 Well, friends, I just want to take a moment to congratulate the former president of the United States Donald Trump for a new high score Whoo, looks like we're gonna we're gonna go for three indictments three three indictments two impeachments legally liable for essay, I mean if Racking up legal trouble as a former president's were some sort of a game He would without a doubt be the winner now Listen, you may get the sense that Trump doesn't pose as big of a threat in 2024 because of all of the legal trouble that he's in But to the contrary, I just don't think that that's true. It would be true if we lived in a sane world The problem is that we don't live in a sane world He is still the GOP's 2024 frontrunner despite being indicted twice and as ABC News reports He was just notified by special counsel Jack Smith that he is the target of another probe Which means a third indictment could be imminent and I don't think any of us expect this to change his status as GOP frontrunner Now he acknowledged the latest probe on truth social Predictably calling it a witch hunt and saying this is tantamount to election interference and the weaponization of law enforcement Now normally you would just ignore Trump when he says things like this, right? But the difference from his previous died tribes on social media and this one is That the things that he's saying now because he is not just a presidential contender But the frontrunner for the GOP it has very specific policy implications and what he's saying is dangerous So the subtext of what he's saying there is that since Biden is able to interfere in the election by Weaponizing law enforcement to go after his political opponents Well, maybe he should be able to do the same thing if he's elected presidents again In fact, this isn't just speculation because he explicitly said this after his second indictment I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president of the history of the United States of America Joe Biden and And the entire Biden crime family name a special prosecutor And all others involved with the destruction of our elections our borders and our country itself They're destroying our country So in other words, I'm going to do what I'm accusing the Biden administration of doing which I said is bad I will weaponize the Justice Department to go after my political opponents Now don't you think that if he actually believed that what Biden was supposedly doing were bad that he would instead call for reforms to enhance Accountability and transparency and the autonomy of the Justice Department and not just pledge to conduct himself in the same exact way Which he deemed as corrupt doesn't that seem a little bit weird No and said he's broadcasting his intent to do bad things with the excuse being that Democrats did it So I can too Now the thing is that these investigations are not Political witch hunts and if Biden had complete control over the Justice Department Don't you think that he wouldn't allow them to investigate him for his handling of classified materials and his financial ties with Hunter Biden? Don't you think that Biden would just shut that down unilaterally? See the reason why a president could seemingly be investigated by his own Justice Department in the first place is because It is an independent agency But Trump has signaled that he'd bring an end to the Justice Department's autonomy How? Well simply by appointing someone like Jeffrey Clark to the Justice Department if he's elected Now for those of you who don't remember Jeffrey Clark is somebody who Trump tried to name as his Attorney General back in 2020 In an effort to help him steal the 2020 election But Trump backed down after the Justice Department employees threatened him with mass resignations But if Trump wins in 2024 Here's what that means for Clark and the Justice Department in general as the new york times explains Mr. Clark who was a favorite of mr Trump's and is likely to be in contention for a senior justice department position if mr Trump wins reelection in 2024 wrote a constitutional analysis titled the u.s Justice Department is not independent that will most likely serve as a blueprint for a second trump administration Like other conservatives mr. Clark adheres to the so-called unitary executive theory Which holds that the president of the united states has the power to directly control the entire federal bureaucracy And congress cannot fracture that control by giving some officials independent decision-making authority So this is why what trump is saying here Is more important than his usual diatribe He could potentially consolidate power and actually weaponize the justice department to go after his political opponents And when people like myself push back They'll cry hypocrisy or accuse you of selective outrage for not condemning biden for doing the same even though biden did not do that but to average voters That argument seems compelling on its face And that's an issue because it gives trump the legitimacy that he needs for that type of a power grab But trump's ambitions for executive power extends even beyond that because as the new york times explains Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal to alter the balance of power by increasing the president's authority over every part of the federal government That now operates by either law or tradition with any measure of independence from political interference by the white house According to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies like the federal communications commission Which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies and the federal trade commission Which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses under direct presidential control He wants to revive the practice of impounding funds Refusing to spend money congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn't like A tactic that lawmakers banned under president richard nixon He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants Making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies the state department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials He has vilified as the sick political class that hates our country Quote the president's plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn't been done since fdr's