Mr. Speaker, once again I rise. Once again I rise to address we the people. Once again I rise to address we the people. Those who believe in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.…
Mr. Speaker, once again I rise. Once again I rise to address we the people. Once again I rise to address we the people. Those who believe in a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Those who believe that all persons are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We the people believe in liberty and justice for all. We the people believe in something as simple and as basic as fair play, as respect, being respectful, showing the proper courtesies, showing the country that we understand that if the country is to have harmony within, we the people have to respect each other within. We the people. I rise in the name of we the people.
Today, as I rise in the name of we the people, I would remind us that I am the Al Green who is not only unbought, not only unbossed, not only unafraid, not only liberated, but also censured. I was censured but not silenced; censured but not silenced.
My censure took place because in this very Chamber I, at a joint session of Congress, reminded the President that he did not have a mandate, a mandate to cut Medicaid, to cut Medicare, and Social Security. Many members of the press will print that I said he didn't have a mandate. They are being inaccurate, and they are misleading. I think it is done with intentionality because they would want it said that I said he didn't have a mandate, and then there would be a big debate about it. I said he didn't have a mandate to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, and I still stand on this. And the President went on to impose one of the biggest cuts on healthcare ever seen, and we are still suffering from this today.
I rise in the name of we the people understanding the consequences of the cuts that were made. I have had an experience with one of my constituents, a constituent who needed a double lung transplant, a constituent who saw his premiums go up exponentially to the extent that he could not afford to pay for that premium that would allow him to have the double lung transplant.
I rise on his behalf. His story is a story that needs to be heard and needs to be told. That story is an important story--double lung transplant. I rise on his behalf to show the injustice in what occurred when I took my stand and called it to the attention of the country, the injustice that occurred after I called it to the attention of the country, and the country and the world paid attention and noticed that the injustice took place. We exposed the injustice. It was exposed right here in this House.
I rise today to mention that this man who needed this double lung transplant, we had to help him to make sure he got his premiums paid, and we did. He came to our office for help. We wanted to make sure that he got that double lung transplant. I am proud and honored to say he has received the double lung transplant, and he is doing well in spite of, not because of, this President--in spite of.
This President doesn't respect the right of human beings to have good healthcare. This is a human right. This is a right that all people should have, especially in this the richest country in the world, good healthcare.
The disrespect doesn't end there. It doesn't. This is a President who has portrayed himself as the Pope. The President of the United States of America has the audacity to portray himself as the Pope.
The President published this depiction of himself as the Pope. I have on this poster, I trust that it can be read at the bottom, but for fear that it cannot, I will hold it up: Donald Trump is not the Pope.
We know this, and he should not depict himself as such, as the Pope. I don't know why it would surprise us, to be quite candid with you, Mr. Speaker, that he would do this after the way he has disrespected the Latino community. He disrespected the Latino community by defining persons who are here undocumented as illegals in such a way as to cause all persons who are Latino, look like they are Latino, or caught speaking Spanish, all persons, to become suspect. Under ICE, these persons who have been suspect have been treated disrespectfully.
Mr. Speaker, you don't have to treat people in an inhumane way to police them. You don't have to do it, and you surely don't have to kill them. You don't have to kill them while they are kneeling or face down, Mr. Speaker, shot, many times. You don't have to kill them as they are driving past you in an automobile, Mr. Speaker. You don't have to do that.
This is a disrespect for human life that this President is showing. It is a disrespect for human life. I am not sure that it should surprise us to see his disrespect for the Catholic Church and for people who are the followers of Catholicism. It doesn't surprise me that he would do it, but he shouldn't.
This level of disrespect is unbecoming the office and the officer who holds the title of President of the United States of America. It is unbecoming, but he didn't stop there.
He has depicted the Obamas in a very unpleasing, unpleasant, disgraceful, and disdainful way. He has refused to apologize for a video showing the Obamas as apes. I didn't bring the actual picture. I have it.
People are very sensitive, and they don't want to see that. However, we have to talk about that because this is disrespect for people of color. Regardless as to who you are, it is disrespectful. It is disrespectful of people of color. This is the same level of disrespect and indecency that was utilized to enslave people in this country, the United States of America.
Good Christians, many of them, not all, but a good many of them justified the enslavement of human beings because in their theology, the human beings were closer to apes than they were to the Homo sapiens, the human beings that you and I happen to be a part of, that class of human beings. This President went out of his way, it seems, to do this and to disrespect the Obamas.
He didn't stop there. This President has the audacity and the unmitigated gall to do something that is absolutely inane and insane. He has portrayed himself as Jesus Christ. He has depicted himself as Jesus Christ. You will see on this poster, Mr. Speaker, that I have noted: Donald Trump is not Jesus.
