a parachute jump, a live concert and a finale with fireworks. watch of the u.s. army's 250th parade anniversary celebration on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. ♪ announcer: democracy. it is not just an idea, it is a process, a process that she by leaders elected to the highest officers -- offices and entrusted to a select few for guarding his principles. where debates unfold, decisions are made and the nation's course is started. democracy in real-time. this is your government at work. this is c-span, giving you your democracy unfiltered. ng is ezra levin, cofounder and coat

executive director of indivisible. what is indivisible? guest: we are approaching democracy grassroots movement of local volunteers who have formed indivisible groups in every congressional district in the country. we are organizing to protect american democracy. that means pushing our elected officials to actually represent us and in some cases organizing to replace representatives. and we are organizing to push against autocratic overreach from the government. you have organized this "no kings" protests. what are they? guest: we heard that donald trump is planning a military birthday parade for himself that would cost a hundred million dollars of taxpayer dollars. we were shocked. that is not the kind of thing we have seen in america. that is what you would more likely see in north korea.

what we know from the experts in authoritarianism, would be authoritarians want to project strength and want to show they are the supreme leader. we couldn't let that stand. we didn't want to play into his hands and want any counter protest of the parade. we did one in to have the narrative device that put us in the military. we said he could have downtime d.c. for the birthday parade. we will organize peacefully and powerfully everywhere else and on saturday, there will be more than 2000 locally led peaceful protests for no kings a day. not just in the big city centers but in places like homer alaska, erie, montana, in small towns and cities. people are standing up and saying we don't do kings in america. host: what is your prediction for how many people will show

up? guest: it is hard to tell. this is not our first rodeo. on april 5 we held the then single largest day of peaceful protests in many years called hands off and we saw events in more than 1300 communities worldwide. the conservative estimates held that there are about 3.5 million people who showed up for hands-off. i would expect millions more. host: there is a rally in philadelphia. we will have coverage of that at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. no kings protests taking place in philadelphia. it is featuring congressman jamie raskin, randi weingarten, the teacher union president. you will be able to watch the rally at 1:00 p.m. eastern o c-span, c-span now, our free video mobile app and online at c-span.org. i want to play for you with the

president had to say it yesterday in the east room at the white house when he was asked about the no kings protests. [video clip] pres. trump: i don't feel like a king. i have to go through hell to get things approved. a king would say i'm not in a get this. they would never have the california mandate. he wouldn't have to call up mike johnson and thune and say, you have to pull this off and after years we get it done. we are not a king at all. host: how do you respond? the president saying there are checks and balances in place. guest: he is doing everything he can to undermine the checks and balances. it is not just me saying it could you look to the scholars of authoritarianism. look at the folk that have studied this for decades and the way they describe the moment we are in right now is using the term autocratic breakthrough. it is not just to find by a right-wing government pushing a conservative agenda. i would disagree with that

agenda but that is not autocratic breakthrough. instead it is defined by the concentration of power in the hands of one individual and then attacks on other sources of power. when i think of autocratic breakthrough, i'm thinking of the attacks on media institutions and universities and businesses and nonprofits. i think of the undermining of the rule of law, disappearing americans to a foreign blog. sending gestapo forces out and pay her cup. that is what it means for an autocratic breakthrough. it doesn't mean monarchical rule from history books, it is a slow descent into authoritarianism and one day we wake up looking for our first amendment rights and the rights to peacefully organize and we find out we don't have them because we didn't stand up to protect them.

that is why it is important to peacefully but powerfully stand up today to protect those rights. host: how do you respond to critics that they overreach by the executive branch has happened with previous presidents as well. former president barack obama said he had a pen and was going to use it. guest: four president barack obama, the idea that you would compare some form of overreach from barack obama or frankly other republican presidents in decades past to what is going on now betrays a total lack of understanding of the current moment and history. you don't have two ideologically agree with me or be a progressive in the moment. if you're only organizing with progressives in the moment, the room is too small. we need people of all ideological stripes, progressives, moderates and

conservative democrats and never trump republicans and even trump voters who wanted lower prices of eggs and bread but now are seeing the fellow community members be disappeared overseas. we need them standing up in this moment and sang, we might not agree on everything but what we do agree on is this is a constitutional republic. we have freedom of speech and the right organize and believe in due process. while we might not agree on the precise budget we might pass next year or education policy or tax policy, that is ok. what we can't agree on is we don't do kings in america. host: gym in stamford, new york, democratic caller -- jim in stamford, new york, democratic caller. caller: as far as tomorrow for the king. tomorrow is a flag day. i don't hear people mentioning that. guest: thank you for bringing that up. we just did a call with