new deal Said john mccante a former white house personnel chief who began mr. Trump's systematic attempt to sweep out officials deemed to be disloyal in 2020 And it was now involved in mapping out the new approach Quote what we're trying to do is identify pockets of independence and seize them said wrestle t vott Who ran the office of management and budget in the trump white house and now runs a policy organization the center for renewing america So their goal is a complete paradigm shift to fundamentally reshape governments and expand the power of the presidency Thus upsetting the balance of power and further eroding the principles of democratic governance And that is horrifying because they're just Admitting that they're going to do this right And republican primary voters. They just don't seem to care. Maybe they don't know but if they did know outside They probably wouldn't care trump is the frontrunner by far And once you open the door to this idea that the president has absolute power Absolutely, then really anything becomes permissible anything is possible. He even joked about packing the supreme court You know many presidents never get the opportunity to appoint the supreme court justice I had three they are going They are they are not happy about that And maybe we'll get three or four more. Can you imagine? Let's get seven Let's have let's have seven or eight or maybe even nine Now to be fair, there's nothing in the constitution preventing him from doing this In fact, it's a move that i and others encouraged biden to make in order to rebalance the court After republicans stole two seats But trump's justification here is that we should do it to trigger the libs Whereas the justification from the left is that we should do it to address the court's legitimacy crisis Corruption and enhanced democracy. So the court better represents the american people There's a real meaningful difference there between Those two justifications But that clip gives us some additional insight into trump's governing philosophy to the extent that he has one right I don't think that he has a cohesive view of how government should work or who it should work for But to him He thinks that it's not really about the people. It's not about serving the people who elected him He doesn't want to be a public servant. He wants power so government can better serve Him and his thirst for power is only going to grow Because it's not just about his ego and narcissism Narcissism any longer. This is about him getting elected again so he could save his ass From serving any prison time because that executive immunity is definitely going to come in handy if the legal issues continue to pile up And that is why I say that as his legal troubles become worse He's going to become more dangerous, right as the indictments pile up his thirst for power It's only going to deepen and that alone is dangerous, but what makes matters even worse is the fact that the republican party They enable him for example Look at how marjorie green reacted to his indictment and don't miss the Freudian slip at the end Nothing wrong with asking for election fraud and yeah, he can say hey, where are these votes? First of all, he didn't ask where the missing votes were He straight up told george's secretary of state brad raffensperger to find him the votes meaning cheat And you've got to love how she said at the end there There's nothing wrong with asking for election fraud because even if she didn't intend to say that vocally, right? We all know that that's how she feels within her heart But you could argue that marjorie green's opinion doesn't really matter because she's just one republican politician And nobody really takes her seriously and i'll grant you that point But here's what the speaker of the house and leader of the republican party said in response to a potential third trump indictment Well, I guess uh under a biden administration by america you'd expect this if you notice recently President trump went up in the polls and was uh actually surpassing president biden for reelection So what do they do now weaponized government to go after their number one opponent? It's time and time again. I think the american public is tired of this They want to have see equal justice and the idea that they utilize this to go after those who politically disagree with him is wrong And that right there is why I find this moment so dangerous It's not just trump who's saying these things republicans with real power are parroting the dangerous things that he's saying And it's not like this is a new phenomenon, right? But I think that as time goes on as trump gets more desperate the threat increases And once you kind of accept this idea that biden weaponized the justice department against his political opponents Which again is not true But if republicans believe it then you kind of have to allow trump to do the same thing if he's in power again Otherwise You're just the useful idiot for liberals republican voters are never going to allow you To get away with it if you condemn trump because well Biden did the same thing, right? So in conclusion, even if trump's attempt to move us closer towards authoritarianism ultimately fails The problem is that he has already legitimized the prospect of authoritarianism He has gone g.o.p. Voters to think about the end of democracy and us having a dictator And many of them are comfortable With that so long as he's the dictator, right? And that in and of itself is bad for democracy So this crucial moment In america's history is something that I don't want people to take for granted, right our governments It might be too dysfunctional to materially deliver anything for the american people or save us from climate catastrophe But here's the thing if we lose what's left Of democracy then the small chance we have of making any difference disappears entirely And I would rather have a small chance to make a difference and save the planet Then have no chance because the stakes are very high right now And even if it is a 0.5 chance If democracy is so dysfunctional that that's all that affords us in terms of change as people I'll take that over zero percent and it's sad But that's where we're at unfortunately and I think that we need to be realistic about the situation that we're currently in