believing a cause that drug some of them to commit violence, that started before the election, did it election night. the big lie doesn t even begin to describe this. i think it creates the native you were discussing earlier with michael moore, that there is just no ifs, ands, or buts about this, and it shows all the multiple ways that he tried to act upon that lie. we begin on conversation with you referring to the country. what about the audience at doj? you covered washington for a long time. does something like this move them potentially or not? well, i think the fact that merrick garland has appointed a special counsel, who seems like a dedicated public servant, who is taking this seriously, from what we can tell, that they re
a lot of democrats in the small subset of republican taupe. there is two ways trump could face consequences here because of the hearings. hearings have been masterful. we know we are going to get a couple more in september. one would be, we are seeing that is polling numbers, among republicans, slipped. not a lot. but have slipped. and then perhaps giving an opening to other republicans to speak freely against him, or maybe even challenge him in 2024. we re seeing former vice president, mike pence, in the early days of washington days himself. but in the other cases, in for more significantly, is that the audience of, one is merrick garland. the department of justice, of course, watching his proceedings carefully. if they were to proceed with the criminal charges, that would be an explosive political development, and a historic one, that would of course really complicate matters for trump going forward. timing, interesting the merrick garland sitting down for his first interview with o
garland. the department of justice, of course, watching his proceedings carefully. if they were to proceed with criminal charges, that would be an explosive a historic one. that would of course really complicate matters for trump moving forward. timing, interesting the merrick garland sitting down for his first interview with our colleague lester holt. whether or not trump moves forward, the big lie doesn t dominate in 2022. has trump and his allies field even deeper distress in our election system? that whether or not we have trump, he has caused fractures that are here to stay. at least for the foreseeable future. well, that s what my book hopes to really point out here. it s not a trump book. it s not even a january six book. because january six, though a combination, in a way, a trump s big lie, is far from the end of the story. what we have seen from his false claims of election fraud is republican state legislatures, using that is pretense to cover to restrict
sure survey showing 82% people who trust fox news still believe the 2020 election was stolen. sometimes you ll hear trump s hand maidens point to that lack of confidence in the election as the reason why they re pursuing voter suppression and election subversion efforts under the cloak of election integrity. but, of course, that confusion is a direct result of trump s lies. and that s why we wanted to offer up a definitive list of the nearly 200 times trump claimed our elections were rigged, stolen, or fraudulent. before the 2020 election. because that s how you can see the trump big lie doesn t have anything to do with the specifics of the 2020 election. it is a cut and paste job, a reflexive bleep whenever trump is confronted with the reality of his worst fear, that he is a loser. and you can see it, and trump s first appearance on a
it has nothing to do with the debunked claims of fraud. it has everything to do with trump trying to protect his fragile yet massive ego from the prospect of loss. even at the expense of our democracy. and that s your reality check. john avlon, thank you very much. we re just a few minutes away from what could maybe possibly potentially be a pivotal moment for the fate of the biden agenda, maybe. perhaps. plus, chris rock goes off on anti-vaxxers, this includes athletes. and did wokism cost democrats at the ballot box? don lemon will join us live on that.