BRATTLEBORO-She was in the room where it happened.
She was in the room where, on Jan. 20, 2025, Donald J. Trump was once again inaugurated as president of the United States.
In the room where, four years ago, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection happened. When rioters spread feces on the walls and where one man gouged out the eye of a police officer.
And she was there not because she had to be, but because she wanted to be.
Hometown Congressional delegate Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., chose to attend the second inauguration of President Donald J. Trump even though she has said of him "We can't really believe anything he says."
Balint said her presence at the inauguration was less a celebration than a warning.
"My presence at the inauguration will be my way of saying 'I see you and I know what you're about. And I won't be intimidated by you,'" Balint wrote in a widely distributed column published before the inauguration. "It will be a way to show Americans and viewers across the world that I respect the vote of the people, unlike Trump himself. Four years on, he's still lying about the 2020 election."
Balint, who spoke to The Commons on the day after the inauguration, has just started her second two-year term as Vermont's lone Congressional representative. Essentially, she was angered and dismayed by the inauguration.
"I can't get out of my mind the image of all of those billionaires sitting directly behind the incoming president and vice president," Balint said, referring to moguls Elon Musk of Tesla, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Shou Zi Chew of TikTok, and others.
"They were seated in front of Trump's cabinet picks, right? So if there was any question about their importance to this administration, which for me there was not, I certainly appreciate the visual of having all of these billionaires who helped get him elected. I learned this morning that seven people in this country, just seven, collectively paid over a billion dollars to elect Trump, and some of those people were in the room yesterday behind him."
This kind of influence peddling is very worrisome, Balint said.
"The piece about the social media billionaires having so much influence is that they have created systems in which there are no facts anymore," Balint said. "There are no truths, and the lies get so much more traction than the actual facts. That's why we should care about billionaires having the ear of the president."
There is much more at stake than just buying an election, Balint said.
"I want to make people understand that when you have that kind of influence, where you literally have the billionaires sitting behind you, it is absolutely worrying in itself," Balint said. "But if you look at the kind of executive orders that he signed afterward, it is clear that they have a hand in it."
She called it "absolutely outrageous" that one of Trump's first actions as president was "revoking President Biden's executive order to help lower prescription drug prices."
"Among the first things that he did was to take away our ability to lower drug prices for seniors and other Americans on Medicare and Medicaid," Balint said. "To literally increase drug prices. And we know that Pharma also contributed a lot of money to this campaign."
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Balint has clearly lost respect for many of her Republican colleagues. In her column before the inauguration, she wrote: "Their fealty to Trump and his ridiculous lies have revealed their willingness to give away their own legislative power."
"My Republican colleagues have covered for Trump's lies for so long that they have lost their way," she wrote. "Instead of fighting for the people, they spend a lot of their time and energy trying to stay out of the crosshairs of Trump, Elon Musk, and online extreme right-wing personalities.
"It must be exhausting to live in such cognitive dissonance all the time, and it must be personally embarrassing in those infrequent but scary moments of reflection."
Balint told The Commons that these feelings surfaced once again as she watched Trump being sworn in.
"The more he talked, the more I felt like the real enemy or opponent in the room is actually all of the enablers and apologists who were sitting on the on the floor of the Rotunda - my colleagues who are willing to normalize things like releasing all of the folks who were convicted felons because of their actions on Jan. 6, [2021]," Balint said.
That was a decision Trump made on his first day in office.
"The so-called 'law-and-order president' released convicted violent felons out of jail with nary a peep from all of those Republicans who sit there, who I know think Trump is a danger, and yet they say nothing," Balint said.
"I think we sometimes, within my caucus and with a lot of Vermonters that I talk to, we get so focused on Trump as a person, we don't realize that the only way he is successful is because he has so many people who are willing to do this work for him," she observed.
What was lacking in Trump's inaugural address was anything about coming together as a nation, Balint said.
"It was once again scapegoating and dehumanizing, and I get so disgusted by my colleagues, who stand up and clap for things like that," she said, noting that they did not push back in the slightest at Trump when during his speech he was "characterizing himself as a Messiah and a man doing the will of God."
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Balint mentioned Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who gave the sermon at the inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral on Jan. 21 and directly confronted Trump, who was there.
In her sermon, Budde said to Trump, "In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now."
"There are transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families who fear for their lives," Budde said to him, invoking farmhands, custodians, and meat-packing, health care, and food-service workers.
"They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals," she said. "They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques, and synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.
"Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land," Budde told the president.
At the end of her sermon, Budde implored God to "grant us all the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God, for the good of all the people of this nation and the world."
Trump was outraged.
