On today's show, we'll get into the latest polls on Democrats' chances in 2026. Are they flailing around? How could they possibly win back power? Is there any shot at all? Maybe it would have to do with Republicans doing something incredibly stupid. We'll get to all that first.
00:02:11.000In 2022, when Republicans won nine seats, which was a very narrow victory for Republicans.
00:02:17.000The real Kerpolik's polling average had Republicans up 2.8 points.
00:02:22.000And there are significantly fewer competitive battleground districts this time around, thanks to both redistricting and population movement, according to Cook Political.
00:02:30.000There are effectively eight seats that are Republican toss-up seats held by Republicans, but could theoretically move Democrat.
00:02:37.000There are 10 Democrat toss-up seats, including seats in California, Maine, New York, Ohio, and Texas.
00:05:18.000It's opposition led by a bunch of grassroots, astro-terfed organizations like labor unions and the Communist Party USA.
00:05:25.000Here's Nicole Wallace trying to make fetch happen.
00:05:29.000The No Kings protests clearly getting deep under Donald Trump's skin over the weekend.
00:05:34.000But more importantly, the protests show the contours of a new opposition in America, one led by the people.
00:05:40.000According to the organizers, 7 million people came out to protest Donald Trump on Saturday.
00:05:45.000More than 100,000 people marched in New York City in Chicago.
00:05:49.000The march at one point stretched 22 blocks.
00:05:53.000But the protests were hardly confined to big cities in blue states.
00:06:00.000Well, I mean, they they were mostly confined to people who voted for Kamel Harris.
00:06:04.000Again, if you can spot me, 10 people who are now doing the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah here.
00:06:10.000If you can find me 10 people who are registered Republicans who voted for Donald Trump in the last election cycle in those crowds, I will be very, very surprised, shall we say.
00:06:20.000Jamie Raskin also trying to make all of this into some sort of gigantic popular uprising.
00:06:26.000Here's the representative from Maryland.
00:06:30.000This is right now the largest uh the set of demonstrations uh that's ever occurred in American history.
00:06:37.000I don't know that there's ever been seven million people who have assembled in unity against an administration that has been so determined to violate the civil rights and civil liberties of the people, usurped the powers of Congress and trampled the Constitution as well as shut down the U.S. government.
00:06:58.000Well, you know, again, the the this idea that this is a gigantic popular opera, it is betrayed by the polls.
00:07:03.000There is no evidence, actually, that President Trump is in any serious trouble here.
00:07:08.000He seems to be absolutely Teflon right now.
00:07:11.000Well, coming up, Bernie Sanders has some words on the view about President Trump poop bombing a bunch of rallies, you know, in an AI video, because this is what Democrats have been relegated to talking about.
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00:09:40.000Just last week, the view said we can't get anyone who's a Republican who wants to come on the show.
00:09:44.000Guys, I've been sitting here for literally a decade saying have me on.
00:09:48.000When Megan McCain was on the show, she told me, she repeatedly tried to get me on the show, and they kept killing it over and over and over.
00:10:55.000You think they're gonna get away with Donald Trump put out a video of himself dropping gigantic vats of turd on protesters in New York City.
00:11:03.000And this is somehow going to outrage the American.
00:12:17.000There's no real reason Donald Trump might say, at least when it comes to popular support, I want to get out of the shutdown.
00:12:23.000I mean, again, the reason for that is because Americans are figuring eventually the shutdown will come to an end, and people will get their back pay, and that'll kind of be it.
00:12:30.000And they don't even understand why Democrats are doing this in the first place.
00:12:34.000Now, Democrats are struggling here with the government shutdown.
00:12:37.000I mean, the polls show that they are not gaining any momentum from it.
00:12:40.000And there's a reason for that, which is that until five minutes ago, Democrats always opposed government shutdowns.
00:12:45.000They wanted the government to continue functioning and running no matter what.
00:12:48.000In fact, here is Senator Tim Kane from 2019 saying that he would only vote on policy after a government shutdown ended.
00:13:56.000I don't think that AOC is going to challenge him in a primary.
00:13:58.000I think she's going to run for president, which is why she's gallivanting all over the country with Bernie Sanders.
00:14:02.000And Bernie Sanders is a gigantic advocate of the idea that we should never reopen the government unless Republicans suddenly magically become Democrats.
