We went to the Philadelphia No Kings protest. Here’s what we saw and heard.
The No Kings protest saw several prominent politicians and local leaders speak during the rally including U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), and Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), as well as Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Pa.). Perhaps the most significant speech of the rally, however, was that of Representative Raskin, who spoke passionately for nearly half an hour on a variety of issues.
“America thanks you for crushing tyrants since 1776,” Raskin said at the beginning of his speech. Immediately following his opening statement, he criticized Speaker Mike Johnson for dubbing the No Kings protests as “hate America rallies,” which Raskin claimed “already happened on January 6, 2021,” in reference to the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot.
In the section of his speech that followed, Raskin compared Trump’s use of the National Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to King George III’s use of the military to instill fear in American colonists, also likening Trump’s taxes and tariffs to those of King George.
“The preamble began with those three magic words: Not ‘I, the king,’ but ‘We, the people,’” Raskin said. “President Trump, you are not our king, and we are not your subjects.”
Raskin also directly called out the U.S. Supreme Court for capitulating to Trump’s demands, saying that it “must wake up out of its stupor, and recall its duty to enforce the Constitution, not grant the wishes of a lawless president.”
Among Raskin’s key criticisms of Trump was his allocation of federal funding away from federal employees, education, scientific research, and government programs and toward projects like a “new Marie Antoinette ballroom to entertain the CEOs, and the billionaires, and the oligarchs” in the White House. Additionally, he condemned Trump’s attacks on free speech in universities, courthouses, and media. Raskin notably mocked U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan for accepting a $50,000 cash bribe in a Cava takeout bag and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for his inexperience in the role. In a satirical play on words, he said, “Like your secretary of HHS, Mr. Kennedy, I’m no doctor, but your administration has a serious staff infection.”
Furthermore, Raskin denounced Trump’s strong connections to several communist dictators including North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’m sorry to break it to you Donald, but America is just stronger than all the tyrants put together,” Raskin said. “Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, FDR, JFK, Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and Cesar Chavez. They created a country that will always resist you and will outlast you.”
For the remainder of his speech, Raskin quoted anti-fascist commentary from the likes of former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Russian activist Alexei Navalny, American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Founding Father Thomas Paine, and even “Star Wars” character Karis Nemik, who wrote an anti-fascist manifesto that has gained traction among No Kings protesters across the country. Ending his speech, Raskin quoted an excerpt from Thomas Paine’s “The American Crisis,” which said, “‘Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.’ Let’s make that victory ours, Philadelphia.”
During the rally segment of the No Kings Philadelphia protest, Eastside managed to get exclusive interviews with two of the main speakers at the event, U.S. Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
Scanlon has represented Pennsylvania’s fifth congressional district since 2019 and served as national pro bono counsel at a major U.S. law firm prior to entering politics. According to the biography on her website, Scanlon’s “legislative priorities include voting rights, access to justice, education, supporting economic growth for her region, common sense gun safety, women’s rights, and ending hunger.”
Raskin has represented Maryland’s eighth congressional district since 2017 and previously served in the Maryland State Senate from 2007 to 2016. His website lists his priorities as civil rights and liberties, economy and consumer rights, education, environment, equal rights, federal workforce, foreign affairs and human rights, government accountability, gun safety, health care, immigration, public safety, veterans, and infrastructure.
Both Scanlon and Raskin have been outspoken opponents of President Donald Trump and his policies since his first presidency. Their presence at the rally was highly celebrated by the thousands of protesters in attendance, who energetically cheered for them on stage.
To better understand their views on the current administration, visions for America’s future, and perspectives on the protests, Eastside asked Scanlon and Raskin three brief questions. Here are some highlights from the discussions.
Q: What made you want to come out and speak at this protest?
Scanlon: I think it’s really important that Americans know that their voices count, and I think it’s really important that our elected leaders hear from the American people because most Americans are not okay with what’s coming out of the White House these days.
Raskin: Well, I wasn’t going to miss the No Kings rallies across the country. I mean, these are unprecedented, historic. There are millions and millions of people in more than 3,000 cities and towns getting together to say we’re standing up for our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, and we don’t accept lawlessness from anybody in our government.
Q: What kind of changes do you want to see?
Scanlon: I want to see the White House spending the money as Congress has said it should be because, after all, Article I says Congress decides how taxes should be collected and spent. So, I want to see money flowing to our veterans, to special education, to USAID which protects all of us, to all of the places where this president pulled funding that was supposed to be spent, [and] to all of the places where people’s rights are being violated. That’s a lot. It’s kind of something every day that we know is deliberate to keep people overwhelmed, but we want the government to work for everyone, not just for the few.
Raskin: We want to make sure everyone gets engaged and we want to defend the right to vote. We want to make sure everybody goes and votes, that we count the votes next year, and then we’ll be able to set democracy back on the right path.
Q: What do you think this protest might accomplish?
Scanlon: I think this protest and the millions of people who are participating in protests like this all across the country need to bring home to the White house [and] bring home to our Republican colleagues that they should be more concerned about their constituents than they are about the orange guy.
Raskin: Every protest sends ripples of hope throughout society. I went to Europe this summer on a congressional trip, and there was an amazing number of people who said to me, “Those No Kings protests are great because everybody around the world just thinks Donald Trump speaks for your country, and now we know that he doesn’t.” We’ve got millions and millions of people who reject the things that Donald Trump does.