BREAKING: Trump STUNS with DERANGED weekend announcement

We have got a deranged new announcement. by Donald Trump. I'm going to throw them. right here on the screen. The first one. is, "The fake polls used by our crooked. media are out of control and something. must be done about it. FCC to the. rescue." The second one focuses. specifically on Kristen Welker from NBC. News. He said in part, "Kristen Welker, the unpopular hostess of the once great. Meet the Press, now considered Meet the. Fake Press, just stated that Donald. Trump has mixed results on his. endorsement of candidates. Because of. this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be. reported to the FCC for rebuke or.

punishment. The press is a disgrace to. our nation, and I hope that chairman. Brendan Carr and the fine people of his. commission will take this threat to our. country very seriously. Thank you for. your attention to this very important. matter of fake polls and commentary. President Donald J. Trump. Mark, I want. to talk about these in particular. because he is using basically anything. now as a justification, as some excuse. to try and sick his FCC on what networks. still remain. So, can I have your. reaction first and foremost to the.

legality of this move? Yeah. So, you know, I remember the time. when we would wake up or or get our. coffee and not see deranged posts from. the president of the United States. You. know, it didn't seem like a lot to ask. for, but here we are. Um, look, this. violates uh the first amendment to the. constitution, right? The first amendment. protects freedom of the press, freedom. of speech from government sanction or. penalty. And so, people are free to. report on polls. They are free to report.

on polls that I may disagree with, that. you may disagree with, that we think the. methodology is is faulty. They are free. to offer their opinion as to who is. ahead or behind in races. They're free. to characterize whether they think a. campaign is effective or an endorsement. is helpful or harmful. That all falls. squarely in the ambit of freedom of. speech and freedom of the press as uh. defined by liberal judges, conservative. judges, Supreme Courts of all.

persuasion. Like this is pretty well. settled law. And so what this tells me. is that Donald Trump is panicking as we. are heading to the elections. Right? Follow along here. We get we have Donald. Trump talking about fake polls. We have. Donald Trump talking about fake. conspiracies to steal elections. We have. Donald Trump talking about fake um uh. voters. Uh we will soon have Donald. Trump talk about fake results and fake.

uh subversion. And all of that is going. to lead to his effort to undermine the. results of these elections. And in order. for him to do that, he needs to be able. to say that all of the other steps were. fake. Right? The polls were wrong, the. vote totals were wrong, the wrong voters. voted, the results that were certified. were wrong. He needs to be able to do. all of that to try to seize ballots, to. uh discount elections, to try to get. them overturned, and of course, as we've. seen before, to inspire violence. So on.

that point, the other impact that this. is going to have is that there will be a. chilling effect against other networks. or outlets that dare report on even. accurate polls because they're too. afraid that they're going to be on the. receiving end of some rebuke or. punishment, Trump's words, not mine, at. the hands of his FCC. And so can you. talk a little bit a little bit about. that aspect of things that really he can. in a way without even having Brendan. Carr lift a finger yet just by virtue of.

issuing the threat already get what he. wants already be able to weaponize the. FCC without Brendan Carr needing to get. out of bed. >> Look Brian the fact is you can divide. the media right now into two buckets. Okay. You've got the legacy media that. is scared of its own shadow, that is. trying to curry favor with Donald Trump. for a lot of reasons. I mean, let's not. forget that it was ABC News that paid, you know, I think it was $16 million to. settle a case. Yeah. Uh and.

then it was CBS that followed up and. settled their own case for $16. million. So, you know, maybe NBC. figures, okay, we'll just give him 16. All right. So, maybe Donald Trump. figures I'll get another $16 million. [laughter]. Like, who knows, right? But but but like. in some sense, the legacy media has made. their own bet here. I mean, I want to. show you this this this footage right. here. And it's not to justify what. Donald Trump um is uh is doing, but this. is Kristen Welker yucking it up at the.

White House correspondence event dinner. with Steven Miller. All right. So, look, like I said, it. doesn't mean that that that this that. what Donald Trump has posted is any less. egregious, but it does, you know, raise.

the question of why Donald Trump picks. on NBC. Well, because they showed up to. honor him at a dinner, notwithstanding. his attacks on the media. And the other. big networks have settled crazy cases. So why not? Now assume you can get the. same out of NBC. But there's a second. media. You know, there is an independent. media. There are people like you. There. are outlets like Democracy Docket. You. know, when I first saw uh that that that. social media post, I thought, "Wow, he's. attacking the pod save guys. Good for.

them. It's good advertising." Because. like honestly those guys, they don't. care if Donald Trump calls them names, right? You don't care if Donald Trump. calls you names. Donald Trump called you. a media offender or whatever it was. He. put you on a a a blacklist uh for media. outlets. You know, Donald Trump has. called me all kinds of names. And so you. have this kind of duality of the media. of what it is and how it reacts. And so, yes, this is a violation of the First. Amendment. Yes, the media needs to stand. up against it. Do I have confidence that.

the legacy news outlets will stand up. against it? No, because they have proven. they won't. I do think that in the final. remaining days and weeks and months of. this election and then the post. election, people ought to be paying a. lot more attention to what they're. finding on on on independent media than. they are on the legacy brands. And it's. one of the reasons why you and I do this. series. And I hope everyone subscribes. to this YouTube channel. uh make sure. that they are watching the democracy. watched series which is this uh and hits. the bell uh on your channel to be.

alerted when there's new content. >> And I would add to that uh if you're not. yet subscribed to democracy docket that. is the news outlet Mark founded to focus. on everything voting in elections. It. has never been more important than it is. right now for the exact reason that Mark. laid out which is that Mark isn't being. leveraged by the federal government. He. doesn't have that he doesn't need some. approval by the Trump administration for. anything. the work that's being done is. true independent media. And so he's able. to speak freely. He's able uh to. criticize this administration or report. accurately on what's happening at the.

hands of this administration because he. doesn't need to curry favor with this. administration in the same way that. these too big to fail massive mega. legacy media outlets do. So I'm going to. put a link to Democracy Docket right. here on the screen and also in the post. description of this video. It is the. principal outlet that I've been using um. especially as we head toward midterms. So, if you're not yet subscribed, please. go ahead and subscribe. Mark, can you. speak about that point a little bit? Um, just this idea that you have these these. outlets that one would think just by.

virtue of looking at them and and the. the sheer size and scope of these. companies that they would have the. resources to be able to not cowtow to uh. this president or or any of his corrupt. edicts. And yet it seems that that kind. of uh paradoxically. uh the bigger these companies are, the. more Trump can can can bully them. Yeah. I mean, this is the paradox of. this moment in history. And I think it's.

something that historians will study for. for years to come. Which is why it was. when Donald Trump came to power and. there were institutions that had all of. the resources to fight back, all of the. leverage to stand up against him. They. systematically bowed down. Whether it is. the large law firms, the large media. outlets, large universities, or the. business uh titans who have all curried. favor with him, starting with appearing. on the stage with him at his.

inauguration, right? That they have. forfeited their ability that they have. forfeited the moral high ground and. their right and ability to push back. when it has been ordinary Americans who. have shown up in the streets to protest. It has been small media outlets like. Democracy Docket or individuals like you. who when targeted have stood up. It has. been the small law firms like the law. firm I started. We're litigating more. than 80 cases right now in 43 states.

You know, we have not backed down. We. we've leaned in. It is the smaller uh. institutions. It is the smaller. corporations. It's the smaller media. outlets. It's the individuals who have. shown the courage. >> That perfectly underscores the need to. support independent media. uh media that. is not too big to fail isn't leveraged. by the federal government. Um Mark, on. on the point of the FCC, can you speak. about what happens next if indeed. Brendan Carr does decide to move forward. with some uh action on behalf of the.