00:14:42.000And nobody understands what Democrats are doing here.
00:14:44.000And Chuck Schumer's idea that Republicans are are just lazy.
00:14:49.000And that's the reason the shutdown continues.
00:14:50.000Dude, you can end this anytime you want, any time.
00:14:56.000So, Mr. President, we enter another week of Donald Trump's government shutdown.
00:15:01.000And Republicans seem happy not to work.
00:15:05.000Happy not to negotiate, happy to let health care premiums spike for over 20 million working and middle class Americans.
00:15:14.000Our country is staring down the barrel of a health care catastrophe, and Republicans will spend this week either vacationing or holding pep rallies at the White House.
00:15:26.000Yeah, again, I'm sorry, this is not going to work in any way, shape, or form.
00:15:30.000Join us on the line to bring us the updates on the government shutdown is Senator Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania.
00:15:34.000Senator McCormick, thanks so much for taking the time, really appreciate it.
00:15:43.000By polling data, Americans don't seem extraordinarily perturbed about the government shutdown at the moment, mainly because they think that it will come to some sort of end, and they don't really understand why Democrats are preventing the shutdown from ending.
00:15:54.000According to Harry Enton over at CNN, the president's poll ratings have not moved one iota.
00:15:58.000If anything, they've actually risen a point since the beginning of the government shutdown.
00:16:02.000For folks who are not familiar, why exactly is the government shutdown right now?
00:16:08.000Well, this is uh, you know, something that's usually standard fair, which is a continuing resolution, which is to just to keep the spending at the same levels while you're finalizing the appropriations process.
00:16:20.000That's what Republicans have proposed and voted for.
00:16:22.000Um, that happened 14 times under Joe Biden.
00:16:27.000The Democrats are trying to use that continuing resolution, a clean continuing resolution, no politics, to use that as leverage to blackmail Republicans to make a bunch of concessions to undo some of the things that were in the big beautiful bill and to approve uh additional uh uh tax subsidies uh from Obamacare that were put in place during COVID.
00:16:48.000So it's literally holding government blackmail.
00:16:51.000So air traffic controllers, border patrol, uh uh federal workers, the military, all don't get paid uh until uh the Democrats uh relent and essentially let us get back to business.
00:17:07.000I think they believed that this was the right thing to do politically, and it was gonna help them show that they were fighting back against President Trump, when in reality it's just bad policy.
00:17:17.000And I I'll never support shutting down the government.
00:17:20.000We should be able to find ways uh through this.
00:17:24.000Uh Senator Fetterman, my fellow Pennsylvanian, he and I agree on that.
00:17:28.000Regardless of what party uh is in power, it doesn't make sense to shut down the government.
00:17:32.000I've supported legislation uh uh by James Langford to ensure that doesn't happen again.
00:17:39.000Well, Senator McCormick, Kevin Hassett of the National Economic Council, he has suggested that the government shutdown could end this week.
00:17:45.000Are you seeing any movement on the part of Democrats to end this?
00:17:47.000Maybe more moderate Democrats coming over to the side of ending the government shutdown.
00:17:52.000You know, I don't see anything in the foreseeable future, to be honest with you.
00:17:55.000I've spoken to a number of those moderate Democrats.
00:17:57.000I I think that uh uh they believe, at least for the time being, that there's some political advantage here, which is which is a sad commentary.
00:18:06.000Uh uh perhaps uh in the coming weeks as the and days and weeks as the is the impact starts to grow.
00:18:14.000I think uh I think the pressure may ultimately lead them to relent.
00:18:17.000In Pennsylvania, 100,000 federal workers.
00:18:20.000The big thing that's happening now is there's two million recipients of SNAP benefits.
00:18:25.000These are people that are often living paycheck to paycheck.
00:18:27.000They're no longer receiving those snap benefits, and they won't receive them until the government is open.
00:18:35.000So if you think about the Democrats saying they're trying to help working people, this is about health care for working people.
00:18:41.000This is really putting an enormous amount of pain and pressure on working people because uh SNAP benefits and uh and and other things, the people that are employed by the government aren't getting paid.
00:18:53.000So I think that pressure is going to grow, but I don't see anything in the foreseeable future.
