As President Donald Trump’s administration grows more controversial, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi is calling out the Democratic Party for letting the country down with lax leadership.
“Avoiding hard truths is not how you save democracy,” Velshi said Saturday on “Velshi on MSNBC.” “America has been badly let down by the leadership of the Democratic Party, and in my view, it’s time for some of those leaders to step aside and let people who are prepared to fight, fight. Fight so hard that they might break something.”
As Trump’s legislative efforts and executive orders bring forth more contention among legislators in both the Republican and Democratic parties, Velshi states now is the time for someone to step up, especially if current Democratic leadership won’t.
“Right now it’s in dire need of defense and it needs defenders who are willing to do whatever it takes,” Velshi said. “True, democracy also requires the competition of ideas. When that does not exist, political parties stop functioning properly. And when even one of our two main parties stops functioning, democracy itself is put at risk.”
He continued: “We all know by now that the Republican party is no longer a functioning political party in America. It is a fully captured vessel of authoritarianism, which makes it even more vital that the Democratic Party rise to this moment defense of our democracy. But whether national Democratic leadership is unwilling or some simple unable to do so, they are largely not rising to this moment.”
As Velshi started to close up his thoughts, he pointed out there are figures in the Democratic Party who ready to rise to the occasion as a glimmer of hope against Trump.
“Let the fighters step in and take over because I see the light. I see the energy and the will out there,” Velshi said. “I see it in Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, who are taking on Trump and the Republican Party in ways the Democratic leadership in Washington seems unwilling to do. I see it in Bernie Sanders drawing crowds of tens of thousands in his full-throated fight against oligarchy. I see it in Alexandria Cortez, who from the moment she was elected to the House in 2018, has never shied away from loudly speaking her mind and shaking things up.”
On Friday, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ruled that Trump illegally went beyond his powers as president as it relates to his tariff policies.
In a 7-4 ruling, the court said U.S. law “bestows significant authority on the president to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax.”
Despite the decision, Trump took to social media to state that the “tariffs are still in effect.”
If allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America,” Trump said. “At the start of this Labor Day weekend, we should all remember that TARIFFS are the best tool to help our Workers, and support Companies that produce great MADE IN AMERICA products.”
