Trump impeachment news conference held by Rep. Al Green — FOX 10 Phoenix

[0:12] We're here. [0:12] We're here. [0:21] People talk. [0:29] Boys, look at this. [0:30] They're just sliding over. [0:32] They're fucking coming in their pants waiting for us right now. [0:35] They can't even help it. [0:36] They're like having a wet dream going, oh, they're going to use their voice. [0:39] I got to get something. [0:41] And then something else. [0:43] And I don't know if there's something else. [0:44] They're wrapping up. [0:45] I love it. [0:45] I love it. [0:46] I love it. [0:47] I love it. [0:48] I love it. [0:50] But they've left her off. [0:53] How many of you were here on January 10th? [0:57] You know why? [1:09] I don't know. [1:11] I don't know. [1:13] I think it's all right. [1:20] Yeah, I know. [1:21] What is your name? [1:22] How many of you are? [1:24] He's on Google Drive. [1:25] Oh no, the media area is so hot. [1:31] Everyone has gone home, but they're here for them. [1:41] You're too worried. [1:56] Tell Ian to come back here. [2:09] Ian! [2:12] Ian! [2:17] We have one thing that we can be counted on. [2:24] Who is the right four seven and seven or six. [2:28] Join the person with the George Peter. [2:32] The signatories. [2:34] Look at that guy. [2:35] Look at these people. [2:37] The only thing that can. [2:40] I mean, I did them both. [2:42] Overachiever. [2:44] They started, you know, when they were charged. [2:46] You were there. [2:47] They were charged. [2:48] They were like, no. [2:49] Like when he was out in Minnesota. [2:50] When they were just charging every 40 minutes. [2:51] We got to get that door. [2:53] Yeah. [2:54] I don't want to sign. [2:57] All right, guys. [2:58] We'll give you all fun. [2:59] We'll see. [3:00] What's happening? [3:01] What's happening? [3:02] What's happening? [3:03] What's happening? [3:04] What's happening? [3:05] I can hear. [3:07] I want to walk. [3:08] Come back. [3:09] Come back. [3:10] Come back. [3:11] I can tell you. [3:13] When you break the fucking wall. [3:16] Come here, Tom. [3:17] We can have been. [3:19] There are more people here. [3:32] That's a great state fair. [3:34] Yeah, that's a good point. [3:37] If we went to the league, double those numbers right now. [3:40] We could double the night. [3:41] Literally. [3:42] They had tens of people. [3:43] Are you going back to New Jersey? [3:44] I'm going to start. [3:45] I'm going to start. [3:46] I'm going to start. [3:47] I'm going to start. [3:48] I'm going to start. [3:49] Hey, Amanda. [3:50] Is it still running? [3:51] Okay. [3:52] That's what I'm saying. [3:56] Yeah. [4:01] Yeah. [4:02] Yeah. [4:03] Absolutely. [4:04] As long as we go, you guys, we're safe from Minnesota. [4:07] I think it's a thousand. [4:10] We're not going to stop. [4:12] I have no more. [4:13] I'm not going to stop. [4:14] No, there's nothing. [4:15] No, there's nothing. [4:16] No, there's nothing I want. [4:17] Well, you can't, there's nothing. [4:18] I'm not... [4:19] ...what's wrong with that. [4:20] And I did risk putting for me and that member in jeopardy. [4:27] Uh, I don't want to do that as well. [4:32] Allison here long time. [4:33] No. [4:34] See how you been? [4:35] Um, you know, it's too cold out there. [4:38] Yeah. [5:08] Good afternoon, everybody. [5:31] Thank you for enduring this sweltering, swampy Washington, D.C. heat to be with us here today. [5:37] My name is Jessica Denson, and I'm the founder of the Removal Coalition. [5:43] This is an organization that I brought together of grassroots activists just over a year ago [5:48] to bring the explicit demand of impeachment, conviction, and removal to the protest space. [5:56] We are approaching our 250-year anniversary of this democracy in crisis [6:02] with a counter-revolution against the Declaration of Independence. [6:09] Many of the violations of the rights of the signers of the Declaration of Independence [6:14] against King George III are the same acts being committed by this illegal regime today. [6:21] There is one constitutional mechanism that gets us out of this in a bloodless manner, [6:29] and that is Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, the Impeachment Clause. [6:34] So far, the vast majority of our members of Congress have betrayed the American people [6:44] in their willingness to uphold their oath to that Constitution. [6:49] So far, there is precisely one congressman, a congressman who is standing with us here today, [6:56] Representative Al Green of the great state of Texas, [6:59] who has been willing to both file articles of impeachment and force a vote. [7:05] Let me be clear. [7:07] Articles of impeachment filed without a forced vote are performative. [7:12] They are not meaningful. [7:15] They must be voted on. [7:17] That is how we move the needle. [7:18] This should be happening on a daily basis. [7:21] That is how you put pressure on these complicit individuals in the building behind me. [7:29] Now, we are gathered here today, as you saw in the press release, [7:33] because there is going to be an unprecedented act of bravery unveiled at this press conference, [7:39] something that has not been done in this administration. [7:43] I spoke about the oath the individuals behind me have taken, the individuals in that building. [7:51] There's also an oath very similar that our military has taken. [7:56] Every single member of