Transcription
This is Democracy Watch. Mark, we have an insane story coming out of Missouri where the Republican attorney general took really, uh, unprecedented steps to try and prevent, uh, a referendum from taking place that would, that would block the state's new map, the new Republican gerrymander. Can you explain what this Republican attorney general just did?
This should be a five-alarm fire for everyone who cares about democracy and free and fair elections as we head towards 2026. We have been worrying and warning you about the fact that the Department of Justice and ICE will be deployed in ways to try to interfere in the election process. And now in Missouri, we have proof of it. The attorney general of that state, as you pointed out, has referred to ICE, the petition-gathering, uh, operation for this ballot initiative that, if it's able to gather enough signatures, would halt the Republicans' illegal gerrymandered congressional map. That's right. In Missouri, if there are enough signatures gathered to put a question on the ballot, it essentially halts the statute in the meantime from going forward. So, the pro-democracy forces, the groups that are on the ground collecting these signatures, have been making great progress, notwithstanding, you know, the hostility of the state to that process. So, the attorney general of the state has called out the big guns that we are worried about for 2026, which is going to ICE and saying, "Hey, ICE, we think the petition gatherers here are breaking immigration law. Go harass them." And so, that's what we're watching, uh, right now take place in the state of Missouri.
>> I'm going to put right here on the screen a post that the attorney general put onto Twitter. "Out-of-state signature collectors are reportedly employing illegal aliens in their efforts to undermine the will of the people's elected representatives. We've launched an investigation into advanced microtargeting. If anyone is creating an environment for exploitation and human trafficking to thrive, we will hold them accountable. We have referred this matter to ICE." And so, how does it strike you that the way that they're justifying what is an openly election-suppressive, uh, uh, uh, scheme that they're running here is to, is to pretend that all of this is happening because it's some human trafficking, um, human trafficking ring?
>> Yeah, this is dangerous stuff. I mean, again, everybody needs to be paying attention to this. I mean, this is a five-alarm fire. Everyone, like, pays attention and takes action. And before this video is over, we're going to tell you some stuff you can do. But one of the first things you can do is subscribe to this channel. So, go ahead and subscribe and hit the bell to stay, uh, informed when there's new content posted because we're going to have updates on this. But, you know, Brian, the thing is that the use of out-of-state petition gatherers is not unusual. It's not unique to, uh, this ballot initiative. It's not unique, uh, to, uh, to Missouri. There are national petition-gathering firms, and both parties use them. Candidates, uh, use them to get when they have to petition to get on the ballot, and there is nothing nefarious about that. I mean, there is nothing nefarious about using a firm that specializes in helping on the mechanics of petition gathering. The, what, what the attorney general in Missouri is doing is throwing into that combustible mix, right? Saying it's an out-of-state firm, right? Which is like usual scare tactics, but throwing into there this kind of incendiary language that suggests that somehow there is nefarious trafficking or undocumented migrants involved in this that that requires ICE to get involved. I mean, you all are seeing what's going on with ICE. You all are watching what ICE is doing to US citizens around this country and terrorizing communities around this country. That's what they're trying to unleash on these petition, uh, gatherers. And the only reason they're doing it is because they want their gerrymandered maps. The only reason they're doing this is because Donald Trump told them to go rig the maps because he's afraid of losing control of the Congress in 2026. And that's why they're doing this. And we have warned for months that federal authorities like ICE would be turned into, would be turned against pro-democracy movements. They'd be turned into the enforcers of the Trump administration, the state, uh, MAGA loyalists in order to suppress voting rights, prevent people from voting, and in this case, to try to shut down the will of Missouri, uh, voters and citizens to not have an illegal gerrymandered map. You know, what are these people afraid of? Why are they so afraid of the public in their own state? You know, you know what Gavin Newsom said? Gavin Newsom said, "You know what? I want to take this to my voters." I mean, far from being afraid of it, Democrats in California said, "We're going to go to the voters, right?" >> And if the voters don't want to sign these petitions, then we won't be able to to change the maps. And if the voters then won't vote for it, we won't be able to change the maps." Right? Democrats embraced the citizenry. Embrace the voters. And what we're seeing now in Missouri is a shameful episode, but it is the logical extension of what comes out of an authoritarian like Donald Trump. And like I said, it's a five-alarm fire and a wakeup call for what we're going to see next November.
>> I should also note that if you didn't cover this in Democracy Docket, which is the news outlet you founded to focus on everything voting and elections, it would get zero coverage. This isn't, this isn't on CNN. It's not on any of the other legacy media outlets. It's not being written about. The only place that I've seen any information about this is in Democracy Docket. For those who are watching right now, to support the invaluable work that Mark and his team are doing, uh, work that often goes completely ignored by legacy media, a small step we can all take is to sign up for Democracy Docket, and I'm going to put that link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. Mark, to what extent does the fact that they are leaning on ICE, which we've all, we've all seen the videos, right? We've all seen the videos online where this is a lawless, uh, um, just completely rogue agency that's perfectly content, uh, to really violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, uh, to harass people, to rip people out of cars, to throw them onto the ground, to injure people, and nothing seems to happen to these people. Again, they seem to be accountable to no one. And so, what does it say that the Missouri attorney general here is specifically, uh, deferring to ICE to be the enforcers of this thing, given what we know about how they operate?
