BREAKING: Trump official issues BOMBSHELL THREAT in shock escalation

This is Democracy Watch. Mark, we have a. major announcement coming out of this. White House about a brand new step that. the administration is taking to. interfere with our elections. This is of. course a huge priority for the. administration. So, can you explain what. this latest step in and then we'll get. into the legality of all of this? >> Yeah, so DHS Secretary Mark Wayne. Mullen, he announced that states that do. not comply with his request or demand or. whatever you call it to get access to. their sensitive voter data and run it.

through a DHS database to scrub it and. take off names. That if states don't do. that, he's going to cut off their. funding for security. You know, the. irony here, Brian, is that this is an. administration that is obsessed with the. idea that there will be foreign. interference in election. And so, what. are they doing? They are threatening. states that they're going to cut off. funding for the efforts to prevent. interference in election, including.

cyber interference through cyber. I. mean, it is absolutely outrageous. Before we, like you said, we get into. the legality, I just want everyone to. take a step back and think about this. You know, we we are used to presidents. that say, "I don't just govern red. states or blue states. I'm the president. for everyone. If there's a disaster one. place or another, you know, they provide. aid." We have seen this president abuse. his power to try to reward his friends. and punish his enemies. But to do this.

with election officials, to do this with. states where your gripe, Donald Trump, is that they're not willing to succumb. to your demands and turn over their data. so that you can remove people from the. rolls who almost certainly shouldn't be. removed from the rolls, it is beyond. shameful. It is un-American. It is. exactly what we have come to expect from. a tyrannical president, an authoritarian. wannabe. But, you know what? These.

states are going to stand up against. him. I predict they're not going to give. in. And so, once again, he will be a. failure. >> Worth asking here now as we get into the. legality of these moves, does it count for nothing that the. federal government is right now and. trying to issue edicts about elections. that the federal government has no. oversight over? The The The Constitution. says that the time, place, and manner of. elections is at the states. And so, can. you talk about the legality here of this. brand new edict being handed down by. this new Secretary of Department of.

Homeland Security? >> Yeah, look, this is just more of the. same, right? I mean, the fact is this. president has tried to assert authority. and power over federal elections that he. simply doesn't have. He issued an. executive order last year. And that was struck down. And I'm proud. of the work that my law firm and I did. to strike that down. He He then had his Department of Justice. try to sue 30 states to try to gain. access to their sensitive voter data. And. so far, we have fought him in court in.

all of those cases. And And the. Department of Justice is 0 and 16. Literally has not won a single one. >> [clears throat]. >> Then, he tried to. put forward another executive order. This one targeting the US Postal. Service. And that got blocked by a. federal judge in Massachusetts when the. attorneys generals sued. And so now, they are trying to use the. funding that they have from Congress. that has been appropriated in order to. defend our elections against these.

attacks, these cyber attacks, and other. attacks. And he's trying to leverage it. once again to try to gain advantage for. Republicans in the midterm elections. It's not going to work. The states are not going to give in. He's almost They're almost certainly to. get sued. And I predict once again, the. administration will lose. >> You know, you had mentioned something. especially important here, and that's. that the DOJ is 0 and 16 in these cases. where the DOJ is trying to get the voter. rolls from a raft of different states.

So, the DOJ has failed to win a single. case at the hands of your team, your. firm. So, I just want to let folks know. that a small step that everybody. watching right now can take to support. Mark's work on the front lines in the. courts where it is so essential that it. is the principal bulwark against your. private information being sent to the. DOJ so that they can determine whether. or not uh you should be left on the. voter rolls and have the right to cast. your ballot. A small step everybody can. can take right now to support that work. is to subscribe to Democracy Docket,

which not only shows some support for. Mark and his team, but is also an. excellent newsletter, excellent website. that I use on a daily basis to find out. everything as it relates to democracy. news, voting rights news, legal news, you name it. So, I'm going to put that. link right here on the screen and also. in the post description of this video. This is the prime example of successful. independent media. Um and also a great. way, again, to show some support for the. invaluable work that Mark and his team. are doing right now to defend democracy. on a daily basis. Mark, to that end, it's worth asking.

here, do we know of any impending. lawsuits? And is there a way for some of. these states to sue before it's. implemented? Because if we wait until. it's implemented, then that will have. cataclysmic impacts on the ability of of. Americans to have confidence in our. elections. And so, how does it work in. that instance where if you wait for some. harm to be done by the DOJ, then that. harm is, in a way, kind of irreversible. >> Yeah, so let's just take the sequence of.

events. On Thursday night, Donald Trump. tries to argue that there has been. foreign interference in elections and we. should be terribly worried about this. Immediately following that, you know, in. the days afterwards, you have the. Secretary of of Homeland Security. saying, "We're going to make it worse. because we're not going to give you the. funding. We're not going to give you the. protection against these foreign. threats." So, in some sense, it's. already ripe for a lawsuit, right? Like. that we're not we're not ahead of the. game, right? Like like this all happened.

in rapid succession between Donald Trump. telling his lies and then these threats. coming out. So, I do expect um that the. states that are targeted by this, that. stand up against this, that are that are. at risk of not getting the funding, that. they are going to look at bringing. litigation and they and and will do so. The only question is whether or not the. states are like, "You know what? We. actually don't rely on the federal. government for this anyway anymore. because Donald Trump is not reliable and. his administration is a bunch of. election deniers and a bunch of liars. So, you know, this would be a good.

