FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 7, 2021
PRESS CONTACT:
Carmel Pryor
press@allianceforyouthaction.org
WASHINGTON – The Alliance for Youth Action is a national network of youth-led organizations. We work to welcome and engage young people year round in our democracy – whether it is at the voting booth, or as we work toward building loving, safe, and thriving communities via our local, state, and federal advocacy efforts.
Since he announced his run in 2015, President Trump has enacted unending harm on our communities. Despite our racist electoral college system and in the face of voter suppression and a global pandemic, young people organized their peers and made their voices heard in the 2020 elections, propelling a new Administration forward. On a day that should have been an uneventful transfer of power from one Administration to the next, armed vigilantes attempted a coup to destroy our already fragile and imperfect democracy. Let’s be clear: Trump and his allies incited this attack on our country. All involved must be removed from office or resign.
We demand that Trump and allies in Congress who encouraged these treasonous attacks are immediately held accountable. This means:
- The House and Senate must immediately move forward to impeach President Trump and prohibit him from running for public office ever again.
- Immediate expulsion of members of the House and Senate who intended to stop the certification of the election.
- An investigation into the complete breakdown of security that interrupted the House and Senate from doing their job to certify election results and instead allowed an angry mob of white nationalists to storm the Capitol.
Protestors in DC and across the country who fight for the dignity and humanity of Black people are met with violence when expressing their first amendment rights. Yet yesterday, an armed white mob whose very public goal of destroying our democracy was allowed into our nation’s Capitol. This is white supremacy at work.
We support Rep. Cori Bush (MO-01)’s resolution calling for the expulsion of Members of Congress who have incited an armed extremists and sought to overturn the results of our election. We support Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) filing articles of impeachment against the President. We demand the Senate do their job and move forward to impeach the President.
Young people know that our democracy is nowhere near perfect. Organizations in the Alliance for Youth Action network have been on the forefront of fighting to make our democracy more accessible and equitable for young people, people of color, and low income communities in their respective states and localities for more than a decade. Yesterday serves as a sobering reminder of the extent of the work that remains to realize the just democracy our people deserve.
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