U.S. Senator Charles Schumer joined Community Board 2 for its monthly meeting on a Zoom call Thursday evening (Screen Shot: Queens Post)
Jan. 7, 2021 By Christian Murray
Just hours after he called for President Donald Trump’s ousting, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer appeared before members of community board 2 via Zoom.
The 75 people on the Zoom call Thursday night were surprised, given that it was less than a day since the Capitol building was in turmoil.
Schumer, who is the midst of organizing Trump’s impeachment, spent 20 minutes on the call—where he spent the first five minutes thanking board members for the service. Members’ jaws dropped as he was praising them–given the nation’s crisis.
“Thanks to all you community board members,” Schumer said nonchalantly. “You guys and gals do a great job—I know what it’s like. When things go bad you hear about; when things are great you hear nothing.”
He then went on to talk about how he likes western Queens and how he rides his bicycle through the area when he comes in from Brooklyn. “I ride a bike all over and no one sees me. I’m not a spandex guy going over 40 miles per hour.”
Schumer, despite the chaos in Washington, apologized to the board for only being on the call for 20 minutes. “I’m sorry. I usually spend 45 minutes on a Community Board call. When we set this call up, we did not know what the events of yesterday would be.”
The board members—most of whom were surprised he had a moment to spare—expressed great thanks that he was in attendance. Many posted laudatory messages in the Zoom chat room.
Schumer then suddenly adopted a more serious tone.
“What happened yesterday was despicable. It was an insurrection,” he said. “This was not a protest. These people were thugs, goons, they were violent. I never would have imagined something like this would happen,” Schumer said.
“I was only about 30 feet from some of these thugs,” he said, speaking of the moment when he was ushered out of the Senate chamber.
“Let’s make no mistake about it. These people are domestic terrorists—and they bear full responsibility and I will make sure that they are fully prosecuted. I have called the Acting Attorney General. I have very little faith that this acting attorney general will do much – but I am going to make sure that our new Attorney General goes after them…and spares no leniency.”
But Schumer said the main person who bears responsibility for the riot is Trump.
“Donald Trump incited this riot,” he told board members. “It wouldn’t have happened without him. If there was no Donald Trump this would not have happened. He egged the people on, he created the lies, the lies about the election and actually encouraged the violence.
Schumer said that he asked both the Acting Attorney General and the head of the Department of Defense to get Trump to make a statement during the mayhem to tell the rioters to leave the capitol. “He wouldn’t do it,” Schumer said.
“When he finally did [make a statement] it hurt more than it helped.”
Schumer said that has called on Vice President Mike Pence to use the 25th Amendment to get Trump removed.
“He refused to do it. So, I called on Speaker Pelosi and a few hours later she agreed to begin impeachment proceedings.”
Schumer said that Trump does not deserve one more day in office.
“This is how democracies stop being democracies,” Schumer said. “When there are actions like this and no one says anything or does anything and nobody pays a price–it gets worse and worse.”
Schumer said that if Trump is impeached, they could prohibit him from running for office again.
“This man should never be allowed to run for office again—given what he did,” Schumer said.
He then discussed how many members were left in fear even after the riot.
“One of my colleagues was told that she shouldn’t go on an airplane and go home—she is not from New York—because there might be violence against her because Trump supporters might be on the plane.
“This is what we have come to in America and Donald Trump has done it unfortunately.”
