Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media. You know, the other thing that I think is important to bring into this mix. We're talking about redistricting efforts in Virginia, of course, but we also can't turn a blind eye to some of the tactics that the Trump administration have turned to within the last
couple of months. So we know in January, at the end of January, the FBI went to raid Fulton County's voting records from twenty twenty as if to give Donald Trump any credibility to what he was alleging. Then also seeking out votes, which we know Fannie, our dear sister Fannie Willis was working on trying to prosecute him for the election fraud he was actually committing. But at the end of January, authorities see seven hundred boxes, seven hundred
boxes related to an election six years ago. There is nothing to look for from six years ago except for intimidation of voters in a very very important election in Georgia, as we know coming up. It's important everywhere, but it's particularly important in Georgia because we have the opportunity to hold.
The Senate to elect a new governor or not.
So seven hundred boxes related to this probe all in Fulton County.
Who's in Fulton County? Y'all okay?
And then the Homeland Security Oh, by the way, by the way, the FBI field agent in charge, his name was Paul Brown, I believe was fired for expressing concerns about this FBI raid. So I also want to be clear about that, if you're not a yes man or a yes woman for Trump, you gotta go. So then after that they went to Arizona. Guess where they went to, Arizona, Mara Copa, Maricopa County.
Who's in Maricopa. So I just I want to point this out.
This is over, you know again, the twenty twenty election results all from a debunked claim that there was, uh, there was election fraud happening there. The former attorney general in Arizona looking into this, and of course it's been a debunked, debunk claim.
So anyway, Angela, I don't even think it's about I don't think it's a I don't think this is a rewind to the last election.
I think you don't.
This is pretext for this is them trying to push the limits of their authority, to show the American people what they have the capacity to do, what courts will step in to keep them from seizing ballots, What courts will keep, you know, stop them from going and so seizing voting machines on the evening of elections, when those machines should be counting votes and sending them directly to
the headquarters and counties all across the country. I think they are here testing the limits of not their authority, because they don't have the authority to do this. They're testing the They're testing the limits of who gonna check me, who's gonna stop me? And with what military are they
going to do it with. So I again, when we talk about the things that we should just anticipate, be prepared for Democrats, anyone who cared a Democrat, democracy loving person, please please please don't handle this like we might address the normal uh rigors of a of a of an inquisition reasonable in nature, even if we disagree with the outcomes.
This is not what this is.
This is authoritarianism at its at at its alphabet at its dictionary described level. Being persecuted by Trump in all of his SIKA fans. There are no check people to keep him from doing this. He wanted to seize the ballots last time, and fortunately there were people like Kelly in places said nah, we can't do that. The Attorney general of the country who did that. Now, who thinks Pam Bondy is going to stand in front of Donald Trump and say no to anything?
Nobody know, nobody we.
Know that's not happening.
But I think it gets to what really is the soft spot in our democracy, and that is we continue to forget that the democracy only stands as much as the people are willing to actually protect it. And what we know, definitely knew from what happened previously, was that if not for Mike Pence, you know, by the thinnest finnest of margins, did things hold together. And so when you lose, or when the people who are supposed to protect the democracy no longer do, the institution is not
going to defend itself. And many people knew that this version of Trump would be far more dangerous because he was going to have those sick of fans you talked about who do not believe in actual governance, who do not believe in the rule of law, who do not believe in a certain decorum that should be part of politics, because as much as I hated as last administration, this one is like this makes the last one look like
child's play. And the difference is this time around they don't believe in those things that they're willing to do whatever the king wishes. And so I think what is frightening for me is that I don't think the American people are actually alarmed enough that I get it like a lot of people are dealing with shortbandwidth. They have already said their intention was the blood zone with hourly horrors, of which we're like what and to the point where
you feel hopeless. But I think they're playing largely works because when I see things like what is embolding in Georgia and Arizona and that, yes, there's outrage among those who pay attention, but the people who really need to be outraged and paying attention are just kind of in this web of I don't even know what to do in this moment. That to me, it's the apathy that worries me.
Sure three quick points. I think that we're overlooking the psychopathy of the President of the United States. So I disagree with Andrew just slightly because I do think that a lot of this is done because the president believes he won the election in twenty twenty, and so I think that he is asking people to go out and kind of do this excursion into finding him the votes,
which we all know doesn't exist. But I also think that you're right, Andrew on the back part, because I do think that there are people around the president, the Stephen Miller's, the Bannons, et cetera, that want to exploit that underbelly. And what they're saying is, look, we are not going to wait until six years later. If we don't like the results of Arizona. We're going to take those ballots before their accountant or after their accountants, or
whenever the hell we want to. Then were just going to figure out how to count them. We gonna count and one or basically, we'll ask Donald Trump how much you want to win by today?
So I need you to find me y'ah eleven thousand.
Right, I need you to I want to win by I want to win by twelve points, right. So I think that that's a part of it as well. And I don't I just don't think. I just don't think that we have the urgency one and people don't understand how to fight back two. And I'm it's hard because we don't have a fighter yet in the ring like this. I guess this is where Andrew would be like Macari, we don't need a fighter in the ring. This is about democracy.
The people can do it. Hey, Minnesota showed us.
In Minnesota showed us. You're right. I just think I wish we had a fighter in the ring too. But I guess that time will come soon that we're all going to have to rally around somebody who at the very fundamental portion of their life is pro democracy.
It's not a person I really hope it is.