00:18:58.000Senator McCormick, you mentioned Senator Fetterman a moment ago, and it really is quite astonishing that Senator Fetterman appears to be one of the only semi-rational democrats who is around at this point.
00:19:08.000He has come out against the government shutdown.
00:19:10.000He is praised the president for accomplishments in the Middle East.
00:19:13.000And yet Democrats apparently are now targeting Senator Fetterman for a primary challenge in a purple state that, again, President Trump has now won two out of the last three election cycles.
00:19:23.000You're a Republican senator from that state.
00:19:25.000What do you make of the Democratic Party that's basically saying to Senator Fetterman, who has very high approval ratings among Republicans and pretty good approval ratings among independents, that they're saying you don't belong in our party anymore, despite the fact that he votes with President Trump a grand total of six percent of the time.
00:20:00.000He doesn't uh uh buy into this radical uh liberal orthodolk uh orthodology uh orthodoxy, which uh where he ultimately is attacking uh Israel or embracing anti-Semitism.
00:20:14.000That's that's what his party has become.
00:20:16.000And so as a consequence, you have a guy here that speaks truth, votes as a Democrat most of the time, looks for ways to collaborate with me and others when he can to help Pennsylvania to help the country.
00:20:26.000And and the radical uh left has turned against him for that very reason.
00:20:30.000Um, he's very popular in pr in Pennsylvania, as you said.
00:20:33.000He's got a lot of support from independents and Republicans and Democrats.
00:20:37.000I think he's a pretty uh pretty formidable guy.
00:20:39.000So I wouldn't uh I wouldn't write him off yet.
00:20:43.000Senator Dave McCormick, really appreciate the time.
00:20:49.000We'll get to more on this in a moment.
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00:23:05.000Well, again, if Democrats fail with their government shutdown tactic, if that doesn't make Republicans less popular, then they will just throw bleep against the wall.
00:23:13.000Not the stuff that President Trump dropped on them.
00:23:16.000Well, some of the stuff that they are throwing against the wall is they are very, very upset now that President Trump is apparently tearing down part of the East Wing of the White House in order to build this ballroom.
00:23:25.000He's doing all of that with donated money, so it does not cost the public one dime.
00:23:29.000And so the left has decided that this is a massive, massive problem.
00:24:33.000And then when it comes to the actual structure that they are talking about, the East Wing of the White House was originally built as sort of an antichamber to get into the White House by Teddy Roosevelt in 1902.
00:24:44.000And then it was last renovated in 1942 by FDR.
00:24:50.000FDR included an indoor pool for himself.
00:24:52.000Nixon added a bowling alley, Barack Obama added a basketball court.
00:24:56.000And now they're taking out a building that was built.
00:24:58.000Okay, this doesn't go back like the Lincoln era, guys.
00:25:00.000We're not talking about gutting the West Wing.
00:25:02.000Okay, though the West Wing is the historic part of the White House.
00:25:05.000I've been in the East Wing, I've been in the West Wing.
00:25:07.000I gotta tell you, the East Wing ain't nothing special happening there.
00:25:09.000It's basically an office building that is an adjunct to the part of the White.
00:25:13.000There's a reason that the show The West Wing was called the West Wing and not the East Wing.
00:25:17.000All the historic stuff that you see, right?
00:25:19.000The Oval Office, for example, all that stuff's in the West Wing.
00:25:21.000All the stuff in the East Wing is just a bunch of small offices.
00:25:24.000That's basically what's in the East Wing.
00:25:25.000And so gutting some of it in order to create a much larger ballroom to host events, that that's that really is not nearly as big a deal as people are making it out to be.
00:25:34.000But I guess when you're desperate, you're willing to try just about anything, apparently.
00:25:41.000And this is why I think they are swinging behind Zorn Mamdani.
00:25:46.000It's why they keep trying to make Zorn Mamdani into sort of the future face of the Democratic Party because they feel like, okay, well, you know, we're trying everything here.
00:26:33.000Well, there's one way they could defeat Republicans, and that is if Republicans decide to own goal.
00:26:38.000And the way that Republicans own goal is probably the same that the way Democrats own goal.
00:26:43.000Democrats scored on themselves by radicalizing.
00:26:46.000They became powerful, and then they become fat, and then they became happy, and then they started promoting a bunch of trash like boys can be girls and America's systemically racist, and then they started losing elections.
