Episode description

In 2000, Republicans stole Florida by scrubbing voter rolls and stopping the recount. In 2004, Republicans stole Ohio by suppressing the vote through deliberately engineered long voting lines and other election day chaos. In 2024, Republicans are throwing everything they can at Georgia. Republican officials in the state are helping them, even those harassed by Trump’s Big Lie. 

If MAGA can’t steal the Electoral College outright, their fallback plan is to get close, drawing a tie. This would send the election to the House of Representatives. There, MAGA loyalist Mike Johnson, who blocked urgently needed Ukraine aid for six critical months, giving Russia the advantage on the battlefield, would likely pick Trump.The Senate, in control of Democrats, would pick the Vice President, likely Kamala Harris, who would then very likely be replaced by Trump’s White House as the Heritage Foundation massacres the government with Project 2025, Christian nationalism’s decades long plan to establish a dictatorship. They have 10,000 Trump loyalists already in place, ready to carry this out, according to a recent report by ProPublica. 

In March, the U.S. sanctioned two PR firms in Russia hired by the Kremlin to manipulate Americans into spreading disinformation to “divide and conquer” Trump’s opposition in the 2024 election. So it begs the question, why isn’t the DOJ, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and Secretaries of State stepping up to stop homegrown threats?: 

Why is the Christian nationalist group Ziklag allowed to fund EagleAI, which empowers MAGA activists to challenge voter registrations, including 10,000 voters in Georgia? (Remember, Trump only needed 11k votes to win Georgia in 2020). 

• Why is the Department of Homeland Security allowing voting machines in Georgia or anywhere in the country whose data was breached by MAGA loyalist Sidney Powell, with that data already spread among MAGA and possibly to foreign adversaries, like Russia? 

• Why is the DOJ letting Elon Musk fund a new version of Cambridge Analytica, targeting voters in swing states? 

• Why are the Secretaries of State allowing around 70 MAGA loyalists with histories of refusing to certify elections to remain in positions of power in 16 counties in six swing states, including Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, especially given the history of such loyalists to break the law, as they did in Georgia, helping Sidney Powell steal sensitive voting machine data? 

This week’s bonus show also looks at J.D. Vance’s war on people who don’t birth children. That brings us to this viral quote from a recent article published on the site of The Heritage Foundation, architects of Project 2025: “Joseph Stalin had an utter disregard for human life, and his regime claimed the lives of 9,000,000-20,000,000 of its own subjects. Yet even Stalin understood that society depended on strong, intact families.” This is an actual quote from Heritage Foundation Senior Research Associate Emma Waters. Her piece was taken down after it went viral, but you can read an archived version in the show notes. All that and more is discussed in this week’s Q&A shaped by listeners’ questions subscribed at the Democracy Defender ($10/month) and higher on Patreon. To join the conversation, subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit. Discounted annual memberships are available! Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you! 

RSVP to the live taping of Gaslit Nation featuring Terrell Starr of the Black Diplomats Podcast at the Ukrainian Institute of America on September 16 at 7pm. Patreon supporters at the Truth-teller level and higher get in free–message us to be added to the guest list! More details here: https://ukrainianinstitute.org/event/books-at-the-institute-chalupa/

Show Notes:

These Swing State Election Officials Are Pro-Trump Election Deniers At least 70 pro-Trump conspiracists are election officials in key battleground counties — and they are poised to make a giant mess on Election Day https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-swing-state-officials-election-deniers-1235069692/

Russia is relying on unwitting Americans to spread election disinformation, US officials say https://apnews.com/article/russia-trump-biden-harris-china-election-disinformation-54d7e44de370f016e87ab7df33fd11c8

Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-ziklag-secret-christian-charity-2024-election

Politics How an Elon Musk PAC is using voter data to help Trump beat Harris in 2024 election https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/elon-musk-pac-voter-data-trump-harris.html

Web Archive: The Heritage Foundation took down this piece really handing it to Stalin https://web.archive.org/web/20240306073726/https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/commentary/crushing-societys-building-block

Democrats Should Remember that They Won Florida in 2000 https://theintercept.com/2018/11/10/democrats-should-remember-al-gore-won-florida-in-2000-but-lost-the-presidency-with-a-preemptive-surrender/

Ohio in 2004: None Dare Call It Stolen https://harpers.org/archive/2005/08/none-dare-call-it-stolen/

Reform the Electoral College – Learn More About the National Vote Pact https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/episodes-transcripts-20/2024/5/28/reform-the-electoral-college

“The work of Project 2025 is largely done. Under Paul Dans, the project has assembled a database of more than 10,000 names — job candidates vetted for loyalty to Trump’s cause — who will be ready to deploy into federal agencies after the 2024 election.” https://x.com/AlisonKodjak/status/1819335000434548958