And I honestly think Minnesota is a blueprint in the sense that when people see the threat at their doorstep, there's a red line and they're saying, you're not going to cross it here. So if it's in my community, this is not some esoteric I believe the talking points that he's looking back sixty years to see whether or not he won or not. This is me saying no, right now, this man is trying to take say it again.
Isn't that bad Because by the time it gets to your doorstep, it is too late.
No. I think this is going to be real time shit. I think that they I think we're going to be traumatized by the swiftness and by the audacity of what they're going to attempt on election day and the ten days leading up to election day for early voting states, and in the way in which they're going to assault the court courts, but mostly they're going to assault public opinion. They're going to get out there and they're going to say, rembermember, back then when the cab County stole all those votes
and we had to take those ballots. Remember when the Latinos allowed fifty thousand immigrants across the border so they could vote that day. I think this is going to be head on a swivel type stuff, and it's going to require us to have not a knee jerk, but I mean unprecedented levels of response to them stealing.
What is that lection? That's the question.
Well, two thousand in Florida. I was here for that. I mean, you couldn't keep us down. We were down at that we were down at the capitol and at the Secretier State's office.
It was mayhem complete in total Mayhem narrator states we still lost, and I think that.
We lost a five to four, we lost a five to six or what was it, seventh four subquor.
I think here's the here's the point that I want to raise in this moment. What is scary to me is that during the country's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary year, we are now at a place we are fighting for the fundamental right to vote, fundamental access to the ballot box, whether or not our ballot should be counted, who is making a very partial determination about who gets to have their say, And we've.
Already had that battle.
We had it in the Constitution, there's an amendment for that, we had it in the nineteen sixty five Voting Rights Act, in every reauthorization after that. So I'm just saying that at some point, the law of the land should stand, whether you're mad about a black president winning the election
or not. All of this shifted again to partisanship after Barack Obama won the election, and I think that until this country is willing to come to terms with its ugly history, the fact that the vestiges of slavery are alive well and present, we are going to continue to repeat this. And so yes, we should fight, but also we do need fighters. Fighters need to show up. This should be something that is talked about consistently. I'm gonna tell y'all because I started talking about Reverend Jackson at
the beginning. I used to get so mad sometimes when no matter what we were talking about, somewhere Reverend Jackson got on the stage and he always brought up the right to vote, and I'd be like, we're fine, we're voting. We just voughted, we could, you know, And this is now, this is pre two thousand and eight. By the time twenty ten and the tea party rode around, I was like, well,
he might be onto something. When voter ID and all the suppressive measures that they introduced in state legislatures all throughout the country, cutting back early voting days, figuring out how to have voter ID. It's just an ID. You have to have IDA to get on a plane. Everybody don't fly right. Everybody don't Everybody don't live right down the street from a Department of Licensing or a DMV. Everybody can't afford a passport or to get a new
birth certificate. Like we have a privileged way of thinking about this, and it is suppressive and harmful to our elders who fought the very fight for us. And yes, it is frustrating to have to have this fundamental conversation, especially when there are people in our communities who are like I would love to talk to you about voting, but I can't feed my kids tomorrow. We have to be able to walk in chew gum at the same time, hell chew something. We got to be able to meet
people's basic needs. But also, this is a basic and fundamental right. It should be constitutionally protected in ways that it's clearly not because our Supreme Court is willing to throw everything in the balance.
So Andrew, you preach, we need to clip that, because that's that's fire being fair and true. But let me also tell you why we in this situation. The reason we're in this situation is because we never punish the Confederates. I remind amen, because Amen, I remind people of that all the time. The most treason this group of people we've ever had walked the country, we never punish them. The same people who brought us Jim Crow, who brought
us the black Codes, we never punished them. Those are the same people who on January sixth showed us that they were going to storm the capitol. We never punished him. Now those people are running government, so and Merrick Garland didn't help us. I always say that the reason we're in this situation is this country never punished the Confederates, and now we're stuck here. We're dealing with one hundred
and Angela. The reason it's so hard is we're dealing with one hundred and twenty years, one hundred and more than one hundred and thirty plus years of that entrenched history of having individuals who don't believe in the very essence of what this country should be still running government today.
I think it predates them. For instance, Americans don't want to reckon with the fact that we didn't allow all people to vote. We alloted white men who were landowners to vote, and guess what else, they did not have to be citizens of the United States of America to vote. That has not always been a condition of voting in federal elections or local elections in the United States of America over its history. It did not begin that way.
This country has always prioritized the most powerful, the most well connected, the most well constituted individuals and quite frankly, if they had it their way. And this is why Donald Trump doesn't face as much resistance within his party as he should trying to be not just a kleptocrat, but quite frankly, to return this nation to some kind of aristocracy or worse. Is because they fundamentally don't believe that the proletariat should have access direct access to the ballot box.
And by the way, the Framers didn't believe that either.
We did not have direct elections to House members, to Senate members, to the presidency, and we still don't have direct elections to the presidency. We were electing people to go and then hopefully speak for US and conventions and as Electoral College voters and as US senators. But we were not supposed to have this much direct proximity to one the vote and then to what is supposed to be inured from it, which is power. They don't believe
we should. So they really want to return to a foundational premise where the most powerful, the most well connected, the most well yield, even if they are not US citizens, are the ones who basically get to control.
Things absolutely well.
We will continue to be following all the redistricting efforts, the midterm mid term redistricting efforts, by the way, and all of what's happening as we lead into the twenty twenty six midterms, and efforts by the Trump administration to still kill and destroy the midterms, and all of our efforts, our collective efforts to fight back. So thank you all, so much. Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio and
partnership with re and Choice Media. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.