Congressman McEachin Responds to President Trump’s Exchange on The O’Reilly Factor

RICHMOND - Congressman A. Donald McEachin released this statement in response to President Trump creating an equivalency between Vladimir Putin and the USA on The O’Reilly Factor:

“In our country, political enemies do not ‘disappear’ in the dark of night or become mysteriously fatally ill. In our country, the press is separate from the government and journalists do not find themselves jailed or out of business for writing articles with which the government disagrees. Moreover, journalists are not made to write accolades about leadership, whether they agree or not. 

“In our country, laws and the Constitution are supreme, not one person. Surely, the president should recognize this when just this week his immoral ban was overturned by the courts. The courts rule on our Constitution, not one leader. And when his unconstitutional executive order was struck down, the government, the officers in airports were forced to obey and did. 

“In our country, lawyers, advocates and citizens are free to challenge the government and its leadership without fear of reprisals. 

“In our country, hundreds of thousands of citizens can take to the streets to express their disgust and dismay with the president and know that, because of our Constitution, their freedom of speech and assembly are protected.

“I would strongly recommend that President Trump spend some time, perhaps instead of engaging in his obsession with Twitter, to study our system of government and to learn that we are a nation of laws, not one subject to the whims and murderous impulses of a singular leader.

“In his dealings with the world, I would ask President Trump to remember that we have been a beacon of democracy, freedom and hope for people all around the globe and that he stops squandering that reputation with his idle comments and dangerous actions.”

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Background:

In President Trump’s interview with Bill O’Reilly, scheduled to air Sunday evening, this exchange occurred:

O’Reilly: He’s a killer though. Putin’s a killer.

Trump: There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What you think our country’s so innocent?

Contact: Jamitress Bowden
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