Representative Chellie Pingree speaks at a pro-democracy assembly of 350 people in Rockland, Maine on January 10, 2026.
Transcript:
Remarks of Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine District 1
January 10, 2026
Thank you so much for letting me join you for a minute. Can I just say how proud I am of my second hometown, Rockland? I don’t get to spend enough time here because you know where I am all week. But this is where I come back to turn into a normal human being again so I can start over on Monday. And it is thanks to the amazing people who live in Maine and in Midcoast Maine.
So, thank you so much for standing up. This was our first week back in Washington, and you all know this has been a horrible, horrible, awful week. Our hearts go out to the good people of Minnesota and to the tragic death that did not have to happen. It was a murder. We will all be here to remember Renee Good. But all of us are here to remember the good people of Minnesota who are fighting back and standing up and saying, “Not in my city. Get out of our fucking town and don’t come back.”
We also had the lawless invasion of Venezuela and we have a president who is now telling he’s going to be, you know, off our North Atlantic coast and taking over Greenland! It’s got to stop. It’s got to stop right here with all of us. So, look, this isn’t a time for big speeches and I don’t I don’t want to do that. But I want you to know I stand with all of you and I want you to know that we have had one of the worst years in American history under this president: the damage that he has done. The way he has taken down our democratic principles, the rule of law, our institutions, defunded the things that we care about. It’s been one thing after another and it’s been not been an easy year. And 2026 is starting out just as hard. But it’s going to take all of us doing what you do so vigilantly every Saturday: speaking up, fighting back, and saying this is not the way we want our country run. We do not want this money spent in our name. We do not want these decisions made in our name. And we are going to keep fighting back every day until they are gone. Every day. And don’t underestimate your power. You can see you’ve already made a difference.
And I just want to say two things that happened this week that were good things. Well, maybe three.
Number one, we had a discharge petition on the Affordable Care Act tax credits when it passed in the House. Now, that means it still has to pass in the Senate. But that means for all the people who had to drop their health insurance because it cost three times as much because this damn president want to spend more money on a ballroom than he will on your healthcare. We’re making progress. We got 17 Republicans to vote on that. Now, they didn’t vote necessarily just out of the goodness of their heart, although I do believe that many of them believe that this is the right thing to do. But they also know that this is a president who is illegitimate and not doing the right thing, and they no longer want to take votes in his name. So, the more votes we can get that way, the more they can be pressured to do the right thing, the more likely we are to start turning things around. Uh, it also shows the great power of the people support in their districts because in all those 17 districts, people were getting on the phones and calling up and saying, “I don’t like what you’re doing. Here’s what’s happening in my healthcare and it’s got to stop. It’s got to stop today.
We won the war powers vote in Venezuela, in the Senate. So, we are saying no, you cannot do this without congressional action. And don’t you dare go into another country, whether it’s Cuba or Greenland or anywhere else, without the permission of Congress. And the fact that we got that through in the Senate means we have a better chance in the House and it’ll come up on January 23rd because it’s a privileged resolution. It takes us a little while, yeah.
And the last thing is a personal thing that I did and I’m just really proud of it and I know it’ll matter to some people in the Midcoast. I’m the ranking member of the Interior Environment Subcommittee on Appropriations. It’s a funny little name, but it means we control some of the funding on things that many of us care about like the EPA and the Department of Interior and tribal funding and all of the arts. And there was a provision that Bayer tried to slip into that bill, section 453, on pesticide preemption to say that no state could regulate against glyphosate and no labels could go on the canister saying it was there were health hazards. And these big sneaky corporations try to do that all the time. And you know what? Thanks to everybody making phone calls, we got it out and they didn’t win.
Now, just to be clear, they were at the Supreme Court yesterday arguing their case, so I don’t want to pretend that I’ve won every battle. But each one of those fights that we win gets us closer to our goal. We will take over Congress in November this year. We will get rid of this president, subpoena him to the extent of the law. We will get back to a rule of law in a democratic country that we believe in. But we won’t do it without all of you. And you are all the foundation of what makes change. I am so proud of you. I’m old enough to have been a Vietnam war protester and know all the words to “Blowin in the Wind.” I know you are my people, but I also know we are the people who saved this country. So, thank you. Thank you. I’m so honored to be here. Thank you.
Join principled Mainers of Knox County every Saturday at Noon in Chapman Park as we publicly address the wave of authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption sweeping across the country. Organized by The Audacity — at AudacityCAT.com online.