly had committed a crime. He had committed significant corruption, but was exonerated by President Trump only after the mayor pledged his political loyalty to the president. In fact, one of the President's representatives and the mayor went on television to essentially publicly do the handshake, loyalty from the mayor to the President and exoneration of corruption from the government to the mayor.

This is how totalitarian regimes control speech. They punish through the legal system dissent. They immunize corruption amongst those who are loyal.

The second part of the plan is to eliminate free press and replace it with state-run media. Now, I don't know that I'd go so far to say that we have state-run media in the United States yet, but there is an attempt underway to try to use the vast regulatory powers of the administration to censor media. And again, the administration isn't hiding it. They are going on TV and celebrating the fact that, in the latest instance, they threatened to pull the licenses of TV stations that didn't take off the air one of the President's loudest critics, but we also see it through the consolidation of media into the hands of allies of the President. One family that has just taken control of a major media group that owns, amongst other properties, CBS, is looking to also take control of CNN and may have an ownership stake and a control stake in TikTok. That family has shown a willingness to censor content, pulling Stephen Colbert off the air, and to put in place essentially Trump-approved censors for their future news content. So you get to state-run media, not necessarily through the state owning and operating media, but by the state using its regulatory powers, its control of licenses and mergers, to make clear to the billionaire class that they can own media, that they can make a lot of money off of media, but only if it propagates Trump's narrative and suppresses criticism. It's happening right now. We're watching it happen.

The third step in the plan is to militarize law enforcement, the deployment of the military to Chicago, and to Portland, to Los Angeles, is illegal. It is illegal, but it is designed to try to, once again, quell dissent and protest. This isn't about public safety. This is about political intimidation, and you're just naive if you think that folks aren't going to be a little bit less interested in showing up at a protest if they are worried about getting roughed up by law enforcement. You are naive to think that there isn't an impact on speech when the military is patrolling your streets. The signal that is being sent is that if you speak up in opposition to this President, you are going to be greeted by troop deployments and tear gas and military helicopters.

The fourth step in this plan is seizing control of government spending and taxation, and here is where I fail to understand why there isn't bipartisan agreement, why we don't join hands. Our founding fathers saw what the British king did, using taxation and spending in order to compel loyalty to the crown, in order to punish the colonists when they rose up in defense of their rights. And so when they wrote the Constitution, they deliberately put the spending and taxation powers not in the hands of the executive, but in the hands of Congress, where every faction is represented. Thus this body is in a position to broadly protect the rights of all people.

Trump is seizing spending power from us, canceling grants unilaterally. Most recently, brazenly deciding to refuse to spend money only in the states represented by Democrats. The day after the shutdown began, they announced that they were first suspending billions of dollars worth of projects in just one city, New York City, not coincidentally, represented by the Democratic Leader in the House and the Senate. And then, hours after, they released a list of canceled energy projects, they listed the states that they were being canceled in, and every single one of those states was represented by two Democratic senators. Everybody knew what was happening. It was an effort to use the spending power seized by the executive to punish representatives of the people who oppose the president politically.

And then the fifth part of the plan is to rig the rules when the rules don't work for you. This is happening in the way that President Trump is going state by state and demanding that congressional lines be redrawn in the middle of a 10-year cycle in which traditionally, we leave lines as they are. Why? Again, he's been totally honest and transparent about it. He just wants more Republicans elected. Even if the majority of people in a particular state favor Democrats, he wants the line drawn in a way that would elect more Republicans to Congress. Now in this case, it's of course, forced Democratic states to do the same, but it was Donald Trump that started this cycle of changing the rules in order to make sure that his party stays in power no matter how unpopular he gets.

You see the same thing happening with respect to the control of information. Totalitarian states, they can't accept truth. They can't accept truth, so they try to destroy truth. Well, that's what Donald Trump is doing by banning reporters from the White House that don't toe the Trump or MAGA line. That's what they're doing in saying to reporters of the Department of Defense, you can't report on military operations unless you are given pre-approval. That's what happened to the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When the labor statistics showed that the economy wasn't good, that guy got fired, and replaced by somebody who would issue fake numbers that made the economy look better.

You convert the justice system so that it pursues your political enemies and exonerates your political loyalists for crimes. You eliminate the free press and you replace it with a state-run or state-influenced media. You militarize law enforcement. You seize control of government spending and taxation. You rig the rules of democracy in your favor. You can't see the indictment of Comey, the cancellation of Kimmel, the troops in Chicago, as different events. They are all part of the same story. They are all part of a plan, a well thought out plan to try to destroy American democracy and create a new set of rules that will allow Trump and his allies to rule forever.

I know this sounds extreme. It is. But if you connect the dots, if you allow yourself to see the whole story, the totality of this story, you will see the grave danger that we are in.

I know that it's often easiest for all of us, but probably especially for supporters of the president who still support democracy, to just assume the best instead of assuming the worst, or to just kind of close the door and batten down the hatches until the storm leaves town. But think about how we will feel if this 250-year democratic experiment disappears on our watch and we didn't do all we could as a body and as a citizenry, simply because we didn't want to face the hard reality.

The authoritarian takeover isn't coming. It's here. We're in the middle of it. But it is not too late for everybody to see it and for us to stop it.