that s, right it s a strategy to discredit everything the professor said i m leaving it with the endgame is. as a strategy to discourage people from believing in the power of their voice told powerful people accountable. and the reality is that in michigan, and then everywhere else, you can trust there s also an election that will be an accurate reflection of the will of the people when you vote your vote will count, and as you mentioned, your systems and protocols in place to ensure not just the security of the election, but also the accuracy of the results after the fact. what we have been seeing in michigan for years now, but really not take over the last few weeks, is a steady stream of efforts to misinform and discourage the people from participating and to try to get the votes thrown out or invalidated wrongly, once cast. there s a lawsuit right now attempting to do that but also so seeds of doubt about the process and discourage people from participating. but the process itsel
and corrupt, that they lose faith and the idea of electing leaders, choosing leaders through elections, and when that goes out the window, it opens the door to authoritarian ways like a january six q. and so, the endgame is to really get americans either to be too afraid to show up to vote on one hand, or to just believe that elections don t mean anything because it is all corrupt. this is not yet another element in the book, that you ve written, and that is the donald trump, we ve heard him say that i alone can fix it. i have a quote from lucid about strongman and the book that you have written. the aim of the savvy strongman is to get the nation to accept his coming crackdowns and extra legal actions and remember them as necessary and justified. actions and reyour vote tells tt you remember that democracy
history in my un author of lucid about threats to democracy and the book strongman from new cell is new to the presidency, and i said vote while it still matters, i didn t say but why you still, can but you don t need to lose the vote in order to lose democracy. that s right. today it is less common outside of china and north korea to shut down elections altogether. today, you keep elections going but you find myriad ways to get the results that you need. and so here we have really and practices of gerrymandering and racially motivated voter suppression, and what is new is this big a lie, which was created as we all know to self serving by donald trump and his portable. nobody can be in many trump and refused to concede. and this refusing to concede, this electoral overthrow, is what is new. and it is a form of party corruption. it is a form of institutionalize lying. and so, then you pair that with
it is not legitimate. it deserves to be locked up. ruth, thank you so much again for your research, ruth ben-ghiat is a professor of hero history at nyu, and she s the author of and enjoy now but jocelyn bench, and she s much of the court secretary of state g20 for reelection this year and she s the author of the book secretary of state, guardians of the democratic process. she was with me couple weeks ago i was in michigan. secretary benson, good to see you again, thank you for being with us, and ruth really outlined the various butts that officials like you are facing this year in the election. it is not the legitimacy of the election, because you know about that. you conduct audits, particularly in michigan, to determine the safety in the efficacy of elections. but this violence and intimidation thing has become very real and michigan, largely because you had a plot to kidnap your governor by people who are conspiracy theorists, and this trickles down into people s minds about
stand with us. what is happening. the senate has passed a big climate and health care bill, over 50 democrats voted for, it and all 50 democrats voted against. kamala harris cast the tie breaking vote. it is a major victory for the democrats heading into the midterm, republicans did manage