This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. President, Claims · 25 wordson the Trump media ban, you can tell Trump’s desperate, repressive media ban is flagrantly unconstitutional when it gets blocked by a judge he appointed.1 Positioning · 22 wordsTrump can attack the First Amendment all he wants, but the roots of our democracy run deeper than he could ever fathom.Positioning Reasoning · 27 wordsNo President should be able to use censorship to escape accountability, to deprive Americans of the truth, and to take our country down the path to authoritarianism. Positioning · 23 wordsIs Trump so fragile, Mockeryso thin-skinned, so desperate that he can’t handle reporting that reflects the truth that he doesn’t want to hear?Positioning Reasoning · 24 wordsIf Trump’s Presidency and economy are going as well as he claims they are, then he should have nothing to fear from the cameras. Positioning · 9 wordsWe all know what this media ban was about.PositioningUnearned certainty Claims · 19 wordsTrump himself told the real truth when he said he was trying to protect his reputation with this ban.2 Aside · 7 wordsTo protect his reputation--can you believe it?Aside Positioning · 41 wordsThe chutzpah of a President to say, ``I am going to shut down the media because I don’t like what they are saying,’’ when he knows that 250 grand years of freedom of speech has been the hallmark of this country.Positioning Claims · 30 wordsOf course, his statements were so out of line--and even his supporters criticized it--that Trump had to backtrack by trying to label these news outlets a so-called ``national security risk.’’3 Positioning · 95 wordsNo one bought that excuse for a second.Unearned certainty The only thing Trump was trying to defend was himself. Trump knows he is in rough shape. He knows the American people are furious with him and his party. He knows just how much of a disaster his record is. And since Trump can’t clean up his mess, he tries to sweep it under the rug, and he failed miserably. Trump can’t outrun the press, and he can’t outrun his record. You hear that, Donald?Mockery You can’t outrun the press, and you can’t outrun your miserable record.Positioning Mr. President, Claims · 46 wordson the Xi Jinping visit, Trump’s soft-handed treatment of the Chinese Communist Party is on full display this week during Xi Jinping’s visit. No sooner had Xi landed yesterday, than the Trump administration announced it is extending its trade relief to China for another 2 months.4 Positioning · 66 wordsReally? Trump ought to take that trade war truce up north to Canada, instead of giving it to China and Xi and his authoritarian regime. As usual, Trump acts based solely on who flatters him at the moment, Motive imputedwhere the nearest photo-op is, and what headline he covers. If you are foreign or authoritarian, Trump just won’t invite you to America; he will greet you planeside.Positioning Claims · 24 wordsThat is what Trump did, sort of as a supplicant for Xi yesterday. That is what Trump did for Putin in Alaska last year.5 Positioning · 19 wordsThis man has an atavistic attraction to dictators, to bad people.Insult Something is so wrong up there with him.Insult Claims · 22 wordsAnd now Trump and Rubio want to roll out the red carpet for Putin again at the G20 in Florida this year.6 The ask · 56 wordsTrump needs to finally show some backbone. America can’t afford for Trump to roll over on blocking China’s access to our advanced AI tech, stopping the flow of fentanyl, protecting oil workers, strengthening American innovation, and holding the CCP accountable for aiding our adversaries or any of the other pressing issues we face with the PRC. Reasoning · 23 wordsMeeting an authoritarian at the bottom of the stairs is easy. Standing up to them at the negotiating table is the hard part. Claims · 6 wordsSo far, Trump hasn’t managed it. Mr. President, Procedure · 4 wordson the Iran war, ProcedurePositioning · 24 wordsas Trump tries to tread water as his disastrous war with Iran gets worse by the day, the American people are drowning in costs.Positioning Claims · 20 wordsGas is nearly $4.50 a gallon, 7and diesel is still breaking highs at $6.51 a gallon because of Trump’s war.8 Positioning · 22 wordsIt is madness. Americans are getting crushed at the gas pumps. Working families are getting cleaned out at the grocery store counters.Positioning Claims · 101 wordsAnd family farms are going under because Trump took this country