BOMBSHELL: Trump official issues PRISON THREAT in shock escalation

This is Democracy Watch, Mark. There was. a major speech given by the new. Department of Homeland Security. Secretary, Mark Wayne Mullen, and he. said something quite inflammatory, and I. wanted to get your take on this before I. spoke to anybody else about this. So, I'm going to throw to the clip right. here, and then we're going to discuss. >> When we start talking about can we can. we. um ensure that the that the um midterm. elections are going to be secure? Yes, we absolutely can build confidence in. American people. But, the states have to do their part. Um I will tell you if the states that. choose not to participate with the SAVE.

program, and they they choose not to. participate in securing the elections, uh we will make sure that we make those. states a priority to look at who voted. in their states, and hold then the election officials. accountable. If the election officials, once we gave them the information they. need to secure their elections, and they. chose not to, then those individuals can also be held. accountable. by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison.

time. >> So, that was Mark Wayne Mullen. effectively threatening prison time for. those who don't cooperate with this. administration. So, my question right. off the bat is what exactly is it that. he is trying to threaten or exploit. these these election officials with? >> Okay. So, we've been talking about this. for some time now, and I hope everyone. is subscribed to this channel because if. you are, you would have heard Brian and. I talk before about the fact that the.

Department of Homeland Security and the. Department of Justice are trying to. build a national voter file. They're. trying to get voter data from states to. put in it. They're using something. called the SAVE database, which is a. database that the Department of Homeland. Security has that has uh citizenship and. other related data in it, and they are. trying to combine all of this so that. they create a list of who they say. should be eligible to vote and if you're. not on their list or Donald Trump.

doesn't want you on their list, then you. don't get to vote. Okay, that's what. he's talking about saying that they are. going to provide that information to the. states. These are the people, Brian, Tyler Cone, Secretary of State of. whatever state, these are the people who. are eligible to vote and if they're not. on this list, they're not. And by the. way, you know what? If you don't listen. to us, if you don't use this database, maybe if you don't give us the data to. help make it happen, bad things are. going to happen to you including.

potentially prison. >> So So. now comes to this Now comes the second. part of that, which is can you discuss. the legality of the federal government. to threaten these state election. officials for a scheme that I don't even. know is legal on its face? >> Yeah, so look, the Constitution. gives the states the power to set the. time, place, and manner of elections. It does not give the president any role. It does not give the Department of. Homeland Security any role. And for those of you out there saying,

"Yeah, but what about Donald Trump and. the unitary executive?" The unitary. executive just says that the president's. power extends through the entire. executive branch, but if the president. has no role, then no one under him has a. role. So this is the assertion of power in an. area where these folks don't have any. role. But look, this ties to what we saw the. president say on Thursday night during. his speech. Right? The bulk of that speech, which.

was widely ridiculed because it was old. information and it was lies and it was. innuendo and it was laughably wrong, right? The bulk of the speech was that, but towards the very end of the speech, Donald Trump says. that he is going to insist. that states allow him to quote fix the. voter. And that he is going to have the. Department of Homeland Security as an. administration insist and direct states. to scrub their voter list. That's what.

Donald Trump said. And so, he is asserting this power, you know, Mullen is a bit of a dolt and. he's, you know, sort of ham-handed in. the way he is executing this like so. many of the sycophants around Donald. Trump. He's not exactly the smartest man. in America, but he's just echoing what. Donald Trump was saying and this has. been part of a pattern. And again, I I I. have to say it, Brian, you and I have. been warning about this for damn near a. year. And the legacy media is coming to this.

cold in like the last 24 hours. Yeah. And if you want to stay up to date on. what is happening around democracy, around these threats, about what Donald. Trump is not just doing yesterday or. even today, but what he's going to do in. a month or in in 3 months, then you need. to be a subscriber to this YouTube. channel. So, hit the button in front of. you, subscribe, hit the bell to make. sure you are alerted. And also, I want. to take this opportunity to say Brian is. writing a book or has written a book and. I wrote the forward to it. And so, do me.

a favor. because I want to see the book that I. wrote a forward to do really well. And. it's also really important book about. what the future of the Democratic Party. is when Democrats retake power. So, go. ahead and subscribe to that as well. And. that link is on the screen in front of. you. >> I'm going to put that in the post. description as well. So, yes, if you. have the opportunity to order that book, that would be a a huge help. I should. also note at this moment that, you know, in in terms of getting this good. information out there, there is no. better news outlet than Democracy Docket. in terms of uh elevating this kind of.