00:26:56.000It turns out that when you, in the thrill of your power, Decide that you can go as far to the radical as you wish to go.
00:27:05.000Well, it turns out that the American people don't actually believe that, and they're willing to swivel back to the middle.
00:27:10.000Republicans could be in danger of doing the same thing.
00:27:33.000But he has a long social media history of nuttiness, to say the least.
00:27:42.000He reported back in July about Ingrasia, pointing out that on the anniversary of September 11th, for example, he shared a video of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claiming the U.S. government planned the attacks or let them happen.
00:27:57.000He had also defended Alex Jones several months earlier, writing, We all stand with Alex Jones in June of 2024.
00:28:04.000He had shared comment from Nick Fuentes.
00:28:08.000He had argued that straight white men are the most intelligent demographic group and should be prioritized in education.
00:28:13.000He hosted a podcast calling for martial law and secession after President Trump's 2020 defeat.
00:28:18.000He had suggested that Trump was in fact the Constitution.
00:28:22.000Well, now it turns out that Paul Ingrasia, according to Politico, was involved in another one of these infamous group chat in which he said a bunch of, shall we say, not particularly intelligent things.
00:28:34.000He said, quote, MLK Jr. was the 1960s George Floyd, and his holiday should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.
00:28:41.000Now, whatever you think about MLK Day and whether it's deserved or not, and that's been a hot topic in America really since its inception, the idea that MLK Jr. was somehow equivalent to George Floyd, a lifelong drug addict who died of excited delirium under the knee of a police officer, as opposed to a civil rights leader who is quite famous actually for having taken a much more moderate position toward racial conciliation in the country.
00:29:42.000He was not somebody who's just, you know, a college student who was being an edgelord.
00:29:48.000This is a person who is going to be appointed to a high position in the Trump administration.
00:29:54.000Discussing why some Republicans feel Democrats make black people into victims, the texts show Ingrassio remarked, quote, blacks behave that way because that's their natural state.
00:30:16.000And the answer is because, of course, there is an edgelord side to the right that has been made light of and ignored.
00:30:25.000And you can do that when you're winning.
00:30:27.000But it turns out that if you allow that to infect your movement, it is quite bad for your movement.
00:30:31.000If you ignore that stuff and it metastasizes and it creates brainworms within the party, that is a big, big problem.
00:30:39.000Because eventually the brainworms destroy you.
00:30:43.000Senate Majority Leader John Thune declared on Monday night that Ngrasia was not going to pass.
00:30:49.000Rick Scott of Florida, Senator, he said, I do not support him.
00:30:52.000Soon said to reporters that he hoped Ingrassi's nomination would be pulled.
00:30:58.000And this is the problem with the idea of appointing people, quote, based on loyalty without any regard to the things that they say and the things that they do.
00:31:06.000And the Republican Party should beware because, again, this is not a recipe for victory.
00:31:10.000This is a recipe for going crazy and then losing.
00:31:13.000You want to make Democrats powerful again?
00:31:20.000People who spend their days hosting guests to claim that the Jews created COVID.
00:31:27.000Spend your days promoting theories about how Charlie Kirk was not killed by a radicalized gay, furry trans lover, but instead was killed by insiders at TPUSA or the Israeli government or the American government or Jews.
00:31:42.000These things, by the way, do have some real world consequences.
00:31:45.000Again, people are only responsible for the actions they call to be taken.
00:31:50.000But they're certainly responsible for raising the temperature based on the sorts of arguments that they make and the lies that they tell.
00:32:00.000And to pretend otherwise is really stupid.
00:32:02.000And this is where it is worth noting that my friend Seth Dylan, among others, including Laura Loomer and Josh Hammer, were targeted by Nicholas Ray, a 28-year-old Texas resident, who was arrested in Texas, and rest warrant was issued in Texas.
00:32:19.000Attorney General James Uthmeyer of Florida will be joining us momentarily.
00:32:25.000Issued a statement explaining that he'll be extradited to Florida for trial.
00:32:29.000That is because he posted just about a week and a half ago, quote, to this to Seth Dillon, quote, you're in on it too.
00:33:31.000Brainworms are bad if you are seeking to expand your power to do the kinds of good things, the kinds of positive change that need to happen in the country.
