November, 06 2024, 11:36am EDT
Accountability and Justice Are The Only Path Forward
As credible news sources are now reporting, Donald Trump has won the 2024 election and will be the next president of the United States.
Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, co-presidents of Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response:
“We cannot sugarcoat this moment: our democracy is in crisis. A second Trump administration will usher in a new wave of grifters, corporate lackeys, and right-wing extremists intent on enriching themselves and enacting an extreme agenda that the majority of Americans disagree with. Our institutions and agencies will face existential threats to their ability to function on behalf of the American people.
“But Public Citizen and our allies are prepared for this moment. Together, we will mobilize Americans to resist Trump’s agenda of cruelty and corruption. We will shine a spotlight on his corporate giveaways and self-enriching scams. We will fight for science, evidence, and sanity in our health and climate policy. We will fight to keep non-partisan civil servants from being summarily fired to make way for political sycophants and loyalists. We will use all the tools at our disposal — including aggressive litigation — to ensure that key consumer and other regulatory protections remain intact.
“We will also continue to hold Trump and his cronies accountable for their actions. Trump will still be sentenced for the 34 felony counts on which he has been convicted, and other pending legal proceedings must also move forward.
“We co-founded the Not Above the Law Coalition because no president is above the law. That work — which will continue in earnest — will be more important in 2025 than ever before.”
Public Citizen has experience standing up to Donald Trump and his corrupt administration officials.
- We investigated revolving-door conflicts at the FTC and found that 75% of officials had conflicts of interest
- We shed light on the unethical profiteering happening at Trump businesses throughout his time in office
- We exposed the grifters who used their connections to Donald Trump to make money lobbying on the COVID-19 pandemic
- We tracked the corporations raking in obscene profits as a result of draconian Trump administration immigration policies
- We sued Trump’s HHS for unlawfully terminating grants for evidence-based work to reduce teen pregnancy
- We sued Betsy Devos’s Department of Education for undermining protections for students and siding with predatory for-profit schools
- And much, much more.
Public Citizen experts are available to discuss how we will meet this moment, what is next in the fight for consumer protections, and what we learned from our accountability work in Trump’s first term. For interviews, please contact eleach@citizen.org.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
'War-Crime Starvation Strategy': Israel Blocks All Humanitarian Aid into Gaza
“There will be famine and chaos”
Mar 02, 2025
Israel has reneged on the existing ceasefire agreement they had agreed to with Hamas. The first phase of the ceasefire expired Saturday and Israel announced on Sunday it is halting all humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries to Gaza and closing the border between Israel and Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he made the decision "in full coordination with President Trump and his people."
In a statement Hamas called the suspension of aid a “war crime” and a violation of the ceasefire agreement. It said Netanyahu’s “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the [ceasefire] agreement”.
Stephen Zunes, the director of Middle Eastern studies at the University of San Francisco, says the US’s apparent proposal favoring Israel follows a well-established pattern seen since the beginning of the war.
“This is typical,” he told Al Jazeera. “Hamas and Israel will agree to something. Then Israel will try to revise it in its favor. Then the US will put forward a new proposal that is in Israel’s favor and then the US will blame Hamas for not accepting that proposal.”
Israel’s decision to block all aid going into the Gaza Strip is a war crime under international law, a human rights expert says.
Kenneth Roth – former head of Human Rights Watch who is now a visiting professor at Princeton University – said Israel as an occupying power has an “absolute duty” to facilitate humanitarian aid under the Geneva Conventions.
“Israel’s latest threat to cut off all aid is a resumption of the war-crime starvation strategy” that led to the arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court, he said.
Doctors Without Borders said Israel's decision is “outrageous and will have devastating consequences”, said the group’s emergency coordinator Caroline Seguin.
“Humanitarian aid should never be used as a tool of war,” added the charity, known by its French acronym MSF, in a statement. “Regardless of negotiations between warring parties, people in Gaza still need an immediate and massive scale-up of humanitarian supplies.”
Jeremy Corbyn, who once led the UK Labour Party, said that Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid was a “resumption of genocide”, before adding that the current British government – led by Labour – was “complicit."
AP reports:
Fayza Nassar, a woman living in the heavily destroyed urban Jabaliya refugee camp, said the closure would exacerbate already dire living conditions.
“There will be famine and chaos,” she said. “Closing the crossings is a heinous crime.”
Israel’s offensive has killed at least 48,388 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It says more than half of those killed were women and children.
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Vermonters Protest JD Vance: 'Go Ski in Russia'
'J.D.Vance came to Vermont for a get-away. Locals had other ideas'
Mar 01, 2025
Over a thousand Vermonters lined both sides of Route 100 in Waitsfield, Vermont, Saturday morning protesting Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting nearby Sugarbush Resort this weekend with his family.
Vance's ski vacation comes right after Friday's disastrous meeting where US President Donald Trump and Vance ambushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Protesters shouted obscenities and waved signs as the Vance motorcade rolled past. "Vance is a traitor. Go Ski in Russia," one sign read.
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'Thuggery From Trump and Vance': World Reacts to Oval Office Meltdown With Zelenskyy
"Donald Trump is treating the destruction of a democracy as a political show—throwing Ukraine to the wolves and doing a favor for Putin," said one Senate Democrat.
