In this episode, we're joined by Amanda Miller of the progressive group Protect Democracy to discuss a new report that paints a picture of what a Trump administration would look like if elected president, and how it would respond to a wave of anti-Trump protests.
00:00:00.000I thank the Speaker, and I do rise in opposition to the legislation that was just sent to the United States House of Representatives from the United States Senate.
00:00:09.360I just spent a good deal of time going around the country, traveling to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina.
00:00:44.220It is why the American people are so frustrated with this town, with the swamp, because it is a swamp that is entirely not drained.
00:00:52.460Donald Trump has surrounded himself now.
00:00:56.600And people around him have surrounded himself with with people who know how to implement policy and know how to implement his most authoritarian, his most authoritarian instincts.
00:01:12.220And he's not when he's elected, he's not going to bumble through the four years dangerously like he did in his first term.
00:01:20.360If he's elected again, he's going to have people in there who have already said.
00:01:24.720They're going after his political opponents already said they're going after networks already said they're going after producers on shows have already said they're going after all of their political enemies.
00:01:42.460And it's going to make, I think, probably going to make Orban look like Thomas Jefferson.
00:01:48.020We recall that first week of the Trump term in January of 2017 when they tried to institute the Muslim ban, but they didn't know what they were doing.
00:01:55.360And it was so sloppy that it fell apart very quickly in the courts.
00:01:58.620That's probably not going to happen this time around.
00:02:00.840They've had now years to prepare and to practice.
00:02:04.280And Trump is surrounded not only by professionals, but by true believers.
00:02:07.560There aren't going to be any guardrails in the White House this time around.
00:02:10.180There's not going to be a General Mattis or Kelly.
00:02:13.740Amanda, you know, a few of these I feel like can be linked and they're all related to the idea Joe was starting to get to of the idea of punishing foes.
00:02:21.600And that can be regulatory retaliation, bringing up the IRS or whatever it might be and sticking them on an opponent.
00:02:27.340That could mean federal law enforcement overreach.
00:02:29.700And in a grander scale, if there were, let's say, protests against Trump on America's streets, deployment of the military in a domestic fashion,
00:02:37.060something that his team has already suggested they might do with the by invoking the Insurrection Act.
00:02:42.900Just walk us through these here, which paint a very scary picture.
00:02:47.280Yeah, I guess, you know, the broad picture is that this is what the retribution agenda looks like.
00:02:52.420And the hardest thing, and I think you guys can symbolize, in covering Donald Trump, trying to analyze, explain them, is this there's just so much.
00:03:00.400So how do you tell that story and how do you separate just, you know, the politics as usual stuff, the stuff that isn't really real and the stuff you should really pay attention to.
00:03:08.960Right. And so that's what I really tried to do with this report with my wonderful colleagues at Protect Democracy, who are, you know, liberals, progressives, conservatives like me,
00:03:16.280but all really dedicated to this mission. And what we tried to look at is like, OK, these are the things that he is saying on the campaign trail.
00:03:23.320How could they become a reality? Who are the groups supporting these? Who's helping him develop these plans?
00:03:28.320And what are the powers that he will draw upon to act them out? And that's really how we landed on this list.
00:03:33.560And thank you for putting that graphic up. I really appreciate that.
00:03:37.360So, you know, it starts with the pardon power because that is how everything else happens.
00:03:42.400And then once you have that pardon power and you can start directing investigations against your opponents,
00:03:47.240the regulatory retaliation that will happen across the federal government and things like revoking broadcast licenses for an outlet like MSNBC,
00:03:55.140which he has threatened many times and then it keeps going.
00:03:58.500And so, you know, it's really hard because there's great reporting coming from The Atlantic and New York Times, you know, one issue at a time.
00:04:05.840But painting the picture about what it looks like to have an authoritarian president and how the threats are not cabined to one issue or one agency.
00:04:14.960It all comes down to his massive control over the federal government and what he can tell people working for the government to do to enact that retribution agenda against his perceived enemies.
00:04:27.960And I don't like saying enemies because a lot of people are targeted for no reason.
00:04:31.460And we talk about these massive deportation sweeps that he is vowing to enact, you know, the operation wetback times two.
