00:00We begin this hour with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is the latest in a line of Republicans
00:06criticizing tomorrow's planned No Kings rallies, which are expected to draw massive turnouts in
00:14cities across the country. The governor issued this warning on social media, writing, quote,
00:20I directed the Department of Public Safety and National Guard to surge forces in Austin
00:26ahead of an Antifa-linked protest. Anyone destroying property or committing acts of violence will be
00:34swiftly arrested. Law and order will be enforced. This comes as many Republican leaders, including
00:41House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, are calling the planned countrywide protest
00:48a hate America rally and claiming without evidence that the demonstration is being organized by
00:55Antifa. I encourage you to watch. We call it the hate America rally that will happen Saturday.
01:01Let's see who shows up for that. I bet you see pro Hamas supporters. I bet you see Antifa types.
01:08I bet you see the Marxist in full display, the people who don't want to stand and defend the
01:13foundational truths of this republic. And we do. And that's what we're here doing every single day.
01:18The only thing that I will predict today is that the Democrat party of yesterday
01:24is headed to the ash heap of history. These guys are playing to the most radical,
01:30small and violent base in the country. You'll see them on Saturday on the mall. They just do not
01:36love this country. And these guys are afraid of them. Chuck Schumer et al. are afraid of them.
01:42So you agree that that's what this is about, that they want to be there and sort of, you know,
01:46punch their chest there, that they're fighting Trump in this no Kings rally. That's what this
01:52is about. Yeah. We call it the hate America rally because you'll see the hate for America all over
01:58this thing when they show up. Yeah. I mean, that's the rumor, Maria. The rumor is that they can't end
02:04this shutdown beforehand because this small but very violent and vocal group is the only one that's
02:10happy about this. If they shut it down beforehand, then they've got to deal with that group
02:14beforehand. If they make it through that, then at least they've made it through their
02:18hate America rally, and then they can get this thing done.
02:23Adrian Elrod, it seems Republicans are living in rumors there and spreading them.
02:28I'm curious what this rally is about, but even more so, what do you make of
02:31even Mike Johnson, but the Republican effort to rebrand this event?
02:38Yeah. I mean, Mika, I was a little surprised, frankly, to see Mike Johnson go this far. He's
02:43tried to, I think, at least have a little bit of a measured sense. But look, Mika, we're going to
02:47take a step back. Let's look at how Donald Trump won this election. He won this election in large
02:51part last year because prices were too high. Grocery prices, the price of gasoline, prescription
02:57drugs, et cetera. This is not what the American people signed up for. I think there are a lot of
03:02people out there, especially independents, and we're seeing this in polling, play out who are
03:05looking at this and saying, wait a minute, freedom of speech, the freedom to express how you believe
03:11in this country, especially to peacefully protest, is something that's been long protected. It's
03:15protected by the Constitution. They are looking at this. They are looking at people like Mike
03:19Johnson. Obviously, they expect it from Trump. But for other Republicans to try to come out there and
03:23say, you can't peacefully protest because you disagree with the administration, this is a bridge
03:28too far for a lot of Americans. So as disturbing as it is, frankly, Mika to see all these Republicans
03:34sort of follow in Trump's suit and say these things, it's actually going to backfire. We're
03:40seeing it play out in the polls, as I just mentioned. When people feel that they cannot express
03:46their freedom to say and believe what they think and say that peacefully, that is where I think
03:52Democrats can capitalize on this, draw that contrast, and where I think, again, you're seeing a lot of
03:57Americans who are really disturbed by these trends coming from the Trump administration and his allies
04:02in Congress. I mean, let's be clear. The earlier rallies, No Kings rallies earlier this year were
04:07very peaceful. They're expecting huge numbers this weekend. There has been some organizers who have
04:13said, like, look, we want to make sure we keep things peaceful for all the obvious reasons, but also
04:18because we don't want to give the Trump administration an excuse to crack down further, which I think
04:22they're looking to do. They're clearly previewing that now. And Donnie, we should also note this is
04:26actually this protests, you know, technically are calling for Democratic leadership to step up too.