Now, he can make specious statements and questionable statements after he has done this and try to convince some people: Oh, no, I was just pretending to be a physician. I was trying to show myself as a physician.
Well, most physicians that I know don't have all of this taking place as they are standing over a patient. They don't have what looks like an eagle flying, planes flying through the air, and the Statue of Liberty. They don't have persons looking in awe as the physician lays a hand on a patient. They don't have what appears to be a person or an image of someone that is humanlike, perhaps an angel with wings, above.
Mr. President, people are not so low of IQ, as you would say, as to believe that you are not representing yourself as Jesus. You use that term low IQ so you think all of us are low IQ people and all of us would think you are a physician. Mr. President, we are not. People are not. We the People are not, and We the People, Mr. Speaker, find this disgraceful. We find it unacceptable.
We find it shameful, and We the People believe that you should acknowledge that you were wrong. You don't have to apologize. Just say you were wrong to do this, but you won't. You won't. That is because you find yourself to be above all and above the law, and, in this depiction, above humanity.
Mr. President, I want you to know that there will be a record for posterity. There will be a record for posterity. Earlier I talked about legislation that I have already filed. Now, Mr. President, I am going to mention a resolution, legislation that I will file. I will file legislation, Mr. President, so that those who look through the vista of time will know that at least one person, there may be others, I am not
speaking for anybody but myself, so I say at least one person. There may be many others, I don't know.
I do know what I will do. I don't speak for any political party. I speak for myself and everybody who agrees with me, and I believe that We the People have among us many who will agree.
I have this resolution that I will file.
Permit me to read the style of the resolution.
It reads: Resolution condemning President Donald J. Trump-- condemning--resolution condemning President Donald J. Trump for his disgraceful, despicable, and disrespectful social media posts depicting himself as Jesus Christ, diminishing the dignity of the Presidency, and bringing disrepute to the office.
Diminishing the dignity and bringing disrepute to the Office of the Presidency.
It would seem to me, Mr. President, that you knew or should have known that this would be unacceptable. You knew or should have known.
In fact, I have made a few points with that language. Here in the resolution, I have language that says: All who hold public trust, especially those who hold the Nation's highest office, bear a heightened responsibility to uphold respect for the diverse religious beliefs of the American people within our population.
All of us, especially those who hold public trust.
Then I go on to add in the resolution: The President of the United States of America knew or should have known acts by the President of the United States of America that trivialize or exploit any religious symbolism for personal or political purposes are inconsistent with the spirit of mutual respect and dignity that underpin a pluralistic society.
This is beneath the dignity of the Presidency, and the President knew or should have known this.
I go on to say: The President of the United States knew or should have known that respect for religions by the President is essential to maintaining unity and mutual understanding among the people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States of America.
He knew or should have known.
I am going to move now to what will be one of my last comments. The President of the United States knew or should have known that the Presidency is an office intended to embody the highest standards of respect, integrity, and seriousness. Conduct such as this undermines the essential qualities of dignity and respect and erodes the respect for the office of the Presidency--the respect that the office is intended to command.
The President knew or should have known that he is diminishing the Presidency in the eyes of the world. It is not just a little thing. It is not something of, ``Oh, that is just Donald. He is just misbehaving.''
When we didn't stop him earlier, when he was depicting the Obamas as he did, and we didn't stop him when he depicted himself as the Pope, and we didn't stop him when he disrespected Latinos, he has now devolved into this. This devolution is harmful to the Presidency.
As a result of what he has done to cause harm to the Presidency, I have: It is resolved that the House of Representatives condemns President Donald John Trump for his disgraceful, despicable, and disrespectful Truth Social post depicting himself as Jesus Christ on April 12, 2026, diminishing the dignity of the Presidency and bringing disrepute to the office.
That is one of the things that we have resolved, but there is another one. It is also resolved that Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, should state publicly that his depicting himself as Jesus Christ was disgraceful and offensive--disgraceful and offensive, not just to those who are Catholics but to all persons of all religions.
It doesn't just end with this depiction. This is the genesis of it. There are revelations yet to come as it relates to this. The President knew or should have known that this kind of disrespect is not something that we should tolerate, and I will not. Others may. Let them do what they may. I do what I must.
This is why I will be filing this resolution. I will be filing this resolution to condemn the President for this distasteful, disdainful, and disrespectful behavior.
I could only say to this country: We have to stop him. I don't mean physically, no. There are proper political and legal methodologies by which he can be stopped. He has to be stopped.
