Americans 'have had enough of the bullying and craziness' from Trump: Political strategist

[0:00] It's the Washington version of I'm rubber and you're glue. Joining us, MSNOW contributor and [0:05] co-founder of Punchbowl News, Jake Sherman, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and former [0:09] GOP strategist Rick Wilson, and Hofstra University law professor James Sample. Jake, what's the deal [0:17] with just declaring that Democrats cheat? Well, let me actually just correct Mike Johnson here [0:25] for a second, and I guess in turn correct you. The House has not passed the Save America Act. [0:31] The Save America Act that President Trump wants is a bill that includes very strict restrictions [0:38] on mail-in balloting. That is not passable on the House floor. The White House understands that, [0:46] at least some in the White House do. The House Republican leadership understands that, [0:51] and it's not going to end up in reconciliation in any way, I don't know about any way, shape, [0:55] or form. It's not going to end up in reconciliation in the form Donald Trump wants it in. It's just, [1:00] that is also a fact. Now, they've been saying for years that there's all this cheating without any [1:06] evidence. I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist. I don't know. They want to seem like anything they [1:12] win is completely legit. Anything Democrats win is completely nonsense. I don't know how to [1:20] parse that out or make any more sense of it than it is. But this is a centerpiece of their majority, [1:27] and it's going to be something that defines the last couple of months of this Congress, [1:31] this fight over voting, over voting restrictions, and over the Save America Act. [1:37] It's so cynical. Jake, what are you expecting come November if Republicans do lose? [1:44] Well, I expect one, two different, there's two different answers to that question. There's the [1:49] practical answer, which, of course, they're going to say there's lots of irregularities, [1:54] et cetera, et cetera, where you need to look into them. By the time they, I don't know what the [1:59] president's going to do about troops to the ballot. I have no idea. I don't have a crystal ball. I do [2:06] think they'll say there's irregularities. Many of these races are expected to be close, but some of [2:12] them they're going to lose resoundingly. That's number one. Number two, I think perhaps as interesting [2:16] is the political question, Katie, which is the president's going to say, if only you blew up the [2:21] filibuster and did what I told you to do, then we would have had a more functional majority and we [2:28] probably would have won the House of Representatives or kept the House of Representatives. Of course, [2:34] there's no evidence that that would be true either, but the president has spent months hammering the [2:39] House and Senate to pass this. They've not done so, and I think he's going to use that against them [2:43] eventually. What's happening in Michigan? Well, in Michigan, you're seeing a combination of [2:50] all three of the threads of what's going on in the Donald Trump strategy to seed the doubts about [2:55] the election in Michigan. They are going to have voting monitors, federal monitors at three locations. [3:01] Those locations are essentially in Democratic-leaning jurisdictions, and there's not really a reason for [3:08] it. There's not a substantive reason. There is a chilling effect. There is a narrative. It's all part [3:14] of—I mean, there's sort of a three-pronged strategy here, right? The Save America Act is [3:18] prong one, and the deliverable on that vote is the talking point. It's not going to pass. To Jake's [3:26] point, they've passed different versions of it. They haven't passed this version of it. [3:30] And Mike Johnson—or is it—it's Johnson, right, Jake, that says that it's not necessarily the mail-in [3:36] balloting stuff that they're passing. They're focused more on the core points of that bill, [3:42] where it's just making people show proof of citizenship to get registered, right? [3:49] Well, that's what he's saying. He said a lot, and that's not a criticism of him. He's trying [3:54] to keep up—this is a treadmill, Katie, in which he's trying to basically, like, keep up with Donald [3:59] Trump, who's running at, you know, 12 miles per hour. Trump has said he wants the Save America Act, [4:06] which includes a whole host of things. The Save Act, a previous version, included voter ID and [4:12] citizenship check, that has passed the House of Representatives. He is right on that. Now, there's [4:17] another angle to this, which is the House Republican leadership has discussed a reconciliation idea [4:25] of a $4 billion fund that would incentivize states to conduct voter ID checks and citizenship checks. [4:32] I don't know that that will go anywhere. And we wrote yesterday, and I think our midday edition, [4:39] that even if they did so today—and by the way, they might be able to get this in reconciliation, [4:44] I'm not sure—but if they did so today, it's unlikely that states would be able to have this [4:50] in place ahead of the November election. And by the way, there have been Democrats, [4:54] including Chuck Schumer, who have said, we're not opposed to voter ID in a more traditional [4:59] presidency. That would lead to someone saying, OK, like, let's get a half loaf. That sounds pretty [5:05] good to me. That's not what the president did here. That's not what the Republican leadership [5:10] in either chamber did here. They didn't take advantage of that moment. I don't know why. [5:15] I think they should have to get some sort of win. And here we are. [5:19] James? Well, first, if President Trump is running 12 miles an hour, that's a five-minute mile. So [5:26] I'm pretty confident that he is not running a five-minute mile. But Jake's point is absolutely [5:31] correct. And the thing that cannot be stated—we've discussed this before, but it honestly cannot be [5:39] stated often enough—voter ID is popular. Voter ID polls at 80 percent. This bill is not voter ID. [5:49] This bill is proof of citizenship