On Monday, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) released a new report analyzing Trump’s authoritarian playbook for the United States. In it, he highlights ten steps that are already in motion, including demonizing “The Enemy” within, using the military to suppress dissent, and rigging the next election. The full report can be found here.
Senator Merkley sits down with Jen to discuss why he felt compelled to publish his analysis and the (unlikely) possibility of Republicans ripping free from Trump’s influence. Additionally, Sen. Merkley poignantly notes that “when unidentified people can grab you off the street, you’ve got fascist agents on the street.”
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) serves as a member of the Appropriations Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; the Budget Committee; the Rules Committee; and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also the Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of the Contrarian. We’re delighted to have back with us Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon. Welcome, Senator.
Senator Jeff Merkley
Well, thank you, Jen. Very good to be with you.
Jen Rubin
Love having you. You have put together an authoritarian playbook, that is really a guide, frankly, to what Trump is up to. And one of the things that struck me about that is he seems to be checking off the list these days. Tell us what that is about, and how concerned you are that he is kind of checking the box on each one of those items.
Senator Jeff Merkley
Well, you know, people think that democracies die because men with guns storm the Capitol, or storm the equivalent of the White House. But in the last three decades, that’s not the way it’s happening around the world. It’s happening because authoritarian leaders work with a compliant Congress and a deferential court and destroy the checks and balances of their constitution. You simply have no check and balances if Congress is a rubber stamp, and if the Supreme Court keeps making decisions that hand more executive power to the executive. And that’s what’s happening in America right now.
So as I read the literature on various countries, it became clear that there’s a set of strategies embedded in them. So I pulled them out, the 10 strategies. and said, well, what’s happening here in America? And then wrote up a page on how each of those is being pursued. And it ranges from firing the referees, like the IGs, to installing loyalists, to grabbing the power of the purse, to weaponizing the Department of Justice, and certainly to rigging the next election. The whole set of 10 strategies are well underway Really under the guidance, if you will, the master puppeteer, who is the director of OMB, Russell Vogt.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. And as you point out, one of the things that is at issue is the power of the purse. They have, for example, tried to grab back, funds through the rescission process, which Republicans have meekly turned around. They’ve tried to chop off areas of government that Congress has funded. Do you feel that Congress is reasserting itself? And specifically, now that we have the DHS funding front and center, is that someplace where the Senate, for example, can reassert its legitimate authority?
Senator Jeff Merkley
Well, Congress has not yet truly reasserted its authority, and a great example is that we could put an end to the idea that the president can cancel programs that, quote, are not in accordance with the priorities of this administration. Every time you hear that phrase, you’re hearing an authoritarian phrase. We all we have to do is basically say in law that rescission can’t be put forward. A rescission is a proposal to cancel a program in the last 45 days of a fiscal year. And that would solve the problem. But here’s the example of the deferential court. The law says that a president’s proposal to cancel an existing program cannot go into effect unless it’s passed by the House and Senate. But the Supreme Court said, well, if he submits a proposal to cancel a program in the last 45 days, and oh, there’s a grace period. And so, if you get to the last day of the fiscal year, it’s like Cinderella’s carriage. It turns into a pumpkin. Suddenly, the authority and the funding are gone.
So, for the first time in U.S. history, the court has given the President the ability to cancel programs. That goes right to the authoritarian versus the democracy. A single person, a president, deciding what programs to fund and to deliver, instead of Congress deciding. So, a major example. And the clause that I’ve advocated for in each of the spending committees called Appropriations Committee, that would fix that has been voted down by my Republican colleagues each and every time, but I’m going to keep pushing for the fix.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely, and Congress has begun to wake up just a little bit. You had 5 of your colleagues on the other side of the aisle, for example, join on the War Powers Act. Is that some sign to you that there are some limits to where Republicans will go?
Senator Jeff Merkley
You are starting to see some fractures, and the pivot point was really two months ago for the November elections, when Democrats took statewide races in Georgia, the races for the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania, the governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, and you saw, basically, a 6-16% shift towards Democrats in virtually every race. And in the by-elections preceding that, the elections to fill seats of Congress that had opened up, you basically saw a performance that was always 10-15% better than Democrats did against Trump. And so… but it was the November election that really kind of drove it home, and you start to see a number of Republicans, particularly ones in the House up for election, who are going. I think this train is going over the cliff, I better, distance myself. Maybe I better jump off this train. Few have jumped off. But there’s been some expressions of distance.