He is out of control. This is a supreme, superb example of how far out of control the President of the United States is. He has to be stopped. He has to be stopped.
If we don't stop him, he will do what we all perceive he will do. We the people know that this is what his plan is. His plan is to stay on beyond his term of office. How do you know? Because that was his plan at the end of his first term of office.
He incited the insurrection. He incited the insurrection. He incited the insurrection. He intends to stay on, again, beyond his term of office.
We the people can stop this. We can stop it before he causes harm that is irreparable to our country, the image of the country, and the people within the country.
We can stop it. There is one means that we have available to us that we can employ, and I believe we the people must use it. I tried several times, and I plan to try again. That is to impeach him.
Impeachment is a lawful, political process within the Constitution that allows we the people to remove a President who has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. Yes, we the people can do it.
By the way, I won't get into what high crimes and misdemeanors are today, but I will tell you this: When Andrew Johnson was impeached, in Article X of the Articles of Impeachment against Andrew Johnson, a high crime and misdemeanor--or high misdemeanor as it was called then--was his speaking ill of Congress. For speaking ill of Congress, Andrew Johnson was impeached.
We the people decide what the high crime and misdemeanor is. There is no appeal to any court when the President is impeached. We the people make that determination.
We the people in this House of Representatives have more than enough empirical evidence to conclude that impeachment is necessary. We but only have to have the will to do it. The way is there.
This level of disrespect is indicative of where he is going. We the people can stop him with impeachment. This is indicative of where he thinks he should be. He has no problems with the word ``authoritarian.'' It does not really offend him.
In fact, given that he celebrates and tries to get authoritarians reelected to office--doesn't always succeed. Given that he does this, it appears that he wants to be classed and ranked and styled as an authoritarian. The truth is, that is devolving. He has no problems with that. He is devolving into a dictator in the United States of America.
Someone would say that is impossible, not in this country. It is possible if we don't use the political tool of impeachment. It is entirely possible. He has command of the military. He commands the military in ways that are impeachable, but we have not done so. When I say ``we,'' I really mean we here in the House of Representatives.
We have the empirical evidence. I am not going through the articles that we might levy against him, but I want you to know that the empirical evidence is there. We only but have to have the will. The way is there.
He is devolving our society, our military--his means of managing it-- into a might-makes-right military. Might makes right by whatever means he chooses--by whatever means he chooses--to accomplish the goal that he chooses.
If he chooses to go to war without Congress, go to war. Might makes right. It has been said by the Secretary of what I would like to call Defense but is now the Secretary of War that we negotiate now with bombs. That is how we negotiate, with bombs.
Might makes right, any means he chooses to accomplish a goal, and then, at the end, he says: Look at what I have done. Couldn't have done that if I had followed the Constitution. Well, every time he does this, a little bit of
the Constitution becomes meaningless. At some point, we won't have a Constitution that people will see as meaningful. We won't see it as meaningful. We will see it as meaningless because the President walks on it daily.
Might makes right. Any means he chooses--not necessary, but the means that he chooses.
This is where he is headed, from here to dictatorship. Yes, I am among the first to say it, and I am saying it right here on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Remember, unbought, unbossed, unafraid.
I say it here so that when I say it back in my community, I will tell people I have already said that. Yes, he wants to be a dictator right here in this country, the United States of America, and impeachment is a means by which we can stop him.
We must move forward. We must stop him, remove him from office by virtue of a trial in the Senate, remove him from office by his being found guilty in the Senate. We must remove him from office, let him leave in the shame and disgrace that he has earned.
He has earned shame and disgrace, and they know it. My brethren, my friends, my colleagues, brothers and sisters across the aisle and on this side of the aisle know it. He has earned it, and we should bestow it upon him. Let him leave in shame and disgrace, that he richly should be rewarded.
As he does so, let us remind ourselves that we will have done what is expected under the Constitution of the United States of America. There are those who would say, Mr. Speaker, that you shouldn't impeach him because the Senate won't convict him.
Well, he will still be impeached, and that ought to be on his record. There ought to be those among us who are willing to stand and show and say: This is what he merits for his dastardly deeds done that are contrary to the Constitution, that are impeachable by virtue of being high crimes and misdemeanors.
Yes, let's let the record show that he was impeached again. He doesn't want to be impeached, and there are people here who want to impeach him, but they don't want to say so. I understand it. Well, I am saying so, he should be impeached. I assure you that when all is said and done, when the last word is written, after all of this kind of insidious behavior, when the last word is said and the last word is written, we the people will have spoken.
We the people will have the last word. Donald John Trump will be impeached again.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