00:04:40.320It's going to be chaotic. It's going to be cool.
00:04:43.740And even if you support tough immigration enforcement, which I count myself among those, there are going to be people swept up in this.
00:04:50.740It's happened before. It is starting to happen again.
00:04:53.040It will not be limited. Even if you like Trump, it's not going to be limited to the outgroups that you dislike.
00:04:58.720It is coming for everyone. And Republicans more than anyone should understand that because the people being targeted for investigations, top of the list are people who work for him.
00:05:08.760This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
00:05:16.780Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people.
00:05:22.000I got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it.
00:05:28.260I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.
00:05:33.600And where do people like that go to share the big line?
00:05:36.300Mega Media. I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
00:05:43.760Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
00:05:47.520If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
00:05:53.800War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Vance.
00:05:57.140It's Friday, 19 January in the year of our Lord, 2024.
00:06:05.460Tomorrow, we're on the eve of the three-year anniversary when President Trump left Washington, D.C.
00:06:13.380after having the 2020 election stolen from him by the illegitimate Biden regime in the apparatus.
00:06:20.260You see complete and total meltdown now.
00:06:22.980Amanda Carpenter, I think she was on Cruz's staff for a while.
00:06:27.100She's been a reporter, supposedly conservative, you know, a rhino Republican.
00:06:33.100Her piece, a meltdown piece today we're going to get into is a little bit about the debate we had with Dr. Gorka yesterday about what's more important on the first days of the administration, 100 days.
00:06:42.840Clearly, going after the administration of a deep state is going to be a very high priority.
00:06:46.040But you see how they're spinning it into Trump as a totalitarian, Trump as a new dictator, all this madness.
00:06:51.680What President Trump is going to have to do immediately, he's already thinking about it, is to solve this financial crisis that we're having because you've got fiscal irresponsibility in Congress and monetary irresponsibility over Treasury in the Federal Reserve.
00:07:09.680So I want to deal with the first part first.
00:07:11.280First of all, we had the great Chip Roy obviously made a big mistake about who he supported for president.
00:08:26.900You know, that's why they have these things called cell phones.
00:08:32.700And me and Cameron were going through the whole rundown while you were drinking your coffee and getting jacked up, brother.
00:08:38.340And I'm so pleased that Morning Joe keeps feeding us ammunition to blow their heads off.
00:08:49.260I mean, the authoritarian playbook, right?
00:08:52.660I mean, like, America, watch this show right now, and you're seeing the only two guys who are risking prison sentences for speaking up for the Constitution and criticizing the Communist Chinese Party.
00:09:46.440The second part, the meltdown of Morning Joe, about what the plan is, I want to get to in a second because I want to make sure people understand this.
00:09:53.860We understand the left media watch this.
00:09:57.800And I do want to mention the fact of yesterday was a debacle.
00:10:02.300But if people can, and Grace, if you can get the, I want to go back to what Punchbowl said, Jake Sherman, who's on the inside.
00:10:10.700The warning signs of the removal, potential removal for Johnson, particularly if Speaker Johnson does not take the hard line here, does not take the hard line on this fiasco they're going to put forward on Ukraine.
00:10:24.520And now the border's attached to that, right?
00:10:26.380So, he didn't attach it to the CR, which he should have.
00:10:29.040But, Peter, let me just tell you who didn't vote for him yesterday.
00:10:31.540This is probably one of the most extraordinary votes of any importance in, I think, congressional history for his leadership.
00:10:39.880At least Stefanik, I think the number three in leadership, did not vote for it.
00:10:44.300Also, Jody Arrington, the budget chair, voted no.
00:10:48.200The Veterans Affair of Mike Bost voted no.
00:10:51.000Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin chairs the China Select Committee.
00:10:54.600Mark Green, the Homeland Security chair.
00:10:56.560Mike Gatts, the ethics chair, Jim Jordan, the judiciary chair, Brian Stell, the administrative, natural resource chair, Bruce Westerman, small business chair, Roger Williams.
00:11:07.340They've never had a revolt at a leadership.
00:11:09.620And then a bunch of second-tier, you know, sub-chairmen underneath that, including Warren Davidson, a close ally of Jordan, actually went to the floor.
