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Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
@ChrisMurphyCT
Dec 18, 2024 • 9 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
It's happening right in front our eyes. It's accelerated rapidly in the last 24 hours. Not sure why everyone doesn't see this.

1/ Can I take a minute to connect the dots - on how Trump is putting into action a plan to cripple our democracy in a way we may never recover from?
2/ He wasn't kidding when he said Democrats were the no. 1 threat to America and needed be dealt with by law enforcement and the military.

Today House Republican's referral of Liz Cheney for criminal prosecution - on made up charges - shows you the plan.
yahoo.com/news/key-repub…
3/ Who will stand in the way of Cheney and others being put in jail?

Not DOJ. Kash Patel was chosen to lead the FBI BECAUSE he wants to prosecute Trump's opponents.

Not the courts. Trump's pliant DOJ can handpick a jurisdiction with a MAGA judge.
rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
4/ Not every Trump opponent will fold, but many will. If you have a family at home, are you really going to stand up to Trump if there's a chance you could end up in jail?

History shows that selective prosecution of a regime's opposition has a broad chilling effect.
5/ The second part of Trump's plan is to use the White House to destroy the free media. Today's lawsuit against the Des Moines Register - just because they released a poll showing a close race in Iowa - is stunning. We shouldn't pretend this is normal.
nbcnews.com/politics/2024-…
6/ Already, you see how the big media companies are giving in. ABC paid Trump $15m even though his defamation suit had no merit. Bezos told the Post to not endorse against Trump. MSNBC is up for sale because Comcast doesn't want to get in trouble.
thehill.com/media/5042894-…
7/ Sometimes Trump will win these suits because he controls the DOJ and some courts, but other times he doesn't care. After he lost one case against a journalist, he said, "I did it to make his life miserable, which I'm happy about."

He gladly admits it's about intimidation.
8/ Trump has also said he will use the FEC and regulatory agencies - all of which will be run by his blind loyalists - to intimidate news orgs. Even if he uses this power rarely, media companies have already shown they are reluctant to put up a fight.
cnn.com/2024/10/22/med…
9/ Is there a chance this is all show and bluster? Maybe, but the developments of just the last few days - ABC's bogus settlement, the referral of Cheney for prosecution, Trump's suit against the Register - all point to this being very, very real.

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More from @ChrisMurphyCT

Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Apr 17
The Trump-Supreme Court battle is not really the crisis.

The crisis is here now. Trump is enacting an insidious coordinated attack on our institutions of democratic accountability, designed to crater democracy before next fall.

1/ A long 🧵to explain the plan & how we stop it.
2/ First, just know that MAGA has given up on democracy. Wish it weren't true but it is. They would rather MAGA rule forever than run a fair election where a Democrat might win.

This isn't some vengeance campaign. It's a brazen effort to end democracy.
rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
3/ MAGA doesn't want democracy because they want power forever. But also to get away with the thievery and corruption.

A true democracy would hold Trump accountable for the mass scale corruption - the crypto coin, the insider trading, the Musk self dealing etc. Image
Read 16 tweets
Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Apr 14
Bone chilling.

A court ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia to stay in the United States.

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that he was illegally removed. Trump is pretending he won the ruling 9-0.

1/ You may not think this case means anything to you. But let me tell you why it does.
2/ Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. over 10 years ago. He married a U.S. citizen and has three U.S. citizen children.

But he put in removal proceedings because he didn't apply for asylum in time and because of alleged ties to drug gangs. He denies any gang affiliation.
3/ You can think whatever you want about the merits of him staying (his U.S. family, his steady job) or being deported (the alleged gang affiliation), there's really only one key fact:

A court ruled he CANNOT be deported to El Salvador bc he would face threat of death there.
Read 8 tweets
Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Apr 11
In the wake of the stunning news that Trump is planning to take over Columbia University, I hope you’ll watch this speech I gave yesterday.

It details Trump’s plan to destroy democracy’s organs of accountability and dissent: the press, universities and lawyers.

1/ Intro
2/ The press is always the first target of an elected leader who wants to destroy dissent and stay in power forever. But Trump doesn’t just harass journalists; he tries to destroy the very idea of objective truth.
3/ The universities are next. Columbia is just the first target. Trump is trying to suppress student protest by forcing the universities to control campus speech. A key tool of autocrats.
Read 6 tweets
Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Apr 3
Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive.

No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.

1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.
2/ This week you will read many confused economists and political pundits who won’t understand how the tariffs make economic sense.

That’s because they don’t. They aren’t designed as economic policy. The tariffs are simply a new, super dangerous political tool.
3/ You see, our founders created a President with limited and checked powers. They specifically put the power of spending and taxation in the hands of the legislature.

Why? Because they watched how kings and despots used spending and taxes to control their subjects.
Read 11 tweets
Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Mar 20
The fight for our democracy is not coming. It is here.

When I say that we have months, not a year, to save democracy, I'm talking about this coordinated, relentless legal assault on political dissent.

1/ Let me explain a few elements of Trump's plan:
nytimes.com/2025/03/19/us/…
2/ It started with the endorsement of political violence. By pardoning the Jan 6th protesters, Trump sent a clear signal that violence on his behalf would be protected.

Of course this quells citizens' enthusiasm to join the opposition - if there is a chance they could get hurt.
3/ Trump put his political fixers in charge of DoJ to hunt his political opposition. For instance, the D.C. U.S. Attorney is trolling critics online threatening arrest and pledging to arrest anyone who "interferes" (not a crime btw) with DOGE. newrepublic.com/post/191087/us…
Read 6 tweets
Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Mar 15
Another unconstitutional power grab by Trump. And in invoking "wartime authority", we get closer to the collapse of our democracy.

1/ A short 🧵on why this declaration should put us high alert, and cause our opposition tactics to stop being bound by dead "norms".
2/ The 1798 Alien Enemies Act allows the President to detain and remove - without due process - all non citizens (student, tourists, long term green card holders, spouses of citizens).

It's to be used against citizens of a nation that's at war with the U.S.. A "wartime" power.
3/ That's why it's only been invoked 3 times:

- The War of 1812
- World War One
- World War Two

It's never been used during peacetime and is not allowed to be used during peacetime.
Read 7 tweets

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