participants last night and i specifically called that out and if you look at the resources, in addition to finding an event near you you will find toolkits for how to put on those events. it is very important that we lean into patriotism right now. part of the point of holding a big military parade rolling tanks through the streets of d.c. is for trump to claim the mantle of american patriotism. we can't cede that narrative to him. it is a flag day and not just donald trump's birthday and the 250th anniversary of the forming of the continental army. that army that was formed to push back against another mad king. so i strongly recommend if you are going to a protest on no kings day, have some fun with it, bring your family and friends and prepared to chant but also prepared to waive your

american flags and also listen to some veterans. embrace patriotism and show the rest of the country and world what art representative democracy looks like. host: behnam ben taleblu, what do you say then to president trump as he prepares for this military parade and asks that americans celebrate the u.s. army and its birthday? guest: i mean, trump is somewhat irrelevant to the day. he has his little parade that i don't think is going to be well attended and that is in downtown d.c. and he can have it. there will be millions more across the country standing up for democracy. the most quintessentially american thing that you can do is to stand up in defense of your constitutional rights and peacefully organize in defense of them. that is more american than apple

pie. i hope to see people of all ideological persuasions and all geographies showing up on this date. it is going to be a telling display of what makes america one of the best places to be in the world. host: will have coverage of the no kings rally in philadelphia cebration of the u.s. armyde in starting at 6:00 p.m. n time on c-span, c-span now and c-span.org. behnam ben taleblu -- ezra levin is with us talking about the no kings protests planned. daniel in pennsylvania, republican. caller: i would agree with you if it was like how emma kate once peacefully protested -- how mlk once peacefully protested on

how they were brutalized. on the late rights, i agree with the trump sending the national guard and marines. they were looting stores and causing chaos and throwing rocks off of the bridge at police cars that were driving by. the thing is, i remember i wasn't born when the rooftops happened that is what happens when the national guard or the marines even don't show up to these riots. host: let's take your point. guest: i appreciate your question. what it hits on is a core part of the discussion which is what is the role of peaceful protest and how can it show up in what is the strategic logic of it? i would be first to say indivisible has been rooted in the principles of nonviolence from the get-go.

frankly if i had to compare receipts with donald trump on who is more committed to nonviolent political engagement, i would be happy to. earlier this year we were helping organize the hands of a protest with 1300 events across the world. not a single incident of property destruction or violence reported in 1300 events across the world. whereas, donald trump, we were shocked and appalled when he instigated a riot, violent murderous riot at the capital and january 6 and then the first chance he got when he was elected again, he pardoned those violent insurrectionists. i think what is happening in l.a. is atrocious but i think it requires some context. the people of l.a., mayor, governor of l.a. identified there were a small number of people engaging in property destruction and that is bad and they said they had it under

control. the lapd said they had it under control. nobody asked for donald trump to send in troops and to nationalize the guard or send in the marines. what he is doing there is inflaming the situation intentionally. i think we agree here on the importance of nonviolence but i would ask you to look at the full context there and understand that authoritarians often do exactly this, they aim to inflame tensions and spread chaos, not just to cause harm but to escalate the situation so that they can claim more authority and militarize more. at the same time trump is escalating in l.a., he and the republicans in congress are asking for hundred 50 billion more dollars for ice and immigration enforcement. what we see in l.a. is a rehearsal for the rest of the

country. they would like to hire 10,000 more ice agents to tear apart families around the country. the way that you push back against that kind of authoritarian escalation is broad-based, ideologically diverse and peaceful people based organizing and that is what we are doing. who or where are you getting the funding to organize this effort? guest: from viewers like you. the single source of funding for indivisible is people going and sending us 20 bucks. that is the fuel for the grassroots movement. and primarily what is happening on the ground is normal everyday people deciding to take it upon themselves to organize themselves. nobody is getting paid to show up for organize these protests. there are more than 2000. i don't know how you would do

that logistically to pay to have millions of people show up. if you go to a hands-off rally in april or show up tomorrow at a no kings day protest, you will see mom's and grandmom's, teachers and government workers, normal everyday folks from the community. we have a saying that politics in this moment is too important to leave up to the politicians. by and large, we are not professional organizers and maybe not even activists. we are americans who are concerned for our democracy. host: henry, michigan, democratic caller. caller: a congresswoman, monica mciver, is up on charges for shoving or interviewing with ice. a senator yesterday it was manhandled in a presser by kristi noem. we are not slow walking toward

