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'Catnip for corruption' Inside Trump's midterm vote threats sowing chaos · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: This morning was President Trump's relentless effort to save off
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a midterm election, shellacking, drubbing, beat down. Those efforts are
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: not primarily focused on a record of accomplishments for the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: American people, which seems quite scant, unless you consider renaming
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  Speaker 1: Lake Ontario, Lake America, a win for all Americans. No,
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  Speaker 1: those efforts appear to be focused on anything and everything
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  Speaker 1: that will limit the right to vote. We've seen the
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  Speaker 1: Trump administration's push to gerrymander its way to victory this fall.
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  Speaker 1: Trump made an all-out push but failed to get Congress
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  Speaker 1: to pass his voter suppression bill, the so-called Save America Act.
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  Speaker 1: And now we see his administration trying to change the
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  Speaker 1: rules of a game that's already underway by using the U.S.
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  Speaker 1: Postal Service to potentially disenfranchise voters by limiting mail-in voting.
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  Speaker 1: That's at least partly why a federal judge on Friday
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  Speaker 1: extended her temporary injunction to barring the USPS from advancing
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  Speaker 1: Trump's new vote-by-mail restrictions.
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  Speaker 2: But.
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  Speaker 1: That hasn't stopped Trump, though. The Justice Department is appealing
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  Speaker 1: that decision, while its earlier appeal of the judge's original
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  Speaker 1: temporary injunction, follow along, remains at the Supreme Court. Mail-in
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  Speaker 1: ballots have already begun going out to voters in some states,
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  Speaker 1: with countless more slated to go out in the coming weeks.
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  Speaker 1: And this leaves open the question of whether those very
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  Speaker 1: ballots could ultimately not get counted if they don't meet
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  Speaker 1: new restrictions that are still being worked out. Election officials
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  Speaker 1: across the country are raising alarms that Trump's pursuit is
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  Speaker 1: only to insert unnecessary chaos and confusion into the midterms.
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  Speaker 1: Oregon's Democratic Secretary of State Tobias Reid told the Financial Times,
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  Speaker 1: all of this is exactly what the president has in
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  Speaker 1: mind to create confusion, to amplify that so that he
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  Speaker 1: is in advance sowing doubt about election results that he
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  Speaker 1: doesn't like. And yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom said this
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  Speaker 1: in North Carolina, the first state to send out its
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  Speaker 1: mail-in ballots.
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  Speaker 2: The absurdity of this, with these ballots already going out,
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  Speaker 2: that he is trying to put sand in the gears
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  Speaker 2: of that process, to completely manipulate that process, to self-select
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  Speaker 2: his voters. That's all this is. This is just rank
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  Speaker 2: corruption and election rigging in the open. We need to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that people understand that. that this is all
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  Speaker 2: designed to confuse people. It's all designed to demoralize people.
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  Speaker 2: It's all designed to reduce voter participation.
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  Speaker 1: Your reaction to Governor Newsom, because I can't find anything
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  Speaker 1: to quarrel with the governor about, it seems to me
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  Speaker 1: that's exactly what the administration is trying to do, trying
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  Speaker 1: to confuse the American people, trying to demoralize Democrats in particular,
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  Speaker 1: and overall just create a lot of chaos.
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  Speaker 3: For sure.
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  Speaker 4: And you know what that's going to do? It's going
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  Speaker 4: to energize Democratic voters. And that's what I'm seeing on
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  Speaker 4: the ground in Pennsylvania. You know, big swing state. People
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  Speaker 4: are mad. They read about these things. They see all
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  Speaker 4: these efforts made to disenfranchise them. And they're going to
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  Speaker 4: show up and they're going to vote if they have
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  Speaker 4: to stand in line for 10 hours, whatever the hell
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  Speaker 4: they have to do. So, you know, my bigger concern
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  Speaker 4: is taking people off the voter registration rolls. But, you know,
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  Speaker 4: that is another whole issue. But I think you're going
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  Speaker 4: to see huge energy and not just from Democrats, by
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  Speaker 4: the way. I think a lot of people are really
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  Speaker 4: mad about this.
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  Speaker 3: I'm wondering if you think that some of the criticisms
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  Speaker 3: we've seen this week of the Trump campaign and MAGA
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  Speaker 3: strategy to decide to make this about Trump, to try
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  Speaker 3: to galvanize the base, make sure that they turn out,
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  Speaker 3: whether you think that's that's actually a bad strategy or
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  Speaker 3: if voters are sophisticated enough to separate the two, that
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  Speaker 3: they can support a Republican candidate and even if they
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  Speaker 3: might not like Trump, and that if a Trump voter
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  Speaker 3: or a Trump supporter likes Trump but might not like
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  Speaker 3: or be as much of a fan of that Republican candidate,
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  Speaker 3: that Trump gets them to turn out here.
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  Speaker 4: The second one.
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  Speaker 5: Already sounds more complicated. The first one, I feel like,
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  Speaker 5: is the more likely scenario.
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  Speaker 3: I guess what I'm trying to say, does Trump.
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  Speaker 5: Turn away?
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  Speaker 3: People who are Republicans anyways? Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: No, look, I.
