Councilmember Nadeau offered the following statement in conjunction with her attendance at the Hands Off DC rally Wednesday morning at Columbus Circle, outside Union Station.\
“While we are raising our voices, the Senate is telling us to be silent. They are telling us that we should have no voice. That they know better than us.
“Republicans like to talk about “freedom” and “liberty.” Freedom from government telling them what they can do. But they don’t want freedom for the other nearly 700,000 residents of the D.C. They want to use the power of the federal government, of Congress, to silence the residents of D.C.
“Unfortunately, this also applies to some Democrats, too. Democrats who have succumbed to the fear that they’ll be labeled soft-on-crime because of the gross misinformation being spread by Republicans.
“But this isn’t about what’s in the bill – or in the other bill they want to overturn, the one I introduced to expand voting rights in D.C. This is about politics; it’s about finding sound bites for attack ads next year.
“It’s about disingenuously using the 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia as pawns in a political fight that has nothing to do with our needs and our ability to make our city safer and to mold our future in the vision we set for ourselves, a right that every other political jurisdiction in this country has.
“If you asked me to guess which president in my lifetime would oppress D.C. in a tweet, I would not have guessed this one. He tweeted, “I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule — but I don’t support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward.”
“Mr. President, then you don’t support statehood, and you don’t support home-rule.
“And neither do the other Democratic senators who are saying they support home rule, just not on this bill.
“What are they going to say when the House Republicans come after the District on abortion, on gun legislation, on our budget.What will they trade for the rights of 700,000 residents? What is their explanation for revoking our right to govern our own affairs?
“We are going to have to stick together. We are going to have to raise our voices. And we are going to have to make our case, because no one is going to do it for us.”