Background Briefing (5am)

Michael Podhorzer / Elizabeth Goitein / Spencer Sunshine

How the Roberts Court Laid the Groundwork For a Plutocratic and Theocratic Takeover of American Democracy

We begin with the groundwork that was laid so that Trump could take power, backed by the oligarchs and theocrats who financed his election, and focus on the Roberts Court that made it all possible in a purposeful project to do by judicial fiat what could never be done by any other available democratic process. We discuss how this is not a “judicial power grab” because Leonard Leo’s Supreme Court justices aren’t trying to grab power for themselves but for the oligarchs and theocrats who have their loyalty. Joining us is Michael Podhorzer, the former political director of the AFL-CIO who also founded the Analyst Institute, the Independent Strategic Research Collaborative, the Defend Democracy Project, and the Polling Consortium, and helped found America Votes, Working America, For Our Future, and Catalist. In 2020, he played a pivotal organizing role in the effort to prevent Trump from overturning the election results, and his early leadership in evidence-driven politics was documented in the 2013 book The Victory Lab. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and writes the Substack Weekend Reading, where his latest article we discuss is, “Change No One Would Have Believed: Audacious hopes recede in the rear view mirror.”

Trump’s Plans From 1798 Law to Use the U.S. Military Against Migrants and Drug Cartels

Then we examine Trump’s plans to use the U.S. military against migrants and drug cartels after invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in his inaugural speech and speak with Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Previously, she was counsel to Senator Feingold, Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She is the author of The New Era of Secret Law and has a thread on X and Bluesky laying out the implications of President Trump’s executive order to develop a military campaign against migrants.

In Releasing Jailed Militia Leaders, Is Trump Following Mussolini and Hitler’s Playbook of a “Blackshirt” and “Brownshirt” Assault on Democracy?

Then finally, we look into Trump’s release of 1,500 January 6 insurrectionists, including leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and analyze how much Trump is following the playbook of Mussolini and Hitler, who organized the “Black Shirt” and “Brownshirt” militias as a precursor for a fascist takeover from democratic rule. Joining us is Spencer Sunshine, who holds a PhD in Sociology and has written extensively on the U.S. Far Right. He is the co-editor ― with Pam Chamberlain, Matthew N. Lyons, and Abby Scher ― of the Chip Berlet festschrift Exposing the Right and Fighting for Democracy. He has also written for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Daily Beast, The Forward, and is the author of Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege. We discuss his article at The New Republic, “Donald Trump Is Building a New Army of Foot Soldiers.”