00:11:18.740He told people internally, this is important for the audience to understand, that they, Emerson, these guys said, we need a show of force.
00:11:27.580We can't have any more than 15 or 20 defections.
00:12:27.440I think that one should be in the history books because he makes the point that every Republican who voted for that abomination yesterday voted against what it stood for earlier.
00:26:36.680This is taking one of their targeted demographic groups and want to do a cash infusion right now to get them all jacked up because their enthusiasm is at zero.
00:26:58.920That's why they're now focused on the deconstruction of the administrative state.
00:27:02.920And obviously, as I laid out at CPAC in 17, it's redo our national security policy for America first, work with Peter Navarro and the team on economic nationalism,
00:27:14.000right, that puts American citizens first and our jobs first.
00:27:17.600And the third is the deconstruction of the administrative state.
00:27:20.000President Trump's priorities have not really changed from when he first came in.
00:27:24.860Now, I think we're in a much better position to do it.
00:36:17.660In 2016, when there was a contested primary there, there were 200,000 votes cast in the Republican primary.
00:36:24.500There may be as many as 10,000 Democrat crossover votes voting in this particular race, okay?
00:36:33.680So if you do the math, you've got 40% independents eligible to vote.
00:36:38.820You've got 10,000 Democrats in a race where there's only going to be a couple hundred thousand votes.
00:36:47.120It's like what it's going to do is inflate Haley's numbers more than it otherwise would by a large margin.
00:36:56.120And the next thing, okay, this is not a winner-take-all state.
00:37:01.060Not a winner-take-all state, meaning that there's 22 electoral votes there to be had.
00:37:10.020And because of how weird the whole math there is, whoever finishes and isn't the name Donald Trump will take some of those electoral votes.
00:37:20.780So what Haley's strategy is, it's very simple.
00:37:25.620Once you understand this math, it's very simple.
00:37:28.840She wants to have a strong showing in New Hampshire in this fake Republican primary
00:37:34.540and grab enough electoral college votes or votes to elect the Republican nominee
00:37:44.440so that at a minimum she'll have leverage to put her sweet sorry ass, is what it is, on the ticket as vice president.
00:37:56.320And I can tell you, having been in the White House with her, she is a snake, a snake.
00:38:04.420And she's not even in the grass because grass doesn't grow between that snake.
00:38:09.720And then what she's hoping to do is then take that momentum, whatever it is she's got,
00:38:16.600swing into South Carolina, try to argue that Trump has feet of clay, and then leverage her favorite daughter's style.
00:38:27.580Now, the problem she has, of course, is, first of all, Super Tuesday is on March 5th,
00:38:33.380and Trump's going to blow her out of the water, so forget about that strategy.
00:38:37.920The second thing is that people don't love her in that state.
00:38:41.160People have figured out that she's not a MAGA Republican, and South Carolina has no shortage of MAGA Republicans.
00:38:53.240So I want you, Posse, I want you to go into New Hampshire with eyes wide open and manage your expectations, okay?
00:46:37.320Every time we went up to New Hampshire, you know, Donald Trump actually won New Hampshire.
00:46:41.980We know that from all of our statistics from 2020.
00:46:46.160And I've been up in New Hampshire many times with my team to get these elections secure and all the corruption that went on in New Hampshire.
00:46:54.980And that governor, we went back and forth in the media.
00:46:58.660He actually slammed MyPillow, went after MyPillow, and he didn't even have one.
00:47:52.780You and I have a common bond that Fox News, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, has canceled us both.
00:48:01.760And, you know, for me, it's like, OK, I don't need to be on that stupid network because there's never Trump.
00:48:08.780But for you, Mike, losing that account on lies which they've told, that hurts the people who are trying to make a living in your beautiful enterprise.
00:49:11.260But the War Room Posse has had our back.
00:49:13.380And for months now, when this cancel culture started, when they started with the box stores and the shopping channels, and now, of course, Fox.
00:49:21.700So we're running exclusive specials that we were going to run at Fox News with our commercials.
00:49:29.300One of them was all these blankets came in.
00:49:31.560There's every kind of blanket you can think of.