Barack Obama: “We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.”

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.

A drift towards extremism was "not inevitable

People need to “rediscover what’s the story we tell about how we’re going to live together, and see each other, and recognise each other, and disagree, and yet, still care for each other”.

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.