As uncertainty engulfed the outcome of the 2020 Presidential race Wednesday morning, Congressman Steve Cohen held a press conference during which he outlined a scary picture for America, if Donald Trump maneuvered his way to a second term.
Outside his Midtown home, Cohen, a Democrat who handily won re-election Tuesday to the Ninth District House seat, told reporters he won’t feel safe as a Jewish person if Trump wins a second term.
“One set of grandparents came to this country in the 1880s,” said Cohen. “One set came in the 1990s. I don’t feel the same as I have in that past, that I will be safe in this country. With Trump, there is the possibility of riots, race wars, anti-Semitism, bigotry, lynchings. All those things could come back.”
Cohen said Trump campaigned like a man possessed while characterizing Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent, as a socialist. That turned Cuban-Americans in Florida against Biden.
Last night’s (Election Day) comments were a foretaste of what Trump will be like if re-elected, said Cohen.
“There was that moment that he turns to the crowd and says, ‘What’s the name of this building?’ And he turns back to the crowd and says, ‘the White House.’ And what he was saying is, ‘This is not the black house,’ Cohen said. “And then he said, ‘I’m there and they are not.’”
Cohen felt the President was referencing the fact that Barack Obama was not there, and he was.
“I felt he was saying, ‘Black people are not here, but we are there,’” Cohen said. “It was the most racist moment of Trump’s presidency. It was a frightening experience, and it was beneath the office of the presidency.”
The country can expect a fascist authoritarian rule, completely unchecked if Trump gets a second term in office, Cohen said.
“Trump got more over-the-top when he did not get convicted in the impeachment trial,” Cohen said. “He fired people who did their duty and came forward to testify. He fired a lot of good people. He fired the inspector generals and put inspector generals in who did not do the job like they should.”
Cohen noted that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen said Trump was like a Mafia boss. If re-elected, having survived impeachment, “this man will be uncontrollable,” Cohen said.
“The fact is that no Republican, except Mitt Romney, stood up in that impeachment case. Susan Collins didn’t, and she appears to be re-elected.
“The Republican Party as it has been known through the years…there were a lot of great Republicans over the years. They don’t exist today.”
Cohen said when he gets back to Washington, he’s going to introduce bills to do away with the Electoral College and change the presidential pardoning powers.
“I put my out my flag this morning,” Cohen said, pointing to a large American flag waving in the breeze.
“I hadn’t put it out lately. I said, ‘This is still America, and I’m putting my flag out.’ They don’t own it, nor do they honor it.”