pro-democracy information. Uh not to. mention the fact that Mark and his team. are also the ones litigating these cases. in the court. So, they're giving you. accurate information and they're the. ones fighting these battles on the front. lines. So, I need everybody who's. watching right now uh to go into the. post description or click the link on. the screen and subscribe to democracy. docket as well. It is the premier news. outlet when it comes to all things. voting rights and democracy. Mark, do you think that it was actually. a pretty clever scheme by Trump to go.

after these election officials because, you know, these people are not like. unionized. They're just a disparate. group of people of of regular people who. obviously don't want to have to contend. with the legal behemoth that is the. Department of Justice. And so by by. issuing this threat, it's I I presume. that most of these people are going to. say, let's just it's easier to cooperate. than to face the repercussions even. though the repercussions might not be. real, even though they might not be able.

to hold up in court, these people don't. know that. When they're facing down the. barrel of the the prospect of. prosecution at the hands of the DOJ, the. other option just might seem easier. >> Yeah, so look, I think that that's part. of the problem here, right? You're going. to have three groups of people who are. going to react to this. One group are Republican election. deniers who are like, great. This gives. me a permission structure to do the. thing I wanted to do anyway, right? Like. I wanted to exclude these voters. I want. to be seen by Donald Trump as helpful. and he has now given me the way for me.

to do the thing that I want to do, which. is to please Donald Trump. The second group will be some Democratic. Secretaries of State and election. officials and local election officials. who will just say, go screw yourself. Like, you know, like we don't you you. you you don't you don't boss us around. and and that's that. And, you know, we'll see that in some places. But it is. that middle ground, it is that middle. group that you that you referenced that. I worry most about. And these are folks. who by and large want to do the right. thing. They want to administer free and.

fair elections. But they are also not. interested in becoming the poster child. for right-wing hate, for being targeted. by an administration with a political. agenda, for being vilified, uh you know, on social media. And so, for them, they're going to either leave office, right? They're going to be like, I you. know, I don't need this, at which point. they get replaced by election deniers. Or they're going to find a way to split. the difference, right? They're going to. use They're going to They're going to. want to do the thing that that gets them.

over the the hump. And look, we saw this. even among the legacy media and how they. covered the speech, right? I mean, these. are people who have, you know, all the. money in the world. They They don't need. to worry about, you know, Donald Trump, but but you know, NBC and and ABC, you. know, spent hours holed up in a. conference room someplace and then. decided that they wouldn't put it on. their air, but they they'd stream it. CBS seemed to be waiting to see what ABC. and NBC would do, but then decided to. air it, right? Because they they.

presumably care even more what Donald. Trump thinks than [snorts] the others. because of their their recent merger. And so, you saw that behavior among. these very powerful, you know, journalists and very powerful media. executives. So, just imagine now you are. just a regular person trying to. administer an election. And you also are. going to be. proverbially holed up in a conference. room trying to figure out what to do, and some of you are just going to go. along and try to find a middle ground. Some of you may just decide Some of them. may just decide to to leave the playing.

field, but some of them will stand up. and fight, and those are the ones who we. have to support. >> Can we talk about the prospect of. blocking this? I mean, what needs to. happen now? Is there a lawsuit that can. be filed? Is there even standing to file. a lawsuit if there's technically not. even harm yet? I mean, like, who's been. harmed? This is an announcement, so they. haven't done anything, but there's an. intention to do something, and even the. intention unto itself can have a. chilling effect, so you can make the. case either way, but can you just speak. on that point a little bit? >> Yeah, I know. Look, you've put your.

finger on it. And again, we've been. talking about this in a number of. different contexts. One of the things. that the Trump administration has gotten. iteratively smarter about during this. second term. So, this is not a first. term versus versus second term. Is that. they are doing a lot more of announcing. an intent to do a thing. as opposed to announcing that they're. doing the thing, right? Because they. what they want to do is that when. lawyers like me or others go to court, they want to say, "Wait a second. All we. said was that we are going to do a.

thing.". >> Yeah. >> We haven't yet begun the thing, so what. where could there be, you know, standing? Where could there be actual. injury? How could there even be a chill? We haven't We haven't yet done anything. And we are arguing the opposite. We're. saying, "Look, there Of course there's a. chill. Of course you've done it you've. done something. You. Department of Homeland Security, you. know, stood in the the White House. briefing room or wherever it was and. said that this is what they are doing.". And so, you know, we wind up having this. tussle. Now, look, we're getting really. close to the election, so at some point.

that rope-a-dope game that the. administration is playing is going to. have to come to an end because they're. going to actually have to start actually. really executing on these on these. threats in some pretty serious ways. But. I would expect that you will continue to. see more litigation. My law firm is. involved in 80 lawsuits in 43 states. We are beating the Department of Justice. over gaining access to these voter. rolls. There are other cases that are. going on around individual state laws, state compliance with directives, right?

