Barack Obama: “I'm going to need your help to finish what we started.”

The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.

And I will fight for that, even if I don’t always think it’s going to win.

I’m going to insist that we can do better than we’re doing right now.

It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.