On the recordJuly 23, 2020
I have been using this time to share stories from women who have been down at the peaceful protests in Portland and then as they relay that they are attacked even though there is no violence in the protest. And they are attacked in an incredibly violent way. This is not, of course, the story the administration is telling the world, the President is telling the world. He says: There is violence, and we stopped it. The truth is, it was a peaceful protest, and Trump's Federal agents, dressed in war outfits, assaulted those protesters, as you heard in letter after letter after letter. It is almost like acts in a play. You have women holding flowers, like this sunflower, and some had mums. They are dancing. They are singing. Act 2, the camouflaged secret police, Trump's secret police, come onto the street--no agency identifier, no unique identifier--and then they start assaulting the women. That is act 3, the assault. These women are describing that assault in graphic terms. It is tear gas. It is flashbang grenades. It is pepper spray. It is batons. It is a woman a few feet away being hogtied. It is a woman a few feet away being knocked to the ground. That is act 3. And why is this happening? Because the President likes the authoritarian, secret-police tactics of dictators around the world and wants them to bring them to the United States of America and is bringing them to the United States of America.…





