{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-republicans-are-threatening-american-democracy", "Sanders: Republicans Are Threatening American Democracy", "2016-11-28", "2016", "2016-11", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Sanders: Republicans Are Threatening American Democracy\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tMonday, November 28, 2016\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tBURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 28 \u2013 U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement Monday after Donald Trump claimed\u00a0\"millions of people...voted illegally\" and made unfounded allegations of \"serious\u00a0voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California\":\r\n\"The threat to American democracy under Republican control is two-fold. First, they will likely move to go beyond the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and end\u00a0all\u00a0campaign finance limitations. Right now, the Koch brothers and the billionaire class can spend as much as they want only on\u00a0independent expenditures. The Republican leadership wants more. They want billionaires to be able to contribute\u00a0directly\u00a0to the candidate and, in essence, make the candidate a full-fledged\u00a0employee\u00a0of wealthy contributors.\u00a0\r\n\"Secondly, the Republicans will likely move aggressively to expand their current\u00a0voter\u00a0suppression\u00a0efforts. When Trump talks his disgraceful and unfounded nonsense about millions of people voting illegally, he is sending a very clear signal that the Republicans will move to make it harder for people of color, the elderly, immigrants, young people and poor people to participate in elections.\r\n\"Our job: State by state and at the federal level, resist all efforts at voter suppression. We must do everything we can to make it\u00a0easier\u00a0for people to participate in the political process, not harder.\u00a0States like California, Vermont and others have already moved effectively in that direction. Others must follow.\r\n\"For many Republicans leaders, 'democracy' means billionaires buying elections and poor and working people being disenfranchised. Too many Americans have fought and died to defend American democracy.\u00a0The Republican anti-democratic vision is not a future we will allow to happen.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-republicans-are-threatening-american-democracy"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.416174927726388, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}