Alex Padilla

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to say I am extremely outraged that the executive branch's security team has shoved a U.S. Senator out of a room, has proceeded to put that U.S. Senator on the ground and to handcuff that Senator. This is what we expect to see in authoritarian nations that can't tolerate a question, and they start to attack the institutions.

What we are seeing in the United States right now, we are seeing it in the form of the President willfully breaking the law on the rules controlling the executive branch, time and time again. We see it in his attack on the press, his attack on the universities, his attack on extorting law firms. We see it in the form of him using the Trump v. United States lawsuit to say: I, the President, am above the law, and I could issue pardons to the whole executive branch, who is above the law.

That is not the way it works in a republic. At least, it is not the way it works if we are a republic.

If we, through a subservient Congress and in combination with a deferential Supreme Court, slide into this authoritarian state, then we have failed our oath to the Constitution.

It is absolutely wrong that any U.S. Senator, for attempting to ask a question, be treated in this fashion.

I double down on the call of Leader Schumer. This merits a full bipartisan investigation--bipartisan because all of us are Members of the legislative branch. All of us have taken an oath to the Constitution, and all of us should stand up for each other and certainly our ability to explore the policies of this administration.

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