the armed forces to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. [8:03] So far, no active duty member of the military has spoken out against Donald Trump [8:12] and condemned his actions and called for his impeachment and removal. [8:16] That is going to change here today. [8:20] In a few moments after our esteemed speakers also speak to you about the gravity of this moment, [8:28] you are going to be acquainted with somebody who is putting everything on the line for this country. [8:34] A 17-year military career, multiple medals of honor. [8:41] This is the example of sacrifice that members of Congress need to see and confront. [8:48] They need to confront the betrayal of every man and woman in uniform [8:54] that has put their lives on the line to defend our rights and our freedom over the past 250 years. [9:00] We're bringing it to their doorstep today. [9:04] I want to start off with introducing one of also somebody who served this country, a veteran of the Air Force. [9:13] She is the co-founder of one of our core and essential members at the Removal Coalition, Citizens Impeachment, [9:20] which has been engaged in nonstop lobbying from coast to coast in every state of members of Congress to just do their damn job. [9:30] I'm very grateful to be standing beside her here today and have to have stood beside her in this fight for over a year now. [9:38] Please join me in welcoming Air Force veteran Kira Havens. [9:48] Hi, friends. Can everybody hear me okay? [9:52] My name is Kira Havens. I am a veteran of the United States Air Force. [9:56] When I was active duty, my job was to launch nuclear missiles at the direction of the president. [10:01] I was an ICBM crew commander. [10:05] That institution, that weapon system, that trust that I was required to place in our country required a statesman at the helm. [10:15] It required a president who could think beyond themselves, who could think about America and its place in the world [10:22] and its place in global, as a global power responsible to its citizens. [10:29] We do not have that today. [10:32] For 18 months, this Congress has sat by and watched while this destructive president and his administration has engaged in tyranny, [10:45] trampling the rights of individuals, of Congress itself, of our allies. [10:50] While he has engaged in treason, assembling men for the purpose of revolutionizing the government by force. [10:59] While he has engaged in obstruction of justice, in particular his refusal to seek justice in the case of Epstein. [11:09] And they have stood by while massive corruption has taken place at every level of the government. [11:17] In all of this, Congress, who has more power than the individual citizens, who has the power to initiate impeachment and pursue it on their own. [11:30] To say, for the good of the country, we must step up and defend the Constitution against this leader, this domestic enemy, [11:40] that is hollowing out the country from the inside. [11:45] Instead, they have sat by and done nothing. [11:48] And as we all know, all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. [11:59] We need folks who are willing to take action, who are willing to step up, who are willing to sacrifice for the good of the country and its citizens. [12:07] There are people out there who will take this step. [12:13] And one of them is here with us today. [12:14] I'm deeply honored to be here. [12:17] Thank you so much. [12:18] Now, I know we're kind of living in a little bit of a twilight zone here, where most of the activists and the people that you see here today do not understand [12:35] why our typical politicians and media treat this, treat every day of this illegal regime as just another day in American politics. [12:45] Why they think they can talk about impeachment like some fringe idea or like something that can be punted until after the midterms. [12:53] How many people are going to die between now and the midterms in Trump's illegal war in the concentration camps that are currently filled at three times the rate that they were in 1939 in Nazi Germany? [13:06] How many more extrajudicial murders are going to happen on the Caribbean? [13:10] How many more prosecutions illegally will be brought by this corrupt Department of Justice? [13:16] How much suffering has to happen because these people do not want to do their jobs? [13:22] I want to remind everyone that our mission and our campaign here at the Removal Coalition and Remove the Regime Citizens Impeachment, [13:31] you can visit us at removetheregime.com, is to pressure members of Congress to act now, not after the midterms, now, [13:39] to file and force votes on articles of impeachment. [13:41] There are currently 13 articles that were filed back in April when Trump made his genocidal threats against Iran by Representative John Larson of Connecticut. [13:53] I want to know why Representative Larson has not invoked Rule 9 like Representative Al Green and forced a vote on those articles. [14:01] We are here today to demand that Representative Larson invoke Rule 9 as soon as this House gets back in session. [14:08] Now, we are very privileged today to be joined by someone who is actually one of the drafters of those articles that are currently on file in the House. [14:17] He is somebody who has been instrumental in the impeachment fight, the fight for accountability, honestly, for