REBELLION: Republicans strike FATAL BLOW against Trump

This is Democracy Watch. Mark, it looks like Donald Trump just got bad news about his illegal executive order from his own party. So I'm going to throw to a clip right here.

Secretary Schmitt, let me start off with you. A series of lawsuits had been filed, including one from your state. Are you confident that the courts are going to strike down the president's order? And what happens if they don't?

I am confident of an outcome in our favor. Americans should rest assured, despite all the back and forth in the courts that we will inevitably see, despite all the back and forth in the press, that Pennsylvania, the birthplace of our republic, and Governor Shapiro are gonna stand up for our voters

and know that the Constitution is on our side.

And Stephen Richer, you've made the point that in your state, it isn't even necessary.

Well, in some ways it's not, because we have some of the underlying features that President Trump aspires to have in all elections, which is that we have documented proof of citizenship requirements in Arizona. We have a mail voter list that you have to be on

in order to receive a mail ballot. of course we like 46 other states have intelligent barcodes that allow voters to track their ballots and allow election officials to track those ballots too. So while I agree with some of the elements in the executive order and some of the aspirations, the form does matter and I agree with Secretary Schmidt that this is probably going to be enjoined very quickly.

I think someone on the internet said this will be enjoined faster than a cheat on speed or something like that.

You guys seem pretty confident of that. Mr. Schmidt, so what is your biggest worry going into November? The president has taken several steps to sow doubt about the election returns.

I would say my biggest concerns are twofold. One, that things like this cause some degree of confusion. We want voters to know that the election is going to be free, fair, safe, and secure, and that everyone knows what the rules are prior to going into this. So confusion is never a positive thing,

unless you are seeking to going into this. So confusion is never a positive thing unless you are seeking to sow distrust in the outcome of an election. Otherwise, our election administrators in our 67 counties in Pennsylvania and our Pennsylvania Department of State prepare for every conceivable problem or issue that might occur on Election Day or leading up to Election Day. It's just that now we're in a slightly different realm where the inconceivable is something that is very much on the table that we have to prepare for.

So that was Al Schmidt, the Republican secretary of state in Pennsylvania, and Stephen Riker, who is the former Maricopa County reporter. Both of them don't exactly have high hopes for Trump's executive order.

Can I have your reaction to what they just said? Yeah, I mean, they're absolutely right. I mean, this executive order was unconstitutional from the moment he started speaking till he finally put his ink on the page. It is illegal. It's unconstitutional. It's an outrage. It is a power grab. I mean, use whatever term you want. But the fact is, the president of the United States plays no role, no role, that's what a federal court said, in the conduct of elections that is granted to the states and Congress through legislation can override the states. But you know what? Donald Trump standing in the Oval Office and signing an executive order to try to effectively shut down vote by mail, effectively disenfranchise

tens of millions of Americans, effectively, by the way, create a list a list of people who he wants to be able to vote and people he doesn't want to be able to vote. That is not going to survive first contact with federal courts. And I am proud to say I am responsible for its first contact with federal courts. Within 24 hours after he signed that executive order, my law firm and I personally had filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C. to challenges

on behalf of the Democratic Party. Four more lawsuits have piled in afterwards, both in Washington, D.C., where we filed ours, as well as, as George Stephanopoulos was referring to, cases filed by a group of states in Massachusetts federal court.

Look, however you slice it, whether it's Democrats or Republicans who are speaking, whether it is a judge in DC or a judge in Massachusetts, Donald Trump's illegal and unconstitutional power grab is not going to succeed.

I think it's especially important that you noted that you are the one who filed the lawsuit against Donald Trump's illegal executive order. If for anybody watching right now, if you're not yet subscribed to Democracy Docket, which is the news outlet Mark founded to focus on everything voting and election, this is a very small and easy way to show some appreciation for the invaluable work that Mark is doing,

not just in the media space, but also in the courts. I mean, this would not be happening if it wasn't for him leading the way right now. So a small step again that we can all take to show some appreciation, show some support for him fighting, getting on the front lines is to subscribe to Democracy Docket. I'm going to put that link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. Mark, the last time we had spoken about your lawsuit against the Trump administration for this illegal executive order, uh, where Trump tries to invalidate mail-in voting, despite the fact that he himself uses it. There, there wasn't yet any states that were adopting his edict. Is that still the case right

now? And if so, what does that say more broadly about how these different Republicans across the

country might view you as an adversary in court? Yeah, look, Republicans hate me because I fight and they fear me because I win. But in this instance, I suspect there are a lot of Republican AGs and governors and election officials in red states who are probably secretly wishing that I win. Like they'll never come out and say it because, you know, the only the only right position for them when it comes to me is to attack me,

attack me and attack me. But the fact is, you know, these Republican election officials, they want to run their own elections. They don't want Washington, D.C. interfering. I mean, they certainly don't want a president United States to be able through the stroke of a pen to control who they send mail-in ballots to and how they get them back. I mean, just imagine, Brian, if the shoe were on the

other foot and some of these Republican states were facing that from President Obama or President Biden, they'd be beside themselves. So I think that some of them, though they're cowards because they refuse to attack Donald Trump, who is really the source of their anger, they'll take it out on me. They'll mouth the words. They'll say, you know, that I I engage in lawfare and that I, you know, all I do is try to, you know, protect voting rights or whatever else they'll say about me. But the fact is, you know, we are in this world in which very oftentimes,

