In our first member telebriefing since Election Day, PFAW staff joined members and supporters on a call about how to fight back against Donald Trump and the dangerous far-right team he is putting in place.
Our communications, program, and Right Wing Watch staff detailed the unprecedented danger of the incoming Trump administration. Communications director Drew Courtney noted that Trump is “unquestionably… the most profound threat to the American Way and to the values that we care about that we have seen in the lifetime of this organization,” but pointed out that the way to answer this threat is, in many ways, to do the work we have always done as progressives: to stand firm in our values and fight back.
We discussed the alarming choices Trump is making for his team, in particular, civil rights foe Sen. Jeff Sessions, whom Trump plans to nominate for attorney general.
Right Wing Watch researcher Brian Tashman shared numerous examples of Sessions’ appalling record on various important issues including voting rights, immigration, and civil rights.
Executive Vice President Marge Baker described how, in response to Sessions’ nomination, the larger progressive community is already coming together to take action, with events like large-scale sign-on letters and petition deliveries. But this is just the beginning. We also discussed how we need to be making sure that our senators hear from us about the importance of this nomination—and that we shouldn’t write off senators from either political party, since all senators need to think carefully about whether they can support a nominee as unfit as Sessions.
“This is likely to be the very first big fight, and it’s really, really important that we fight this as aggressively as we possibly can,” Baker said.
The team also discussed the record of Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos, as well as some of the other dangerous selections Trump has made for his team.
You can listen to the full telebriefing here: