“Full scale panic!” Supreme Courts drop NIGHTMARE news for Trump

This is Democracy Watch, Mark. We have. two major decisions from two different. state Supreme Courts that are going to. have a massive impact on these upcoming. elections. Can you explain what's. happening right now in Virginia and Utah. as far as new news is concerned? Yeah, Republicans are in full-scale panic. That's what's going on. In Utah, they. went all the way to the Utah Supreme. Court to try to undo that state court's. redrawing of the Utah map. As you. recall, Republicans in that state. fractured the Salt Lake City area into,

I think, four different districts, and a. state court said, "Nope, you can't do. that. You got to draw a district that is. Salt Lake City-centric.". And, you know, and and that will. obviously mean that a Democrat will win. that district. And Republicans rather. than just accept that and run a. competitive race, you know, because. after all, yeah, a Democrat would likely. win a district like that, but the. Republicans could have early on said, "You know what? We're going to do our. best and recruit a candidate." Instead, they have stamped their feet and gone up.

and up the chain. several times now to that state Supreme. Court, and the Supreme Court slammed the. door on the last effort that Republicans. will have to try to get the State. Supreme Court to overturn that. Now, Republicans are going to still try to go. to the US Supreme Court through another. case in Utah, but that's not going. anywhere. Meanwhile in Virginia, you. know, after they Republicans tried to. block the Virginia legislature from. moving forward with a ballot initiative. there to redraw the map that would add.

another four districts for Democrats, they got a a trial court in a very. conservative county, Caswell County, to. say that that map would be that effort. would be stalled. The State Supreme. Court said, "Nope, not doing that.". Well, guess what, Brian? The RNC, remember them? We haven't talked about. them in a while. The RNC, along with the. National Republican Congressional. Campaign Committee, well, they filed. another lawsuit. Guess where? That's. right, Caswell County. And the judge has. given them preliminary relief there, but.

that story is not over because that case. will also now go up to the Virginia. Supreme Court and we will see what it. does. But my prediction, state Supreme. Court has already said it wants this. ballot initiative to go forward once and. it's going to say that again. All right, so let's let's parse these out and I. want to talk about Virginia first and. then we'll go to Utah in just a moment. I think both of these are important. because they're going to have big. impacts on 2026. And both because Ryan. the Republicans are desperate. Like. that's the top-line story here. Republicans are out of their minds about.

what to do. Donald Trump is a drag on. their efforts. They are in full-scale. panic. Yeah, they got Donald Trump, you. know, who's going to try to suppress the. vote. You got Donald Trump who's going. to try to count the votes. You got. Donald Trump who's going to try to seize. the ballots. But Republicans are still. in a stone-cold panic. Mike Johnson. wakes up in the middle of the night in a. cold sweat not sure what to do. And. that's what's motivating these actions. in both Utah and Virginia and elsewhere. So as far as Virginia is concerned,

we've already seen Republicans, as you. mentioned, go to Tazewell County, get. the ruling that they sought, and then. get swatted down by the state Supreme. Court. Now are we not just in the exact. same situation where yet again, this. time the NRCC has gone to or the RNC. rather has gone to Tazewell County, got. the ruling that they sought from this. Republican rubber-stamp judge. So. are they're basically just hoping that. the exact same thing that happened the. first go around doesn't happen again at. the hands of a liberal state Supreme.

Court in Virginia? They are very persistent and because. they are, as I said, in a stone-cold. panic. I mean, we could talk about. others, by the way. New York, you know, my my law firm won another big victory. in New York. We had talked about before. that we won in the trial court. Now the. intermediate court has upheld that and. so the independent redistricting. commission's going to have to draw a. district there. I mean, Republicans are. just losing all over the place and they. are as you say trying to run the same. playbook. I mean, what else what else. Brian would you have them do? I mean,

they could try to compete. Oh, no, no, no, you can't [laughter] you. couldn't possibly have these Republicans. run on their record. It has to be. figuring out which judges are going to. rubber-stamp some extrajudicial. you know, way to circumvent the. Constitution or circumvent laws or just. manufacture engineer permanent. majorities for themselves in the house. >> I mean, right now their record would be. let's see. Um sending ice and CPB into Minnesota. and shooting two US citizens. Yeah. Um.

then there are the extravagant private. planes. I assume you have covered this. already. But did you see Kristi Noem's. latest plane? Kristi Noem. what was it a hundred and seventy-two. million dollars worth of Gulfstream. jets. I mean, you have the Oval Office. encrusted in gold. You have Donald Trump. building a four hundred million dollar. Ballroom. You have him hosting crypto. dinners where he's doubled his net worth. casually. I think the latest reporting. today was that DHS is mandating new. suits be bought for for Secret Service. because they didn't like the way that. they looked on TV. God knows what what.

Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth's makeup. hair and makeup budget is for for all of. their propaganda videos. So yeah, this. is what they're focusing their attention. on. spending money on anything that isn't. going to help Americans. Meanwhile, you've got costs that have risen for. every single American on products. ranging from clothing food. electricity energy electronics toys cars. houses and the administration doesn't. seem to care. Right. And for everyone watching.

I brought this up on purpose because. these are not disconnected, right? If. Republicans were popular, if they had an. agenda to run on, they would not be. pulling the kinds of that. they're trying to pull in Utah and in. now in Virginia and elsewhere. They're. doing this because they're fundamentally. not popular. But in order to connect. these things together, you need the. information and analysis that does not. come from the legacy media that is. always going to both sides this. So, what I'm going to ask you to do right. now is right in front of you is a button.

that says subscribe. I want you to hit. that button because what that's going to. do is make sure that you get the content. that when Brian puts it out, Brian I do. this series but Brian does another does. does daily content that helps you. connect these dots in the way that we've. just done that. And hit the bell because. that means you'll get alerted when that. new content is posted. So, hit the. subscribe button then hit the bell. because Brian's channel including this. series.

is part of helping you make sense of. well, why is there this fight going on. in Utah? What is up with the Republican. Party spending endless amounts of money. in Virginia to try to run the same. playbook that keeps failing. Why are. they so afraid of the people voting that. Donald Trump has to try to take over the. elections? In order understand that. context, you need to put all the dots. together like Brian just did. So, go. ahead and subscribe and hit the bell to. get alerted. >> right here on the screen. And by the. way, if you are not yet subscribed to. Democracy Docket, which is the news.

outlet Mark founded to focus on. everything voting and elections, that is. the perfect way to support the work that. Mark is doing not just in the media. space so that you can elevate his voice. in this ecosystem, but also consider the. fact that he and his team are the ones. actually litigating this stuff. And so, when you see Republicans lose in. Virginia, lose in Utah, lose in New. York, lose in Florida, it's because on. the other side of of the Trump. administration is Mark and his team. a. small step that we can all take to. support their invaluable work both in.

the courts and in the news is to. subscribe to Democracy Docket. That link. is on the screen and also in the post. description as well. Mark, we had just. talked about Virginia. I want to go to. to Utah because there's actually a. little bit of of concern that I have as. it relates to Utah because there is. there is an effort by by Utah's even. governor who is supposed to be a. moderate to pack the Supreme Court there. and the Supreme Court is this is the. court that ruled that you can't crack. the Salt Lake Salt Lake City district.

into four separate districts and. basically allow them to gerrymander any. Democratic district out of existence. So. do you have some concern that. that Utah's going to be able to pack. their Supreme Court to the point where. they would then be insulated by you know. any any effort to uphold the law or or. as it relates to this case in particular. to allow a Democratic district to stand. Yeah, look I think there are two lessons. here. First is we need to stop falling. for the idea that there are Republican. moderates. Okay, there are no Republican. moderates. There are Republicans who. once in a while do something that.

Democrats agree with and then everybody. piles in the legacy media piles in and. is like look there is a moderate. Republican and they hold them up and. then what happens is a few weeks later. we're all disappointed when in fact they. turn out to be just as mega loyal as the. rest of them. So so yes the Republicans. in Utah often times appear to be less. stylistically mega but they're you know. they're cut from the same cloth. Let's. be honest. They are supporting the same. agenda at at the end of the day. And so.

what you see Republicans in Utah trying. to do is a few things. Number one as you. say they're trying to pack the state. Supreme Court, right? What does that. mean? They want to expand the state. Supreme Court as retribution against. this set of decisions. The second thing. they want to do is try to repeal the. state constitutional provision that. prevents Republicans from doing bad. things to begin with including cracking. apart Salt Lake City. And then the third. thing is they are once again bringing a. federal court case to try to run it to.

the state to the US Supreme Court and. and get the US Supreme Court to adopt a. doctrine a fringe right wing doctrine. that the Supreme Court has rejected. before, the independent state. legislature theory. Now, am I worried. about those things? Yes, because I'm a. lawyer. I'm My job is to worry about all. those things. Are we going to fight. those things? Yes, we will fight them in. court and in the court of public opinion. and every way we possibly can. But we. can't let up on keeping pushing forward. because the 2026 midterms are almost. here and a lot of these efforts that.

they're talking about are not going to. take place in 2026. They'll be on the. agenda for 2028 and we're going to have. a full plate of things for 2028, which. is again another reason to subscribe to. this channel. Last point on on Utah here, what about. the ballot measure to repeal this effort. to allow the Democratic district to. stand? Is there some concern that that. might actually be successful? Yeah, so this is one to keep your eye. on. Because there's been a lot of commentary.

and con- conflicting at times reporting. about this. So this is a ballot measure, as you say, to repeal the provision of. the state constitution that that. prohibits the Republicans from doing. what they wanted to do here. Um some of the early reporting was that. the petition effort was riddled with. fraud. Now, it also there was reporting. that suggested that, I know this will. shock you, Brian, that Don Jr. was. somehow involved. Don Jr. and fraud in. the same sentence? >> [laughter].

