In a deranged rant, OAN host calls for Trump to threaten Democratic governors with arrest

Graham Ledger likens anti-lockdown protestors to Martin Luther King Jr, suggests Trump threaten Democratic governors with arrest via the Commerce Clause, and calls for open rebellion in blue states

Video file

Citation

From the May 13, 2020, edition of One America News Network's The Daily Ledger

GRAHAM LEDGER (HOST): It was Martin Luther King, Jr. using that constitutionally-based axiom to lead this republic away from laws that leaders who inhibited liberty, freedom, equal protection, and ultimately God-given rights. It was King doing so correctly. He defied radical politicians. He stood his ground against prejudicial decrees that trampled on the constitutional rights of American citizens. Well, If MLK were alive today, then what would he say about forcing people to abandon their First Amendment rights, hmmh? What would King say about denying my right to assemble? What would Martin Luther King Jr. say and what would he do to these spineless Catholic priests and bishops? Would King do what most churches are doing and simply abandon the right to practice religion? Simply capitulate to one man or one woman who just happens to have the title "Governor"? I don’t think so. No, I think MLK would not only be speaking out, but he would be acting out through civil disobedience.

...

This is a full-blown, five-star constitutional nightmare. So where is the hope? Where is the resistance? Well, there is hope, and there must be resistance. This hope resides deep inside each and every patriotic American who can see the big constitutional picture here. These are thinking Americans who understand that what Martin Luther King Jr. executed fifty-something years ago must be replicated right here, right now.

And one of these patriotic Americans is a guy from New York who goes by the name of Donald Trump. President Trump is being politically overwhelmed right now by a bunch of partisan hack blue state governors who are slow-walking any form of reopening their states. Why? Because of a virus? Please! Please!

Even you doubters, when I was blasting this entire episode back in early March, when this first started, you folks know now, don't you, this entire government response to the Wuhan coronavirus is not about health. It's about defeating President Trump in November. And if these governors succeed in keeping businesses closed through the summer, I really hate to say this, I really do. But they're going to succeed, folks.

So what does the president have to lose here? Donald Trump should immediately and radically enforce the "commerce clause" of the United States Constitution. Cuomo and Newsom and Pritzker and Northam and company are in violation, clearly, of the commerce clause. There is no debate. Issue a cease-and-desist order to all of them. Demand that they allow residents of their respective states to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, A.K.A. commerce. Yes, demand that they reopen. And if they do not comply, then the Justice Department will issue arrest warrants for these governors and while federalizing local sheriffs and the president to send in the National Guard.

Sound outrageous? Well, how would you describe what's happening to more than one-third of our population right now? Which leads me to the other patriotic thinking Americans who need to act now, with or without the president's enforcement of the commerce clause. It is time, Los Angeles. It is time, Pittsburgh. It is time, Buffalo. It is time, Virginia Beach, it is time Rockford. It is time, Lansing. It is time for resistance. Defiance. Open up, California. Open up, Pennsylvania, open up, Illinois. Our forefathers risked their lives for us. This is our moment to risk it all for future Americans because, because it is our moral responsibility to defy unjust, unfair, and un-constitutional edicts from government.

So what do you think, Detroit? Hmmh? Have you had enough of this radical nut case anti-constitutional governor of yours yet?

[CLIP STARTS]

MICHIGAN GOV GRETCHEN WHITMER: What we need to do is continue what we have done. It's working. And --

[CLIP ENDS]

LEDGER: Stop tape. Something in her eyes -- she's got the crazy eyes. But she's infecting millions and millions of Michigan residents with those infectious eyes.

...

[CLIP STARTS]

MICHIGAN GOV GRETCHEN WHITMER: For people that want to voice their frustration, that's fine. But I expect people to follow the law. These executive orders are not a suggestion.

[CLIP ENDS]

LEDGER: Stop the tape. She's saying that her orders, one person, in a state with millions of people, one person issuing orders -- not following the state constitution, not following the federal constitution -- one person issuing orders, Governor Whitman has the power to control all of these people and it's tantamount to law, tantamount to law.

This is why the president of the United States must act. Because these governors like Whitman and the crazies in Pennsylvania, and in Virginia, and in North Carolina, and in New Mexico, and in Colorado and Alaska and Washington state and Oregon and California, they're not going to let go of their grip until after the election, they're not going to let go of their stranglehold on their economies until they know that Donald Trump has been exposed as much as possible to a terrible economy and it'll affect the voting pattern in November. They're not going to let go of their grip of power. They're not going to do this.

The president must act. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain, called the United States Constitution.