dictatorship and authoritarianism, trump has threatened that the marches tomorrow, the protests will be met with force. i am concerned that last night's attack by israel is just another cover for trump to move headlong into his agenda to take over america and establish authoritarianism here. i wonder if you could speak to that for us please. is netanyahu working in concert with donald trump to take america into a dictatorship and authoritarianism with this attack on iran? guest: i don't know. i will just be honest. i know america should stop sending hundreds of billions of dollars to an authoritarian in israel who is subjugating his

people and starting foreign wars that could drag the united states in. it is a waste of u.s. dollars and fills atrocities and does not make one american safe. as for what trump isn't doing, i think you are right. he is escalating quickly. i am not a scholar of authoritarianism but i read the scholars on authoritarianism and it scares me where we are at right now. we need to recognize for us watching this right now, most of the time most people are not paying attention. it is not going to be that one day we wake up and suddenly democracy is gone. that is not how it works. instead we are in -- a frog in slowly increasingly boiling water. we need to organize and alert as many of our friends and community members to this fact and when they do it with their head up and say, they are disappearing people to el

salvador, trying to militarize cities across the country, they are tearing apart families, whatever it does that make people live their head up, we need to welcome them into this pro-democracy movement. what we know from the folks like erica chen with -- ch enewith is just 3.5% organizing in a peaceful consistent manner, that is somewhere between 11 million people and 12 million people. it is a lot but it is not impossible. we need to continue to build the peaceful insistent pro-democracy movement across the country and this is one of the exciting things about no kings day. it is going to be a cool place for people to be. i think people will want to be a part of it and will have fun and then get plugged into organizing

persistently in their own communities. host: cori in north carolina, republican. caller: i would like to understand your meaning of politics not left to politicians and how that relates to the previous administration versus now six months in. guest: i think politics should never be left to the politician. indivisible is not the arm of the republican party. we have called for chuck schumer to step down because he is not a good leader. i don't think democracy works if it is just the politicians who are leading because you know what the politicians are, they are weathervanes. they go with the wind blows and do you know who is blowing that wind, donors, industry, interest groups. if we want a functioning democracy, i don't care if

you're a republican, independent or democrat, if you want democracy to respond to you, you have to be a part of what is influencing them and the way to do that is to focus on organizing in your own community. that is what works and how our democracy is structured. donald trump wants everybody to think he is the sole elected official in the owner of political power in this country. it is just not true and that is not how the founders designed our constitutional republic. there are literally hundreds of thousands of elected officials in this country. you build power by organizing locally and focusing on who your representatives are in pushing them. and it is true regardless of what your ideology is. i think it will be stronger if we do more of that and less yelling at each other on the internet. organize in your own community. talk to each other, build community. that will strengthen our democracy. host: which leaves are doing an

effective job pushing back and are their leaders on both sides of the aisle? guest: certainly there are plenty of folks like chris murphy, maxwell frost, jasmine crockett, bernice handers. we see lots of leaders standing up. -- bernie sanders. we see lots of leaders standing up. it has been taken over at the national level by donald trump. this wasn't true in his first term. in 2017, there were plenty of elected republicans who were willing to stand up to him, adam kinzinger, liz cheney among others. these are frankly republicans who i strongly disagree with ideologically. we wouldn't agree on a lot but we agreed that donald trump was a threat to democracy and folks need to stand up together.

that is not the republican party we have at the national level today and that is part of what makes this moment so dangerous. 70 mentioned earlier that the united states senator was tackled to the ground and put in handcuffs. that senator is alex padilla, a senator from california. if you haven't seen the video, i would recommend you take a look. he was attending a press conference with the secretary of homeland security and attempted to ask a question and was forcibly removed, pushed to the ground and put into handcuffs. in response to that, what did mike johnson, the speaker of the house say? he said that the senator should be censured to the senate. this is the republican party are dealing with now. i would love to have republican party i disagree with on policy

but what we have is a republican party standing behind the democratic republic and democratic institutions. host: as you were talking about the situation at the news conference with the homeland security secretary, we were showing the video and that was put on x by senator padilla's office. he is on the ground being handcuffed by the officers and we are going to talk to viewers about that and other public policy issues coming up in our last hour of the "washington journal. done in st. louis missouri, independent. -- donna in st. louis, missouri, independent. caller: trump wants of oligarchy where a few billionaires have power. the bombing and the arrest of the senator padilla is a distraction which the media is eating up to keep our attention of the republican bill in the

senate where they are going to give billions of tax cuts to the richest 10%, billions of cuts in medicaid, millions of people will lose their health care and medicare and medicaid and secondly, the homeland security secretary knew who the senior senator from california was here she was in the federal building where he has an office and she was standing there where he has his office and either she is stupidest person in the building if she didn't know what he was but trump didn't want her to answer any questions. the fbi agents should be fired for arresting a senator and are acting like they didn't know who he was and along with the rest of us does have the right to freedom of speech which is the real reason he was taken out of the room and that is scary. guest: that is right.