According to Time magazine, in a post on Truth Social, Trump called Budde, a "Radical Left hard line Trump hater" who is "not very good at her job." He said she "brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way" and demanded an apology.
Budde has refused to apologize.
Balint said this kind of thing had not happened in Washington before. But it is personal for her. Balint has turned her description of herself - "scrappy little dyke" - into her personal catchphrase, putting her in direct opposition to MAGA Republicans and their anti-queer biases.
Should we be fearful for her personal safety?
"I understand the question," Balint said. "I understand, because my sister is worried too. But we monitor things carefully, and we make sure that things are just mostly creepy people online.
"There is also communication with the Capitol Police, and I just have to keep doing my work and trust that people are going to do theirs and keep me safe."
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Balint's first term was incredibly active and energetic. She introduced 23 bills and co-sponsored another 419.
Given the former contentious and partisan House of Representatives, none of these bills got passed. But they did initiate important discussions.
Also, she and her staff helped more than 1,321 Vermonters obtain federal benefits and other federal services, and returned over $1,260,512 to people in the state. She secured nearly $11 million in federal funding for community projects involved in housing, health care, and job creation.
In the Congress just beginning, Balint has already been tapped as a leader. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who was chosen by the Democratic caucus to be the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has chosen her to be his second in command.
Balint is "thrilled" to help Raskin run the committee.
"What's even more important for me is really understanding, from the inside, how the Judiciary Committee operates," she said. "And of course, Jamie Raskin is a master constitutional lawyer, and voting rights are incredibly important to me.
"I know Vermonters generally believe in it, and the committee is going to be dealing with shoring up the democracy, voting rights, immigration, and civil rights. And antitrust. I'm going to try to make antitrust sexy again for people, if it ever was sexy. I'm just so thrilled that Rep. Raskin is going to be serving as our leader there, and that he has faith in me."
Right now Congress appears to be in thrall to Trump, especially Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La. So how can Congress protect and support working families?
"Our charge as members of Congress [is that] we have to do many things at once," Balint said. "And we're going to need a lot of help around the country to do this."
That means "we have to, in real time, hold Trump accountable for the promises that he made about how he was going to lower prices, and do it while also knowing that he's not going to lower prices because the people he is beholden to are the wealthiest in this country and have absolutely no interest in lowering prices," she said.
"So we have to be incredibly focused right now, and there's going to be this absolute inundation every week with this administration throwing out so many different outrageous things that it's going to be difficult for the press to follow," Balint said. "It's going to be difficult for Americans to follow what he's doing."
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Balint said she was shocked by the number of people who called her office after the election to proudly declare that they had voted for Elon Musk.
"They told us, 'We were voting for the billionaires because they know how to run business. They know how to get stuff done,'" Balint said.
"There's certainly a disconnection here. To give this kind of power to a few individuals who run very powerful organizations that impact our lives directly? That's the connection that I'm really thinking about making, even with the folks in Vermont who supported Donald Trump," she said.
"Quite a few people in Vermont voted for this administration, but they didn't vote for him to increase prices for them. They didn't vote for him to increase tariffs on Canada. That's going to impact our ability to afford energy in Vermont. The power is never used to help working people. Never!"
And that, she said, is "what I want people to understand."
"Even if they were supportive of Trump, we collectively have to hold him accountable," Balint said.
Another danger of having a billionaire class - an oligarchy - is that Republicans believe that tax cuts to the very wealthy can be funded by cutting crucial social services like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security - programs that millions of people in America depend on.
"We can't count on anything being safe, because […] the Republicans in Congress have said that they want to pay for tax cuts to the very wealthy by going after things that we rely on, like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security," Balint said. "So those are absolutely the fights that we're going to have in the Budget Committee."
And when voters find out, they will be "rightly outraged," Balint said.
"But what we find is so many of the outlets in the Republican right-wing machine, in terms of the media machine, they do not honestly tell the truth about what the plans are for how we're going to pay for these tax cuts," she observed. "Nothing is off limits. I'll say it again. Nothing is off limits."
As an example, Balint cited Trump's issue of an executive order to take away birthright citizenship.
His order goes against the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which grants citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, requires states to provide equal protection to all citizens, and cannot deprive people of life, liberty or property without due process of law, protects people from having their government reduce a state's representation in Congress if it meddles with citizens' right to vote.
Oddly enough, considering Jan. 6, 2021, the post–Civil War amendment prohibits people who have pledged to uphold the Constitution, as Trump did when he was sworn in the first time and who later engaged in insurrection against the United States, from holding certain official offices.
As far as revoking citizenship rights, "you can't do that by an executive order. It's a Constitutional amendment. So I was very alarmed by some of the headlines that I saw yesterday, because they did not make it clear that he doesn't have this power," she said.
