The situation we find ourselves in as a country didn't happen overnight. It is the accumulation of events over decades. The American people have looked, they've seen, they've seen the greed of the elites in American society. They've come to the conclusion that there's one set of rules for people at the top, and a different set for everybody else. Cynicism replaced faith and belief in the majesty of the American system of government. We have lost sight in this country, as a general proposition, around the meaning of patriotism. What it is -- we have adopted instead -- a type of performative jingoism. The type that we see at NFL games -- a few minutes of loud cheering, giant flags, expensive military hardware flying overhead, people screaming chanting "USA, USA, USA" mindlessly over and over again. That's not patriotism. Patriotism is a deep faith in the idea that animated the United States of America and brought it to life. The right to vote, to choose is elemental to being an American, and towards the foundation of the United States. This country rejected the idea of a king. It eradicated the notion that there are some people born above others in a higher station of life, who have titles and land in perpetuity. They rejected a king in America. America said "no." George Washington was a man who could have been king, who would have been emperor, could have been a military dictator. At each time, when he stood at the edge of maximum power, he walked away from it. And by doing so, he set in motion the most important tradition in American life. That tradition is the peaceful transfer of power between chief executives, between presidents. And it had gone on uninterrupted in America since George Washington turned over the presidency to his successor, John Adams. All that had to happen for that to occur was for John Adams to raise his hand and swear a 35-word oath. In that instant, he became the second president of the United States. And every president since has sworn the identical oath. There is only one president who has breached that oath, who desecrated it, who tried to burn it to the ground -- not through misconduct -- though he engaged in more misconduct than any president in American history, not through corruption -- though he engaged in more corruption than any president in American history -- but through a declaration of repudiation against the American Revolution. That declaration of repudiation were the speeches that Donald Trump gave between his loss of the 2020 election and January 6. They are the speeches that antagonize and incited a mob to march on the Capitol of the United States of America in 2021. They were on a mission to hang the vice president, and stop the certification of a presidential election. This happened as Joe Biden, who had been duly elected, was taking the final steps and preparation for his inauguration as the 46 president of the United States, the 45th man to raise his hand and swear Washington's oath. That is what Donald Trump desecrated, ruined and bloodied. Every person in this country, all of us, are part of a great inheritance passed on to us. Our ancestors, whether they be Black women, white, Latino, gay, it doesn't matter. All played a part, all struggled for freedom. They handed to us a better freer country than the one they were born into. We stand at an hour during which we are poised to be the first generation of Americans to betray that trust, to hand our country to a next generation, more divided, weaker, cratering, decaying, rotting from within it. What is the evidence of that? The broad national indifference towards the ambitions of a man who tried to burn it all down. This man wants power again, in this moment, has been indicted on charges that could bring him 600 years in prison. The former president of the United States remains in a competitive race against Joe Biden. What Donald Trump did is unpardonable. It is unforgivable. The issue is Donald Trump wants political power outside an election process. It says something remarkable in the indictment, something declarative and simple: "he lost the election." Our corrupt media at Fox News, at Newsmax, at OAN -- across the board -- let Donald Trump's poisoned fantasy run wild. Fox News, for stoking the conspiracies, was forced to pay a settlement of almost $1 billion. Yet, they are undeterred. On the night of his indictment, Donald Trump was having dinner with the chairman and the president of Fox News, Suzanne Scott. Donald Trump didn't try to tear down American democracy alone. He did it with a phalanx of propagandists in front of him -- collaborators, people like Suzanne Scott, who have contempt for their country, who have no affection save for money, save for power, save for the perception of their own influence. Think about the sacrifices that have guaranteed American freedom. Think about Gettysburg. Think about the crossing of the Delaware. The Normandy landings. Think about the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Think about the blows coming down on John Lewis, his head, the blood, the murder, the sacrifice. Are we prepared as a nation, as a society, to lay it all down, to end it all, to feed the insatiable narcissism and appetite of Donald Trump? How is it that our society, our country, could have become so sick? What is it about freedom and liberty that the American people have become so detached from? Here's the deal. We must say "no" to this. There are more of us than there are of them. And by them, what I mean is this: the people who want power without us giving it to them. It's unacceptable. It's un-American, but that is exactly what Donald Trump stands for. Make no mistake about it. It's what this election is about. He's running on a platform of revenge and retribution mission, and he means it.
He is hostile to this country's creed, its traditions, its ideas, its ideals, and most importantly, its people. Yes, the American people. We are more than a name, more than a tribe. We are a great civilization, a society, a nation. Trump tried to rip it up. Are we really going to let him? It's time, as a civilization, as a society, as a people, to bring this madness to its end. It is time to repudiate this. It is time to remind the Queen's hustler, the developer, the reality show host, who was probably given the greatest honor that any American can be, that he is not bigger than the country that he is not above the law, and that this country chooses its leaders, not the other way around.