question for some of the the secretaries. of state and chief election officers.". Uh that's something that, you know, we'll be looking at doing at Docket. I'm. sure you'll be doing on your channel. here as well. Um but but for sure, look, Congress appropriates money not to let. Trump leverage it for these illicit. purposes or these these, you know, these. fever dreams of of his or to leverage uh. the midterm elections. Congress. appropriates these funds, and so I do. think that there is likely uh a. litigation angle here, and we'll wait.

and see if if the states agree. >> How are you thinking about the. obviously increasing degree of. desperation being shown by this. administration because already we have. Trump who issued his executive order to. try and ban mail-in voting. That was. overturned as we spoke about. There are. these 30 lawsuits that the DOJ has filed. against a raft of different states in. which they are 0 and 16 thanks to the. work of you and your team. Uh we've seen. a continued refusal by administration.

officials to rule out the possibility of. sending ICE to the polls. There is. obviously a desperation by Donald Trump. to get the Save America Act passed, which is languishing in Congress, but. that would effectively amount to a. federal takeover of state-run elections, but he's so desperate to get that thing. passed that he was willing to sacrifice. his own housing bill to do it. Willing. to sacrifice the memory of Lindsey. Graham by coming out and saying that. that was Lindsey Graham's dying wish was. to get the Save America Act passed. So, there are all these things and none of. them have been able to advance. Now,

we've got a few other options that the. administration's taking, but they feel. like they are ramping up in terms of. desperation. So, do you have continued. confidence that while you know, the the. the courts or the processes of of. government have been able to serve as a. bullwark against the worst excesses of. this White House, that that we're still. going to be able to block this stuff as. we get closer and closer to the midterms. and as the level of desperation. continues to ramp up? >> Look, I'm really worried. I mean, you. know, we we talk about this all the time.

about, you know, one tactic or another, but I'm very worried for the reasons you. just said, the cumulative effect of all. of these things, right? It's not just. one attack on democracy. It is It is a. multi-front attack on democracy and and. one that I'd add, you and I did an. episode in this same series just a few. days ago and I will put a link to that. in the description, where the same. Secretary of DHS, Mark Wayne Mullen, he. was threatening election officials with. prison. Remember that? >> Right. >> Maybe we'll show a little bit of that.

right here. >> First of all, great question. Thank you. When we start talking about can we can. we. ensure that the that the midterm. elections are going to be secure? Yes, we absolutely can build confidence in. the American people. But the states have to do their part. 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, 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. >> That was him literally saying he's going. to throw election officials in prison if. they don't do what he wants. So, when. we're talking about the funding here, the the the removal of funding, this is.

just another way that they are. ratcheting up this pressure. >> Last question on this point. What about. the states with whom Donald Trump has. some agreement? What about the states. that decide to succumb to all of these. edicts and pressure tactics by the White. House because they're politically. aligned with them? I know that we have. like a blue blue wall of states largely. protected by by you and your team that. are insulated from all of this, but what. about when there's when there's. political agreement and they actually.

want to do whatever the White House is. seeking to do? >> Yeah, I think that's such a smart point. and important question. Like, yeah, there are a bunch of states that are. resisting. And by the way, it's not just. blue states. Like a shout-out to Utah. that where the lieutenant governor has. basically told them to go pound sand. The the state of. of Idaho has has refused to turn over. their. >> I saw that that you you defended West. Virginia that was successful. >> right? So, so it's not just blue states, but the problem is, Brian, there are.

states that are like eagerly. cooperating, right? These are states. that, you know, when Donald Trump said. get out of ERIC, which was this. multi-state compact that you and I have. talked about recently in another. episode, we'll put a link to that, you know, that do that does keep voter. rolls clean, they were like, "Yes, sir, we'll get out of it. We'll we'll get out. of that compact." When they are saying. turn over your voter rolls to DHS so. that we can do with them what we want, they'll say, "Yes, sir." And and here. where, you know, Donald Trump is saying,

you know, do these other things, they'll. just salute and say how fast and where. where do you want the data. And that is. going to be a problem because that's. first of all not an insignificant number. of states, but second, it's a big. states, right? It's Texas, it's Florida, right? It's states that have competitive. elections. There are competitive House. and Senate elections in both of those. states, but it's not just those states, right? So So that is going to be the. next set of challenges for people like.

me and my law firm to figure out how to. litigate to protect voters there. But. it's also an obligation of people like. you and me in calling it out and making. sure people are aware what's going on. The legacy media, which could be doing a. lot more reporting on this, they should. be calling out what's going on in those. states and how is that threatening. democracy? So there's a lot of work to. do. We have just a little more than 100. days before the midterm elections and. there's a lot of work to do between now. and then and I hope people take an. opportunity to subscribe to this channel.

because it is the primary place, Brian, where frankly we cover breaking news and. go into deep dive into what is happening. to democracy in court, what's happening. to democracy at the hands of Donald. Trump. You know, the legacy media. doesn't do this coverage as much as it. should and when it does, it maybe gives, you know, two, three minutes, you know, on the nightly news. You and I will. cover a topic like this, you know, what? For for 13, 15, 18, 20 minutes and.

really give people an opportunity to. understand it. So if you have not. already subscribed to this channel, go. ahead and hit the subscribe button and. if you are not already receiving alerts. when there's new content, hit the bell. to make sure you receive those every. time we post new videos. >> And I'm going to add on top of that that. if you're not yet subscribed to. Democracy Docket, that is the principal. news source that I use for all things. democracy, voting rights, uh, legal news. and so on. So I'm going to put the link. to both this channel and Democracy. Docket right here on the screen. Make.

sure to hit both of them. Make sure to. subscribe. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen. >> I'm Mark Elias. >> This is Democracy Watch. >> [music].