‘The Trumpist political project is in its DEATH SPIRAL’: Trump VOWS election army as approval TANKS

0:00 Hi there, everyone.

0:01 It's 4 o'clock in New York where Donald Trump wants

0:03 he usually posts about on Truth Social at odd hours.

0:07 From his demands that states gerrymander

0:09 their congressional maps to keep him in office,

0:11 to compelling his Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies.

0:16 Now amid flashing red warning signs that his party will lose the midterm

0:21 elections by large margins due to both

0:23 historical trends and his soaring unpopularity.

0:27 Donald Trump is demanding an election ELECTION INTEGRITY EFFORT ELECTION ARMY.

0:29 OVER THE WEEKEND DONALD TRUMP LASHED OUT AT AN ELECTION

0:32 INTEGRITY EFFORT LAUNCHED BY DEMOCRATS POSTING THIS ON TRUE SOCIAL, QUOTE,

0:37 DURING MY HISTORIC ELECTION IN 2024,

0:40 THE REPUBLICANS HAD AN ELECTION INTEGRITY ARMY IN EVERY

0:42 SINGLE STATE TO PRESERVE THE SANCTITY OF EACH LEGAL VOTE.

0:47 WE WILL BE DOING THE SAME AGAIN IN 26, but it will be much bigger and stronger.

0:52 While that sort of brutish, detail-less claim would normally prompt an eye roll,

0:58 it does come amid other stocks.

1:00 prompt an eye roll, it does come amid other stuff.

1:02 An alarming effort by Donald Trump and his backers to centralize

1:06 control of our elections into the hands of the federal government.

1:09 With Trump allies calling for ice at polling places in November, take a look.

1:16 Like why is there objection to sending ice officers to polling places?

1:21 Illegals can't vote.

1:23 It doesn't make any sense.

1:27 We can use what's happening with these ice helping out,

1:30 helping out at the airports.

1:33 We can use this as a test run, as a test case to get really

1:36 perfect ice's involvement in the 2026 midterm elections.

1:42 We should point out to Todd Blanche that the argument cuts both ways, right?

1:46 People here illegally can't,

1:48 and based on the Trump administration's own investigation, don't vote.

1:52 So why would you, Todd Blanche, send them there?

1:55 But it also comes as Todd Blanche's department,

1:58 as well as Donald Trump's allies in state houses all across

2:02 our country are working overtime to undermine

2:04 the authorities of STATES TO CONDUCT

2:06 THEIR OWN ELECTIONS AS TRUMP'S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WEAPONIZES THE BIG LIE TO GET

2:11 A HOLD OF ELECTION DATA IN KEY SWING STATES LIKE ARIZONA AND GEORGIA.

2:15 REPUBLICANS IN RED STATES ARE RUSHING TO REDRAW

2:18 their congressional maps after Donald Trump demanded they do so.

2:21 They're also doing that after his handpicked justices in the Supreme

2:27 Court participated in the gutting of the Voting Rights Act with Tennessee,

2:31 Alabama and South ALL MAKING EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE MAJORITY BLACK,

2:36 MAJORITY DEMOCRATIC DISTRICTS IN JUST THE LAST WEEK.

2:40 IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE WHY, WHY ARE THEY DOING ALL THIS?

2:43 LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE polls,

2:45 which increasingly showed Donald Trump's party losing the 2026 midterms.

2:50 The economists forecasting model gives Democrats a 19

2:53 and 20 chance of taking back the House.

2:56 Donald Trump's full court press to keep

2:59 his party in power by any means necessary,

3:01 whether voters like it or want it or not.

3:03 That's where we start today.

3:05 The former lead investigator for the January 6th Select Committee,

3:08 Tim Haifey, is back with us.

3:09 He's now a partner at Haifey Smith, Harbach and Windham.

3:13 Also joining us, Protect Democracy Executive Director Ian Bassin is back.

3:17 And with me at the table,

3:19 NYU law professor, legal analyst Melissa Murray is here.

3:22 Tim Haifey, they tried this in 2020.

3:28 They came up short because of the actions of a handful of people.

3:33 No one investigated those crimes more thoroughly than you.

3:38 Tell us what they tried before, what stopped them,

3:41 and where those guardrails no longer exist.

3:44 Yeah, Nicole, you started the piece here by talking about the why, right?

3:49 THEIR WHY IS THERE'S WIDESPREAD ELECTION FRAUD,

3:52 THAT LOTS OF PEOPLE AROUND THIS COUNTRY,

3:55 ILLEGAL ALIENS OR PEOPLE OUT OF REPROPER PRECINCT TRYING TO VOTE.

4:00 THAT'S JUST THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN SAYING

4:03 THIS REPEATEDLY FOR YEARS AND IT JUST ISN'T TRUE.

4:07 THERE'S THIS MYTH OF WIDESPREAD VOTER FRAUD THAT IS

4:11 THE PURPORTED JUSTIFICATION FOR AN ELECTION INTEGRITY UNIT OR OTHER STEPS.

