[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 19, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S1028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Trump Administration

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, the idea that men and women citizens are 
bound by a common set of laws that are applied consistently and 
universally, regardless of one's income or political power or political 
affiliation, is a fairly modern invention because, for thousands of 
years, laws were simply what rulers used to impose and maintain power, 
to control people. Laws were applied or crimes were invented for the 
ruler's critics, and laws were ignored or waived away for those in 
favor with the regime.
  Now, early Americans had watched the British Kings apply laws 
selectively, both in Britain and in the Colonies, and our Founders 
sought to create a nation where all men were equal in the face of the 
law and that the law was applied uniformly and justly.
  That idea, equal justice--the law applies to everybody regardless of 
whom you support politically or whom you are aligned with politically--
was in many ways the Founders' most vital check against tyranny. That 
is the difference between a democracy made of equal citizens and an 
autocracy, where the law is simply whatever the ruler decides. It is a 
foundational principle of American constitutional democracy. It is not 
something we can take for granted.
  Now, I will admit that likely every President has made a decision or 
decisions that compromised that belief in the rule of law. Often, those 
decisions were related to one of the maximalist powers that the 
President possesses; that is, the power of the pardon. I, for instance, 
did not agree with President Biden's decision to issue pardons to his 
family members. I thought that was excessive. I thought that 
compromised the rule of law. But this President's contempt for the rule 
of law--Donald Trump's contempt for the rule of law--is unprecedented.
  What we are all watching right now is Donald Trump throw away the 
idea that laws apply to everyone equally, and it is astonishing to 
watch so many of my Republican colleagues fall in line. Some of them 
may be on board for the destruction of the rule of law because they 
want the Trump family to rule forever, but many of them know that this 
is wrong, what is happening, and their silence is heartbreaking.
  Donald Trump issued a statement over the weekend:

       He who saves [the] Country does not violate any Law.

  That is a quote attributed to one of the most notorious dictators of 
the last half-millennium, Napoleon Bonaparte. It is a stunning claim 
that Trump--not the law or Congress--decides what is legal and illegal.
  If he had said that in 2017, maybe we could just write it off as 
Trump being Trump, as just bluster, trolling, but this time, he has 
actually implemented a methodical campaign to seize control of the law 
and apply it differently depending on whether you support him or oppose 
him.
  Take for example what happened on Friday night. Trump ordered the 
Department of Justice to cut a deal with the indicted mayor of New York 
City, Eric Adams. The deal was simple: If Adams pledged loyalty to 
Trump and agreed specifically to cooperate with Trump's immigration 
raids in the city, Trump would look the other way regarding Adam's 
corruption. The charges would be dropped, and Adams could keep stealing 
money as long as he was politically loyal to Trump.
  They didn't hide this deal. Adams and a high-ranking Trump official 
literally went on TV to announce that they had formed an alliance based 
upon the release of charges in exchange for political loyalty.
  But when Trump told the highest ranking Justice Department employees 
in New York City to execute the corrupt deal, they wouldn't. The top 
official resigned rather than take part in the corruption and so did 
the next in the chain of command. By the time Trump found someone who 
would implement the deal, seven DOJ lawyers and four of Adams' deputy 
mayors had resigned because what was happening in plain view was a 
fundamental challenge, a fundamental corruption to the rule of law--a 
rule of law that up until today, Republicans and Democrats had both 
revered.
  Meanwhile, other parts of Trump's team are engaging on the other side 
of the ledger, targeting and harassing--using the law--the President's 
critics, because that is what happens in a nation without the rule of 
law. Law enforcement lets loyalists like Adams off the hook and is 
overzealous in targeting critics.
  Let me give you just one example of what is happening right now as we 
speak. Last month, Trump's new FCC Chairman opened an investigation 
into a single radio station that had the audacity to simply file a news 
report about an ICE raid that was happening locally. Multiple other 
sources filed similar reports with similar footage, but only one 
investigation was opened, and--you guessed it--it was against the radio 
station that was owned by a high-profile critic of Donald Trump, George 
Soros.
  So the game is clear. Like, we can see it. They are not even hiding 
it. There is not a rule of law anymore; there is one set of law for 
people or entities who are loyal to Donald Trump, and there is one set 
of law for people who dare criticize him. That is not democracy.
  If we don't find a way--Republicans and Democrats--to come together 
to defend the rule of law, if we don't say that what is happening 
today--deals being cut with corrupt politicians in exchange for their 
pledges of loyalty to Donald Trump--if we can't speak with one voice 
about that kind of corruption, well, then our democracy is cooked.