Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / 'He doesn't really care about you' Dem strategist slams Trump's push to restrict mail-in voting

Transcript

'He doesn't really care about you' Dem strategist slams Trump's push to restrict mail-in voting · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: With the ability to have your vote counted on the line,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I want to bring in Anderson Clayton, chair of the
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: North Carolina Democratic Party. Anca Shkodori is a former federal
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: prosecutor and author of the Open File newsletter. Laura Barron-Lopez
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: is covering the White House for us. And Basil Smichel
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: is former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Columbia professor, Democratic strategist, and MSNL political analyst. Anderson, you
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: are the one in North Carolina. What are you hearing
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: from voters about all of this?
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Look, folks are fearful right now that we've got a
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: federal government that's trying to interfere with elections. But we
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: know in North Carolina, we've seen Republicans try to deny
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: election results beforehand and do exactly what you mentioned, try
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: to change the game or the rules of the game
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: after the game has already been played beforehand.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: And we saw that in 2024 with.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Justice Allison Riggs, who was the last uncertified statewide race
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: from 2024. And Republicans came in and tried to challenge
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: those election results for six months. But we were victorious
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: in that court fight because we did everything we needed
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: to do from a voter protection standpoint in North Carolina.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: And so I want to make sure voters feel confident
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: going to the polls or mailing in their ballots. But
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: we cannot count any ballot that is not.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Cast in this state.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: So please make sure you get those ballots in, everybody.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Basil, part of the reason I wanted to have this
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: conversation is that we keep saying we're 60 days away
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: from midterms. That's kind of erroneous. And the midterms start
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the minute those ballots go out.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: That's exactly right. And to the earlier point, it's incredibly
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: important that, you know, that that states get this right,
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: because at the end of the day, when Donald Trump
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: is long gone, the states are still going to be
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: hopefully administering elections. And voters still need to feel confidence
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: that their elections are sound. And I believe that they are.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: And I'll make this point. I think this gets exponentially
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: harder for the Trump administration because of that whistleblower. The
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: fact that that whistleblower could really articulate, very clearly articulate
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: exactly what the Postal Service was intending to do makes
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: them going to the court, makes the administration go in
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: the court to say, no, we are concerned about fraud. No,
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: you're not. You are concerned about disenfranchising extraordinary swaths of
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: voters in this country. And by the way, that includes
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Republican voters as well. They're hurting their own. And I
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: think this sort of this not only it's an overreach,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: it's corruption in my view. of trying to corrupt the system.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: But the fact that they're doing this to their own
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: people also should send another clear message to Trump voters.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: He doesn't really care about you. He cares about a
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: very specific end that is really just about his end,
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: not the party in and of itself.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Ankush, the Supreme Court directed challengers to file a response
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: by next Tuesday. Alabama sends out its ballots starting next Wednesday.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: What happens if the court changes the rules after the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: ballots get sent out, or perhaps more importantly, after voters
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: have already sent them back?
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: I don't think anyone knows, to be honest. I don't
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: think the Supreme Court knows. I don't think the Trump
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: administration knows. And I don't think the election officials who
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: are laboring under this uncertainty and this mess, as Basil described,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: can really predict. And I think it's really scary, actually,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: because the pieces are in place for a real mess.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: And I want to echo the point that Basil made,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: because I think it was really important about the whistleblower,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: because I do think that is a very, very important
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: development here. And if you put it alongside The application
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: that the Justice Department, the Trump administration made yesterday to
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: the Supreme Court, you cannot reconcile these documents. The administration
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: went to the court and said, this is not a
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: big deal. All we're asking for is the states to
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: clear their address, sort of their mailing forms with us
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: and to check some addresses. It's not a huge deal.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: And like, you know, we just can't take that seriously.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: This administration is not credible on these points. And this
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: whole thing, this whole election season confusion from mail-in balloting
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: to redistricting was all created by Trump and the Trump administration.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Anderson, help me understand what you are doing as a
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: party chair in order to prepare for the possibility that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: right now you have one set of rules and that
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: set of rules could change while voters already have their ballots.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Making sure that we've got poll workers across North Carolina
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: that understand that their job is to protect the vote
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: this year. North Carolina has already seen Republicans take over
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: our elections. We had our Democratic governor have his power
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: stripped by our state legislature to appoint boards of elections
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: in North Carolina that have gone around and tried to
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: strip voting sites both off of college campuses. like North
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Carolina A & T and also places like Elizabeth City
