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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! Congressman Al Green, I also want to ask you about your ongoing efforts to impeach President Trump. This is part of what you said Saturday after President Trump refused to apologize for posting a racist video depicting President and Michelle Obama as apes.
REP. AL GREEN: Mr. President, this is one more reason why, when I go back to Congress, I’m going to bring another set of articles of impeachment against you for your racist attitude that you exhibit against people of color in this country.
AMY GOODMAN: This all comes in the middle of the hundredth anniversary of Black History Month. The Trump administration has made systematic efforts to erase Black history since President Trump’s executive order last March titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. Across the country, several public markers and monuments highlighting the lives of enslaved people or honoring the memory of Black Americans killed in racist attacks are being changed, with any references the Trump administration considers disparaging to American history being removed. In Philadelphia, the National Park Service has dismantled the slavery exhibit that highlighted President George Washington’s treatment of his enslaved workers. At Medgar and Myrlie Evers’ home, a national monument in Mississippi, references to Medgar Evers’ killer as racist have been removed. The Trump administration has also returned Confederate names to U.S. military bases, restored Confederate statues, cut federal funding to the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, which educates Americans about the history of slavery, and purged the names of thousands of nonwhite figures in American history from federal websites, also has stopped giving free entrance to national parks on Martin Luther King’s holiday and the federal holiday that is Juneteenth.
Still with us is Congressmember Al Green. If you can respond to all of this? But start with President Trump’s refusal to apologize for posting this image of the Obamas as apes. I think they kept up the post for about 12 hours, but then, when asked to apologize, even after taking it down, he refused.
REP. AL GREEN: The president is incapable of apologizing. This is why I would just have him tell the truth, that what he did was racist and what he did demeans people of color. But it’s not the first time that he’s done this. The president, if you recall, with the people who are of the Nation of Islam or people who are from places where there are Islamic countries, he decided that he wouldn’t allow them into the country. The president has said that people from South Africa are experiencing genocide, and Anglos can come in, but the South Africans who are of African ancestry cannot. In Texas, there is a movement afoot to call slavery “involuntary relocation.”
What you said is all imminently a part of the reason why we must have articles of impeachment against this president for infusing racism into policy. And that’s what he’s doing. You might recall some time ago, when he was talking about African countries, he called them “s—hole countries,” and we are now trying as best as we can to prevent people of color from coming into the country.
But we have to allow him to be himself so that we can then identify him. I’m not going to stop him from being himself. I want to get him out of office. You can’t stop him from being himself, because he is out of control. He has a histrionic personality disorder. He has to be the center of attention to the extent that even if it hurts someone else, he must be the center of attention.
He goes to extreme measures to eliminate DEI. A plane and a helicopter crash, before there was any scintilla of an investigation, the president concluded that it was DEI that caused it. Well, that was a shot at Black people, people of color. DEI is no longer allowed as a means of simply having people in the room so that they may be examined for purposes of possibly getting a job. It doesn’t guarantee a person a job. All it does is say you can have a person of a different hue in the room and give that person some consideration.
This president is doing all that he can to condition us to accept racism, to accept bigotry. There was a young man who was associated with DOGE who said some horrible things about Jewish people. He’s an antisemite. He left the job, and the vice president insisted that he brought back. The president then confirmed that what the vice president did was appropriate.
We can’t allow this to continue. Yes, I’m going to bring articles of impeachment against him for infusing his hate into policy. I believe that it’s appropriate to do. I hope that my colleagues will support it. But if they do not, I know that posterity is going to remember those of us who took a stand. And sometimes it’s better to stand alone than not stand at all.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you two questions, in a minute, about shutting down the airspace in your state, in the city of El Paso, something we haven’t seen since 9/11, but, first, I want to ask you about a resolution condemning Trump ordering an unprecedented midcycle, what you call racist redistricting of Texas, which, by the way, has been upheld by the Supreme Court. You say that you’ve become a major target of Republican redistricting efforts following intense pressure from both Trump and your governor, Greg Abbott. Can you explain what’s happened to your district, Congressman Green?
REP. AL GREEN: Yes, my district was redrawn in an area east of it into another county, into Liberty County. Then, the 18th Congressional District, as we’ve known it, and the 9th Congressional District were combined. About two-thirds of that district now, this new 18th, is — consists of people from the 9th Congressional District, about one-third from the 18th Congressional District, as we knew it when it was the preeminent district in the area. Now we find ourselves having to run against each other to somehow conclude that one of us should not be in Congress. Well, I think that both people should be in Congress, because, quite frankly, there should be an 18th Congressional District, and there should be a 9th Congressional District. But it’s the president who sent orders to the governor, telling the governor, “Governor, get rid of five districts. Make sure that Al Green’s district is one of them.” And when they did that, they eliminated the 9th Congressional District so that it’s not favorable for a Democrat to win. It favors a Republican. But I believe that a good Democrat can put up a good fight.