>> Yeah, I think it's a really important point and look, it's, it's, in some ways, what we've all been really worried about. It's, in some ways, the worst nightmare for democracy, which is, you know, the attorney general is not relying on the state police, is not relying on county sheriffs, is not relying on, you know, their own office to do an investigation because there's no there there, right? There is no basis for going after these folks except for politics. But she knows, she knows that if she kicks this up to ICE and she kicks it up to an agency that is fundamentally being built as one of, would be one of the largest militaries in the world if it was a standalone army and is being built up by this White House, she knows that it will have a greater sense of terror in the community and a greater sense of immunity from, from pushback and and and and limitations. And like you said, we're seeing that on videos all around the country. We're watching these folks, op masked, act with impunity and dragging citizens out of their cars and surrounding people and threatening, uh, people who videotape them and dragging people into the back of vans. I mean, we're watching that. And what's different here is that it's now going to be turned against a pro-democracy effort. And if they're going to turn it against a pro-democracy effort by saying that petition gathering here is needs to be shut down or investigated, what's to stop them when Democratic candidates are gathering petition signatures? What's to stop them when Democrats are trying to run get-out-the-vote operations and are hiring vendors and people to canvas door-to-door? I mean, this is totalitarian stuff and everybody needs to wake up to it.
Is there some legal remedy when there is a completely baseless assertion that's leveled by someone like the, the Missouri attorney general, but it's, it's that assertion that, um, serves as, as the justification to bring ICE in? Like, is there some way to validate whether there's actually any, any legitimacy to her claim? And if there's not, well, then what's the, what's the purpose of being able to call in ICE? Maybe there's a way to block ICE from being able to go in. And so, is there some legal remedy here that would prevent this process from playing itself out?
>> Look, I think everything's on the table. I think that there are going to be lawyers who are going to look at this and figure out whether there is any way to push back. You know, it is complicated because you have the federal government. You have state, uh, immunity in state courts. You have federal immunity in federal courts and oftentimes in state courts. So, look, you know, Donald Trump has built this par, this operation along with a parallel paramilitary operation, by the way, from the people he's pardoning, who, if you think about it, they also enjoy essentially a type of immunity because Donald Trump can be pardoning them, right? So, so like, this is the time when we all need to stand up tall for democracy. You know, you mentioned that you have not seen this in the New York Times or the Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, right? Why aren't you seeing it there? You're not seeing it there because they are all hedging their bets. They are all trying to figure out how do they report the news? How do they do as much as they feel like they can do without jeopardizing, oh, I don't know, their rocket-launching companies or their mergers and acquisitions or, you know, whatever it is, right? Like, but the thing about Democracy Docket is there are no corporate overlords. There are no billionaire backers. It relies on its subscribers and its members, and as long as people who are readers and supporters, uh, keep it, uh, keep, uh, keep supporting it, it will report these kinds of stories and not back away. Um, but, but this is going to, like I said, get significantly worse as we get closer to November of 2026.
>> I got to ask because this is the part that stuck out at me from the Missouri Attorney General's, um, Twitter post. This idea that, uh, if anybody is creating an environment for exploitation and human trafficking to thrive, we'll hold them accountable. Does that not fall flat considering we just went through an entire campaign cycle leading up to 2024 where the entire Republican party was beating their, beating their chest about how they're going to be the people to release the Epstein files and they're, you know, the, the party that's going to protect the kids and, you know, human trafficking won't thrive under their watch. Now then they've got full control of government and went on to engage in a 10-month cover-up led by the pro-president of the United States to hide the files that expose the most notorious pedophile ring in the history of this country. Does it not strike you as bizarre that they're continuing to pretend that they, that they have some moral high ground here after 10 months of what we've just seen?
>> Look, I think we all need to just recognize this for the transparent political play that it is.
>> Yeah. You know, the attorney general of Missouri doesn't want this ballot initiative to pass and, you know, saying that she has heard rumors or concerns or whatever, whatever language she uses, you know, you know, it's the, it's the, it's the, um, Donald Trump equivalent of "many people are saying" or "some people are saying," right? Which is not a standard to interfere with First Amendment activity. And that's what this is, right? The, the ability to gather signatures to petition for a ballot initiative is core First Amendment activity. And again, and to try to get in the way of that on behalf of the state of Missouri, you know, shame on her. I don't think it's going to work. I think that this is not going to back these folks down. Uh, and I think this is, I think this ballot initiative is going to, is going to get enough signatures. The state of Missouri is going to do everything they can to try to invalidate the signatures, to try to say they're not this and they're not that and whatever. Like, but at the end of the day, the people will have their way here. And I suspect when the ballot initiative is on the ballot, it passes overwhelmingly.
>> And finally, let's, let's finish off with this. You had mentioned at the top that there are some steps that we can take. What would you recommend that folks do, um, as we see these abuses play themselves out?
>> Yeah. So, the biggest thing is we need everyone to be talking about this and amplifying this. You know, you pointed out that this is not in the legacy media. Yeah. But the fact is that the Washington Post is right about one thing, which is democracy dies in darkness. And the Trump administration is counting on them killing off democracy in darkness. The Missouri attorney general is counting on the idea that no one will be paying attention to this, particularly in the last weeks of the collection as we go into the holidays. The Trump administration is counting on the fact that the Epstein files, which are set to be released, you know, in like three, three weeks and change, that everyone will be too busy during the holiday season to be paying attention. So, the thing I need to have all of you do is don't lose attention. Share this content. Share this video with your friends. There is a share button that's sitting in front of you. Share the video on social media. Tell your neighbors, your customers, your clients, your friends, your family that they need to consume Brian's content. They need to subscribe to this channel. They need to hit the bell to be alerted when there's new content. And they need to subscribe to independent pro-democracy media like Democracy Docket, you know, and, and, and knowledge and information is at such a premium right now, but getting it distributed, getting it out into the world is critical.
>> Perfectly put. And again, I'm going to put the link to Democracy Docket right here on the screen as well as the link to this channel. Um, so if you're not yet subscribed to both, please go ahead and subscribe. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen.
>> I'm Mark Elias.
>> This is Democracy Watch.
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