we have to live in the two worlds because in the one world we focused on is the authoritarian overreach. we see trump consolidating power and him attacking our most basic constitutional rights. that is a scary world that commands us to think as anti-authoritarians and how you organize peacefully to push back against that. we also live in a world where there is legislation moving forward in congress as it would any given year and there is a republican trifecta, controlling the senate, house and presidency and they are pushing for the reconciliation bill that you are exactly right, gives tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires and does nothing for the bottom half of the country. that is intentional. why do you think the republicans are pushing for a deeply regressive bill that concentrates power in the hands

of a tiny few and gives tax cuts and wealth in the hands of a tiny few at the same time they are attacking our fundamental rights. why do you think those are happening at the same time? it is not a coincidence. if your policy agenda is deeply regressive, all built on concentrating wealth in the hands of industry and millionaires and billionaires, that is not a policy agenda you can maintain if you live in a free and democratic society. if you are able to express their opinions and organize invoke freely, they are going to go to out of power. you have to also at the same time systematically attack those freedoms. otherwise, you are not going to implement your policy agenda. i see these things not as in conflict or a distraction, i see them in part and parcel to build an oligarchic system.

as for what we saw with senator padilla, you are right. they knew who he was. he self identified. he said i am senator padilla. so the white house and homeland security secretary came out with a lot of straight up lies describing the situation and expecting that there people will believe those people and what that will develop is to alternative worldviews about what reality is and they benefit when americans can't agree on what reality is. again, i come back to this big nash basic request to please watch the news to become informed. understand what the issues are but also organize in your own community and have conversations with each other. even with people you don't agree about what is happening right now because we cannot afford to let the would-be authoritarians defined what reality is for us. we need to define reality based on what we see, hear and discuss

with fellow community members. host: we are going to northport florida, cindy, a republican. welcome to the discussion. caller: thank you. i have been listening to mr. levin and i know that he seems to be doing an awful lot of complaining about this parade and the money that has been spent on it but he didn't seem to complain about joe biden spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for a queers and lesbians and cross dressers to be at the white house for a big party on easter. he seems to have no respect for common sense people who freed this country so that we can have this conversation. how much taxpayer money is he spending on his organization for

people standing on the streets complaining is probably going to get nasty. host: any taxpayer for the no kings protest? guest: of course not, that is bizarre. i don't know what you are talking about with the joe biden spending but let me take you at your word that he spent 100,000 dollars on a party of some sort that you disagree with. that is under thousand dollars. how much is the trump military parade for his birthday going to cost? hundred million dollars of taxpayer money. at your money and he is doing this at a time unless you are a millionaire or billionaire, he is doing this at a time where he is cutting taxes for the millionaires and billionaires in your estate and not doing anything for you. i would really encourage you to take a close look at the facts. donald trump is duping you.

he is playing on your own lack of understanding of his operation and that is intentional. he does not want you to know what he is doing. he is trying to make you hate your neighbor, whether they are in the lgbtq, immigrants, federal workers. he wants you to focus on them so that you don't see him take money out of your pocket and give it to his billionaire friends. i am with you in being upset when the federal government misuses money but i would highly encourage you to play close attention to not just what donald trump is saying but what he and his republican allies are doing, which is directly harming you and your community. host: carla is in aurora, colorado, democratic color. you are talking with ezra levin. caller: thank you for what you are doing. i am a proud member of a progressive group indivisible in

aurora, colorado. i have been livid since donald trump said he was going to run. right now, i would like people to understand that this man is not mentally well. in 2017, a doctor started a duty to warn conference and you will find that since 2017, within 240 highly trained mental health experts have deemed him in writing to be unfit to be the commander-in-chief. i go to groups with people who are educated, retired teachers, professors. these are lawyers and people who know what they are talking about and have been paying attention since he began to run. the whole situation has me so upset. i just can't even tell you how

