BREAKING: Illinois Governor drops BOMBSHELL WARNING about Trump

Third, as lawful citizens exercise their First Amendment rights, Trump and his team will be looking for any excuse to put active-duty military on our streets, supposedly to protect ICE. We have reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois. I want to be very clear on this point and I want to speak directly to the press right now. We know before

anything has happened here that the Trump plan is to use any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago. If someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent, Trump will try and go on TV and declare an emergency in Chicago. If someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent, Trump will try and go on TV and declare an emergency in Chicago. I'm imploring everyone, if and when that happens, do not

take the bait.

This is Democracy Watch. Mark, that was JB Pritzker in Illinois saying that they have reason to believe the Trump administration has begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment to Illinois. I really don't know where to start in all of this, but I guess the natural question first and foremost, the legality of being able to send one state's National Guard answerable to a president

whose political views align with that state to another state where the leadership's political views don't align with the president? I mean, this just seems this like feels kind of Civil War ish, but just

first and foremost, the legality of this move. This is a dark moment. I mean, this is an existential threat to democracy that we have not seen from Donald Trump, even with all of the stuff he has pulled so far. I mean, the idea that the president of the United States is deploying the National Guard in our largest cities is in and of itself a sign of authoritarianism and a sign of Donald Trump's intent

on making himself a dictator. The fact that the governor of California had to sue and continues to have to sue to try to reclaim his own National Guard. And the control of that state is a further ominous sign of where we are in democracy. The fact that the president has seized

and tried to abuse the powers over the District of Columbia is a further ominous sign of what is happening to democracy. But Brian, none of this prepares us for what we are seeing now, what Governor Pritzker is saying, which is the deployment of the National Guard of Texas into the state of Illinois. Now, this is not the federalizing of the National Guard in Illinois and deploying them, which is what we in Illinois, which is what we saw him do in California.

This is an escalation out of all proportion. I mean, this is something we have never seen before. It is the use of the National Guard from Texas to go into Illinois, which is clearly intended to be a provocative act, clearly intended to send a signal to the people of Illinois and Chicago that this is a foreign force.

Not foreign in another country, but foreign in that it is not sending the men and women of Illinois to police or to to to be a backup in the state of Illinois, but rather it is taking people who Donald Trump believes will be hostile, who will be antagonistic to the to the people of Illinois and Chicago. And we should all be paying attention and very alarmed.

Is there some rule that would mandate that if you're going to send the National Guard into a state that first and foremost, that National Guard should be federalized from the state where they're being deployed to? I mean, wouldn't that, I mean, obviously that would make the most sense, but is there some legal barrier where, where, you know, if you're going to send the National Guard in that you're not sending it from, you know, opposite ends of the country or certainly where they're from a state where they will feel more antagonistic

because of the political ideology?

Yeah, I mean, look, this is all new ground. I mean, like we just don't have any historical precedent for this. We don't have any guideposts to say that this is permissible under the Constitution or under federal law.

I am sure it's going to be challenged in court. And I hope for the sake of our country, I hope for the sake of democracy, that a court puts an end to this madness. I mean, this is getting extremely dangerous very, very fast, Brian. I mean, the thing that immediately comes to mind is the actions of dictators and authoritarians in other countries, whether it is Putin in Russia

or it was after the Tiananmen Square massacre in China. We saw dictators send in troops from other parts of the country, right? They sent in troops who would not be sympathetic to the local population to quell democracy efforts.

And I got to say, Brian, the idea that Donald Trump is playing those kinds of games and that he is going to escalate in this fashion is incredibly alarming. It should be of concern to everyone who cares about democracy. It should, by the way, be concerning to red state governors and red state citizens. How would you like it? How would you like it, Christine Ohm,

if the New York National Guard had been sent in to South Dakota? Greg Abbott, how would you like it? How would you like it if we sent the Washington State Guard into Texas under a democratic president? I mean, this is the kind of provocative act that is being taken by someone who wants to create a constitutional crisis. And I fear he's going to get one.