I am the one making the strongest defense of states ability to run their own elections, essentially arguing federalism. And it is the Republicans who historically have been in favor of states rights and federalism, who because it's Donald Trump, they are just like hiding in the fetal position in the corner of their closets, hoping that the that'll all pass them by. I mean, Brian, it's not that different from what you and I talk about all the time with respect to John Thune in the Senate, with the SAVE Act, with Mike Johnson in the House. Right. There's just a lack of not even bravery. There's a lack of just even microscopic pieces of spinal

tissue to be found in the backbones of a lot of these Republicans.

Well given the fact that you know this is an urgent issue that needs to be litigated because as we get closer and closer to the election, this has the potential to throw that very election into chaos. Do you have any indication of how quickly or not quickly this is going to move in court?

Yeah, this is going to move fast. I promise everyone that if Donald Trump signed an illegal executive order, we would sue immediately and we made good on that. And now I'm promising everyone we are going to litigate this at a very, very aggressive pace. I'm not prepared right now to tell you what day, but let's just say if I were the Trump administration and I was assigned to this case, I'd be checking that docket in Washington DC for new filings because there are going to be more new filings. And the best way to stay informed of them is to

subscribe to Democracy Docket. But also when they're filed, Brian and I will be giving

you an update on this channel. So make sure you're subscribed here as well. And I'll make sure to put the link to subscribe to this channel right here on the screen as well. So if you're not yet subscribed, a hundred percent free to do so, but this way you can stay on top of our videos together. Mark, why is Donald Trump so hell bent on eliminating mail-in voting given the fact that a, he himself uses it.

And so clearly he recognizes that it's convenient, that it's safe, that it's accurate. But B, there are Republican states and Republican voters who use it as well. I mean, Utah is virtually all mail-in voting at this point. And so does he derive that much of a perceived benefit by attacking mail-in voting? What's the rationale here?

Yeah, so I think you need to keep two things clear. The first is he is attacking all mail in voting. Right. We know that in the SAVE Act, he wants a ban on all mail in voting, except for people who are out of town or in the military or ill. This is actually in some ways even more pernicious than that, because this says that the federal government under his control that he says is responsive to his every whim. Right.

This is unitary executive Donald Trump. Yeah. Where everybody's got to report to him. He's saying that they are going to develop a list of who is eligible to vote by mail. And they're going to send that list to the states and the states have to follow that. He's going to send it to the Postal Service and the Postal Service is going to stop, is going to have to follow that. So it's actually quite a bit worse than just saying nobody gets to vote by mail. It basically says you get to vote by mail if you're on Donald Trump's list of people

who get to vote by mail.

Well, I'm sure that list is going to be is going to be fair and judicious and have, you know, if there are more Democrats, I'm sure that he'll count all those Democrats, right?

That's right. And, you know, and he's got and his supporters are going to say, look, it's going to be based on DHS data. And Brian, I shared with you, you know, as we were preparing for this in a court hearing in which my team was recently involved in Rhode Island, you had the, I think the number two or a very senior person in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice standing up in court and saying that the DHS database, the citizenship database that they're going to use is 100% accurate. And the judge, you could see, I mean, for the transcript, is like falling out of his chair, like, I'm sorry, have we not been seeing report after report after report of U.S. citizens

being wrongfully flagged and, you know, and treated as if they are not citizens? I mean, Brian, the error rate here is not an accident. It is the point, right? It is the thing that gives the excuse structure for Trump and his minions. And again, remember, unitary executive,

all these people who, you know, we're now being told, oh, don't worry, it's gonna be a bunch of career bureaucrats who are doing this. They all, according to Donald Trump, report to him. And we know we have seen in the most sensitive areas, the Department of Justice, criminal prosecutions, we have seen Donald Trump dictate what he wants done. If you don't think that's going to be happening with voting, then you're simply not paying attention to what's going on right now.

You know, my, my first instinct was to say, you know, this is a slippery slope for Republicans because imagine a Democrat comes into office and says, you know what, now that the federal government has the ability to make lists of who's an eligible voter or not, that could really backfire on the GOP. But the reality is we don't have the luxury of thinking to ourselves, let's just wait, allow this to go into effect, wait until a Democrat gets into office as if it's just gonna as if we're gonna manifest it into existence, because the whole point of this is to prevent a Democrat from ever being able to win. If Donald Trump has the ability to dictate

who his voters can be, then that basically negates the ability of Democrats to win in the future.

