Why GOP lawmakers are spreading fear about the upcoming rally.
By Joe Perticone
The upcoming anti-authoritarian “No Kings”1 rally, which is scheduled to take place across the country on Saturday, including on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, has set off klaxons for Republican lawmakers, who are scrambling to mount a preemptive defense. While many GOP lawmakers are describing No Kings as an astroturfed political operation meant to benefit Democrats in the continuing government funding fight, some in party leadership are going further by branding it a pro-terrorism demonstration—an unambiguously false allegation meant, clearly, to get ahead of a potentially massive protest against the president.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said in a press conference last week, “This is about one thing and one thing only: To score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold—as Leader [Steve] Scalise just commented on—a ‘hate America’ rally in D.C. next week.”
In a Fox Business interview Tuesday morning, Emmer repeated the claim that the rally is anti-American, telling host Maria Bartiromo, “These guys are playing to the most radical, small, and violent base in the country. You’ll see them on Saturday on the Mall. They just do not love this country.”
But the most egregiously dishonest and inflammatory comments came from the top Republican in the House. “It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the Antifa people,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News in an interview. “They’re all coming out. Some of the House Democrats are selling t-shirts for the event, and it’s being told to us that they won’t be able to reopen the government until after that rally because they can’t face their rabid base. I mean this is serious business hurting real people. . . . I’m beyond words.”
Not every Republican has gone to these extremes. Others have resorted to more typical varieties of political cynicism and rhetorical heavy-handedness. “If in fact they are waiting for this ‘No Kings’ protest, No Kings means no paychecks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business on Monday. “No paychecks and no government.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made similar comments, saying that the rally’s organizers are giving more guidance to Senate Democrats than is Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Democrats want to wait for a big rally of a No Kings protest when the bottom line is: Who is running the show in the Senate?” Duffy said. “Chuck Schumer’s not running the show. The No Kings protesters or organizers are running the show.”
The idea that Democrats are waiting to cave on a deal to reopen the government until after the D.C. rally could perhaps make sense if you adopt a squintingly cynical view of politics. Senate Democrats I’ve heard from said that’s nonsense and reiterated that any deal is contingent on health policy concessions combined with good-faith negotiation.
They’ve also chastised Johnson and Emmer for accusing No Kings and its organizers of being anti-American and pro-terrorism. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among those pushing back. He posted a video on Facebook rebuking Johnson. The event is “a ‘love America’ rally,” Sanders said, continuing: “It’s a rally of millions of people all over this country who believe in our Constitution, who believe in American freedom and are not going to let you and Donald Trump turn this country into an authoritarian society.”
Since the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Republicans have spent a great deal of time and energy arguing that Democrats and Democratic rhetoric are fueling political violence. No Kings provides a convenient and useful target for their narrativizing efforts: It’s shaping up to be a massive, high-visibility protest that could shut down parts of major cities. But for all the insinuations that the event’s organizers are oriented to violence, Indivisible, the organization sponsoring No Kings, has an extensive track record that shows a longstanding emphasis on safety and nonviolence.
I spoke with Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of Indivisible, who said, “Go to a No Kings rally. What do you see? You see moms and grandmas and kids and dogs and funny signs and dancing and happy displays of opposition to the regime that are foundationally nonviolent. And on the other end, you’ve got a regime that’s led by a guy who cheered the January 6th insurrection.”
“The real question is like, why? Why is this coming out now? Like, why are they saying it? And I think it’s quite clear: This is an authoritarian regime that is very scared of mass organizing, peaceful protest, and that’s true of any authoritarian regime,” Levin added. “It is the number-one thing they’re concerned about. Because authoritarian regimes are not popular. What Trump is doing is not popular, and he projects strength and is lashing out. And his hope is that people feel alone.”
Regarding past rallies Indivisible has organized, such as the “Hands Off” rallies that took place in all fifty states in April, Levin said: “It was far larger than January 6th, and there was no violence. None.”
Levin said that organizers are taking security “very seriously,” adding:
We’ve trained tens of thousands of people on de-escalation and safety. Every single one of the 2,500-plus events across the world is required to have a safety plan in order to be on the map.
And we’re going to be able to hold two ideas in our heads: One, the regime wants to scare people away because they fear a peaceful display [of protesters]. And two, these are, by and large, boisterous displays of First Amendment rights.
Levin acknowledged that the timing of the rally creates additional wrinkles—coming, as it is, in the middle of a pitched political fight between Democrats who are refusing to fund the government unless they are granted certain concessions and Republicans who remain unwilling to give Democrats anything for their votes. But he maintains the event is not part of a broader legislative strategy of any kind.
“Symbols of popular opposition are demonstrating [Trump is] losing his grip on power,” he said. “So I would welcome people to come and check out the protests.”
Don’t Talk to Me Until I’ve Had My Tariffs
Tariffs make things more expensive. Sometimes it’s a Rolex getting marked up, and sometimes new price stickers are going on the sorts of items that almost everyone buys on a routine basis. An example of the latter is coffee, which is rapidly growing more expensive because of both tariffs and major supply issues related to climate change.
As Ellen Cushing writes in the Atlantic:
Today, all told, coffee in the U.S. is nearly 40 percent more expensive than it was a year ago. Futures for arabica coffee—the beans most people in the world drink—have increased by almost a dollar since July. And prices may well go up further: Tariffs have “destabilized an already volatile market,” Sara Morrocchi, the CEO of the coffee consultancy Vuna, told me. This is a problem for the millions of people who grow and sell coffee around the world. It is also a problem for the people who rely on coffee for their base executive functioning—such a problem that Congress recently introduced a bipartisan bill to specifically protect coffee from Trump’s tariffs.
Coffee helps millions of Americans to get going in the morning, to stay awake through the afternoon, and in some cases to keep from nodding off while waiting for lawmakers to exit the chamber following votes. Along with price increases for utilities and gas, the rising price of coffee could push normal Americans to pay closer attention to deeply unwelcome cost-of-living increases.
There might be a bipartisan fix on the horizon, assuming Congress ever gets back to business. Two lawmakers, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), have a bill to revoke the import taxes (tariffs) on coffee.
