Badass Rep. Ayanna Pressley Murders Trump On House Floor, Secret Service Notified
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts's first black congresswoman, read Donald Trump his ass on the House floor Tuesday, and it was glorious. She knew Trump was set to go on TV later and verbally kick us in the groin with his racist lies. My sister wasn't having it.
I rise today in opposition to the occupant of the White House.
Y'all see she didn't call him "the president"? No, there'll be no referring to Putin's stooge as "president" while Rep. Pressley's got the mic and her hair is on point.
Mr. Trump, you took an oath just as I did five days ago, to protect and defend the Constitution and the American people. Sir, you dishonor that oath. You devalue the life of the immigrant, the worker, and the survivor. I see right through you and so do the American people.
Goddamn! This is Angela Bassett setting fire to her trifling husband's clothes and sweet ride in Waiting to Exhale. This is Denzel Washington as Malcolm X serving notice in the opening credits to the Spike Lee film. This is concentrated bad assery. Now sit down with the hot beverage of your liking and listen to the rest of Pressley's speech.
This has nothing to do with border security. Your shutdown, another Trump generated crisis, has brought a tsunami of hurt.
So, I rise today to lift the voices of the unheard. I rise today on behalf of the families concerned about feeding their children because their WIC benefits will run dry.
I rise today in solidarity with the thousands of workers with calloused hands and broken spirits working for no pay.
I rise today in support of the survivor fleeing violent hands, seeking safety, only to find the shelter door locked because of your shutdown.
I rise today in support of the American people, who believe in the promise of this nation and ask for honest pay for an honest day's work.
Today I rise as one and I stand as thousands. Thank you and I yield back.
Wakanda Forever! Oh, sorry ... where was I? Pressley didn't drop any "motherfuckers," and she dragged Trump on the facts in roughly a minute. And beyond anything else, her speech was beautifully written; it wouldn't feel out of place in a collection of Langston Hughes poems. Still, fellow Democrat G.K. Butterfield from North Carolina, Tuesday's scrub speaker, chastised Pressley after her speech for "engaging in personalities toward the president." (UPDATE: As noted in the comments, House rules consider criticism of the president's "personal" motivations out of bounds. Butterfield is a black man who isn't on the Supreme Court so he probably likes Trump as much as Pressley does. He's just following regular order. The point is that my girl's words were poetry.) Still, normal rules of House etiquette might've made sense back when elected officials just disagreed on where to park their slaves at the Capitol, but we're past that point now. That's because this new Congress is decidedly not your average middle-class white family that's agreed not to discuss politics and risk ruining their holiday gathering. Pressley's speech is the tamer version of what black families say at the table each Sunday before passing the greens.
Pressley doesn't have a "personality difference" with the White House "occupant." She is laying out the case against a clear and present threat to America. See, Trump doesn't remind Pressley of her "Uncle Donnie," who used to make her nose "disappear" and take her out for ice cream while complaining about the "coloreds" ruining the neighborhood. No, Trump personifies every dragon she had to slay to get where is she now. She is not conflicted about who her enemy is. She doesn't "struggle" with "respecting" the office Trump stole no matter how badly he mistreats people. She knows Trump is racist garbage in a poorly tailored suit.
She isn't the only one, either. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blindsided Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes" Sunday with the stunning revelation that Trump's a bigot. She's rejected the charges of name-calling and continued "fact-calling." "Trump's a racist" is her "Purple Rain." You're gonna hear it wherever she goes now.
Women of color now account for 42 percent of all women in Congress, which is reflective of the general population. Women of color have no interest in tolerating or enabling Trump. They will "rise as one and stand as thousands" and make what we hope are the final two years (or months!) of Trump's administration a time of true reckoning. Soon, he's going to wish all they did was just call him a "motherfucker."
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Stephen Robinson is a writer and social kibbitzer based in Portland, Oregon. He writes make believe for Cafe Nordo, an immersive theatre space in Seattle. Once, he wrote a novel called “Mahogany Slade,” which you should read or at least buy. He's also on the board of the Portland Playhouse theatre. His son describes him as a “play typer guy."