Feb 28, 2025
A televised Oval Office screaming match between U.S. and Ukrainian leaders on Friday led to politicians worldwide reaffirming support for Ukraine, congressional Democrats decrying the Trump administration, and human rights advocates expressing alarm about what lies ahead.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance took turns berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who reportedly left the White House without plans for a cease-fire or a rare minerals deal with the United States, which has put nearly $183 billion toward helping Ukraine respond to the 2022 Russian invasion.
"This is thuggery from Trump and Vance, plain and simple," Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom, said of the public spat on Friday—a day after the U.K.'s Labour prime minister, Keir Starmer, visited the White House and urged Trump to proceed cautiously on a potential peace deal for the region.
"Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
told the Ukrainian leader on social media Friday. "Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace."
Zelenskyy responded, "Thank you for your support." He shared that same message in response to similar comments from the presidents of the European Council and Parliament as well as leaders in Austria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden.
Despite the incident at the White House, Zelenskyy also said: "Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you President Donald Trump, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that."
While world leaders largely focused on rallying behind Ukraine and its president, many Democrats on Capitol Hill were quick to condemn Trump and Vance's conduct.
"Trump and Vance are an EMBARRASSMENT and DISGRACE. It was absolutely shameful to watch them berate the president of another country. Let alone one of our allies!" said Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).
Crockett also blasted Trump's ultimatum for the Ukrainian leader, saying: "That's not leadership—this is a power play with no regard for what's really happening in the world. President Zelenskyy is literally fighting for his country's survival!
Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) slammed the U.S. leaders' subservience to the Russian president, charging that "there is no clearer evidence that Trump and Vance kiss the ring of Vladimir Putin than today's meeting with President Zelenskyy."
"What the American people saw was Trump and Vance behaving in ways that are unbefitting their offices," she continued. "Trump's obsession with pleasing Putin is a betrayal of the Ukrainian people, a national security threat, and an international crisis."
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) denounced their behavior as "disgusting and damaging," while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) opted for "shameful and dangerous." She added that "Donald Trump is treating the destruction of a democracy as a political show—throwing Ukraine to the wolves and doing a favor for Putin."
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) similarly said that "the United States doesn't support Ukraine as a favor, but because it serves our security. Putin is a dictator, not Zelenskyy. Putin started the war, not Zelenskyy. Yelling in the Oval Office and siding with Putin is shameful and a danger to democracy around the world."
Andrew Albertson, executive director of Foreign Policy for America—which was founded after Trump's first win and is largely aligned with the Democratic Party—said in a Friday statement that "in capitals around the world, our closest allies are expressing tonight their shock and dismay at what they witnessed from an American president in the Oval Office."
"Once again," Albertson said, "we saw two things from President Trump: his bizarre affinity for the murderous dictator Vladimir Putin and Trump's grotesque willingness to make even this—Ukraine's fight for survival in the face of Russia's unconscionable invasion—about himself, turning a White House meeting into something we would expect from a reality TV show."
Amnesty International USA said on social media that "nothing that was said today in the Oval Office changes the facts: Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was an act of aggression and a manifest violation of the U.N. Charter. Sustainable peace in Ukraine is only possible through justice and accountability for all crimes under international law committed since 2014."
Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch who's now a visiting professor at Princeton University, called out Vance over berating Zelenskyy for "daring to exercise his free speech rights before the American media," and Trump for "making life-and-death decisions based on his fragile ego."
"Because Ukraine's President Zelenskyy didn't immediately kiss the 'king's' ring, Trump threatens to abandon Ukraine's democracy to Putin's predation," he said. "Trump seems to be so accustomed to sycophants that he becomes outraged when Zelenskyy has the audacity to argue back. Zelenskyy rightly points out that Putin has already breached prior agreements. Why would this one be different without security guarantees?"
"Trump pretends to miss the point," Roth added. "Zelenskyy is perfectly 'ready for peace.' But he wants peace that will last, not a pause in the fighting that will enable Putin to rearm and reinvade. That requires a U.S. security guarantee that Trump refuses to provide."
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress praised Trump—as did Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who is now deputy chair of the country's Security Council.
"The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office," Medvedev said of Zelenskyy. "And Donald Trump is right: The Kiev regime is 'gambling with WWIII.'"
The battle in Ukraine over the past three years has elevated global fears of a world war and the potential use of nuclear weapons. Of the nine nations with nukes, Russia and the United States have the largest arsenals.
The U.S.-based peace group CodePink said in a Friday statement that "the heated exchange in the White House... is not helpful for finding an immediate solution to the conflict," but also argued that "without an end to U.S. weapons to Ukraine, the war would continue to present an increased risk of nuclear catastrophe."
"The response to this exchange in the media has been largely about the demonstrated lack of decorum from the Trump administration regarding Ukraine—but we encourage the public to focus instead on the material realities facing Ukraine and Russia," the group said. "This war continuing would cost thousands of more Ukrainian and Russian lives—and an escalation would have an impact on the entire world."
"We hope the U.S. and Ukraine come back together on a more realistic basis before the war escalates further, but that will require serious diplomacy. It will require Europe to stop encouraging Ukraine to keep fighting," CodePink added. "Now is the moment when all sides must recognize that this war must be settled at the negotiating table, no matter how hard that is."
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