to war without authorization, without a plan, without a second thought to the consequences. We have lost at least 19 brave servicemembers.9 Hundreds are wounded or maimed, and tens of thousands remain in harm’s way. That is just what we know, since this administration keeps withholding information from Congress and the American people about the true number of casualties in this war. All the while, Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz and other key chokepoints has grown tighter, and the entire situation in the Middle East has gotten worse. Positioning · 17 wordsTrump’s war has been one of the biggest foreign policy catastrophes in the history of this country.Positioning Procedure · 3 wordsAnd, of course, ProcedureClaims · 27 wordsas I said, the price of gasoline and the price of diesel keep going up. From the start, I have said this war is bigger than politics, Positioning · 24 wordsand Senate Republicans--if they knew what was good for them--would have joined us in pushing for an end to Trump’s war 7 months ago.10Positioning Promise · 26 wordsWell, Senate Democrats will force a vote on another War Powers Resolution to end Trump’s disastrous war and bring our troops home, at last, very soon. Positioning · 32 wordsAmericans will remember who votes to end Trump’s war today just as they will remember who voted for the war to continue, time and time and time again, for 7 long months.11Positioning Mr. President, Positioning · 24 wordsand on the Trump Big Oil corruption report, Donald Trump’s flagrant corruption costs the American people dearly every single day. We all know that.PositioningUnearned certainty Claims · 33 wordsJust this morning, I joined Senator Whitehouse to unveil our Anti- corruption Working Group’s staggering new report on how Trump’s corrupt dealings with Big Oil billionaires are costing the American people a fortune.12 Positioning · 11 wordsIt is a tale as old as time in Trump’s America.Positioning Claims · 6 wordsIn 2024, this then was brazen. Anecdote · 16 wordsI knew we were headed for trouble when I saw it back then in the papers, AnecdoteClaims · 36 wordsbecause in 2024 Trump invited Harold Hamm and all those Big Oil guys down to Mar-a-Lago and asked them for a $1 billion--$1 billion--for his campaign in exchange for political favors to boost their bottom line.13 Positioning · 41 wordsIt was appalling then--pay-to-play--and openly done, bragging boldly. I mean, that shows these people have no shame. They have no worries about the strictures of democracy, of morality, of what America has always been all about. No, they brag about it: PositioningAside · 13 wordsWe will give you $1 billion. Help our oil companies, ho ho ho.Aside Positioning · 17 wordsBut the American people paid the price. Big Oil paid up and, boy, did Donald Trump deliver.Positioning Claims · 81 wordsTrump blocked clean energy projects that would have brought down families’ energy costs and powered millions of homes.14 The administration shut down the cheapest and fastest source of energy to build and get--the cheapest source of energy, the fastest source; it is the one that goes quickest on the grid--just so billionaires, Big Oil billionaires, could get even richer. Many of the same people making these policies are profiting off them. Trump appointed numerous fossil fuel industry leaders to his administration.15 Positioning · 39 wordsTrump’s corruption is not a victimless crime; it never is. Every time Americans see the skyrocketing costs on their electric bill or at the gas station, they know who to blame: Donald Trump and his Big Oil billionaire cronies.Positioning Claims · 33 wordsTrump’s greed isn’t just costing Americans more for energy; it is costing them their health. A report found that the pollution from Trump’s Big Oil blitz is driving up Americans’ healthcare costs too.16 Thanks · 39 wordsI want to salute Sheldon Whitehouse, who had a strong hand in putting together this report. He has been steadfast, brilliant, and hard-nosed on fighting this corruption, and I salute him again. Americans--all Americans--should salute him for his efforts.Thanks Promise · 33 wordsTrump may think he can hide his corruption in the shadows, but we, Democrats in the Senate, will continue turning over every rock to expose how his greed is costing the American people.Vague promise Procedure · 11 wordsI yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.Procedure
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