Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said Thursday on CNN’s “The Arena” that his fellow Democrats need to “take on” President Donald Trump.

He claimed the “best time” was “to take on a tyrant is as early as possible.”

Merkley said, “You don’t stop a bully by giving over your lunch money and you don’t stop tyrant Trump by voting to give him more power. That is absolutely the wrong approach. There are others who say, you know, in a shutdown, the president may have more power than we’ve seen in any previous shutdown. There is a legitimate case to be made on both sides of this argument.”

He continued, “But here’s what I am aware of, and that is, in history, as you see institutions degrade in republics where there’s an authoritarian president, is because the courts cave and you get an acquiescent legislature. The best time to take on a tyrant is as early as possible, and this is the moment. We have the leverage as a Democratic caucus to insist on negotiations, to produce those bills onto the floor, those appropriation bills onto the floor. This is the moment to use that leverage.”

Merkley concluded, “I think the concerns about the Republicans shutting down the government, because it will be the Republicans that do it, it will hurt them politically, it will be bad policy, and we will get back to using our leverage in an effective fashion.”

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