During a town hall on Monday, Rhode Island Democratic lawmakers were asked if they agree with Sen. Chris Murphy's (D-CT) belief that the United States is currently in a constitutional crisis.
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00:00As a former Connecticut resident, I have been very impressed with Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy.
00:07He has loudly proclaimed that we are currently in a constitutional crisis.
00:18I am asking are the three of you willing to stand with the Senator from Connecticut?
00:23Use the term constitutional crisis, and when you vote no against bills that come across your floors that are indeed in violation of our Constitution,
00:35will you not only vote no, but loudly explain why you are voting no?
00:45I'm more than happy to do that.
00:47As you know, I'm also something of a lawyer and prosecutor, so I look at it in those terms.
00:54And one of the things that I see is, by and large, the judicial branch is standing up.
01:06And that is worth cherishing.
01:09When it fails, and in this case, it rots from the head down.
01:14It fails from the Supreme Court down.
01:17But you look at district judges like Jack McConnell and Mary McElroy here in Rhode Island.
01:23You look at the judges who are now looking at investigating criminal contempt against Trump lawyers who lied to them in court.
01:33You look at the judges who are working through boring, tedious, administrative procedures act violation cases that are going to bring out the discovery, the facts that allow us to prove a winning case in November from now.
01:54And scare Republicans of being more sensible starting now as they see that shift beginning to happen.
02:01I think that we've got to recognize that the constitutional crisis is in the Oval Office.
02:08Most of our courts have done their jobs, and I want to make sure that I support them as much as I can, and recognize the good work that they do when they do it, and make sure that the Marshal Service is not only protecting them adequately, but also investigating that apparatus of threats and abuse that is being deployed strategically against them.
02:37It ain't for nothing that suddenly pizzas got delivered to dozens of federal judges' homes with the names of the child of the judge who was murdered as the name on the pizza delivery.
02:57That didn't just happen at once.
02:58That didn't just happen at once.
02:59Somebody had that plan, and we need to investigate into that.
03:03So I think there's a lot of good work that still can be done, and yes, there's a constitutional crisis happening in the Oval Office, but we've got to win this thing rather than just call it different names, in my view.
03:16And I'm all in on winning this thing.
03:19We are in a constitutional crisis, there's no doubt about that.
03:23It started the day Trump took office and showed utter contempt for the law, for example, firing IGs.
03:33The law says you have to give Congress six months notice and cause nothing.
03:40But the Rubicon, when we cross from this dangerous situation into perhaps chaos or perhaps salvation, if the Supreme Court rules clearly against him with no wiggle room and he does not follow that, then that's where our Republican colleagues have to stand up and say no more.
04:09No more.
04:10And I hope we don't reach that point.
04:13And I think the court is moving in a way carefully but slowly.
04:19The first was Chief Justice Roberts' letter to him saying don't attack my judges.
04:26That was important.
04:28Second was their order saying you've got to bring back Mr. Garcia.
04:34The third was just recently when they said no more deportations and the key there, seven to two.
04:44If John Roberts is seven to two, he will find the case that ASD says you're going to knock this off.
04:52Then it's all of our responsibility, particularly Republicans and particularly the intellectual legal theorists in the Republican Party to say no president can devise the Supreme Court.
05:05And that's what we have to start getting them to think about and do.
05:10Can I do this?
05:11And I just want to, only because I think you asked for all three of us.
05:17Yes, we're in a constitutional crisis.
05:19And I think one step beyond this is we do need every organ of our country to be vocal.
05:30And, you know, I think that it's great to hear from Democratic members of the House and the Senate insufficient.
05:36It would be great to hear from Republican colleagues.
05:38But, you know, what turns up the pressure, I think, is having private sector leaders, having leaders from higher end,
05:46having every single organ that's affected rather than collaborating with them, as you've seen from these, you know, white sheet law firms in New York,
05:54the collaborating and thinking that we're operating at normal will not suffice and won't work,
06:03because ultimately it goes back to that streak of he wants to be the king and have everybody go and beg him for permission to exist.
06:12And so I think it's utterly important, yes, to acknowledge that it's a constitutional crisis,
06:17but it's got to be in every realm of our lives, that recognition, because if it's limited to the elected officials
06:26and to the folks in government, I believe that's insufficient.
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