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: State University. And what we were able to do is
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: make sure that students are educated about the fact that
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: their voting rights are being threatened right now and able
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: to make sure that these students have a way to
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: get to the polls this year. We are making sure
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: we're doing everything we can to keep voters educated, but
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: also making sure that folks keep their access to the
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: ballot box in every way, shape and form that we can.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: And if you're interested in volunteering or getting involved in
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: any shape or way with our voter protection program, please
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: go to ncdp.org and sign up to get involved today.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: We have got lawyers in every county in the state,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: and we know that we're going to need them on
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Election Day and during early voting.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Laura, I noted the federal government is asking the Supreme
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Court again to let the USPS add these new restrictions,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: but I want you to take a listen to how
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: it is that they're portraying it. They write, the Postal
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Service's final rule imposes only modest envelope design and addressee
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: information requirements for federal election ballots sent via the U.S.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: Mail.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: The rule thus plainly does not seize control of states'
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: administration of elections. It simply imposes reasonable preparation requirements for
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: certain election-related mail. To the point that Ankush and Basel
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: had both made, the problem is, there are a lot
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: of problems with that statement, but among them is that
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: it does not comport with what we're hearing from the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: whistleblower about the many problems with the system that they
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: are considering implementing.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: Look, I'll tell you, even before the whistleblower report came out,
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: I was hearing from election officials who were saying that
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: there was no possible way to comply with this rule
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: because they knew that, one, the portal wasn't ready. Two,
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: there are ballots across so many states that would not
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: comply with this. The envelopes that these ballots are put
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: in Braille. uh, mailed out envelopes will not comply with
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: this and would be rejected. There's no way for the
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: system to read them. And one, uh, advisor to a
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: ton of election officials that I talked to was saying
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: just this week that if, if one of the envelopes
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: ends up being wrong in a mailing and in a
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: ballots and envelopes that go out. But if one of
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: them ends up not being matching the portal and the
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: list that the federal government, the Postal Service has, then
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: the entire mailing is stopped.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: It's void.
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: That could be two million ballots that are stopped. So
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: there are a lot of states that are simply just
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: not really entertaining this at this point. They're not necessarily
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: preparing for it because They said that they can't possibly comply.
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: There is no way that even if somehow this is
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: allowed to move forward, that they would be able to
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: meet the requirements needed. And they are being compelled, if
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: it is implemented, to hand over these voter lists or
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: else those ballots aren't going to go out, Alicia.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And I want to be clear, it is very easy
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: to think about this as a partisan issue where this
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: is about Democrats not getting their ballots. But it is Republicans, too,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: who are going to be impacted here in Wisconsin, where
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the date to send out mail ballots is September 17th.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: You already have. There's something about early because because they're concerned.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: The AP quotes the Republican chair of the Wisconsin Election
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Commission as saying he's not surprised because, quote, there's a
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: fundamental concern. This thing is not going to work. Republicans
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: are trying to ring the alarm.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: And by the way, if you're a governor, if you're
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: in a red state, a Republican governor in a state,
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: understand this is actually going to cost you tremendous amount
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: of money. Elections cost millions of dollars. You're going to
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: end up reprinting these ballots. You're going to end up
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: paying people to make sure that your voters are getting
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: accurate information. A couple of years ago in New York,
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: because of court decisions, I think my polling site changed
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: four times in a year. And, you know, and as
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: a result of that, there was some.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: And you're a person who really wants to vote. So
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: you were going to hunt down your.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: And I pay attention. Yeah. And just very quickly, it's
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: not just the what, it's the who this is affecting,
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: because to Anderson's point earlier. particularly when you're trying to
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: get more college students to vote. Look at what's happening
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: in Tarrant County, Texas. A lot of the challenges, a
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: lot of what the administration is doing there in terms
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: of pulling voting sites in Tarrant County, a lot of
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: the increase in population there is among college-educated voters. It
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: mirrors what's happening in places like Arizona and Georgia. These
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: are likely not Trump voters. If you look at the
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: hundreds of thousands of people who've gotten their rights back
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: after being incarcerated in places like Texas, Virginia and Florida,
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: likely not Trump voters. But a lot of this is
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: happening in areas where he is trying to pull back
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: and tamp down on an anti-Trump, anti-Republican vote. It's extremely intentional.