>> Where am I Where's my fainting couch? And that like and and you and I did a. video on this. And like I think like one. county was like 75% of the signatures. that they got were were didn't seem to. pass muster. But then the the Republican groups. behind all this said, "Well, no, no, no, we collected enough. legitimate signatures." So we're all. waiting to see how that all shakes out. to see whether or not Brian it even gets. on the ballot, right? Whether whether, you know, this this this somewhat. checkered situation.

uh up even yielding enough signatures. And if it does, then we're undoubtedly. going to be doing more videos about like. where that stands, whether the people of. Utah really want uh to be able to crack. apart Salt Lake City, where a lot of the. people, you know, the largest city in. the state, uh live. We'll wait and see. whether that winds up being popular. Okay. And and then finally, I want to. finish off with something that I think. is really important. It's separate and. apart from Virginia and Utah, but it in. fact impacts the entire country, and you. and I have been speaking about this for.

months. And that is that we may very. well be days, hours, weeks away from a. decision from the Supreme Court uh in. the Caillat case. And that is that is. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. So, I know that, you know, even a few days. ago, we previewed this case, and that. video went out on YouTube, um so that. people know what to expect, know what. the implications of this are. But, you. know, for for people that haven't heard. this yet, this is going to be one of the. most, if not the most important case as. it relates to 2026 that the Supreme. Court can hand down. So, what are the.

implications if the Supreme Court does. indeed decide to rule in favor of the. Republicans in the Caillat case and gut. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act? Yeah, so my other request for everyone. watching this video is go watch that. one. Okay. W- As soon as you're done. with this, don't don't end now. Don't. leave now. Wait till the end. I want you. to go and watch the video that Brian and. I did. And I'm going to put that link in. the post description of this video so. you can easily find it. Yeah. A- And I. want you to share that with your. friends. And because this Caillat case. is going to be the big voting case of.

the term, okay? There have already been. some vo- voting cases. Yes, I know we. have the birthright citizenship case. coming up, which relates to voting in in. uh in many respects, uh given the proof. of citizenship laws that Republicans are. trying to pass. But, the Caillat case is. going to be the big one. In fact, it may. wind up being, along with the tariff. case that Donald Trump just lost, the, you know, one of the two or three. biggest cases of the term. So, people. need to pay attention to it. And the. reason is because if the Trump.

administration, if Republicans are able. to convince the Supreme Court to gut in. its entirety, overturn in its entirety. section two of the Voting Rights Act, then it will allow Republican states. predominantly in the South, but also in. the in the West to redraw their maps and. and really just obliterate minority. voting rights. And it will be a. catastrophe for democracy. It has the. potential to open up a whole new round. of redistricting and gerrymandering by. Republicans. And it needs to be a top of.

the fold story in every newspaper, even. though it's not. And on and everyone. needs to be literate on this topic. Everyone needs to be conversant on it, which is why I don't want you to just. rely on what I just went over. I want. you to watch the whole video because you. need to be armed with good information. in this because the right wing is going. to come out of the box and say, "Oh, this is not a big deal. Oh, this is just. this. Oh, this is just that." And you. know that the Supreme Court. conservatives will write the opinion to.

make it seem like this is not a big. deal. And it is an earth-shatteringly. big deal. And so, you need to be armed. with that information. And the best way. to be armed with that information is. yes, to subscribe to. democracydocket.com. Brian's going to. say that. But also to subscribe to this. channel and hit the bell to make sure. you're alerted because we're going to. tell you when that happened. But in. advance of that, to watch that video. that he and I did. And I'm going to be. sharing that on my social media feed as. well, so you will hopefully see it. there. But also, it's on this channel.

Well, I appreciate that. And again, that. link is going to be right here on the. screen. The link to Democracy Docket is. right here on the screen. Please go. ahead and subscribe. Keep an eye out on. the news because we will have some major. updates coming as far as the Supreme. Court is concerned. And uh and uh we. will of course cover it in the next. week. We have. >> more information coming out. >> I'm I'm Brian Tyler Cohen. And I'm Marc Elias. This is Democracy. Watch. >> [music].