decades, [14:24] because what we're witnessing right now is the result of so many generations of impunity when it comes to the utilization of Article 2, Section 4. [14:33] He works with Ralph Nader, also a tireless advocate, and I'm really honored to have him here with me today, constitutional scholar Bruce Fine. [14:42] Well, thank you for that generous introduction. [14:50] I always feel compelled to alert the audience that nothing was said under oath. [14:55] You're able to exaggerate. [14:58] I've been involved in the impeachment process ever since Watergate in 1973, [15:06] and I remember the courage at that time that I witnessed, which was an inspiration. [15:11] This is October 20th, 1973. [15:16] At the Justice Department, a call comes from the White House, General Alexander Haig, [15:22] and he says in the imitation of a country we dare not mention, [15:27] your commander-in-chief has given you an order, fire Archibald Cox. [15:31] He's getting too close to the presidency. [15:34] The Attorney General at that time was Elliot Richardson. [15:36] He said, well, no, I'm not firing Archibald Cox. I'll resign. [15:40] He was followed by William Ruckelshaus and many others. [15:42] The American people wrote in 40,000, 50,000 telegrams a day to Congress [15:49] demanding that there be a new special prosecutor investigating the crimes of President Nixon [15:54] or he would be impeached and removed from office. [15:59] It was that generation of public support that carried the day. [16:02] You remember Mr. Nixon in 1972? [16:05] He won 49 out of 50 states, 524 electoral votes, over 61% of the popular vote. [16:12] He was out of office in 16 months. [16:14] He resigned because the American people and Congress did what they needed to do. [16:19] Now, the chief charge against President Nixon was obstruction of justice, [16:23] which under Mr. Trump is a way of life. [16:26] It's really every day. [16:27] It's not a unique cover-up of a burglary of the Democratic National Committee. [16:32] And I think there's an additional way to look at the imperative of impeaching and removing Mr. Trump from office [16:40] because if what he does goes with impunity, he will have set a precedent that lies around like a loaded weapon [16:48] for any despot to come in and overthrow the republic. [16:52] You remember he famously told the New York Times, [16:55] the only check on my power, only, not the Constitution, not the rule of law, not even a supreme being, [17:02] is his own moral conscience. [17:03] And he acts accordingly. [17:05] That's the only check. [17:07] What about his oath of office? [17:09] It's enshrined in Article 2, Section 2, [17:11] to uphold, defend, and preserve the Constitution of the United States. [17:14] Now, I think I can underscore the urgency of our mission here today by raising the hypothetical. [17:22] Suppose Donald Trump was there on July 4, 1776. [17:28] And there's a choice. [17:28] He can, like the 56 signatories, sign his death warrant to preserve unalienable rights to life, liberty, [17:37] and the pursuit of happiness, government by the consent of the governed. [17:40] That's one choice. [17:41] The other choice is to align himself with King George III. [17:45] He kind of has an affinity for despots and kings anyway. [17:48] He likes to dress up like them and at least have de facto a crown. [17:53] Now, can anyone in this audience say with any confidence that he would have joined the signatories of the Declaration of Independence and signed his death warrant? [18:03] You know what the answer is, which means that we have a president in the White House who is more Benedict Arnold than George Washington. [18:13] That should be conclusive immediately. [18:16] Now, I want to say a few words about Al Green, a man of heroic stature. [18:23] And I'm reminded he's the one person who has stood up, forced to vote on impeachment. [18:28] He's lonely now, but I want to remind everyone here and Al, [18:32] There are only two members of Congress who voted against the calamitous Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 8, 1964, Wayne Morris and Ernest Gruen. [18:45] The two out of all members of Congress, yet they got it right. [18:48] They're heroized. [18:49] At least they got it right. [18:51] And Al Green, if you have to be the first one to get it right, you've understood and recognized you're willing to take that risk. [19:00] I'd like to, however, go above the members of Congress to the American people. [19:07] When Benjamin Franklin exited the Constitutional Convention, he was asked by Ms. Powell, [19:13] Well, what have you given us, a republic or a monarchy? [19:17] And he responded, a republic if you can keep it, meaning we the people need to keep the republic. [19:23] By forcing pressure on Congress through our votes, through our advocacy. [19:27] It's ultimately the American people who are going to make Congress awaken to their duty. [19:35] Having worked in this institution for perhaps 50 years, no, they do not have a conscience that will work on its own. [19:43] They won't do the right thing unless the right thing is what the people demand. [19:48] And that's where I think the ball rests in addition to members of Congress. [19:52] It's up to us talking to our friends, talking to our family, talking in the church, in the mosque, in the synagogue, elsewhere. [20:00] We have to