(Houston, TX) – Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) issued the following statement on President Trump’s press conference in the Rose Garden yesterday, threatening to use the U.S. military against protesters across the country:

“At this time of great pain and crisis, the President has failed to perform the important role that belongs uniquely to his office: to bring Americans together and unify us with a common purpose.  In the Rose Garden last night, his words reflected not only a failure to lead but the very opposite of leadership.  The President threatened to use the United States military against United States citizens exercising their rights enshrined in the United States Constitution—the rights to peaceably assemble, to freedom of speech, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  It is one thing to use the power of the federal government to ensure the constitutional rights of Americans; it is quite another to use the power of the federal government to deny them.  The actions the President has threatened to take violate not only our rights but also the sacred trust that we the people place in our government—a government of, by, and for the people.”