00:33:40.000Allowing your movement to be taken over by the brainworms is not a smart idea.
00:33:44.000And beyond that, again, I actually do think that there is something moral to be said when friends of mine are being threatened with death by people who are too into the internet and buying into conspiracy theories promoted by prominent people.
00:34:02.000Joining us online to give us the latest on the death threats to Josh Hammer and Seth Dylan and Laura Loomer is the Attorney General of the State of Florida, James Uthmeyer.
00:34:10.000James, thanks so much for taking the time.
00:34:13.000So why don't we start with this news that was breaking last night about the arrest of a man who is threatening a bunch of Floridians, Jewish prominent people, as well as a Christian who's very prominent, Seth Dylan, Josh Hammer was threatened by this person.
00:34:28.000What do we know about the arrest warrant that was issued for this citizen of Texas?
00:34:34.000Well, in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, we repurposed a lot of staff and resources working with investigators and law enforcement to go after evidence of political extremism and violence, uh, targeted calls for death and destruction.
00:34:51.000This individual clearly demented, uh, was calling for the death of several in conservative media using anti-Semitic uh verbiage in his threats.
00:35:14.000The attorney general, based on his sort of tweets and his public statements and the original threat that was sent to Seth Dillon, among others, it appears that he was accusing these people of being complicit or involved in the murder of Charlie Kirk.
00:35:26.000Do you have any idea where these ideas came from or what his ideology was?
00:35:31.000Well, he's already admitted to um many of the allegations uh he claims to have been indoctrinated on YouTube, uh, clearly has strong anti-Semitic feelings.
00:35:40.000Um the investigation revealed that there's certainly credibility to these threats.
00:35:44.000He was talking in finite scheduled terms.
00:35:47.000Uh so he will do plenty of time behind bars.
00:35:50.000And again, we're out there, we're watching, we're we're surfing the web.
00:35:53.000Uh, our investigators are working around the clock to make sure that we are keeping people here in Florida very safe.
00:36:00.000Well, meanwhile, you've been going after Roblox, which, of course, is a very popular app with young kids.
00:36:06.000It's a it's a video gaming platform, but it has become what you call a breeding ground for predators.
00:36:11.000There are tons of parents in our audience, and I'm sure Roblox users themselves who may be uninformed about this, may not know what their kids are doing on Roblox.
00:36:18.000Why don't you explain to the audience what's happening with Roblox?
00:36:22.000Well, over half of kids under 16 are using this platform.
00:36:26.000Uh it's got sensational graphics and features as kids play these games online.
00:36:31.000And what's happened is adults have been able to infiltrate this platform, pretending to be kids themselves, and ultimately have begun grooming uh children through this platform.
00:36:42.000Uh, we've arrested over a thousand child predators in Florida since I took office back in February, and we've connected a lot of these cases to Roblox.
00:36:50.000Uh, we launched a civil consumer protection investigation back in the spring.
00:36:54.000And that inquiry revealed evidence that the company has knowingly acted uh very carelessly.
00:37:00.000They've known that groomers are using this platform, and nevertheless, they've allowed it to happen.
00:37:04.000They have dot not done enough to stop this dangerous behavior.
00:37:08.000Uh so we launched the criminal subpoenas yesterday, and we're gonna hold wrongdoers accountable that have engaged in exploitation and failure to report, uh, aiding and abetting, very dangerous behavior that ultimately abuses and hurts our children.
00:37:24.000And I think people are unaware of the scale of this.
00:37:26.000I mean, as you say, an enormous number of kids are using these platforms.
00:37:30.000And for parents, they may not even know what what's going on at these platforms, but from what I've been told by people who are sort of experts in this area, people are asking kids to take pictures of themselves and send them via Roblox.
00:37:42.000They're they're telling them to walk around their homes with cameras, demonstrating what their home looks like for for predators on on Roblox.
00:37:49.000What are the sorts of things that you're seeing that are that are concerning to you?
00:37:53.000Yeah, parents at home need to wake up.
00:38:03.000They will talk in a dialect where they sound like kids themselves.
00:38:06.000They'll tap into the insecurities of other children online.
00:38:10.000Uh slowly over time, they'll start to solicit personal information, location information, imagery, uh, and in the worst of cases, schedule times to meet up in person.