rid this person again. [20:02] He is Benedict Arnold, not George Washington. [20:05] Can we survive a Benedict Arnold in the White House? [20:09] So the last words go back to Abraham Lincoln in the middle of the Civil War and the Gettysburg Address. [20:17] You know, the world will little note nor long remember what I say, but it will surely never forget what the American people and Congress do here. [20:26] And he added, then, as is true today, we shall nobly save or meanly lose the best less hope on earth. [20:36] Thank you. [20:43] Thank you, Bruce. [20:43] He just spoke about the need for people to show this pressure. [20:48] These people don't do their jobs on their own. [20:50] They only react to our pressure on them. [20:54] That was the whole reason why I recognize this need for the Removal Coalition. [20:59] And our esteemed guest is going to talk today so much about the power and need for people to apply this pressure. [21:05] I just want to put a call out here right now to fellow activists while I have your captive attention. [21:11] Again, this was the goal of the Removal Coalition in its inception. [21:14] You cannot guess that when you mass mobilize people on the streets that your demand is going to be known without explicitly stating it. [21:24] The will is here in this country for Trump's impeachment and removal. [21:29] Over 55 percent. [21:30] That's a historic high rivaling the time when Nixon resigned and Trump's second impeachment after his deadly insurrection on this building. [21:39] There is the will. [21:41] It just has to be articulated. [21:44] I'm talking to you, Ezra and Leah of Indivisible. [21:48] I'm talking to the national organizers of 5051. [21:51] I'm talking to anyone with massive platforms and massive reach to explicitly demand impeachment and removal through their platforms, through their mass protests. [22:07] Can you imagine, we did this at the Removal Coalition, we called for 328, the last No Kings, for everyone to adopt Impeach, Convict, Remove. [22:16] Can you imagine instead of being called No Kings, if it were called Impeach, Convict, Remove the regime? [22:23] And the entire span of media coverage on those nationwide events of millions of people were telling the world that the people were demanding Trump's removal? [22:33] It would be an entirely different construct for the way these members of Congress have to react. [22:39] We've been giving them cover, and we need to stop doing that. [22:42] And anybody in the organizing space who is not doing that is helping these people get away with their betrayal. [22:51] So on that note, we have somebody today, as I mentioned, who is putting it all on the line, [22:58] who is going to be living proof to you right here in the flesh that there is not a second to waste, [23:05] that we cannot afford to live in our comforts and our complacency. [23:12] This man is a U.S. Air Force major. [23:15] He is currently on leave from his commission post as a logistics readiness officer in Poland. [23:21] He has spent much of his 17 years in Europe, all over the globe, defending this country, working with NATO, [23:30] understanding what an oath to protect and defend the Constitution means. [23:36] He came to us at the Removal Coalition back in February and asked us to create this event for him, [23:45] to create this unveiling, because he does not want this to be in vain. [23:50] I'm talking to all of you and to everybody watching today. [23:56] The question of whether or not his sacrifice, his risk of prosecution, [24:02] his potential forfeiture of the benefits of an entire 17-year career in the military is worth it, [24:10] is whether you follow through with the pressure that is needed on Congress to impeach, convict, and remove. [24:17] Please, without further ado, join me in welcoming, it is my great honor and privilege, [24:24] to welcome to this conference Major Jason Watson. [24:38] Hello, everyone. Thank you for being here. [24:42] First and foremost, I'd like to thank Jessica Denson for making all of this possible. [24:48] Thank you, Jessica. You are a hero and a patriot. [24:54] Thank you to Representative Al Green for being here for this moment and lending his support. [24:59] I'm grateful for the support of the many groups represented here that believe in the message I am here to share with you. [25:09] I'm also grateful beyond words for my friends and allies that have helped me navigate my way to this point, [25:16] investing much of their time, effort, and advice. [25:21] A tremendous thank you to the defenders of our republic community, [25:24] whether they are here now with me or out there doing the work needed [25:29] to restore responsible governance to our country. [25:33] Lastly, a heartfelt thank you to my parents, whom I love more than they know, [25:42] for doing such an incredible job raising me to be the man I am today. [25:49] My name is Jason Watson. I'm an active duty major in the United States Air Force. [25:53] However, who I am is immaterial. In the grand scheme of things, I'm just a nobody. [26:00] What matters far more than who I am is what I have to say and the price I'm willing to pay to say it. [26:07] I, Jason Paul Watson, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States [26:14] against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, [26:21] that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, [26:26] and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I'm