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  Speaker 1: Think he is.
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  Speaker 5: I think this is all backfiring spectacularly, I think. But look,
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  Speaker 5: if there was the possibility for good ticket splitting, the
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  Speaker 5: way to do that is for the president to stay
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  Speaker 5: the hell out of the midterm elections. Makes it a
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  Speaker 5: lot easier for people to ticket split.
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  Speaker 3: But then what happens to those that one third of
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  Speaker 3: his base that they that all of these incumbents or
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  Speaker 3: candidates still really need?
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  Speaker 5: Well, I mean, look, here's the problem. He is hellbent
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  Speaker 5: on attaching his brand to all candidates. That's why he's
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  Speaker 5: doing this midterm convention down in Dallas that they're calling
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  Speaker 5: Trump a palooza is he wants them all to embrace
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  Speaker 5: him and embrace his brand. And that's going to be very, very.
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  Speaker 5: damaging in these elections to those candidates. I don't think
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  Speaker 5: we're going to see a ton of tickets splitting. And
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  Speaker 5: I think the congresswoman is right. I think right now
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  Speaker 5: people were worried about Donald Trump's mail-in ballot executive order
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  Speaker 5: suppressing the vote because of the chaos and confusion. The
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  Speaker 5: polls show the opposite. The polls show right now Democratic
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  Speaker 5: voters say this is the most important midterm election in
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  Speaker 5: our lifetimes. Usually it's us saying that to people. This
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  Speaker 5: is the most important midterm elections. Those voters are saying
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  Speaker 5: for the first time in polls, we think this is
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  Speaker 5: the most important ever. But Republicans, guess what? Republicans are
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  Speaker 5: very soft when it comes to whether or not they're
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  Speaker 5: going to turn out to vote in the midterms.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 5: Because Donald Trump keeps telling them, hey, don't worry, I've
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  Speaker 5: rigged the election in your favor. I'm doing all of
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  Speaker 5: these things to rig the elections. He goes and stands
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  Speaker 5: in front of Mount Rushmore on July 3rd and says,
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  Speaker 5: don't worry, if we pass my measures, Republicans will win
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  Speaker 5: for 100 years. He is saying stay home and stay
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  Speaker 5: on the couch. We're saying get out there and vote
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  Speaker 5: because your right to vote itself is at stake. And
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  Speaker 5: that's working.
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  Speaker 6: Miles, I want to switch gears if we can. There
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  Speaker 6: is a big deep dive today in The New York
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  Speaker 6: Times about Anthony Fauci. And I mean, I'm not going
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  Speaker 6: to read from all of it, but it starts with
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  Speaker 6: Dan Bongino, who stepped down from the FBI in January.
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  Speaker 6: He was the number two there to return to podcasting.
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  Speaker 6: Other officials helped set in motion a sprawling and aggressive
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  Speaker 6: investigative investigative effort that has outlasted Bongino's tenure, the New
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  Speaker 6: York Times has learned. As far as that effort, FBI
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  Speaker 6: agents and federal prosecutors have sought evidence related to at
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  Speaker 6: least eight scientists, among them Nobel laureates and influential former
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  Speaker 6: government researchers like Fauci. Investigators have demanded phone, email, grant
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  Speaker 6: and payment records, as well as grand jury testimony. Listen,
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  Speaker 6: I know from my time at the Justice Department, in
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  Speaker 6: a normal DOJ and FBI environment, prosecutors, investigators, they follow
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  Speaker 6: the facts, right? The facts and the law tell them
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  Speaker 6: where to go next. What we see in this administration,
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  Speaker 6: at least is my observation, is that these folks start
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  Speaker 6: investigations with the end in mind. And then they take
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  Speaker 6: a series of steps to try to bring about the
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  Speaker 6: outcome that they want. I mean, you know this from
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  Speaker 6: personal experience.
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  Speaker 5: Well, yeah, that's what the president did in my case.
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  Speaker 5: He first signed an executive order that said, effectively, you
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  Speaker 5: are guilty of treason. And then he turned to his
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  Speaker 5: people and said, please go find me the evidence that
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  Speaker 5: this man is guilty of treason.
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  Speaker 6: He did it wide open.
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  Speaker 5: That's not hyperbole. Go look at what he said and did.
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  Speaker 5: They're doing that across investigations. This, Anthony, is what I
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  Speaker 5: think it really means. Right now, they're launching these investigations
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  Speaker 5: in backwards fashion. It means in the long run, we're
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  Speaker 5: going to see investigations into the investigators.
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  Speaker 1: I want to come back to voting because that's in
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  Speaker 1: the here and now.
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  Speaker 2: Dr.
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  Speaker 1: Fauci, just leave it.
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  Speaker 6: Leave the man alone.
