Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets during the week when Donald Trump becomes president. While actions are planned to disrupt his inauguration, the Women’s March on Washington is expected to have a larger turnout on the following day.
Story Transcript
MAN: No Trump! GROUP: (chanting) Hey, hey, hey, no fascist USA! MAN: No Trump! JAISAL NOOR: Protests are escalating nation-wide against the presidency of Donald Trump in the week leading up to his inauguration on January 20th, with the following day, the Women’s March on Washington expected to have an even larger turnout than the inauguration itself. Demonstrations were held against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, in defense of immigrants and to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, as Trump continues to attack civil rights hero and congressman, John Lewis, who called his election illegitimate. In response, more than 50 Democratic lawmakers have announced they’ll skip Trump’s inauguration. Protests, including those under the umbrella of DisruptJ20, are planning demonstrations and other direct actions leading up to and during Trump’s inauguration, including forming human chains to block access to Secret Service checkpoints. MAN: We’re going to reach out to the millions and millions of people who share our feelings of anguish, fear and outrage about everything that Trump stands for. It’s all on them to come to the streets and act to stop it because that’s the real power that they have, that they keep being told that they don’t have. They’re told it’s over, you can’t do anything. We’re going to reach to them and say, “You can do something, and you need to do something because we need to stop this regime before it gets started.” JAISAL NOOR: On Tuesday, activists protested outside the offices of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street firm Trump had criticized during his campaign, but since appointed six former employees and their former lawyer to his administration. The Movement for Black Lives has called for protests all week that started with Reclaim MKL Day on Monday, to be followed on Tuesday with anti-Islamophobia actions, Wednesday anti-deportation actions and environmental defense actions; Thursday, labor, gender, justice, student and youth actions, with the massive mobilizations expected for Friday, January 20th, the day of the inauguration. On Sunday, organizers said tens of thousands of people attended more than 70 rallies nationwide to defend the Affordable Care Act, which came after House Republicans on Friday, when passage of a measure starting the process of dismantling Obamacare. BERNIE SANDERS: Our job today is to defend the Affordable Care Act. Our job tomorrow is to create a Medicare for All, single-payer system. AUDIENCE: (cheering) BERNIE SANDERS: And let me be very clear: there are differences of opinion about the Affordable Care Act. Some people like it, some people don’t like it. But very few Americans believe that we should repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement program to make it better. JAISAL NOOR: Over the weekend, Donald Trump told the Washington Post the program would be replaced with “insurance for everyone,” but failed to offer concrete details. On Tuesday, a study by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found in the year after the ACA’s repeal, the number of uninsured would increase by 18 million, a number which would expand to 32 million by 2026. It also found that premiums for individual policies would increase by 20% to 25% in the first new year of the plan. The increase in premiums would reach about 50% in the year following the elimination of the Medicaid expansion and the marketplace subsidies, and premiums would double by 2026. Protests continue to target New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who also spoke in support of the Affordable Care Act, for being among 13 Democrats who voted last week against a Sanders-backed proposal to allow cheaper importations of prescription drugs from Canada. It’s been noted that Booker received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the pharmaceutical company before making the decision. Stay tuned to Therealnews.com for ongoing coverage of the resistance to Donald Trump’s presidency. This is Jaisal Noor. ————————- END
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