4:16 IN 2020, RIGHT, HIS ARGUMENT AGAIN, WHICH HE CONTINUES TO REPEAT,

4:21 WAS THAT THE RESULTS IN THAT ELECTION WERE INFECTED WITH WIDESPREAD FRAUD,

4:25 INELIGIBLE VOTERS VOTING, DEAD VOTERS, miscounting intentional voter fraud.

4:30 And again, Nicole, there's never been any factual basis for that.

4:35 So all he is doing now, I think as you correctly defined the why,

4:38 is coming up with WITH THIS SORT

4:41 OF PRECEDENTIAL ARGUMENT AS TO WHY HE WILL LOSE.

4:45 IT'S TO ARGUE EVEN IN ADVANCE OF THE ELECTION THAT THERE'S GOING TO BE FRAUD,

4:50 THAT'S WHY WE'RE TAKING ALL THESE steps,

4:53 because he knows that what's likely to happen based on historical trends

4:56 in the polls is that he's not going to do well this time.

5:00 But we got to just every time we talk about this, I feel

5:02 like we just have to come back to the baseline fact of the myth.

5:05 A VOTER FRAUD IN THIS COUNTRY.

5:07 WE DO THIS WELL.

5:08 STATES ARE REALLY GOOD AT IT.

5:10 WE HAVE INTEGRITY IN OUR VOTING SYSTEMS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

5:13 AND IT'S JUST FALSE TO SUGGEST OTHERWISE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

5:17 I MEAN, And, Tim, I guess the pushback, though,

5:21 is that you know you guys had his backers who believed the lies.

5:26 And so I think on Earth One,

5:29 actually, ESPECIALLY EVEN DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO EARTH, TOO.

5:33 THE SECOND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION INVESTIGATED THROUGH ITS DEPARTMENT OF HOME

5:38 ON SECURITY THIS MATTER WHETHER PEOPLE HERE ILLEGALLY VOTE,

5:41 AND THEY FOUND THAT THEY DO NOT.

5:43 SO EVEN IF YOU WANT TO USE THEIR OWN NUMBERS,

5:50 THIS IS I WONDER IF WE'RE ASKING ABOUT THE WRONG PROBLEM.

5:58 IT'S OBVIOUSLY THERE TO INTIMIDATE AND THREATEN.

6:00 WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT THAT?

6:02 100%, NICOLE.

6:03 You're exactly right.

6:04 It reveals the why, because again,

6:06 the why is not voter fraud or protection of integrity of the ballot.

6:10 The why is to intimidate people,

6:12 is to get people to stay home, is to shrink the map,

6:16 or shrink the number of people voting to try

6:20 to maximize the chances of his political success.

6:24 Right?

6:25 Again, if there's nothing to protect,

6:27 there's no fraud to THEN IT'S REVEALED WHAT THE PURPOSE IS.

6:31 I'M MUCH MORE TROUBLED, NICOLE, BY THE PROSPECT OF ICE AGENTS OR POLICE OFFICERS

6:35 OR EVEN NATIONAL GUARD OR MILITARY NEAR OUR POLLING PLACES.

6:39 HISTORICALLY WE HAVE WE HAVE HAD POLITICAL POLLING PLACES

6:44 THAT HAVE BEEN INDEPENDENT OF MILITARY LAW ENFORCEMENT INTERVENTION.

6:49 THAT'S BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT THEM TO BE INTIMIDATING.

6:51 WE WANT PEOPLE TO FREELY COME AND EXERCISE

6:54 THE THEY ARE NOT TROUBLED BY THE PRESENCE

6:57 OF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS THAN I AM BY LAWYERS

7:00 STANDING BACK BEHIND THE TABLES IN SOME ELECTION.

7:04 BOTH SUP PARTIES HAVE DONE I HAVE DONE THAT FOR YEARS.

7:07 I'VE DONE THAT ON THE DEMOCRATIC SIDE, BEEN AN ELECTION INTEGRITY MONITOR.

7:11 THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT AND THERE ARE

7:13 RULES ABOUT WHAT THEY CAN OR CAN'T SAY

7:14 OR DO OR COME WITHIN A CERTAIN NUMBER IT'S

7:19 THE PRESENCE OF THE UNIFORM MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT,

7:22 NICOLE, THAT'S MUCH MORE INTIMIDATING AND HAS THE POTENTIAL

7:25 TO SUPPRESS THE VALID EXERCISE OF THE FRANCHISE.

7:30 In Bassin, the sort of elephant in the room is that the two stories

7:37 hang together with what is clearly

7:39 an attack on minority voting rights in America.

7:41 I mean, ICE agents aren't there looking for me.

7:45 They're there looking for people who they think they can

7:49 make feel afraid that they'll either be asked to produce,

7:52 I can't believe I'm saying this out loud,

7:54 but documents to prove that they're citizens or follow them home

7:58 to attack someone that they think may live in a mixed status house

8:01 or harass them or create some sort of vigilante system where people

8:05 who vote are then investigated to make sure they have that status.

8:09 And it comes at the same time

8:11 that this Supreme Court struck down the Voting Rights Act.