00:38:21.000And we have indeed seen cases of physical sexual abuse that all initiated through a Roblox connection.
00:38:28.000Uh, we believe Roblox is failing to put proper age verification software's in place.
00:38:34.000Uh, they're not doing enough to moderate the content to observe and shut down communications that clearly reveal predatory practices.
00:38:42.000And ultimately, uh, we hope they're gonna work with the state and cooperate to put proper security protocols in place.
00:38:48.000Uh, government should not get in the way of business activities unless it's an emergency.
00:38:54.000We will stop at nothing to protect our kids.
00:38:57.000And what sort of activity specifically would you like to see from Roblox that would at least make the state of Florida uh more comfortable with how Roblox is operating?
00:39:23.000Shut down the social interactions that allow an eight-year-old to be on the other side of a screen as some adult that's also pretending to be a kid.
00:39:32.000Um, so we're we're gonna work with them to the extent we can, and to the extent they're unwilling, we will see them in court or worse.
00:39:39.000Well, that is Florida Attorney General Chance Meyer who's doing a spectacular job in that role.
00:39:44.000Attorney General, really appreciate the time.
00:39:48.000We'll get to more on this in just a moment.
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00:41:06.000Well, meanwhile, again, speaking of parties that have gone off the rails, the Democratic Party has been off the rails, which is why they have made excuses for violence.
00:41:15.000That's why the right should not do the same.
00:41:19.000Well, the DC U.S. Attorney General Janine Pierrot has now announced two additional arrests in an August attack on that doge staffer.
00:41:27.000You remember the man popularly known as Big Balls was attacked on the street and beaten up.
00:41:32.000And she's announced two additional arrests.
00:41:36.000This case underscores the escalating challenges that we face in confronting crime in Washington, D.C. On August 3rd of 2025, at about 253 a.m.
00:41:51.000Sunday morning at the U Street Corridor and 14th Street, which is a very popular hangout nightlife area, essentially, Ethan Levine, a 22-year-old and several of his friends, were standing outside a Sunoko gas station.
00:42:08.000They were approached by a large group of teams, individuals who confronted them and began to assault them.
00:42:16.000Today, uh we are announcing that Lawrence Cotton Powell, who is 19 years of age, along with Anthony Taylor, who is 18 years of age, are now charged with assaulting Levine.
00:42:29.000Now, cracking down on crime is the job of the DOJ.
00:42:34.000Good for Jeanine Pirro and the rest of the administration.
00:42:37.000Meanwhile, a big court ruling from a federal appellate court in the Ninth Circuit, two to one vote, has now allowed President Trump to deploy the National Guard to Portland, according to the Wall Street Journal, despite objections from state and local officials who say no emergency exists to justify the federal show of force.
00:42:53.000By a two-one vote, they reversed the judge, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
00:42:58.000It said the sporadic violence of protests before an ICE facility in Portland was sufficient to trigger the president's power to federalize the guard.
00:43:05.000The insurrection act allows the president to do that.
00:43:09.000Abigail John Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said that President Trump is exercising his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel following violent riots that local leaders have refused to address.
00:43:19.000And this is just another judicial win in a recent string of judicial wins for the Trump administration.
00:43:24.000Joining us online to discuss is the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmie Dylan.
00:43:28.000She's here to talk about a wide variety of issues, legal and otherwise.
00:43:36.000So why don't we begin with the Supreme Court's take on gerrymandering?
00:43:40.000I see there's a court, there's a case that was recently heard at the Supreme Court about the Voting Rights Act.
00:43:45.000The court has sort of an interesting history with the Voting Rights Act over the course of the last decade and a half.
00:43:49.000What is this case about and what does it mean for the future of gerrymandering?
00:43:54.000Well, this is a fascinating case involving the uh line drawing in Louisiana and specifically the history of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence compelling states to draw racially gerrymandered districts to comply with the voting rights act in one interpretation of that.
00:44:12.000Now, voting rights act was passed many decades ago to remedy racial discrimination in uh the line drawing in mainly in the South.
00:44:20.000And so over the years, the court has successfully loosened a number of the restrictions that it had put into place in the voting rights act.
