Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) denounced President Donald Trump on Saturday as a “major criminal” who must be peacefully “eliminated” and brought to his knees after Democrats take back the House of Representatives and begin the impeachment process.
Fuming and furious at the thought that Trump could end former President Barack Obama’s executive amnesties and impact 1.2 million who did not have “papers,” Gutierrez tore into Trump at Chicago’s Lincoln United Methodist Church, vowing to “resist” Trump non-violently with “everything possible.”
Gutierrez emphasized that Trump—and not illegal immigrants—is the real criminal.
“For me, the major criminal that exists in the United States of America is called Donald Trump—he lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House,” Gutierrez thunderously said. “And we’re going to take actions today, and we’re going to take actions tomorrow. And there will soon be a majority in the House of Representatives, and I am going to make sure that I am there, to make sure of one thing, that we write those articles of impeachment and take him to trial before the Senate and eliminate him as president of the United States of America.”
After citing Gandhi, Gutierrez vowed that he “will not allow Donald Trump and all of his cronies that he surrounds himself with from Wall Street at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to determine the future of 1.2 million people.”
“Gandhi took on … the greatest British empire non-violently with love in his heart … and he brought them down to their knees,” Gutierrez said. “We can do the same thing to Donald Trump in the United States of America if we’re ready to do it.”
Gutierrez asked the audience, “you wanna know who a criminal is?”
He then answered, “someone who takes health care away from 33 million people is a criminal. Somebody who puts in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency someone who takes their orders from polluters and contaminates our air, and our water, and our land is a criminal.”
“Someone who uses his executive authority to turn away people fleeing devastation … have you seen the children? … have you seen the faces of those fleeing Syria? And he says, ‘no, you can’t come to this country and seek refuge in the United States of America.’ To me, that’s a criminal,” he said. “Someone who surrounds himself from people from Wall Street that ripped us off in 2007 and 2008 … someone who surrounds himself with bankers from Wall Street instead of people. Those are criminals.”
Gutierrez said Latino voters stood up for left-wing causes like LGBTQ rights, climate change, and Black Lives Matter in 2016 and declared that Democrats should no longer take Latino immigrants and Hispanic voters for granted.
“It is time for you to fight for us just as we fight for you,” he said.
Gutierrez said he was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement because he would not be in Congress had it not been for black Americans who fought for civil rights, human rights, and political dignity.
“They paved the way,” he said, adding that “we can do that and we can do so much more.”
He said he gets “angry,” “very frustrated,” and “very sad” when he thinks “of the implication of the 800,000 young people” whose hopes and dreams can be “destroyed at the stroke of a pen.”
But he vowed that his “love” for illegal immigrants who received Obama’s executive amnesties is moving him to action and declared, “we will be triumphant” and “use every means at our disposal that is peaceful … in order to make the case … in the most important court in the United States, in the court of public opinion, where we will win.”
“I’m ready to occupy whatever it is you have to occupy—whether it’s an office, whether it’s a building, whether it’s a street—but we will do what we need to do in order to make our case resoundingly clear to the American public,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said that Trump can’t say “I am the king and I am the dictator,” and Gutierrez vowed to make democracy work for everyone, whether they are “gay, straight, brown, white, papers or no papers.” He said he is willing to put his freedom on the line so “other people can be free.”
“Get ready, our movement is coming to somewhere in your neighborhood,” Gutierrez declared.
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