much. host: i will jump in and have ezra levin respond. guest: i feel that too. here's what i would say, no single one of us is going to solve this on our own and it is not our job to psychoanalyze donald trump. we can't control what he does. that is not within our power and we should be focusing on what is in our power. what i encourage people to do is by all means be informed and watch the news and make sure you understand the basics of the issue. if we are going to do anything positive for this country in this moment, it is going to start with what you were doing which is organizing in your own community. maybe that is forming a local indivisible group which is what a lot of folks have done across the country but you can join your local union, working families party or start your own institution but the way that we pushed back effectively is by joining with each other and

identifying what is our peace of this and what can we actually do . i am not looking for people just feel good about being on the right side of history because we have the right opinions. i want to see people take action and specifically take strategic effective action. what you do in aurora is going to be different than what somebody does in beaumont, texas and different from what somebody does in san francisco and in winnebago, wisconsin. that is good and right but it is up to you to use your brain and organize with your fellow community members. and i think you are not just going to feel better and it is cheaper than therapy but you will also make a positive impact in the current moment. host: will go to paul in new york, independent. caller: oddly enough, i agree with the participation stuff. what i disagree with is the hyperbole, part of the problem is that everybody seems to be

calling, fascist, nazi. obama was called a socialist. so there is a crying wolf effect where there's been so much extreme in terms of every politician that if an authoritarian shows up i don't think people would recognize it. you said that the military parade is similar to what you see in north korea. it is not my cup of tea but actually something in france called the steel -- bastile day. that is a big day for them. when it comes to padilla, very quickly, i don't agree with what happened to him but i don't see why seems to be that it would be

ok to arrest him if he wasn't a senator. if i make a disruption at a press conference, why should i be subject to be arrested? why is that so kosher it with you and so acceptable that if i were to go to a night -- ice facility and make a scene and push somebody than i should be able to be arrested but if it is a congresswoman, will that is unacceptable. i think there is a double standard here that you have. host: let's have ezra levin respond. guest: i agree if you go and thought somebody at an ice rally, he arrested. but that is not what we saw senator padilla do. we saw him at a press conference attempt to ask a question and then was immediately apprehended by the fbi, tackled to the ground and put into handcuffs. i don't think you should have been arrested had you attended a

conference and attempted to ask a question. i agree with you over all. i do think you are making this good point about the language that we use and it being insufficient for the moment. you say when a real authoritarian outcomes will we be able to know it or describe it because of the language we use? from my perspective, which is informed by the perspective of the experts in authoritarianism, that moment has arrived. i don't know what other language to use to tell you this. i would encourage you to study up on what folks who study this for a living say we are experiencing right now. i am left without additional language other than to say this is an autocratic breakthrough and that is defined by this specific behaviors of the would-be authoritarian ruler. i don't want to be there. what i would like is a

republican president who i disagree with on tax policy and wouldn't describe that as authoritarianism. i would say he is coming to cut your medicaid and medicare or cut education spending. i disagree with that for these reasons. i wouldn't call that authoritarianism. what we define as autocratic breakthrough is not a right wing agenda. that is not something i agree with but normal with our system. the not normal think that is happening right now is the attack on the pillars of liberal democracy and the concentration of political power in the hands of the white house. when you extort a law firm or threaten columbia or at tell businesses they have to take certain actions otherwise they will be targeted by the administration, that is where you get into autocratic breakthrough. i wish i had better language to describe it but i do really try to rely on the experts and follow their lead. host: will go to las vegas.

doug is joining us, a republican. caller: just a simple on a dictated -- just a simple and educated dropout. i started working when i was 14 years old and worked every day in my life, got a retarded daughter since she was born. all of this liberal stuff is ridiculous. i have fought with these people over that since day one. everyone calls and complains about their food stamps. host: do have a question or comment about that no kings protest? or the actions by the president? caller: you keep talking over people when they call it. host: i am going to move on. larry, democrat.

caller: good morning. i wanted to call in about the protesters. this fellow is so despicable. i can't stand to hear him talk. host: he says the protesters are paid and this is something you have seen reported by at fox news and the white house and republicans. guest: i would love to see where that money is coming from. i don't know how you organize a peaceful protest with literally millions up all across the globe, 17 countries, every single congressional district. within a dozen in montana and alaska and one on every island of hawaii. who is cutting the checks for

these pay protesters? host: ezra levin cofounder and coexecutive director of indivisible, one of the key groups organizing the no kings rally happening saturday, tomorrow. we will have coverage at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. you can watch it right here on