[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 101 (Thursday, June 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S3368]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              ALEX PADILLA

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to say I am 
extremely outraged that the executive branch's security team has shoved 
a U.S. Senator out of a room, has proceeded to put that U.S. Senator on 
the ground and to handcuff that Senator. This is what we expect to see 
in authoritarian nations that can't tolerate a question, and they start 
to attack the institutions.
  What we are seeing in the United States right now, we are seeing it 
in the form of the President willfully breaking the law on the rules 
controlling the executive branch, time and time again. We see it in his 
attack on the press, his attack on the universities, his attack on 
extorting law firms. We see it in the form of him using the Trump v. 
United States lawsuit to say: I, the President, am above the law, and I 
could issue pardons to the whole executive branch, who is above the 
law.
  That is not the way it works in a republic. At least, it is not the 
way it works if we are a republic.
  If we, through a subservient Congress and in combination with a 
deferential Supreme Court, slide into this authoritarian state, then we 
have failed our oath to the Constitution.
  It is absolutely wrong that any U.S. Senator, for attempting to ask a 
question, be treated in this fashion.
  I double down on the call of Leader Schumer. This merits a full 
bipartisan investigation--bipartisan because all of us are Members of 
the legislative branch. All of us have taken an oath to the 
Constitution, and all of us should stand up for each other and 
certainly our ability to explore the policies of this administration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.

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