8:15 Do you think we are,

8:17 and I like to always sort of get your big brain thinking about the pushback.

8:21 I mean, are we sort of back at a time, a chapter of history where it will become

8:27 the mission of everyone who wants to remain a democracy

8:29 to go down and make sure that people

8:31 have the right to vote and they're not harassed?

8:32 The answer to that absolutely is yes.

8:35 I mean, we are witnessing an attack on voting

8:38 rights and particularly the voting rights of black communities

8:42 or communities of color at a level that we really

8:45 haven't seen since sort of Jim Crow in the South.

8:48 And we need to respond to it.

8:50 And there's going to be a mass day of action this Saturday,

8:53 May 16th across the country, but centered in Selma and Montgomery,

8:58 Alabama honoring the sacrifices made by the civil rights generation.

9:02 And everybody who's watching this now should go to allroadsleadtothesouth .com

9:07 and register to participate this Saturday because it is now our generations'

9:12 time to carry the mantle forward of civil rights and voting

9:13 rights in this country to make sure that we remain a democracy.

9:18 That's going to take work by all of us,

9:20 but the good news is we are going to succeed at this, right?

9:23 Donald Trump has been president during one other midterm election in his life,

9:29 and that was in 2018.

9:30 And in 2018, the Democrats flipped 40 seats in the House of Representatives

9:36 at a time when Donald Trump was more popular than he is today.

9:39 They cannot gerrymander their way out of a 40-seat shellacking,

9:44 and he's less popular today than he was in 2018.

9:47 So they are going to try to gerrymander their way

9:50 out of it because they are otherwise losing unpopular,

9:52 and they're going to try to rig the rules.

9:54 But here's the thing, our founders in their inimitable wisdom made it

9:57 so the president doesn't control the rules of elections.

10:00 And for the president to try to rig the midterm elections.

10:03 He is going to need accomplices up

10:06 and down our federal system at the state level,

10:08 at the local level in the Congress and the courts.

10:11 And in order to get those accomplices,

10:13 he needs to show that he's politically powerful.

10:15 And the fact of the matter is, he has not.

10:17 We have reached the point in the story where

10:19 the Trumpist political project is in its death spiral.

10:24 And I have talked to Republican leaders who are in the sort

10:28 of non-hardcore Trump but soft Republicans

10:30 supporting of the Trump administration camp.

10:32 And they know it.

10:33 They know that the Trumpist political project is over.

10:36 And that means he is not going to be able

10:38 to do what he needs to do to complete his authoritarian consolidation.

10:41 And if we do our part, we are not just going to save our democracy,

10:44 but we're going to have an opportunity to really reform it

10:47 and rebuild it to be fit for purpose for the 21st century.

10:49 My head wants to nod along with everything you said,

10:53 but my gut still feels scarred by the news events of last week.

10:57 Just speak a little bit about how the sort of shock and awe

11:01 of the Virginia decision and the Supreme

11:04 Court decision rippled through MAGA as maybe, I don't know, a last hurrah.

11:10 I mean, I know, I guess,

11:11 intellectually that everything you're saying about the movement

11:14 being at about 28 to 30 percent is true.

11:17 But it does feel like this branch of government

11:20 that we've looked to over the last 15 MONTHS

11:23 FOR ITS STEADFAST REJECTION OF DONALD TRUMP'S LAWLESSNESS HAS JUST

11:27 HANDED HIM TWO MASSIVE VICTORIES ON THE VOTING RIGHTS SIDE.

11:30 YEAH, WELL, FIRST OFF, IT'S IMPORTANT TO RECOGNIZE THAT THE CURRENT ITERATION

11:34 OF THE UNITED STATE SUPREME COURT HAS BEEN AGAINST

11:38 VOTING RIGHTS AND RACIAL JUSTICE SINCE THE BEGINNING

11:41 OF THIS FEDERALIST SOCIETY CONSERVATIVE ASCENDENCY TOOK OVER THE COURT.

11:45 SO THIS IS NOT A TRUMPIST PROJECT.

11:46 THIS IS A PROJECT THAT THOSE SIX MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME COURT HAVE BEEN

11:49 AT FOR THEIR ENTIRE CAREER SINCE JOHN ROBERTS

11:51 WAS A YOUNG LAWYER IN THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH.

11:54 AND AT THE END OF THE DAY,

11:55 THEY ARE GOING TO PROBABLY HELP REPUBLICANS IN A HANDFUL OF SEATS ACROSS

11:59 THE COUNTRY THROUGH A REALLY DISGUSTING

12:01 ALLOWANCE OF RACIAL GERRYMANDERING ACROSS THE SOUTH.

12:04 BUT IT IS BASICALLY GOING TO GIVE

12:06 THE REPUBLICANS A HANDFUL OF SEATS IN WHICH THEY

12:09 ARE BETTER POSITIONED THAN THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN

12:11 BEFORE BOTH THE VIRGINIA DECISION AND THE U .S.

12:12 SUPREME COURT DECISION.

12:13 WHEN TRUMP WAS LESS,