On February 23, 2026, Protect Democracy provided testimony at a Congressional spotlight hearing convened by Representative Jamie Raskin and Representative Mary Gay Scanlon on the Trump administration’s attacks on the First Amendment. Protect Democracy special counsel Rachel Goodman explained how attacks on free speech are part of a broader playbook that authoritarians around the world use to entrench themselves in power. 

“Aiming to quash dissent is a hallmark of the modern authoritarian playbook, the strategy through which leaders in Russia, Venezuela, Hungary, the Philippines, and Turkey, among others, have sought to erode democracy,” Goodman said in her testimony. “Democracies take strength from a robust and well-organized civil society, which allows citizens to come together around shared interests and beliefs. Autocratic regimes, by contrast, are threatened by the very existence of private spaces which can nurture dissent and incubate collective action. They are particularly threatened by an independent press, which can disrupt the autocrat’s narrative and alert the public when those in power are abusing their positions.” 

The entire hearing is available to watch above.

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