Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday that Republicans who support former President Donald Trump during his impeachment trial are complicit in his acts. Trump faces a single charge of incitement of insurrection stemming from his actions before and during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"There are no two sides," Pressley said. "You are either a patriot or a traitor. These people sought to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. It was a violent, white supremacist mob, and your silence is complicity. Your silence is violence."
Pressley urged for conviction and for the Senate to bar Trump from holding office again. She said the impeachment trial is "as much about accountability, as it is prevention."
As her Democratic colleagues in the Senate push for conviction, Pressley and fellow House Democrats are pushing for more COVID-19 relief. Pressley compared the economic struggles that many Americans face today to the financial crisis of 2008, noting that some families are still recovering from that downturn.
"This is not the time to play small. We need to go big. The bills have not stopped coming," Pressley said, as she recalled a woman in her district who told Pressley that her heat and electric bills have actually doubled during the pandemic because everyone in her household is either working for home, learning from home or has lost their jobs altogether.
"This is why I've been pushing for rent and mortgage cancellation, for eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, for the cancelling of student debt, but above all else, for $2,000 recurring survival checks," Pressley said. "They're not stimulus checks. This isn't about stimulating the economy. This is about people remaining safely housed in the midst of the pandemic."
Pressley also discussed Massachusetts' COVID-19 vaccine rollout. She recently sent Gov. Charlie Baker calling for more equity in vaccine distribution. She's likened the current state of affairs to "vaccine redlining."
The congresswoman said Wednesday that she's encouraged by Baker's commitment to using community health centers, but she remains concerned about how equitably the vaccine will be distributed.
"Equity cannot be a buzzword," Pressley said. "We have to be intentional in every step — and that's from design to implementation — in order to ensure that our most vulnerable receive the information and have the resources necessary to actually turn out."
Just 3% of Massachusetts residents who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are Black, while 45% are white, according to the latest weekly data available from the state.
