Alexandria Ocasio Cortez told CNN's Jake Tapper that any attempt by the Department of Justice to suspend or curtail our civil rights and speedy trials in our country is an authoritarian undertaking to suspend our rule of law.
The Queens congresswoman joined CNN's State Of The Union program to discuss the stimulus package currently being negotiated in Congress as well as Trump's Department of Justice's attempt to undo our civil liberties.
"The Department of Justice has submitted to Congress several legislative proposals including one measure that would allow a district's chief judge to delay the defendant's right to a speedy trial after a request from the Attorney General," Tapper said. "What do you think about that?"
Ocasio-Cortez replied, "I think it is abhorrent."
"This is not a time -- and you know there is a long history in this country and in other countries of using emergencies as times to really start to encroach upon people's civil rights," she continued. "And in fact this is the time when we need them the absolute most."
"We have to keep an eye out for these kind of authoritarian and frankly, for this expansion of -- and rather, suspension of rule of law, it does not matter how urgent times are, we have to make sure we maintain our civil rights and there's no reason for us to be waiving folks' civil rights in an emergency," she warned.
US Atty. Gen. William Barr once again shows his true colors in his support for an authoritative dictatorship instead of a democratic United States under our Constitution.
Peter Wade in The Rolling Stone writes, "Constitution grants citizens habeas corpus which gives arrestees the right to appear in front of a judge and ask to be released before trial. Enacting legislation like the DOJ wants would essentially suspend habeas corpus indefinitely until the emergency ended. Further, DOJ asked Congress to suspend the statute of limitations on criminal investigations and civil proceedings during the emergency until a year after it ended."
Barr is an opportunist who wants to help Trump establish his authoritarian regime. Imagine for a minute if Eric Holder had suggested such a thing.