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  Speaker 1: There are two things here. First, I'm going to put
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  Speaker 1: up this voting by mail survey in 2024. Thirty seven
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  Speaker 1: percent of Democrats voted by mail in 2024. Twenty four
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  Speaker 1: percent of Republicans voted by mail in 2024. And I
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  Speaker 1: bring that up because of the Washington Post story in
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  Speaker 1: on Tuesday. Postal Service plans may keep voters from getting ballots,
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  Speaker 1: Whistleblower says. The disclosure made public Tuesday morning by Senator
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  Speaker 1: Richard Blumenthal says the Postal Service has adopted an internal
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  Speaker 1: zero percent failure policy under which an entire batch of
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  Speaker 1: ballots would be rejected if a single barcode sampled by
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  Speaker 1: a postal employee could not be scanned or matched with
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  Speaker 1: information submitted through a new online portal. A batch could
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  Speaker 1: contain tens of thousands of ballots. According to the disclosure, Congresswoman,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, this gets to what you were talking about before,
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  Speaker 1: why people are mad. The president of the United States
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  Speaker 1: is trying to disenfranchise people. Then he's using the gears
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  Speaker 1: of government to do it and sticking the postal service
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  Speaker 1: on them. And what I just read there. If one
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  Speaker 1: if a single barcode sample doesn't match, then that could
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  Speaker 1: be up to 10,000 ballots that get thrown out, 10,000
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  Speaker 1: votes thrown out. I mean, is there any way to
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  Speaker 1: stop this?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I'll tell you what I what I'm seeing and
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  Speaker 4: hearing in Pennsylvania. You have to apply for your absentee
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  Speaker 4: ballot every single year or your mail in ballot. people
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  Speaker 4: this year, and once you do, you can show up
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  Speaker 4: and vote and have your ballot, you know, whatever, invalidated.
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  Speaker 4: But what I'm hearing is people aren't requesting a mail-in
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  Speaker 4: ballot this year. They're going to show up. They are
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  Speaker 4: just done with it. They don't have faith in the administration.
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  Speaker 4: They don't have faith in the Postal Service. You know,
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  Speaker 4: things have gone downhill with DeJoy. And I think people are,
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  Speaker 4: you're going to see record turnout in person. I think
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  Speaker 4: those numbers that you showed, 37 percent and 24 percent
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  Speaker 4: for Republicans, the Republicans aren't going to be doing as
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  Speaker 4: much mail-in balloting because Trump's talked about it so much,
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  Speaker 4: so disparagingly. And Democrats probably aren't going to do it
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  Speaker 4: as much because they want to show up and make
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  Speaker 4: sure that their damn ballot is recorded.
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  Speaker 1: Overwhelm the polling places to make it visually clear the
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  Speaker 1: will of the American people.
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  Speaker 3: To exercise their right to vote.
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  Speaker 1: And then it's going to come down to locals.
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  Speaker 4: It's going to come down to the local election offices
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  Speaker 4: and states and so forth about what do we do
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  Speaker 4: about these long lines and people still in line eight
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  Speaker 4: hours after the polls close. But, you know, I have
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  Speaker 4: a lot more confidence in the locals right now.
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  Speaker 3: I have an extremely belated follow-up because I am stuck
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  Speaker 3: on something you said earlier. which is, are you arguing
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  Speaker 3: that Trump's rhetoric around voting is what is ultimately going
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  Speaker 3: to be the primary depressor of the Republican vote, or
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  Speaker 3: that his actual message and all of the nonsense that's
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: come out of his mouth on the between trail is.
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  Speaker 2: Going to be.
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  Speaker 5: I honestly think it's both. And I don't just say
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  Speaker 5: that because I defected from his administration. I think he's
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  Speaker 5: the most flawed living human being on the face of
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  Speaker 5: the planet. I say this because I think as a
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  Speaker 5: political assessment, he is a gigantic albatross politically to his
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  Speaker 5: whole side at the are suppressing the vote on the
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  Speaker 5: Republican side. He's telling his side, don't worry, I have
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  Speaker 5: it in the bag. So why would they show up
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  Speaker 5: now on the mail and ballot executive order? I do
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  Speaker 5: want to say one thing in full disclosure. Our organization
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  Speaker 5: is funding the group that's supporting the whistleblower that came forward.
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  Speaker 5: We're also helping to fund the lawsuits against the administration. OK,
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  Speaker 5: we're going very hard against this thing. But two things
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  Speaker 5: that voters haven't been told about this. This is catnip
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  Speaker 5: for corruption for a reason folks don't understand. The database
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  Speaker 5: that they're going to use, allegedly, if this goes into effect,
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  Speaker 5: to screen these mail-in ballots, I used to oversee it
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  Speaker 5: at the Department of Homeland Security. This thing has no oversight,
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  Speaker 5: no transparency. You've got some random contractors that manage it.
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  Speaker 5: People could manipulate that data very, very easily. A Democratic
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  Speaker 5: or Republican president, right? Donald Trump is putting this in
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  Speaker 5: place notionally for the executive branch writ large. That's very dangerous.
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  Speaker 5: The other piece that no one is mentioning, this is
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  Speaker 5: the gift our foreign adversaries wished since 2016 we had
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  Speaker 5: given them. This would centralize the ability to manipulate an
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  Speaker 5: American election. For that reason alone, it's potentially catastrophic. And
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  Speaker 5: I think you're going to see the courts keep this
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  Speaker 5: thing struck down through the midterms.