‘They want Americans to stay angry’: A Democratic Congresswoman calls out Trump’s alleged tactics for keeping power
Sarah McBride is the first out trans woman elected to Congress, and she’s had to put up with appalling prejudice so far.
Back in November, Republican Nancy Mace introduced new legislation which banned McBride and all trans people from using the bathrooms aligned with their gender in the Capitol. McBride met this attack with grace, and she continues to show that grace as Donald Trump and his allies upend America.
On Thursday another Republican, this time Mary Miller, chose to attack McBride’s trans identity. Miller called McBride, “the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride,” before she stepped forward to give her first ever speech on the House floor. But McBride breezed past this and delivered a speech attacking Donald Trump and his nonsensical policies.
“When I was elected, I promised to work with anyone who would help Delaware and Delawareans and to stand up to anyone who seeks to harm my state,” she began. “Instead of seeking common ground, the Trump administration from day one has waged an unrelenting attack on working people in Delaware and across the country, seeking to freeze funding for first responders, domestic violence shelters, schools and health care facilities that my constituents rely on.”
“The fear and outrage was palpable,” she said of her constituents. The funding freeze, she said. “has thrown communities across Delaware and around the country into chaos.” And she believed that was the Trump administration’s goal. “They want to prove that government can’t work by making it not work.” McBride then dropped a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Necessitous men are not free men.”
“Democracies can’t survive if people are hungry or out of a job,” she said, and her anger and frustration was clear, although she remained one hundred percent professional as she spoke. “They want Americans hungry. They want Americans scared for their future. They want Americans to stay angry because that is the fuel of Trumpism. That is how Donald Trump keeps his power.”
“My constituents reject this administration’s cycle of chaos, corruption and cynicism,” she concluded. “Delawarians sent me here to make government work better for people, not to make it worse. Delawarians want a government that respects everyone by delivering for them, by helping them learn, live, and thrive. And that is what I’m here to do.”
McBride is helping to support the trans community
McBride has been vocally against Donald Trump’s attacks on the rights on trans people. However, she has also made it clear that she’s standing for the rights of every person in Delaware, not just trans people. She wants to be a politician, not an activist. And she said as much during an interview with The 19th, which went live today.
“We have to reclaim the narrative and the humanity in the public’s mind of trans people,” she explained. “The most good that I think I can do is to be a full human being, to not be siloed and reduced to only one part of who I am, as proud as I am of that part.”
She also addressed why she didn’t fight against the trans bathroom ban. This led to some anger in the trans community, with plenty criticizing her for “cowardice.” But McBride has a thoughtful response. “I understand viscerally and emotionally why it is so hurtful for someone in the community to watch someone in the community face that policy,” she said.
“I understand that when you are first, people viscerally live through your highs, and therefore they also viscerally feel the lows. So I get why people responded that way.” As a congresswoman, she actually has her own private bathrooms, and felt from the beginning that using the public ones would be unsafe.“I’m a person. I’m doing the best I can,” she said. “I am not here to be a martyr. I’m here to be a member of Congress.”
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