There's a lot of litigation and there's. going to be a lot more in the coming, you know, weeks and months. And so, yeah, I do think that there will be. lawsuits. But even when there are. lawsuits, Brian, to your point, like some number of people would be. like, "You know what? I didn't sign up. for lawsuits. Like I didn't sign up to. be in the middle of a back-and-forth.". And so, we need to steel the spine of. everyone who is ready to stand up and. fight for democracy, everyone who wants. to do the right thing. And we need to. call out the people who are not. And. that's where I am proud to be your.

partner uh in this series and support. the really hard work you do because, you. know, look, we had a Democratic governor. do not just the wrong thing, but in this. particular area actually really. undermined the work that so many people. are doing, right? I mean, the pardoning. of Tina Peters. >> Yeah. >> sent exactly the wrong message. And. while a lot of journalists and a lot of. creators were, you know, trying to not. get in the middle of that, you dove. right in. And you called out uh uh.

Governor uh Polis uh earlier than really. anyone else. Uh and uh you know, and I I I wish you. had persuaded him, but uh but here we. are. >> Yeah. Um oh on this point of Mark Meadows kind. of debuting this new, at least verbal or. intention to go after these uh these. election workers, is this the latest. iteration of this long string of attacks. that the Trump administration is trying.

has tried and and failed at thus far? I. mean, we know that the Trump. administration has tried to issue this. executive order banning mail-in voting, that failed. They've been trying to pass. the Save America Act, that's stalled in. Congress because the filibuster is. preventing it from moving forward. Um. they uh they they have filed lawsuits, the DOJ has filed lawsuits against 31. states uh of which. your law firm uh is litigating and has. won 16 of those cases so far. So, the. DOJ is 0 and 16, so that is a failed.

effort. The administration has refused. to rule out the prospect of sending ICE. to the polls, and so there's a lot of. different avenues that they've taken, but they haven't been successful at any. of them. And it's frustrating Trump, obviously. Is this the newest iteration. of what the administration is trying to. do? Like, is this next up on their. board? >> It is. And what we see with Donald Trump. over and over again is this sort of. escalation, right? There's an escalation. of tactics and rhetoric and ultimately,

you know, it often times leads to. violence. We're not at that phase now. We're still in the escalation phase, but. but it's an important one that that the. secretary crossed today. Because. the threat of criminal investigation and. prosecution. is necessarily shrouded in more secrecy. because of grand jury procedures and. more unilateral action, right? It's. the the the act of investigating in and. of itself can be a severe penalty on.

someone. You know, the act of indicting. someone, even if they are acquitted, is. life-altering. Yeah. So, yes, this is a. different phase. This is a is an. escalation that is quite serious. And it. has to be met with all of the the. opposition that we can muster in all. ways. We need to expose it publicly. We. need to deal with it in court. We need. to have our leadership, our elected. leaders speak out about it, right? We. need to And we need a lot of bravery by.

people. But yeah, there's no question. this is the latest escalation, but. Brian, I also don't think it'll be the. final escalation. >> Yeah, I completely agree. And frankly, as these escalations continue to ramp. up, if you want to continue to follow. along with this stuff, the best bet is. to subscribe to Democracy Docket. That's. how I find out all of my news. Again, on. everything related to democracy, voting. rights, and these attacks on our voting. rights, which are continuing to become. more prominent as we head toward. midterms. So, everybody who's watching. right now, please support independent. media, please support the work that Mark.

is doing in the courtroom, and please. elevate his voice in this space by. subscribing to Democracy Docket. That. link is on the screen and also in the. post description. And of course, the. link to order my book, The Day After, uh. which Mark has written the forward to, that's on the screen as well. I'm Brian. Tyler Cohen. >> I'm Mark Elias. >> This is Democracy Watch. >> [music].