Spare me the make believe indignation from Republicans about the Afghanistan evacuation.
1/ Here's the story of the relentless Republican effort (led by President Trump) to undermine and destroy the programs that help bring Afghan refugees to the U.S.
2/ Over the last decade, Republicans have pushed to intentionally create a massive backlog in the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program - the one we use to bring Afghan partners to America, by putting onerous conditions on the applications.
3/ In 2016, Obama asked to increase the cap for the SIV program. Senate Republicans objected.
Then, the Trump Admin started slowing down SIV processing. When Biden took over, there were 10,000 unfilled visas, despite 17,000 applications in the pipeline.
4/ This dovetailed with the assault by Trump and Republicans to destroy other refugee programs that bring Afghans to the U.S..
Obama admitted over 2,700 Afghan refugees. Trump admitted 400, bc he had dismantled the refugee system. Biden had to rebuild it.
5/ And today Trump Republicans are making it clear they will oppose bringing more Afghan refugees to the U.S..
Steven Miller: "Resettling [Afghans] in America is not about solving a humanitarian crisis; it’s about accomplishing an ideological objective to change America,”
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2/ First, let's remember how this started. Trump rolls into office proclaiming that China is stealing U.S. manufacturing jobs and he's going to put tariffs on Chinese goods in order to force China to play by trade rules and bring jobs back to the U.S..
3/ So where were are we at going into the Trump-Xi meeting? The U.S. put tariffs on Chinese goods. The cost to an Americans family of Trump's tariffs have been about $3800 so far this year. Just devastating.
Trump's supporters say we call his policies "racist" too casually.
But let me tell the story of a new policy - about to be unveiled - that is racist on its face.
1/ A short thread on Trump's reported new "whites only" refugee policy. It's truly vile. nytimes.com/2025/10/15/us/…
2/ We began formally accepting refugees in the aftermath of WWII. Since then, we’ve provided lifesaving shelter for millions displaced by persecution and war, many targeted for their faith.
In modern times, President Reagan saved the most refugees, admitting around 210,000.
3/ Trump plans to drastically slash the numbers of refugees admitted.
But it gets worse. The new policy reportedly will effectively allow only white foreigners to qualify. If you're not white, you get turned away.
We aren't on the verge of an authoritarian takeover. We are in the middle of it.
But I worry people don't see the whole scheme. They just pay attention to each new daily outrage. So I went to the Senate floor to explain Trump's plan.
Here's a 🧵of the speech. It's important.
Step 1 of the plan:
Turn the justice system into a political witch hunt operation that punishes critics for free speech and immunizes loyalists for actual criminality.
Step 2 of the plan:
Use government power to compel the media to tell only the regime's narrative and to silence critics.
The Kimmel suspension is a much bigger deal than you know.
It's really about a growing alliance between Trump and the companies that own America's local TV stations - like Nexstar - to turn local TV into Trump propaganda.
1/ Let me tell you the short story. It's chilling.
2/ In August, Nexstar announced they wanted to buy another TV station company, Tegna.
But that's illegal - because it would give Nexstar control of stations in nearly half the country. FCC rules prohibit ONE company from having THAT much control over local TV content.
3/ Why? Because one company shouldn't control local speech in half the country.
Also, we want our local TV stations to be run by local actors to preserve local identity and prevent our culture from becoming soullessly flattened - which Nexstar was already doing!
The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent.
2/ Leaders across the political spectrum have spoken out about the need to depoliticize our fight against violence. GOP Governor Spencer Cox has led the way.
3/ Here is the latest post from Laura Loomer, who clearly has the ear of President Trump, calling on Trump to use dictatorial powers to destroy his political opposition. This kind of rhetoric is gaining traction in MAGA world, and Trump is now echoing it.