00:44:29.000And remaining, however, is this concept that states are required to draw districts to elect uh minority uh congressional candidates, assuming that they're all going to vote the same way.
00:44:39.000And I think that is the assumption that Justice Thomas and others are backing away from because today, in 2025, the vast majority of black uh representatives in Congress are not elected from gerrymandered voting rights act districts.
00:44:54.000In fact, it's only 15 out of I think 60 who who are.
00:44:58.000So the begs the question whether we need these types of mandates, and secondly, whether they're constitutional, the more important question.
00:45:06.000And I was honored uh as the assistant attorney general in charge of um administering the voting rights act to author, co-author with my colleagues here at the DOJ, the Supreme Court's uh amicus brief.
00:45:18.000And it was argued by uh deputy uh principal deputy uh solicitor general Hosh Mupin, very ably at the court last Wednesday.
00:45:26.000So based on my take there in the audience, I think there is likely to be a majority of uh support on the court to cut back these mandates to draw racially gerrymandered lines, and that is going to create a sea change uh in in competition in a number of districts and probably some scrambling in some states to try to redraw the lines before the midterms, depending on the timing of the court's ruling.
00:45:50.000And I think really to understand the importance of the case, I think we should we should recognize that for many decades there was a process that the DOJ used to use called preclearance, in which they basically dictated to states how those lines would be drawn, particularly in the South.
00:46:01.000That was done away with in two in 2013.
00:46:05.000And the court has has been kind of moving toward the idea that actually states should just be allowed to draw districts so long as they are not actively attempting to disenfranchise voters.
00:46:15.000They should be allowed to draw districts because gerrymandering is part of our history.
00:46:18.000And frankly, there is not an alternative way to draw districts that is significantly better.
00:46:25.000And so what will happen in Louisiana is instructive, and South Carolina's got a similar situation.
00:46:31.000The NAACP sued in Louisiana because the recent line drawing only created one majority minority district.
00:46:38.000And, you know, to even get that one district, it kind of sort of cut across a river, down a river across half of the state, and combined people from rural and urban and suburban districts, people who you would think uh, according to other voting analysis, don't have common interests.
00:46:56.000And so they forced the state to draw a two majority uh minority districts.
00:47:02.000And then white voters in the newly created district area sued to reverse that, saying that the racial aspect of the gerrymandering was a violation of equal protection.
00:47:11.000And this is actually fascinating because for all the decades that uh the civil rights division here has been in effect until this term actually with the Trump administration.
00:47:21.000Equal protection has meant that the DOJ comes in to enforce rights for minorities.
00:47:26.000Well, the Supreme Court has, with a succession of rulings in other areas, including students for fair admissions in college admissions and Ames versus Ohio in employment, uh, said that majority Americans have rights as well under equal protection.
00:47:43.000And so we may see that come into play in this um third important area here with the voting rights.
00:47:49.000And I think you've seen Justice Thomas really take this on as one of his seminal causes.
00:47:55.000Uh, he was very active in the questioning in the argument last week.
00:47:59.000And I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the um capstones of his career to write on this issue, which he's been very passionate about.
00:48:09.000Speaking of the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the DOJ, Harmie Dillon.
00:48:13.000Harmid, I also wanted to ask you about this ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that says that President Trump does, in fact, have the authority to send federal law enforcement into the city of Portland.
00:48:21.000Obviously, there have been a lot of advocates on the left who have claimed that the federal government, the executive branch does not have the authority to deploy federal forces in cities in order to enforce federal law or to defend federal property.
00:48:33.000The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which used to be relatively famous for being a highly reversed left-wing court ruled in favor of the Trump administration.
00:48:42.000Well, I agree with the decision, of course.
00:48:44.000I mean, we did the analysis legally in the administration before we uh, you know, and before we take actions typically, and this is the correct ruling, and it uh complies with historical precedent.
00:48:54.000Of course, the president has this right, and of course, everyone can see with their own eyes that these cities are rife with unrest and specifically unrest targeting federal law enforcement officials.
00:49:03.000And so I think the president has a duty to keep our law enforcement safe.
00:49:07.000And there's a collateral effect of keeping those communities safe.
00:49:10.000And so it's become a political football here, but uh localities and cities can avoid that problem, states and cities by simply enforcing the law themselves, which they have been unwilling to do in recent years.