By Paul Bean
Republican Lt. Governor John Rodgers condemned the Trump Administration at the Montpelier “Hands Off” rally on Saturday outside the State House April 5.
“As a Republican who supports women’s rights, LBGTQ community, local farmers and loggers, our manufacturers and other great Vermont businesses, the free press, United States Constitution and the rule of law, I am appalled with what the Trump administration is doing to our state and our country,” said John Rodgers to the crowd of around one thousand protesters gathered in Montpelier.
Rodgers served in the legislature for 16 years as both a State Representative and a State Senator hailing from the Northeast Kingdom. Rodgers has been regarded as a centrist Democrat who was willing and able to work with Republicans especially for issues surrounding gun rights and affordability. In 2024, Rogers actually made the jump to the Republican Party and ran for Lt Governor. “As I understand it, I am the only Republican across the entire country with the courage to stand up, and I am calling on all Republicans to stand up,” said Rodgers toward the end of his speech.
“President Trump and his administration violate the laws and the constitution on a regular basis. This is unacceptable.” Rodgers made the case throughout his speech that the direction of the Republican Party is misguided under Trump and that they should return to their roots as a party that stood against slavery.
“In 1859 Abraham Lincoln would articulate the ideology of the Republican Party, defining it as the party of ordinary Americans, standing together against the oligarchs of slavery,” said Rodgers. “They have forgotten their founding fathers and they need to return to Lincoln Republicans.”
Rodgers criticized not only President Trump, but the entire Republican caucus… except former Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Arizona.
“I am embarrassed by the lack of courage shown by the Republicans in Congress. I may not agree with Liz Cheney on everything, but she has more courage than all of the Congressional Republicans put together! It is time for the Republicans in Congress to stand up for their constituents, instead of following the will of their President.”
The following is the remainder of Rodger’s Speech:
“To the people of Quebec and the people of all of Canada, I say Vermonters value our families, friends, neighbors, and allies in Canada and do not support the trade policies of the Trump administration or the attack on their sovereignty. The people of Canada and Greenland don’t want to be a part of the United States because the first thing they would have to give up is high quality universal health care.
Our federally qualified health care centers provide healthcare to tens of thousands of Vermonters, and they operate on razor thin margins. Any cuts to Medicaid could put these essential health care centers out of business.
The people who use federally qualified health centers would be left to neglect their health care or receive their health care at emergency rooms which will add further pressure to our hospitals and the over cost of healthcare in Vermont. I fear that this could lead to the collapse of our health care system as we know it. I would be fine with getting rid of Medicaid as soon as Congress and the administration implement Medicare for all or some kind of universal health care coverage.
Republicans like Ronald Reagan spoke out against tariffs and trade wars because he knew that they were detrimental to Americans. As Treasurer Pieciak has pointed out, these tariffs will lead to a massive cost increase to Vermonters, who cannot afford to waste another $3,800 a year for nothing.
I’ve been hearing from people in the forest products industry who have already been significantly impacted as Canada has shut off the markets for low grade lumber, and China and Vietnam have shut off the markets for hardwood. They literally have valuable logs sitting on the yards rotting because of Trump’s ridiculous tariffs.
Farmers will be paying more for sawdust if they can’t get it out of Canada, and those who truck it will likely lose business. Farmers in the Midwest who provide food for the world will go out of business because of the Trump tariffs and it could lead to food shortages around the world.
Many Vermont manufacturers and companies will lose massive amounts of money and sales because of tariffs. American brewers and distilleries are already seeing their orders cut. That includes one great distillery right here in Vermont at Caledonia Spirits. I am proud of the Vermont Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Paul Reiber, the Vermont Bar Association Board of Managers, Treasurer Mike Pieciak, and Attorney General Charity Clark for affirming their support for the rule of law.
At the same time, President Trump and his administration violate the laws and the Constitution on a regular basis. This is unacceptable. It is also unacceptable that big law firms are caving in to his will.
These spineless law firms are another prime example of the lack of courage which has infected so many who should be standing up for the rights of Americans and the Constitution.
In the words of the late, great, President Jimmy Carter, Tolstoy did not write War and Peace about Napoleon, or the Czar of Russia, or even the generals except on rare occasions.
He wrote it about the students, and the housewives, and the barbers, and the farmers, and the privates in the army… and the point of the book is that the course of human events, even the greatest historical events, are not determined by the leaders of a nation or state like presidents or governors or senators, they are controlled by the combined wisdom and courage and commitment and discernment and unselfishness and compassion and love and idealism of the common ordinary people like us here today.
If that was true in the case of Russia for, they had a Czar or France where they had an emperor, how much more true is it of our own case for the Constitution charges us with a direct responsibility for determining what our government is and ought to be. As I understand it, I am the only Republican across the entire country with the courage to stand up, and I am calling on all republicans to stand up.
I would like to give a quick shoutout to Representative Lipsky and Representative Donahue who are two independents here in Vermont who are also out here.
This cannot be a partisan issue; we have to all stand together. Thank you.”