wants to see president trump reinstalled as the president. there s just a real lack of information from the supreme court on all of these issues that should be transparent in a democracy. but, again, there is just no sort of accountability, and i feel like this is sort of a moment in our times where you don t have that from former president trump, you don t have it from the people in the supreme court, you don t have it from republicans who or certain republicans in congress, and no sense from the electorate that this is something that is completely intolerable to have in a democracy where these people are public officials who work for us, not the other way around. all eyes on the supreme court. ian, thanks for spending time with us.
maim name has also been barred from the ballot. that decision also remains on pause pending a decision on former president trump s appeal there. yesterday, petitions were filed in massachusetts and illinois to take trump s name off the ballot there. the list of states could continue to grow until the supreme court weighs in. while those close to the president say he is concerned the supreme court might rule against him, his attorney says he has nothing to worry about. here she is on fox news. i think it should be a slam dunk in the supreme court. i have faith in them. you know, people like kavanaugh, who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he ll step up. joining our conversation, former top official at the department of justice, andrew weissmann, ian and the rev back with us as well. andrew, what do you expect to happen here? i can tell you two things i m going to be looking for. i think the most important thing is obviously, you know,
that s not typical. it could happen here, but they may get some clues as to what they re focusing on by how they grant in this case. ian, talk about donald trump and his team. we often talk about the ways in which he operates, like a mob boss, the way he sends messages, perhaps not directly but through surrogates. the fact that you have alina hava showing up on fox one day saying he s worried the court won t rule in his favor and then another day saying they expect justices like justice kavanagh to, quote, step up. i mean, the subtext seems pretty clear. well, it s remarkably poor strategy. they re used to bullying elected officials who need to run for office in republican primaries who depend on trump s blessing. but of course the justices of the supreme court have life tenure, and they want to establish they re independent. i think that strategy of trying to pressure, bully, or intimidate justice kavanagh is
his time has gone on. politics, fear, money, all have intervened. but now these maga voices will know the truth about trump and have abandoned the truth and abandoned democracy. they made their choice. now the rest of us, democrats, independents, mainstream republicans, need to make our choice. that is where we start today with co-founder and executive director at protect democracy, ian bassett, and with me at the table for the hour, president of the national action network and host of politics nation here on msnbc, reverend al sharpton. we ll be joined by others in just a few minutes. ian, your reaction from what we heard from president biden. i have high standards when it comes to people talking about democracy, and i thought the president was absolutely outstanding today. i think he did four things incredibly effectively that were important. number one, he made clear
storming the building, ready to kill people that they might find. and if you can bring yourself back, as you ve watching this right now, to how you felt at that moment, whether you were a democrat, whether you were a republican, whether you were a progressive, a moderate, or conservative, we were all horrified. in the days after that, there was broad unanimity that donald trump had crossed a line and could not be allowed to even remain in the presidency, potentially through the end of his term on january 20th. and the only reason we as a nation don t feel that sense of unity today is because donald trump and his followers have launched a three-year propaganda effort to dissuade us from remembering the truth. and the president brought us back to the truth today and reminded us of that unity that we need to put back together in 2024 to preserve democracy. one of the other things the president did, ian, was put this in a global context. he try v tied what s happening