Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Trump LOSES midterm plot at SCOTUS - with Trump appointees REJECTING him

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Trump LOSES midterm plot at SCOTUS - with Trump appointees REJECTING him · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's new legal defeat, the Supreme Court rejecting the
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: mail ballot scheme, this has been dogged in the courts.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: It's the latest in actually a long series.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Of setbacks that are protecting the midterm vote against Trump's
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: effort to attack our democracy.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: The Supreme Court has rejected President Trump's attempt to restrict
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: mail-in ballots.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: This caps a flurry of.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: Last-minute legal activity.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: With voting now already underway in some areas. The top
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: story right now is the breaking news.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The federal judge here granting relief to the states that
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: were fighting Trump.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: A new push by the Trump administration to restrict voting
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: by mail.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: It has appealed to the Supreme Court again.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: This is a big loss for the Trump administration on
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the midterm ballot clash.
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: He is desperate because he knows that this is a
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: referendum on his leadership.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: What you're seeing there is all of the losses leading
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: up to another loss.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: And every justice that Trump nominated voting against him.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Trump complains these are not the people I interviewed to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: serve a kind of a tell that He doesn't view
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: them as independent justices, and he wanted them, quite literally,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to join his mail-in ballot scheme to undermine democracy, and
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: they didn't. We showed you the history because if you
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: were living your life or going through the long weekend
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: that ends the summer, etc., you might have missed some
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: of the steps up to this point. But while there's
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: been wrangling, Trump is losing, and that means the midterm
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: ballots are now under law going out safely and without
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: his meddling. It is a Supreme Court defeat. And it's
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: broader than just the midterms. We have the mail ballots.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: That's the big live issue right now. But you have
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: also the citizenship case, the tariffs and protecting the Federal Reserve. Now,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: none of this means that we have some perfect Supreme Court.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And on any other night, we could report on all
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: of the issues facing the court. But on these extreme, unlawful,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: clearly unconstitutional measures that Trump has pursued more in the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: second than the first term and more going at midterm
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: voting in advance rather than sort of what he did,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: we all remember, in Jan 6, which was largely after
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the votes came in. All of this showing the Supreme
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Court will hold the line on this. So what is
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Trump doing in response? Still looking for any chance to meddle.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And this is important because what I'm telling you tonight
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: is the person who fomented an actual insurrection and then
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: pardoned the violent people who did it, the very anti-police,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: anti-democracy incumbent that we happen to have in the White House.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: This person's going to keep doing that.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: But society, the courts, the country, the free press, the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: nation can still stand up for democracy. In other words,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: the fight ain't over, but he is losing the fight tonight.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: The Times reporting that the mail ballot plan is one
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: piece of a broader effort with the full power of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the federal government under Trump to try to take, quote,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: more control of state run elections. Then you have the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: attorney general and the FBI director speaking today and showing
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: us a preview of what you need to get ready for.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I say that quite seriously because if the Republicans, if
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the Trump-aligned party happens to win the midterms, which could happen,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: we will see less of this. And the free press
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: in this country, we report on and support the outcome.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Of democracy, period, full stop.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: But if the Democrats happen to win, Unlike the first term,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and certainly different than every other past administration we've seen
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: in the modern era, you can expect the power and
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the force of this DOJ and this FBI, quite legally
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: corrupted under Trump, to be potentially trying to confuse, abuse,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: or overthrow their loss in the coming election. That's the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: context of them speaking out right now.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: As far as President Trump's truth about the justices, he
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: is very frustrated. He has every right, and indeed he should,
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: This isn't the first time that he's done it, and
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: it won't be the last. We have an election crimes
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: community coordinator in all 56 field offices, so you bet
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: we're going to have them there in manning the post
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: for election interference matters.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: On the one hand, you have the Attorney General speaking
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the way he does, sort of trying to boil this
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: down to a freedom of speech issue. Of course, Donald
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Trump may criticize the Supreme Court, and other presidents have
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: done that. That's not the real issue. And then you
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: have the FBI Director fear-mongering. Even as they lose the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: main effort that we know about publicly to interfere in
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the midterms, he's out there saying, well, maybe we'll have
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: people at the polls or do other things. The Supreme
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Court is holding the line on the ballots. I would
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: expect them. We will follow the case, but I would
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: expect them to also hold the line if there are
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: efforts to illegally abuse power, to put federal agents where
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: they cannot be under the law or to tamper with
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the actual ballot. Something that, remember, Trump wanted to do
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: before Jan 6, but even his own advisers like Giuliani
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: disavowed his thought, his sort of. maybe pre-plan, when he
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: mused about whether he could get the military to go
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: take ballots.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: That went nowhere.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And so this is a court that can act on
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: a fast basis, that can respond to these matters legally.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Then you have a much more minor sort of petty
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: squabble over this Kennedy Center issue in Washington, not something
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: most voters and citizens care about. But a federal judge
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: blocked Trump from again trying to plaster his name on there.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: And afterwards, Trump's Panel, the people he put on that
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: center to do his partisan war, said they might try
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: to shut down the whole place for renovations, a kind
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of a tit for tat, acknowledging the loss in court
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and saying, well, then maybe you can't have the Kennedy
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Center at all. I want to bring in Andrew Weissman,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: a former FBI general counsel, MSNOW legal analyst, a former.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Top prosecutor in the Mueller probe.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: He hosts Answers with Andrew, which is part of MSNOW membership.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: You've seen those promos on our air.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: And if you're interested in that, you can sign up
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: for the MSNOW membership to hear from Andrew there.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: That's kind of an exclusive program. Although, Andrew, we're not
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: paywalling you tonight.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I'm very happy to say we have you as our
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: lead off guest.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: We started with the serious free. The mid. Yes, sir.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: We started with the serious, the midterm. And we can
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: get to the Kennedy Center, the petty. But on the midterms,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: not that the Supreme Court is doing some grand, great thing.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: They're doing their, I guess, jobs against.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: These repeated efforts.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: But how do you view the way that the Trump
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: agenda to tamper with elections has moved earlier in the calendar?
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And at times that is that's. been complex for some
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: of the courts and timing issues in the courts. But today,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: as our montage showed, again, when it goes to court,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: he's losing.
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: The decision from the Supreme Court was a huge blow
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: to the Trump administration, not just because they said no,
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: but it's the way they said no. I had thought
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: that they would not win, but there was an easy
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: way for the court to say, you know what, we
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: just can't do this. for the midterms. It's too soon.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: There's no way for the state to comply that quickly.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: And frankly, the Postal Service isn't even showing that it's
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: able to comply with this. So we're going to kick
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: the can down the road. That was the easy way
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: to decide this case. But they did more than that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: They said, yes, there's a problem in terms of the timing.
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: But the majority and it's five or six, we don't
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: know for sure, likely six justices said that the Trump
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: administration is likely to lose on the merits, meaning don't
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: come back because it's not just that it's not good
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: for the midterms. It's not good forever. Now, the only
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: bad news is that this really should have been nine
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: to zero.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Hey, it's me, Rachel Maddow. If you like the story
• 8:01
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