Yeah, I mean, one of the things that's driving me crazy is that too many people in this country, too many of the legacy media outlets, they just are acting as if what Donald Trump is doing is a sort of normal. Like, sure, they would say he's coarser, he's grosser, he's, he's, he's, you know, a norm

breaker to use a term that I hate.

But still all within the confines of politics as usual.

Correct. Exactly. And, you know, where is Donald Trump right now sending his minions to campaign? Like where are they right now? What candidate? Is it a city auditor?

Is it a county commissioner? Is it some special election in the United States? No, it's Victor Orban. Yeah. Right, this is what they want. This is, you know, like the vice president

of the United States is literally campaigning for Victor Orban, a dictator in another country who is undermining free and fair elections. If that doesn't tell you what their mindset is, they don't want there to be free and fair elections. There are gonna be elections and Donald Trump can't cancel them, no matter what he muses.

But Donald Trump can do a whole lot of things to make them less free and less fair. He can do a whole lot of things to seize ballots. We've already seen him do that in Fulton County. He can do a whole lot of things to try to prevent people from voting by mail. If you go back, Ryan, to earlier videos of you and I, I predicted that Donald Trump would tell the Postal Service,

don't carry mail ballots. Like that's a way they'd shut it down. So what now are we seeing in this executive order? Don't carry some mail ballots. Don't carry the mail ballots of people who are not on my list.

This is just a further expression of of of what we have already seen. But it's not going to end here. You know, it's only going to progress more and more, which is the reason why people need to stay informed about what is happening on this issue. I know there's a lot of other stuff going on in the world. Believe me, I know there's a lot of other things going on in your life. I understand to free and fair elections, you're gonna wake up next November and you're gonna wonder,

how the hell now do we get out of this mess?

Mark, you said something months and months and months ago, maybe even years ago, that stuck with me. And you said, you know, we get hit with all these cases and we have to be perfect. Like we have to win 100% because even if we win 99%, that means we've taken a step back.

And so in this instance where Trump is throwing all of this shit against the wall, attacking mail-in voting, attacking voter rolls, wherever he sees some weak link in the chain going after it, do you have confidence that we are going to be able to be perfect in the lead up to 2026, which is to say, not lose even one of the barrage of cases that we're contending with, which would set us

back because, you know, now we are less democratic than we were before, small d democratic than we were before.

Yeah, look, you've put your finger on my greatest concern, which is that it's getting harder and harder to win all of the important cases to prevent big setbacks. You know, I mean, you and I have talked already about the fact that we're waiting on a number of cases from the US Supreme Court, cases I've been involved in. And are we going to win all of them? No, I don't think we're probably going to win all of them I think the louisiana redistricting case the voting rights act case is going to be really hard

And I think we probably don't win that case now that won't affect 2026, but it'll certainly affect 2028 And so that's like that is part of what like eats at me

uh

and it's part of what also motivates me, because the fact is we do have to be much, much better than the other side. We cannot afford to lose big cases. We can't afford to lose this case. I mean, this case, I'll just say it right here. If we lose this case and Donald Trump can decide whether you get to cast a mail-in ballot or not based on some list that his cronies put together, like we are in a world, we are in a different world than we have been in before around mail-in voting. And by the way, what he is saying is that is a list of people who are eligible to vote at all.

Yes, he's applying it first to mail-in voting, but it won't be long if we lose that he'll say that also applies to in-person voting. And now you start to see the contours of what we are facing, which is Donald Trump seizing ballots, Donald Trump creating lists of voters who are eligible to vote or not, Donald Trump deciding what voting equipment gets to be used and what voting equipment doesn't get to be used, Donald Trump deciding whether you get to register or not,

Donald Trump deciding whether or not you're a citizen, right? Birthright citizenship is, in fact, just another way of undermining the right to vote, because if you're not a citizen, you can't vote. Like this is these are all big state cases. And I hate to say we have to win all of them, but every one of the ones I just mentioned, we got to win.

And so that is my life's work. It is what I spend day and night working on. It's what I write about. It's what you and I talk about. This is now our 500th video and it has been the work of our, of your and my partnership together and so I want to make sure people are subscribed to this channel for no other reason than to

get this series.

Well look, I know, you know, that as we celebrate this 500th episode of Democracy Watch, on behalf of myself and every single person watching, you know, we're talking about this pursuit of perfection in the courts. There is no one that is better poised, better positioned to be able to achieve that, that perfect record than you. So thank you for doing all the work that you do. Thank you for fighting for democracy on a daily basis. Thank you for litigating nearly a hundred lawsuits

that you're litigating right now. And again, for those who are watching, if you want to show some appreciation for the invaluable work that Mark and his team are doing, the best way to do that, the easiest and most simple way to do that is to subscribe to Democracy Docket. Make sure to elevate his voice in this ecosystem. I'm going to put that link right here on the screen

and also in the post description. and also in the post description. And to see more episodes of Democracy Watch,