at the time of registration, meaning a passport or an original [5:57] birth certificate. Let me be really clear. If you have a real ID, you can get through TSA. [6:03] A real ID is not proof of citizenship under this bill. We are talking—when Jake says that it couldn't [6:09] be accomplished by the time of the November election, that is the point. This would create [6:14] chaos. That is the intention. The intention is to disenfranchise. [6:19] So that's what—the larger point you're making, the chaos, the disenfranchisement, [6:25] the voter suppression of it. I wonder, though, if it doesn't pass the Save America Act, [6:30] which doesn't look like it's going to pass. He can send poll monitors to Michigan, yes. [6:36] But, Rick, I wonder if it backfires. And it does the opposite. Instead of suppressing the vote, [6:41] it motivates more people to get out there earlier and stand in longer lines to prove to him that he [6:49] does not have the ability to suppress the vote by bullying. [6:54] You know, Katie, I think everyone else has made the point that this is—a lot of this is about the [6:59] narrative for this fall. But a bigger narrative that overwhelms, I think, a lot of Trump's scare [7:03] tactics here, we're seeing it in the primary results. We're seeing it in the off-year election [7:08] results. We're seeing it in every survey. Democrats are motivated to come out and vote this year. [7:13] They are done. They have had enough. A lot of people who were formerly in the Republican or [7:17] independent conservative camp have drifted away from Trump. They've had enough. [7:22] I think your point is very well taken that the louder Trump screams about this, [7:26] the more people scan it and believe it to be a sense of panic on his part because they know what's [7:32] coming at them. And I think Democrats are starting to smell some blood in the water here. [7:37] And that's a good thing for them. They should feel motivated. And all the things that Trump is [7:41] trying to do with the Save America Act, it's already a dead letter in the Senate. [7:46] The other things he'll try to do through DHS and ICE to intimidate people at the polls, [7:53] I think that is a huge chance to backfire on them because Americans have had enough of the [7:58] bullying and enough of the craziness. [8:00] There was an interview on CNN with Peter Tickton, who Donald Trump calls his childhood friend. [8:04] And he said that he is, or apparently he is, pushing the president to go even farther. He wants [8:13] him to push an executive order to effectively seize federal control of the upcoming midterms by [8:21] declaring a national emergency based on alleged foreign interference through electronic voting [8:28] machines. Can he do that, James? [8:31] No. And we've seen this come up in a number of different threads. We've also seen this with the [8:37] Bill Pulte nomination at DNI and the acting Bill Pulte at DNI. Let me be clear. There are emergency [8:46] powers that are granted in statutes. The two primary statutes that grant the president emergency power, [8:51] the National Emergencies Act and IEPA. The National Emergency Act does not mention elections as one of [8:58] the powers that Congress has delegated to the president in the event of an emergency. IEPA is the statute that [9:03] was at issue in the tariff case where it didn't mention tariffs or taxes, and the Supreme Court struck it [9:09] down. You know what else it doesn't mention, Katie? Elections. [9:12] Yeah. [9:12] There's no way for him to claim an emergency legally, but that doesn't mean he can't outrun the courts. [9:18] Your exasperation reminds me a little bit of this John Cornyn quote that we have here, [9:23] and Jake, I'll give this to you. He said, [9:25] I marvel at the keyboard warrior geniuses and grifters who are ignorant of Senate rules and [9:31] precedents who have miraculously become experts in its arcane rules, promising the moon and stars, [9:38] and yet destining Republicans for failure is a very effective way to demoralize our base and elect [9:45] more Democrats in the midterms. John Cornyn, God, nice to see you now that you're leaving Congress. [9:53] Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is the free agent syndrome that has taken over a lot of people [9:58] on Capitol Hill who Donald Trump has crossed. Of course, Katie, I don't expect these people, [10:05] Republican members, to be honest when they need Donald Trump to win elections, but once they win [10:08] elections or, in Cornyn's case, lose elections, they seem a little bit more free. [10:12] Um, listen, Cornyn's not wrong here, um, in many ways. I think that Cornyn is reflecting that there's [10:22] a whole kind of class of people on, on X and on TV who say, well, it's so simple. The Senate should [10:28] just do this. And it's like, they don't understand the rules of reconciliation, what flies, what doesn't [10:35] fly, what the parliamentarian's going to do, what the vote count reality in the Senate is. I mean, [10:40] these are the same people who have said we should, that the Republicans should blow up the filibuster [10:44] here on Capitol Hill. We've seen this movie before. Um, we've seen Democrats try, we've seen Republicans [10:50] try, it doesn't have the votes. Um, now you could argue that, you know, Thune is being too cautious [10:56] and a lot of those people have, but Thune is, in my view, based on our reporting up here, [11:00] accurately reflected the realities of the vote count, which is there is no appetite to do save [11:06] America. There is no appetite to blow up the filibuster. There is no appetite to get rid of [11:10] the parliamentarian. So, I mean, you know, X is a very different world, uh, as we all know than [11:17] reality. And, and when you are up here talking to people, instead of just chilling in your office [11:23] somewhere, you realize that. And I, I don't mean to sound snide or, or condescending, but it's really [11:29] easy to say, well, this person supports this. But if you talk to that person, you realize that [11:34] they actually don't, and they don't want to be a part of it. So, you know, X is easy. Life is hard.