04:31It's not just Trump specific, but it is pretty much centered on Trump. And it's reflective. The
04:36energy that's out there and the crowds expect to be huge this weekend. A lot of Americans unhappy with
04:41where the country's going. Yeah, I think they'll be peaceful. We've had them in the past. And obviously,
04:44there is the right to protest. And, you know, I think both sides need to behave. Obviously,
04:49anybody at the National Guard side has got to behave. The protesters got to behave. It's an interesting
04:53time to be doing it. Trump is coming off his most successful week ever as a president. I mean,
04:57there's universal backing in terms of obviously what happened with Israel and the job, the fantastic
05:02job he's done. So it's an interesting week to be coming out against Trump. I don't know if I would
05:06have picked this week to do it, but we'll see what happens. David, in the first administration,
05:11of course, we had all of the women's marches. It didn't actually achieve very much. And then you had
05:16this time around Democrats thinking, feeling deflated, not getting out on the streets and protesting.
05:21It's taking them nine months to get back out there. Does this theme of kind of democracy,
05:26autocracy, which didn't do particularly well as an election cause in 2024, do you think now it has
05:33more resonance with people? I mean, it's an interesting theme to be choosing. Yeah, we haven't
05:37seen it yet in the polling. I think what's politically salient about these protests, depending on how many
05:43people show up and how they look, you know, the visuals are so important politically, is that it can show
05:50a level of energy, right? I mean, what those protests showed early in the first Trump presidency
05:55was not necessarily that they would have a policy effect, but it showed the level of unhappiness with
06:02the outcome of the election. That translated into a lot of Democratic energy on the ground in 2018.
06:10Democrats win 40 House seats, take back the House of Representatives.
06:13Yeah. And so you could draw a through line, right, from the early protests to energy that lasted all
06:20the way into the next election. And so this time, things have been much slower. And a lot of Democrats
06:25have been wondering, what are we going to see in 2026? As I reported last week, a lot of Republicans
06:30don't have the same sense of dread approaching this midterm election as they did with that midterm
06:36election, because they don't see the kind of energy and pushback to Donald Trump that they saw then.
06:41What political strategists and even I've talked to sociologists and pollsters about this have told
06:47me is that the issue of democracy as motivating as it is for Democratic activists and as concerned as
06:56many Americans are about Trump's executive overreach, that it doesn't have sort of the same
07:01heft as an issue that's going to push a lot of voters to the polls to vote against the Republicans,
07:08at least as things stand now, because a lot of people don't necessarily feel like democracy has
07:12worked all that well for them. They don't want to give it up. They don't want a different system,
07:17but they're focused on the price of groceries. They're focused on their economic well-being.
07:22And that's, I think, why we've seen Democratic candidates in these off-year races in Virginia
07:27and New Jersey and even New York, where Mamdami is doing so well, focus on the issue of affordability
07:33and not democracy, because that's what voters want to hear about.
07:37That's why it's interesting, Gene. To call this the no kings, when it was an issue that didn't in 2024
07:43particularly help the Democratic campaign at the end of the election, would they be better,
07:48as many candidates around the country are focusing on affordability, to make these marches about that?
07:53No, I don't think a march on affordability would have the same resonance. I think this is anecdotal,
08:00but I think it's true. There's just a lot of Democrats and former Republicans and independents
08:07and just people I talk to who are enormously frustrated and want somebody to do something.
08:18Why isn't somebody doing something about the, you know, not just liberties that Donald Trump is
08:26taking with the Constitution, but the total disregard he has for what we think of as our
08:32democratic norms and certain concrete provisions of the Constitution? Why doesn't somebody do something?
08:40So I think it is actually significant that, okay, somebody's doing something, that there are going to be
08:48thousands of these no kings events across the country. I was looking into this yesterday. There's
08:58just a lot of them. And all told, it's going to be a lot of people. And it feels to me like a movement
09:05where, like a moment where that sort of mass movement is an important component, an important step in the run-up to the midterm.
09:35Do you think that he, like, as he joins us to have a house movement that goes around, and it's not E.
09:41I'm going to go to the comments and I'm going to talk about what this is called a thought.
09:45Let's see, what are the possibilities coming from here?
09:47That's what I'm going to do now.
09:52Thanks, everyone.
09:55I am going to come back to this house.
09:57I'm going to come back to this house.
09:58And we're going to go to the house.
10:00I'm going to come back to the house.
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