OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A House Democrat suggested in a social media post on Tuesday that the government should “impound” trucks heading to Washington, D.C., as part of “The People’s Convoy” protest and then redistribute them.
“Perfect time to impound and give the trucks to small trucking companies looking to expand their business,” Rep. Ruben Gallego wrote in response to a news report that said the convoy of truckers may shut down the highways surrounding the nation’s capital.
Perfect time to impound and give the trucks to small trucking companies looking to expand their business. https://t.co/1pHURh0hbr
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) February 22, 2022
The suggestion led to several responses on social media as well, including:
- Dana Loesch, radio host: “Also known as theft.”
- Kurt Schlichter, political commentator: “Siding with foreign dictators.”
- Robert Arce, former law enforcement official: “Will your distribution of wealth be done at gunpoint?”
- Nick Searcy, actor: “Why don’t you just murder them like a good communist, @RubenGallego?”
The U.S. convoy protest comes on the heels of a similar one in Canada, which was disbanded by force last weekend after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invokes a rarely used “Emergencies Act” that granted him outsized authorities.
His actions were criticized in Canada and abroad, with several comparing them to authoritarianism.
“I think statutes that allow presidents or heads of state to invoke emergencies are very, very dangerous,” said Sen Rand Paul (R-Ky.) during an episode of the BASED Politics program on Sunday.
“We have the same sort of statutes here, and I have long-time been an opponent of these. We actually have in the United States an Emergency Act that allows the president to shut down the internet,” he said.
Fox News adds:
Several Canadian civil liberties groups have also spoken out against Trudeau after he invoked the Emergencies Act to cut off funding for “Freedom Convoy” truckers, freeze their bank accounts and crack down on the lingering demonstrations in Ottawa. The trucker protest has been largely cleared from the Canadian capital, but Trudeau has not yet relaxed the state of emergency.
Paul explained how he failed in his attempt to corral anti-Trump Democrats into an alliance with libertarian-leaning Republicans to strike down such emergency power legislation during the Trump administration.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that it has approved the deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., ahead of the expected trucker protest, according to The Daily Beast:
The state government and U.S. Capitol Police made the request for the National Guard “to provide support at traffic control points in and around the District,” according to Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby, speaking earlier on Tuesday. Kirby added that Guard personnel would also be ready in the event of “possible disruptions at key traffic arteries.” Trucker convoys, modeled after the ones that have blockaded Canadian cities in recent weeks, are headed for the Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1.
Maureen Steele, one of the main organizers of The People’s Convoy, told NTD News that she and others have taken precautions to ensure that their protest is not similarly crushed like that of their Canadian counterparts.
“We’ve taken every precaution that we could. I don’t know what the government is going to do,” she said.
“We have been operating with local municipalities and police along our route, engaging with them ahead of time,” Steele said. “We also have lawyers on board that are helping us to make sure that we’re within the laws [as] we’re rolling through, entering small towns … to make sure that we’re welcome there.”
“Anticipating what happened in Canada, I don’t know what our government is going to do here. It appears that it’s simply as tyrannical as Trudeau up there,” Steele added.