Brian, think about how far we have come you know, it was only a month or so ago that we were saying that the idea that that that Donald Trump would federalize the California National Guard and deploy them to LA was an unprecedented act It was only a few days ago that we were talking about the resolution of a lawsuit in, California to To deal with the aftermath of what he did

in California. This is now, you know, that times a million if what Governor Pritzker says is being prepared to be done. And the courts, like I said, are going to have to step in. They are going to have to put an end to this, or else I fear that a tragedy is going to be the inevitable future.

I mean, at some point, Donald Trump is going to escalate and escalate and escalate tensions in this country. And the courts need to step in and put an end to this absolute authoritarian nonsense that he is doing.

It is enough already. Marc, how does the recent California victory over Donald Trump, Gavin Newsom sued Donald Trump against the deployment of these troops. Newsom won. We're not sure yet as of this recording, if the Trump administration is going to appeal, but how does the fact that he's lost this case and therefore lost his pretext to be able to do it. How does that impact the prospect of Trump then deploying troops into yet another state?

Again, this is, you know, you'd think Donald Trump might've learned a lesson from that, but instead he has just escalated. He's escalated and escalated. And that's what he does. And this is the problem with the way in which

too many politicians in this country act like Donald Trump should not be taken seriously. Too many of the legacy media outlets act like that this is just a minor provocation. They are normalizing the absolutely bizarre, dangerous, abnormal behavior of a raving lunatic.

Okay, and we have to start holding our institutions to account to this, because if they are not gonna act like this is the dangerous provocation that it is, then what good are they? And so to answer your question directly, look, it is obviously helpful precedent to the extent

a district court decision in California is ever gonna be precedential to a judge in Illinois. It's better than nothing. But the fact that on the heels of that loss, this is what Donald Trump does. We need to wake up and recognize the threat that this country is under.

Yeah. And look, no one has been more clear eyed about that threat than you. For everybody watching, that much is clear. One small step that we can all take to amplify Mark and his team, their voice, as well as the fact that they are fighting these battles in the courts where it matters is to subscribe to Democracy Docket, which is the news outlet he founded to focus on everything voting in elections. I'm going to put the link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. Again, that is the best way to support his work, amplify his voice, and also help his efforts.

Yeah, and Brian, before we go, I wanna add one other thing. You know, you and I did a video about the fact that various Republican-led states were volunteering their National Guard to Washington, D.C., and too many people who are in positions of responsibility

in the news media, in civil society, in the business community, they kind of look the other way. I mean, I remember you and I talking about this, about West Virginia, and I think they were the first one, and then there were a bunch of others, and what a dangerous situation that was.

But people were like, well, that's just the District of Columbia, it's a federal city and you know, who cares what happens to the people of the District of Columbia? I'll tell you who cares what happens to the people of the District of Columbia, I do, you do.

Anyone who's an American citizen should care what's happening to the people of the District of Columbia. They didn't deserve this. And now we're seeing it replicated because not enough people were willing to stand up. Not enough people were willing to speak out when it was the District of Columbia. So now we're going to see it in another blue state. And you know what? I fear again, not enough people will stand up and speak out. The legacy media will normalize it because

they figure, well, that's just, you know, Donald Trump doesn't like J.B. Pritzker. Well, what happens when it's in Maryland? Then they'll say, well, that's just Maryland, it's Baltimore, and because Westmore may run for president. Well, how many states do we need to see Donald Trump do this to before it finally hits home to people that this is a crisis? So I wanna thank you for promoting Democracy Docket

and for people to subscribe. But people need to also be paying attention to this channel channel because Brian, you are the person who's every day bringing them the news and information and analysis that they need to know about this and covering the stuff that frankly,

the legacy media is asleep at the switch on. So I'm proud to be your partner in this series. I love what you do with Glenn, what you do with so many of the guests, the interviews you do with the governors. So I hope everyone takes a second to subscribe to this channel as well.

Well, I appreciate that. And again, if you are not yet subscribed to Democracy Docket, links on the screen and also in the post description, do yourself a favor. It is an amazing outlet, an amazing resource that I use on a daily basis.

So go ahead and subscribe. I'm Brian Teller Cohen. I'm Brian Teller Cohen.

I'm Mark Elias.