Pam Bondi makes SHOCKING announcement amid ICE shooting

This is Democracy Watch. Mark, it looks. like we have a really chilling update. here as it seems Pam Bondi has given the. state of Minnesota an ultimatum, and. this is in light of this latest shooting. that occurred there. So, can you explain. what this ultimatum is? >> Yeah, look, you and I have been saying. for months now that the Department of. Justice wants access to the most. sensitive voter information that states. have, and that Donald Trump will do. anything to win the midterms. Well, Pam. Bondi today sent a letter after the. shooting, after you saw a a an.

individual who looked like he was. directing traffic, tackled, thrown to. the ground, and then shot. After that, Pam Bondi sends a letter to the governor. of Minnesota and basically says, "Hey, the violence needs to end. You know, we. need to restore law and order." And here. are three things that you need to do. One of them is turn over the voter. rolls. That's right. Turning over the. sensitive voter data that they have been. suing state after state after state to.

get, that they have been litigating over. and over and threatening states over. After this tragic shooting, that's what. Pam Bondi goes at at Governor Walz with. They want this data because they want. Donald Trump to be able to rig the. election in 2026, and they will leverage. even this tragedy, even this horrific. event, to get it. >> Mark, are they trying to ramp up the. violence as much as they can so that. they can use that to kind of extort the. city of of Minneapolis or the state of. of Minnesota to say, "Hey, we can make.

this all go away, but you got to give us. something in return, and if you don't, well, we can just keep on sending these. ICE officers in, keep on shooting people. with impunity until we get what we. want.". >> What we know about Donald Trump is that. he will leverage anything to get what he. wants, right? He's willing to leverage, uh you know, increased violence. We've. seen what he's done with NATO and and. and leverage against our allies. We've. seen, Brian, you live in California, I. live in uh Virginia. We've seen what. he's threatened to do to blue states to. try to leverage uh.

you know, aid to aid to uh states and. the like, right? He'll use anything to. get what he think is is in his best. interest. And Brian, let's be honest, there's nothing right now that Donald. Trump cares more about than the midterm. elections. Because he knows if Democrats. take control of the House and Senate in. 2026, his his. uh aims to be an authoritarian get dealt. a big setback. He This is a guy who. recently told the media that he doesn't. think we got to have elections in 2026. This is someone who recently told the.

New York Times that he he wishes that he. had seized ballot boxes after 2020. You. know, this is someone who went to Davos. to announce uh that there will be. prosecutions of his political enemies. There is no surprise then when you look. at the tragedies unfolding in. Minneapolis that he will be willing to. leverage that to try to get what he. wants with respect to the 2026 election. Look, this is why Democracy Docket has. been on this story both with respect to. the voter files, but also why it broke.

this story tonight about this part of. the letter, you know, that the legacy. media was not paying attention to. And. soon as Democracy Docket put out, I'm. now seeing it all over the place. >> Yeah, and I and I would highly recommend. for anybody who is watching this right. now, if you are not yet subscribed to. Democracy Docket, this this whole. situation right here is the perfect. reason why you should be subscribed. because this is the outlet that's. breaking important news. And by the way, um it's not just what Mark is doing on. the media front, it's also the fact that. he is right now litigating against. Republicans' abuses against this country.

in more than 80 cases around the. country. So, >> And 24 cases involving the Department of. Justice trying to get this data from. blue and purple states. >> Right. In in half of the states across. the country, it's him who's helping uh. protect your personal private. information. So, again, if if you're not. yet subscribed to Democracy Docket, whether it's for the media stuff, whether it's for the court stuff, a ton. of good reasons to support the. invaluable work that Mark and his team. are doing. So, I'm going to put that. link right here on the screen and also. in the post description of this video. Mark, while I was reading the article,

there was one line in particular that. Pam Bondi wrote uh. uh in the letter that caught my. attention. She wrote, "I am confident. that these simple steps" and again that. was allowing the Department of Justice. to access voter rolls, repealing the. sanctuary city policy, and on and on. "I. am confident that these simple steps. will help bring back law and order to. Minnesota and improve the lives of. Americans." If she's saying that these. steps will bring back law and order, is. that not a tacit admission that what is.

