00:00Governor Gavin Newsom also denounced any violence, any vandalism, chaos that is taken too far.
00:06He wants peaceful protests, but I want to read something that he said.
00:10He sued the administration over federalizing the National Guard.
00:15He called it authoritarianism and thuggish behavior.
00:18And he said, it's time for all of us to stand up.
00:20And then he added, what Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence.
00:25To be complicit in this moment, do not give in to him.
00:28What do you make of that?
00:29I mean, what do you think people, and especially Californians, you're in California now.
00:33What do you think they should do, especially this weekend when more protests are expected?
00:38I would be peaceful, but I would exercise your First Amendment right to voice your opinion.
00:47And it's very simple that since 1776, we have not had a monarchy.
00:54We have had a republic.
00:55In fact, at the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what had been created, a monarchy, a republic.
01:03And he said, a republic, if you can keep it.
01:06And it's up to all of us in this country, as citizens of this country, to keep it in this moment where it's being tested, as it hasn't been since the Civil War, really.
01:18And it's a scary time.
01:20It's a scary time.
01:22I honestly, I try not to be an alarmist.
01:25I try not to exaggerate.
01:28I have always in my career tried to work across Seattle in good faith with people.
01:32I even did that this past week, as difficult as it was.
01:36But what we're seeing right now is something very different than I have ever seen in my lifetime and something that we all have to stand against.
01:45Now, what concerns me most is the silence and the fealty that I saw from my Republican colleagues this past week.
01:54Those are members of the House of Representatives, and part of it is a reflection of the weakness and the supplication of Speaker Mike Johnson.
02:07If you had a strong speaker who was respected by the President of the United States, I think this would be a different situation.
02:17But what you have is Mike Johnson, who is seen as whatever Trump wants is what he'll do.
02:26He doesn't have, in my view, a backbone.
02:30And that is a massive problem, because without a backbone, those rank and file members on the other side of the aisle, it's very tough for them to independently grow that backbone if they don't think that leadership will have their back.
02:48When you look at things, when you look at America, really, in the grand scheme of the world, it's such a young experiment.
02:55And when you say the quote, a republic, if you can keep it, I mean, when you're looking at the time we're in right now, in 2025, President Trump is in his second term.
03:04How close do you think we are right now to losing that republic?
03:08Well, look, if you see the invocation of the Insurrection Act by the President of the United States, it is not unrealistic to believe that things will spiral from there.
03:20And where they go, I don't even want to think about, but it does keep me up at night, and it should keep you up at night, too.
03:29We live in this extraordinary country.
03:31We have so much to be proud of, and I just want to make sure that the President remembers and that members of Congress, Republican members of Congress, remember, we are all Americans.
03:44I had one of the other appropriators, Andy Harris from Maryland, he's the chair of the Freedom Caucus, he accused all of us Democrats of having no regard for the military during the appropriations process.
03:59And so many of us were so deeply offended by that.
04:02We've had members of our family, or many of my colleagues have served themselves.
04:08How dare they believe that?
04:10If you don't show fealty to the President of the United States, you can be a true patriot.
04:17I didn't see any of them show fealty to Joe Biden, that's for sure, or to Barack Obama.
04:22I didn't question their patriotism at the time.
