President Trump is A Threat to Our Republic

Floor Speech

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Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Green for yielding and for his moral clarity and always for his leadership, especially during these deeply consequential times.

Mr. Speaker, every parent hopes that no harm, heartbreak, or hardship finds their child. We want our children, especially when they are babies, to know safety, warmth, full bellies, and a peaceful slumber.

When they are young, especially during the fall and winter months in the throes of cold and flu season, little ones carry raspy coughs and runny noses home from the playground. Dads tuck their little ones in at night under a warm blanket hoping they will sleep okay.

They hold their babies to their chest and listen for the threat of labored breathing, wondering if they will have to make an ER run in the middle of the night. They whisper a prayer every parent of every faith knows: I hope my baby is okay.

But for parents in Gaza as the weather turns, heavy rainfall and freezing temperatures present new threats. Palestinian families have endured a genocidal campaign for years. Their homes have been reduced to rubble. Many have no warm jacket to wrap their child in or a dry blanket to tuck them under, and still they whisper the same prayer: I hope my baby is okay.

Mr. Speaker, in Gaza, children have been murdered as U.S. bombs deployed by the Israeli Army have rained down on civilians. Children have been murdered by sniper fire and starvation. Every one of those more than 20,000 children murdered was someone's whole world.

Since the cease-fire was declared, the media and the world have shifted their gaze, but families in Gaza still live under constant threat: of violence, of the elements, of starvation.

Earlier this year, my colleagues, Congresswoman Pettersen and Senator Gallego, and I led over 100 Members of Congress in urging the State Department to immediately surge humanitarian aid and ready-to-feed infant formula to families in Gaza to save lives.

In a written response, the State Department expressed concern about the crisis, but words without action are not only empty, they are deadly.

We have doubled down on our cause and demand the State Department send Members of Congress a weekly update on exactly how much aid is entering Gaza and reaching desperate families.

However, Mr. Speaker, aid alone is not enough, especially not for our children who have suffered injuries, especially not for children with disabilities and complex medical conditions. Medical evacuation is a critical aspect of lifesaving humanitarian work, and right now over 16,500 people are waiting to be medically evacuated from Gaza for essential treatment.

I recently heard from a mother named Hadeel. Seven months ago, her 6- year-old son died while awaiting medical evacuation. He suffered from a kidney condition, and the decimated medical system in Gaza could not provide him the care he needed to survive.

Now her daughter, Lana, who suffers from the same kidney condition, is on the wait list for medical evacuation. Each day that goes by without adequate treatment, Lana's life is in danger.

Hadeel is no different from the parent in Boston who clutches their child in their arms and listens for labored breathing as they ride out the flu. Just like that parent, she would do anything for her baby. Just like that parent, she whispers a prayer: I hope they will be okay. Every child deserves to live and thrive.

In the timeless words of James Baldwin: ``The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.''

Mr. Speaker, the United States of America built, bought, and sold the bombs that killed Palestinians throughout this horrific genocidal campaign carried out by the Israeli military.

The United States of America once claimed to be a moral and just authority, but today all the globe sees is the blood on the hands of this Nation.

It is not too late to appeal to our better angels, to act with urgency to save lives, to support medical evacuations, to surge baby formula and aid, to chart a path forward to save lives. Every child is someone's whole world. Every life is a universe, and our destinies are tied.

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Ms. PRESSLEY. It would be an honor.

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