about to enter. [26:31] So help me God. I first swore this oath over 20 years ago upon entering basic cadet training at the United States Air Force Academy [26:42] in late June of 2005. I've repeated it many times over since then. [26:49] The oath of office means everything to me. It is foundational to our system of governance in the United States. [26:55] The oath ensures that officials of our government owe allegiance not to any individual or political party, [27:04] but to our Constitution and the Democratic Republic it represents. [27:12] Our Constitution binds us all together as Americans. [27:17] Like countless veterans before me and military members serving now, [27:21] I have devoted my life in service to our Democratic Republic, [27:24] always doing my best to honor my oath and protect America against foreign threats. [27:33] But the greatest threat to our Democratic Republic is not a foreign one. [27:38] It is us. We the people. [27:41] Not just the left or just the right or just the center. [27:46] All of us together define who we are as Americans. [27:53] And like it or not, we have all played a part, myself included, [27:57] in getting ourselves into this mess we are all in. [28:00] The burden of that culpability is much heavier for some amongst us than others. [28:09] Undeniably, and for those with a lion's share of guilt, [28:13] such as those currently running the executive branch of the government, [28:16] the bill must come due. [28:19] But all of us have a share. [28:22] For the past 18 months, we the people have allowed the highest levels [28:26] of the executive branch of the federal government to violate our Constitution [28:35] and their oaths to it with impunity. [28:38] When the President of the United States orders military action against foreign countries, [28:45] absent an emergency scenario where American interests are under imminent dire threat, [28:52] as was done with Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran, [28:56] that's an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress's authority [29:00] and a violation of the War Powers Clause. [29:02] These violations resulted in the deaths of 13 service members and injuries of hundreds more. [29:11] For this, the President and Vice President must be impeached, convicted, and removed. [29:16] When the President of the United States grants an unelected mega-donor sweeping authority [29:27] to shut down large swaths of our federal government, [29:30] along with unrestricted access to our government databases, [29:33] that's an unconstitutional circumvention of Congress's advise and consent authority [29:39] under the Appointments Clause [29:41] and Congress's power of the purse under the Appropriations Clause. [29:46] These violations exposed every American's personal sensitive data [29:50] to leaks and exploitation, [29:52] illegally terminated tens of thousands of federal civil servants, [29:56] and crippled support to Americans for medical care and disaster preparedness, [30:03] and by far most tragically, [30:05] resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of the world's most impoverished people [30:09] with inhumanly abrupt cessation of U.S. aid. [30:13] For this, the President and Vice President must be impeached, convicted, and removed. [30:20] When the President of the United States directs the Department of Homeland Security [30:27] to deny hundreds of people any due process before illegally detaining them [30:32] and sending them to a foreign prison notorious for human rights abuses, [30:36] that's a violation of our Fifth and Eighth Amendment rights. [30:41] Most people sent to Seacott never committed any violent crimes in their entire lives, [30:47] but are being defamed as violent criminals to this day [30:51] as a pretext for the torture they suffered in El Salvador, [30:56] paid for with U.S. taxpayer dollars. [30:58] For this, the President and Vice President must be impeached, convicted, and removed. [31:10] When the President of the United States sponsors violence on the American people, [31:14] engaged in their constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest, [31:19] that's a violation of our First Amendment rights. [31:22] Pastors praying for DHS agents violently attacked without provocation, [31:27] a legal observer losing an eye after being shot with a non-lethal by an ICE agent, [31:33] a woman attempting to follow chaotic and contradictory DHS agent instructions, [31:40] fatally gunned down. [31:41] A subdued man that posed no threat, fatally shot after having his unbrandished firearm removed, [31:49] with statements by high-ranking Cabinet members also violating our Second Amendment rights. [31:56] For this, the President and Vice President must be impeached, convicted, and removed. [32:00] There are innumerable more impeachable offenses that I could cover. [32:09] Denying congressional oversight of immigrant detention centers that look increasingly like Seacott. [32:14] Suing institutions like media, colleges, and law firms for billions of dollars [32:19] while abusing the authorities of the executive branch agencies to extort settlements. [32:24] Allowing a mega-donor to advertise products on the White House front lawn. [32:31] Trading pardons for donations. [32:33] Levying illegal tariffs.