"And so nothing is off limits right now, which is why it's so important that those of us in Congress take our job of messaging and framing incredibly seriously," Balint continued. "Because if we don't, the consequences can be dire for so many people."
Even if Trump does not have the power to take away earned citizenships, or, for another example, declare that the United States suddenly recognizes only two genders, his actions open up a world of danger, Balint said.
"These kinds of messaging, these bills and executive orders, have obviously dangerous impacts on people, right?" Balint said. "It emboldens people. This constant attacking of trans people makes life less safe for them. It is emotional harm. It's psychological harm."
And, she said, "it also is setting a marker in the sand."
"Not only are you not going to acknowledge that trans people, nonbinary people, and intersex people don't exist, but by saying that, it means you don't have to pay for their health care. It means that you are essentially giving a permission structure for people to harass and use violence against them. This is dangerous stuff that he's doing."
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Balint said she wants Vermonters who supported Trump to understand that these anti-gay rants are only a distraction to get people "angry and aggrieved" and not pay attention to the real actions of the Trump administration.
For example, "You will not pay attention to the fact that he just passed the executive order that will increase prices on prescription drugs," Balint said. "That is a game plan. That is what they do. He said he's going to have 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada. These are two of our biggest trading partners. These things will increase prices for Vermont."
A number of familiar products, including Oreo cookies, are now made in Mexico. Expect to pay higher prices for them under Trump.
"Also for energy," Balint said. "And meanwhile, you're terrifying people who are afraid of these coming rates. You've got an entire agricultural industry in this country, including in Vermont, that relies on immigrant and migrant labor. These people are absolutely terrified by what's coming."
And that fear is not unfounded, she said, "because we know what happened in the first administration."
"He did, literally, put kids in cages," Balint said. "There are still thousands of those children who have have not been reunited with their families. So it's not alarmist to say that we know dangerous things are coming."
As another example, Balint said, MAGA Republicans proclaim they are only going after "dangerous people in the country." But that is not true.
"That's not actually what these bills do," Balint said. "These bills are about rounding people up in mass incarceration.
"What we've heard from both Democratic voters and Republican voters is that Americans generally do not want a chaotic system on the border," she continued. "They want an immigration system that is working."
But Trump doesn't focus on that goal, Balint said.
"He focuses on inflaming anger and resentment," she said. "And the kinds of policies they're putting forward, I fear, are going to increase the chaos. A lot of innocent people are going to get absolutely swept up in this. And the Republicans don't care."
Congress can actually do things that help Vermonters, Balint said.
"I know that President Trump said in the last few months of the campaign that he was interested in doing something on housing," Balint said. "Again, it's very hard, because we can't really believe anything he says. But I'm going to seek out those Republicans who are also having a housing crisis in the way that we are in Vermont and say, 'Look, you know your guy said he was going to do this. Let's work on it.'
"And I know in the conversations that I've had with Sen. Sanders and Sen. Welch, too, that there are things that Trump said on the campaign trail that, if actually implemented, would help Vermonters."
One example? "Capping the interest rates that you can charge on credit cards," Balint said. "OK, let's do that."
Trump also talked about lowering costs for families, another goal Balint can get behind.
"These are the opportunities that we have," she said. "We can reach out to Republicans and say, 'You ran on this message. You won on this message. So put your money where your mouth is.'"
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Vermont voted against Trump in the presidential election, and so far he has been nothing but vindictive to those he believes are not loyal to him. What can Vermonters do to keep Vermont safe?
"You know, I've been thinking about that, and I don't have an answer," Balint said. "But I know that there is strength in the people within Vermont talking more and more about norms. And how, if we continue to threaten people in office, nobody is going to want to serve. That's the reality of it."
And what can Balint do in these troubled times to protect herself?
"I've been really taking to heart in earnest this question," Balint said. "The only way that I can fight this horrible darkness that has descended upon us and our nation is to be in incredibly good physical shape. So I am actually making sure that I am doing all the things you are supposed to do: exercise, eat right, get enough sleep, spend my time wisely.
"We have a finite amount of energy and attention through the day, so I'm really trying to focus on the things that are that are most important," Balint said. "And time in Vermont helps to reinvigorate me."
But she's taking the new regime very seriously.
"I'm using this opportunity to think about all the ways in which I need to be in top physical condition to face what is coming," she said.
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Editor's note: This column was written and prepared for publication in a simpler era - in the days just prior to the explosion of issues surrounding the president's attempts to freeze nonprofit funding and empower Elon Musk to access secure government financial data without security clearance.
Joyce Marcel is a reporter and columnist for The Commons, where she regularly covers politics, homelessness, and economic development issues.
This News column by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.