FCC? >> Yeah. So, look, I think Brendan Carr. will likely do what he usually does, which is he will tweet or post or. otherwise, you know, offer a comment in. an interview that supports what Donald. Trump wants, right? Like so so. fundamentally we will see something from. Brendan Carr I suspect that will back up. what Donald Trump is saying because. Brendan Carr is a sickopant do you know. Donald Trump says jump and Brendan Carr. says how high Donald Trump says trample. on the Constitution rip it up ignore the.

first amendment and and Brendan Carr is. like great boss I'm all in right so so. expect him to mouth this in in reality. there really isn't anything he can do I. mean like I said this This is clear. first amendment speech. So what happens. is Brendan Carr makes a lot of threats. He makes a lot of comments and then he's. just used to the legacy media outlets. bowing down. Now ABC is found itself. cornered and it is now fighting back. Its parent company Disney is fighting.

back because uh the FCC is potentially. going to target some uh local broadcast. licenses they own. But you know my my. message to them is the same that it is. to uh to NBC. Maybe you should stop. attending White House gallas and. dressing up to honor this guy. Maybe you. shouldn't have paid 1516 million to his. charity of choice or whatever they paid. it to to settle a complaint. Like appeasement is never going to work. So now that you stand up, the question.

is why should anyone believe why should. Brendan Carr believe that it's not let's. make a deal time. And so you know I wish. ABC News in that. I hope that uh that uh. NBC does stand up here and does not. cave, but you know the the track record. of these large media outlets uh is not. great. >> I think it's worth noting too what. Brendan Carr himself used to say about. the FCC. Back in 2023, he said free. speech is the counterweight. It is the. check on government control. That is why.

censorship is the authoritarian's dream. Now Brendan Carr is the one facilitating. that exact dream. back in 2022. Before. that, he said, "Free speech gives the. powerless a voice. It ensures that. anyone can challenge the political, religious, or scientific orthodoxy of. the moment. That is why those in. powerful positions, those that benefit. from the status quo, are always going to. silence it." Before that, in 2019, he. said the FCC does not have a roving. mandate to police speech in the name of. public interest. So this guy himself is. showing like the the the full the full.

descent into just becoming a a slavish. devote of the president doing the exact. thing that he once condemned uh uh free. speech opponents for doing. Now he has. become the thing that he pretended to. hate. You know, it's it's almost worse. for somebody like like Brendan Carr. because and we've made this point so. many times with so many people in the. Republican party, but he knows better. And that's worse than just having. somebody who is who is a um you know, a.

true believer is because Brendan Cart. knows better. He's his own words betray. as much. And yet for somebody like that. uh who who understands the the danger of. of silencing free speech and and. especially doing it at the hands of an. authoritarian leader. For him to then be. the the um instrument for an an. authoritarian leader to do exactly what. he once condemned really is just the the. peak of hypocrisy. >> It is the peak of hypocrisy, but it's. also the it's also the uh hallmark of of.

of Trumpism, right? It's the hallmark of. this administration. and of this era. because what it calls into question is. whether it's hypocrisy or it's just that. they never believed in anything other. than Donald Trump. So if Donald Trump. tomorrow just say posted a social media. post saying networks should be allowed. to to report whatever polls they want, then the entire Republican party would. be saying the complete opposite. Right?

if that when Donald Trump was you know. not in power you had the Republican. party that was a free trade party and. once he came to power they became a. protariff party. You had the Republican. party that built their entire coalition. around family values and this guy is now. the president of the United States and. they make excuses for him all the time. you you had you had the MAGA movement. Nothing was more vital to the MAGA. movement than the Epstein files. And. it's actually been one of the places. where as a result Trump has gotten kind. of crosswise with some of the real uh.

the real true believers. But but look at. how much pivoting, look at how hypoc how. much hypocrisy there is among. Republicans now about the Epstein files. now that it turns out that Donald. Trump's all over them. >> Right. Right. And I mean that's just one. of countless examples. This was the. party of fiscal responsibility that's. now responsible for the vast majority of. debt and now our debt is is topping $40. trillion. This the party of states. rights that now wants the federal. government to be able to undermine. staterun elections that have been run at.

the state level for 250 years. So on. issue after issue after issue. They're. proving that all of these that all of. these uh purported values that they beat. their chest about uh were just you know. window dressing and the second that they. were actually challenged they crumbled. So look, we will obviously stay on top. of this issue as it relates to Trump and. the networks and the FCC. So for those. who are watching right now, the best way. to follow along is to subscribe to. Democracy Docket. That link is right. here on the screen. And also to. subscribe to this channel so you can see. more episodes of Democracy Watch. I'm. Brian Taylor Cohen.

>> I'm Mark Elias. >> This is Democracy Watch.