Now today, that vote last week on the War Powers Act, that was simply to take it out of committee and put it on the calendar. But there will be a motion to proceed today. And how will that vote come out? I am suspecting that a couple of the five members, five Republican members who voted to take it out of committee will switch their position and kill this War Powers resolution. We’ll see, I hope not. But the President still has a lot of leverage and power. We saw, oh, well, 15 or 17 House members last week vote for a 3-year extension of the enhanced tax credits to help people buy insurance. This is coming along very, very late. I mean, tomorrow’s the last day to sign up for insurance. I mean, everything would have to be rejiggered if we could pass this. But we’re expecting the Senate Republican leadership to kill it. So you don’t see a wholesale change, but you’re seeing some cracks.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. We are facing a absolute, there’s only one word that I use to explain it, but fascist crackdown. Ice is a rogue agency. They are killing Americans in the street, going door-to-door. They are pointing weapons at people who pose no threat to anyone. How likely is it, do you think, that Republicans will agree to put some constraints? They have just poured money into this agency that seems to be responsible to no one, and even when a young woman is killed, refuse to properly investigate.
Senator Jeff Merkley
So, on my town halls this weekend, I asked… I had 5 town halls, including in very red counties, and I asked folks, how many people have seen that video? Virtually every hand went up in every county, and people were shocked by it. They’re just stunned. But it goes along with what they’ve been hearing, as you point out, with agents who have no agency identifier. Who is this person confronting me? No individual identifier, so they can’t be held accountable if they do misbehave. Masks over their face. And if there’s anything that protects us in America as our rights, it’s due process. That fancy term that says, well, the government just can’t grab you off the street and arrest you. And you gotta have access to a lawyer, and you should be able to have your family know where you are.
And grabbing people, mistreating them, as you point out… I mean, and by the way, these were very amateur hour-style actions by ICE. Step in front of a car, you don’t proceed to give conflicting information, you don’t hold a camera in one hand and a gun in the other hand while you’re distracted and likely to make a mistake. I mean, it’s horrific.
And just the day after that shooting of Renee Goode in Minneapolis, we had two folks who were shot in their car just blocks from my house in Portland, Oregon. A blue-collar immigrant community where I live. And, I must say, I mean, in that case, we don’t have any videotape. But immediately, the administration says, oh, the driver weaponized the car. Well, how do you know that? How do you know that? No, they just…they have lied to the American people so often this year, saying, no veterans are deported. False. No, citizens are deported. False. Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador, saying that he was a gang member. False. It took the Supreme Court 9-0 to get him back from El Salvador, and even then, Trump defied the court for 2 months, refusing to act.
So we are in an authoritarian assault. And the ways that this becomes entrenched is through manipulated elections, and we’re seeing that effort underway by the administration, but ICE itself, you use the words fascist, I use that word as well. When unidentified people can grab you off the street, throw you into unmarked vans, you’ve got fascist agents on the street.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. Well, I certainly hope that, you and your colleagues, and maybe even some of those Republicans who are thinking twice, decide to put some constraints. Any sign they’re ready to do that?
Senator Jeff Merkley
I don’t think so. I hope so, yes, I hope so. I’m hoping the Homeland Security Bill is by itself, so that it’s not embedded in a whole host of other things, and gives us a chance to really carry that fight.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. Well, good luck to you, Senator. Thank you. And, please, continue to come back to us. You’ve been a really clarion voice on democracy issues, which are really, getting worse before they get better, I fear. So thanks so much.
Senator Jeff Merkley
You’re very welcome, Jen, and if anybody would like a copy of, how I described, can I… do you mind if I show that to folks?
Jen Rubin
Oh, please! Absolutely, please.
Senator Jeff Merkley
It’s Ring the Alarm Bells. The 10 Rules of Trump’s Authoritarian playbook, but it also lays out how we confront that playbook, which is citizen action and winning the next elections before they can be too much manipulated. That’s the way we stop the entrenchment of authoritarian fascist power that’s underway in America.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely, and we’ll put a link to that in this interview, so our viewers, our readers can click right on that. So, thanks so much, we appreciate it.
Senator Jeff Merkley
Great to be with you. Take care now.