happening right now is the absence of. law and order and it's a and it's a. conscious decision uh to to impose that. on the people of Minnesota? >> Yeah, now look, Pam Bondi will say, "No, no, no, I meant I didn't mean that." But. let's be honest. This is the mob boss. saying, >> Right. >> "Boy, it's terrible what's happening to. your restaurant right now. There are. people stealing and looting." Right? Like I mean like he's. she is literally being like, "I'm sorry. to see such lawlessness in your city.". >> Yeah. >> "Boy, if only there were a way to stop. this." You know, all these shootings and.

and all these people being grabbed out. of cars that that are where their. windows are being broken. You know, if. only there were a way to stop that. Oh, wait. How about the voter rolls? >> Yeah, that that that ought that ought to. do it. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure. if we get the voter rolls we can make. all the lawlessness go away. >> Right. It's just it's it's so transparent what. they are doing. You know, Alexander. Solzhenitsyn who was a dissident in the. Soviet Union and who wrote. several famous books including The Gulag. Archipelago which was his time in the.

Soviet Gulag. In 1974, he gets expelled from the Soviet Union. and moves to the West. And he has this. line that says uh uh the lie has become. a moral pillar of the state. And I thought I I think I thought about. that today as I saw them once again, you know, just absolutely tell lies. about the events that we saw on on video. tape place. The lies about the. background of this registered nurse. Lies about their reformed views of the.

Second Amendment. Right now all of a. sudden they're not in favor of citizens. being able to to carry guns. Lies about. Minneapolis and the police. Lies about. the governor. And then I saw this letter. and I realized that at the heart of all. of this is of course the big lie. Right? And the big lie, the foundational lie. for Donald Trump is always about. elections. It's about the 2020 election. It's about the 2024 election and it will. be about the 2026 election. So my strong.

advice to everyone is subscribe to this. channel. Make sure you hit the bell that. you are alerted when there's new. content. Because to be honest with you, Brian and I cover this before it hits. the legacy media. Brian and I, you can. go back several videos. I mean, not. recently, like a while back we were. talking about these voter files. We were. talking about why it seemed so odd that. the Department of Justice wanted access. and was willing to sue all these states. We talked about in videos why this could.

be misused in the future. Now, did we. did did Brian and I tie this directly to. leveraging a tragedy like we saw in. Minneapolis? No. But we were sounding. the alarm of just how serious this is. And you're not hearing this from the. legacy media. You're not seeing it on. the nightly news. You're not reading. about it in the newspapers. So please, do me a favor and subscribe to this. channel. >> Well, I appreciate that and I'm going to. put the link to subscribe to this. channel right here on the screen. Mark, I want to talk for a second and I know. that we've discussed this in previous. videos, but for folks who haven't tuned.

in to our previous videos and want to. know why the administration is so. hell-bent on gaining access to to the. voter to the voter rolls and and and all. of these files that that. uh and sensitive information, what can. they do with this? And I'm going to ask. what they can do with this in in the. worst-case scenario because we would be. naive at this point to think that. they're going for anything other than. the worst-case scenario. >> Yeah, look, this is what they can do. with it and it's what they frankly, in. my opinion, they want to do with it. Um. if you want to disenfranchise 100,000,

I'm just picking 100,000, it could be a. million, it could be 10,000. If you want. to disenfranchise 100,000 Democrats in a. congressional race, well, you need to. know who the Democrats are. Yeah. So, the voter file gives them that. information. If you say, "Look, we need. to cover our tracks a little bit and we. need to disenfranchise 100,000 Democrats. by by saying that their ballots came in. by mail and we're going to target them. by mail, you need the voter file to know. who the Democrats are that voted by. mail. Now, if you then want to say,

"Well, even that's too obvious. I want. to target the 100,000 Democrats who. voted by mail and whose um. whose signature may not have uh in our. estimation matched." Then what you need. is to know who the 100,000 Democrats are. who voted by mail and you need a copy of. their signature. That is something the. states have on these sensitive voter. files. I could go on and on. They have. social security numbers, they have party. registration, they have where you. registered, when you registered, when. you voted, whether you voted Democrat or.

Republican, which elections you skipped. It gives them the full picture of voters. so they can slice and dice this vote. this data in any way they want to. disenfranchise voters. Now, if that. isn't sinister enough, now imagine that. the election takes place and the. Republican candidate loses by 99,000. votes. And now you need to, after the. election, decide to decide to seize. ballot boxes and take over vote. counting. You got it. What do you need? You need the database to know, again, where to go, whose ballots to target,

what are the rules that you want to call. ballots in bounds and out of bounds. This This fanciful. We've seen the. Republican Party try to do this using. their voter data. We've seen right-wing. vigilante groups in recent years try to. do this using their data. But this is. the state's data. This is the whole. thing. And when the Department of. Justice walks into a Secretary of. State's office and says disqualify these. voters, they're not some right-wing. group. They're not even a political. party. They are the people who right now.

are preventing the local police from. investigating crimes. They are the. people right now who are dragging US. citizens off the streets into. into you know, into black vans. These. are the people who right now are. depriving people of access to their. lawyers, shipping people overseas. That's who wants to be able to use this. data. They have the power of the state. and they can abuse this like we have. seen them abuse other things. And if you.

don't think Donald Trump will do. anything to win an election including. abuse power, go watch the video coverage. of January 6th, 2021 and tell me that. what I just said is beyond possibility. >> Mark, we had mentioned that it's it's. you and your law firm who are right now. litigating this exact issue in 24 states. 24 jurisdictions. So 23 states plus. Washington DC. So in half of the states. across the country, you are what's. standing between. the Trump administration getting your.

voter data and not. But there are a few. states about 10 states Republican states. that have already handed information. willfully. And so is this a situation. for those states where the toothpaste is. out of the tube and now the. administration has you know, that that. information that data that they can. begin abusing it in very much the same. ways that you're warning about with the. rest of the states? >> Yeah, I I look, I've got a lot of. questions about this. People will ask. me, you know, you're you're litigating. defending the the voters from having.

their data turned over where the. Department of Justice is suing. What. about those other seven to 10 states? And I'll be honest with you. You know, we're a small law firm. We're 60 lawyers. and we are litigating, as you say, 80. cases across the country, across 40. states, including 24 of these states. The Department of Justice litigates for. free, right? They have They have their. own government lawyers. So, you know, I. have I have tried to sound the alarm. I. have mentioned that big law firms are. not involved in any one of the cases. that we are involved in. Not any of. those 24. There's not a single big law. law firm lending support to prevent uh.

those 24 states from from having to turn. over their data and there's no big law. firm suing the other 10 states. So, will. me and my law firm eventually get work. our way to the states that are that are. collaborating and cooperating? We may, but I I I don't want to I don't want to. put, you know, sugarcoat this. The. assault on democracy right now is coming. from all sides and it is coming fast and. furious. It is coming from private. litigants like the Republican National. Committee. It's coming from right-wing. vigilante organizations and it's coming.

from the Department of Justice. And. along the way, you have a president and. his administration who are threatening. people in exercising their First. Amendment rights. So, you might imagine, as as is the case, it's hard to get. people to stand up. It's hard to get. people to be willing to sue. It's hard. to get law firms engaged. I mean, I'm. not going to back down. My firm doesn't. back down, but it is it is a challenge. right now and that challenge is going to. grow between now and election day. And. look, we're going to keep doing that. work, but what you, Brian, and I with.

the Democracy Docket team is we help. create the environment in which people. know what's going on. Because when. there's an informed public about what is. going on, it helps everything. It helps. litigation. It helps organizing. It. helps activists. And most importantly, it helps you, the people watching this. video, understand the real threats that. are going on, not the ones that have. been filtered through Barry Weiss and 60. Minutes or Jeff Bezos and the Washington. Post. >> That's perfectly put. And and again, first of all, I want to say on behalf of. everybody who's watching and myself,

thank you to you and your team for. stepping up where we've seen such a void. in leadership, especially with regard to. fighting these cases in particular. And. again, for everybody watching, I would. just ask one more time, a small step we. can all take to help elevate Mark's. voice and elevate some of the attention, especially in light of the fact that he. and his firm are taking on these cases. that nobody else will. A small step we. can all take to show some support for. that work is to sign up for Democracy. Docket. It is a resource that I use on a. daily basis. Could not recommend highly. enough that you subscribe to stay on top. of everything that's happening. So, I'm.

again I'm going to put that link right. here on the screen and also in the post. description of this video. I'm Brian. Tyler Cohen. >> I'm Mark Elias. >> This is Democracy Watch.