Melanie Stansbury: “I have to say that I am always amazed, disturbed, and sometimes can't believe what I hear on this floor. We are sitting…”

“I have to say that I am always amazed, disturbed, and sometimes can't believe what I hear on this floor. We are sitting here today as a government shutdown is looming. Survivors of the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates are here on this campus sharing their harrowing and heartbreaking stories. A court has just ordered that Trump's illegal tariffs have been put in place and are harming Americans and violating the law, and the President is deploying our brave men and women who serve in the National Guard to occupy American cities. What is the GOP's agenda for this week, crammed into this one resolution that we are here to debate? There is one fake appropriations bill that they know will never pass, three resolutions to undermine protections for the environment, one resolution snuck in during the dark of night to reconvene the January 6 commission to try to rewrite history, and one resolution designed to provide Donald Trump and the White House cover in one of the largest Epstein coverups that we have seen. This isn't about protecting people. We have a bipartisan discharge petition right there at the Clerk's desk. If my colleagues would like to see the files released, the two of you who are in this Chamber right now could literally walk down there and sign that petition right now. But you don't want the files released.”