EXCERPTS: Senator Coons warns that Trump administration’s unchecked use of government power could threaten the foundation of democracy in Senate floor speech

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) delivered a floor speech today warning the Trump administration's abuse of unchecked government power threatens the core principles that have defined our nation since its founding. Senator Coons argued that America's strength is in the same classically liberal values that have linked us to our friends and allies around the world - limits to state power, protections for dissent, and the defense of personal freedoms. He raised serious concerns about actions taken by the Trump administration across society that he said are far too similar to actions taken by authoritarian regimes.

In his remarks, Senator Coons condemned the Chinese government's sentencing of Hong Kong-based pro-democracy journalist Jimmy Lai, reminding listeners that freedom is never free and that governments must have ways to restrain their own power. Senator Coons then warned of the disturbing ways the Trump administration has increasingly begun to look like China and other authoritarian governments.

"I chose to speak today partly because the event of Jimmy Lai being sentenced and partly because of a growing concern that we are at risk of wasting - of watching slip from our grasp - that most precious inheritance that our nation has earned: a hard-won, hard-fought legacy of millions who stepped forward and served on behalf of our nation at home and abroad in defense of democracy," said Senator Coons.

Since its founding, our nation has been rooted in the concepts of personal liberty and freedom from government overreach. Those principles are also shared by our partners and allies across the world, from Western Europe and Mexico to Japan and Australia. However, in barely over a year, the Trump administration has run roughshod over those principles, launching criminal investigations against disfavored journalists and public officials, extorting compliance from law firms, universities and major companies, and turning independent executive agencies into political tools.

"Many of my colleagues have said: pay no attention to what the president says. Pay attention to what he does. And I will say, I am paying attention to what he's doing," said Senator Coons. "Because, in addition to a steady stream of late-night rants on social media, we have seen actions: actions by federal agencies, investigations, prosecutions, persecution. Labelling protesters as domestic terrorists. Reclassifying dissent as something punishable by law."

He concluded by highlighting how U.S. allies are alarmed by recent events in our nation and urged Americans to recommit to our constitutional values before democratic backsliding becomes too damaging to reverse.

A video of Senator Coons' speech is available here.

A partial transcript of Senator Coons' speech is included below:

At 78 years old, Jimmy Lai will likely die in jail. This is a tragedy for freedom in Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China - and one that reminds us that the work of liberty, the work of freedom, the sacrifice and the struggle required to maintain it is not cheap. Our nation was built on a yearning for the kind of freedom from government repression and overreach that Jimmy Lai stood up against - and our democracy rests on a lot of different foundations. But, at the core of all of it, is a restraint on government power.

A democracy rooted in free speech and freedom of worship, freedom of assembly, a chance to have and hold our own ideas, to pursue our own dreams and our own lives, has also built strong bonds with allies around the world, bonds that have helped keep us safe and make us prosperous for decades.

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This year, we celebrate 250 years since the founding of our republic through the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. I've often asked myself - if I served in this body, in this chamber, if I served in the Senate of the United States in the 1840s and 50s and 1860s, would I have seen what was coming? If I had been a member of this body in the 30s, would I have seen what was coming?

In recent days, I have been chilled when watching a parade in Beijing. Where Xi Jinping, the dictator of the PRC, assembled the leaders of North Korea and Iran, India, other allies of theirs, to watch a parade of state-of-the-art weaponry. It reminded me of similar moments in the 1930s, when the fascist states of Germany and Italy teamed up with the imperialist state of Japan to form the axis and to plunge the world into chaos.

I have often asked myself, would I have seen and known what was around the bend, what was happening next. Well, to know the future, you need to know the past.

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As I've watched in the last year the remarks and the actions of our president and vice president, they are chillingly rhyming with those of dictators like President Xi and President Putin of the PRC and Russia: The growing and steady use of unrestrained state power to punish the president's perceived enemies. And I am wrestling with a growing sense of gloom, of concern, of alarm, that a similar story will play out in our nation today as it is in other countries around the world.

In barely more than a year, we've seen journalists covering protests arrested.

We've seen masked and unaccountable government agents murder American citizens, and then senior members of the administration lie about who they were and what they were doing.

We've seen the administration sue media organizations and reporters, not just a few - the Washington Post, ABC, BBC, New York Times, Des Moines Register - sue media outlets to cow them into compliance.

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Our president declared war on law firms - revoked security clearances, threatened their viability by taking away their capacity to walk into federal buildings, ending federal contracts. Why? Because if you can control who a law firm is willing to represent, you can suppress dissent.

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The administration has gone after some of our nation's best-known, longest-established universities, among our very oldest - Harvard, Penn, Duke, Brown, Columbia - revoking funding, conducting investigations, shutting down partnerships, depleting their endowments, coercing compliance.

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In something that has alarmed me more than any development in recent days: criminalization of the dissenters and disfavored - including members of this body. Senators who are veterans, who've served in our intelligence services or as an astronaut and a pilot in combat - for recording a video reminding members of our military that they can refuse an illegal order. Members of the Senate and House investigated for "seditious behavior," which our president claims is punishable by death.

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This coming weekend and week I will travel to the annual Munich Security Conference, which my friend and late colleague, Senator John McCain, helped build up into a critical gathering of the North Atlantic community, of NATO allies, of ministers of defense, heads of state, parliamentarians from all over the world, principally focused on the alliances rooted in values that have kept us safe, prosperous, and free. And I know what I'll hear from our allies, that they are gravely concerned that the values that connect us are slipping away.

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John said in one of his last speeches - Senator McCain said - that the current president seems to be trading away the ideals that have held together our nation "for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems."

Well, we can't let that happen.

For all of those like Senator McCain and Senator Kerry and Senator Carper, veterans of that war - and now we are joined by veterans of our most recent wars - for all those who've served at home and abroad, first responders, law enforcement, teachers, community leaders, doctors - all those who put their heart and time and effort into making America the democracy worthy of the regard of the world - we need to be clear that the hour is late, that the skies are darkening, that the steady advance of the grip of state power should alarm all of us.

Lincoln concluded his remarks at Gettysburg saying, "we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, and that this nation, under god, shall have a new birth of freedom."

We have to do that again today. Call out the alarm. Call out these actions. Renew our commitments to the ideals that have made our nation great. Refuse to give up on our alliances rooted in values and ask the world not to give up on us. And keep fighting back against those who would strip us of our liberties and our freedoms.