I will say this to you: This is the acid test, what’s happening to me. Pardon me for having to bring myself into it, but it’s the acid test. They’re going to do everything that they can to get me out of Congress, because I’m the guy who has brought the articles of impeachment that laid the foundation for his impeachment. I’m the guy who continues to be a part of the avant-garde movement to say that he has done things, before others say it, and that then makes me a target, as well, because they see me as a person who takes this action without having to have permission. I’m a liberated, unbought, unbossed, unafraid Democrat. I’ll speak truth to power and truth about power. About power means you say to a power, “Power, there’s a problem, and you’re it.” I’m going to do that.
But I want to say one more thing to you before we exit. This election is also about the decimation of the seniority system. There’s an effort afoot in Congress to eliminate seniority. It was seniority that got Maxine Waters the chairperson of financial services, that got Bennie Thompson the chairperson of homeland security. If we eliminate seniority in Congress, money will rule. And when money rules, we lose, we will lose. We cannot compete with people who have billions of dollars and don’t mind spending a few million, perhaps a hundred or more, on a given campaign election. We must maintain seniority. If we don’t, we’re going to find ourselves with persons who are going to have positions, but they won’t have the power because they didn’t come up through the ranks.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Congressman Green, this is an area that’s actually far from you in the greater Houston area, but the FAA has halted all flights to and from El Paso International Airport for 10 days, citing, quote, “special security reasons.” Again, we haven’t seen anything like this since 9/11. Do you understand what’s happening?
REP. AL GREEN: I can’t conceive of anybody understanding what’s happened, given what has been said. There has not been a serious indication as to why this is being done, and this is a very serious thing to do. There must be something that can be said to the public. Transparency is a necessity. Where you have few facts, you’re going to have a lot of speculation. And people are starting to speculate now as to what’s going on. This level of speculation is unmerited, and the public needs to know more. I believe in transparency. This government under Trump does not. And I think that we’ve got to do what we can to continue to pressure and press for some knowledge of what’s going on.
The people who live in the area have to have a lot of consternation. This is something that could impact them. If there’s something, some threat out there that may impact them, they have a right to know. I want to know what the threats are that are going to possibly impact me. I live under threats all the time. And I’m pleased to tell you that when I get them, I send them to the police, and they investigate. But if you don’t know about the threats, how can you protect yourself? And I can’t depend on the Trump administration to protect me. The people of El Paso are not going to depend on them. They want to be able to protect themselves. And you cannot protect yourself unless you know what the threat is. There’s no way for them to do what they’re doing without there being something more that they’re not telling the public. Few facts, much speculation.
AMY GOODMAN: CNN is reporting that a source briefed by the FAA said the El Paso flight ban is driven by military operations from Biggs Army Airfield at Fort Bliss, the FAA acting after the Pentagon could not assure civilian flight safety, Congressman Green.
REP. AL GREEN: Well, if they can’t assure civilian flight safety, then they ought to give us some reason why they can’t do this, given that we’ve had hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of flights, probably even hundreds or maybe even millions of flights flying out of that area over the years. So, if you can’t assure the safety, give us a reason why. Don’t just do this arbitrarily and capriciously and expect the public to go away. No, that’s the way a dictatorship behaves. In a dictatorship, you get little knowledge of why things are being done, but you’re expected to go along with whatever is being done. This is why I say we’re in a de facto dictatorship, where they do things without transparency, and where they do things that are harmful to people, killing people, and they do it with impunity, unless we the people take a stand.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you for being with us. Of course, El Paso-Juárez area is a major commerce hub. Congressmember Al Green, Texas Democrat.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we talk to the head of the Union of Concerned Scientists about the Trump administration’s moves to gut U.S. climate regulations. Back in 20 seconds.
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AMY GOODMAN: Tom Morello at Democracy Now!‘s 20th anniversary in 2016. It’s now 10 years later, and on February 23rd, Monday night at 7:00, Democracy Now! will be celebrating our 30th anniversary, guests including Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, the Nobel Prize-winning Maria Ressa, Michael Stipe, jazz legend Wynton Marsalis and more. To get tickets, to get more information, go to democracynow.org.
