It will for, i think, a larger segment of the population that people may realize. And i think thats one of the dynamics that both campaigns but especially the Biden Campaign has to take into account is youve got the other variables you cant take your eye off of. And there are many of them and i am glad you all underscored them. Thanks a bunch for you guys and see you next week. All right my friend. Velshi begins now. Good morning. It is sunday march 17th. Happy st. Patricks day. 2024 has been dubbed the year of elections. Citizens of many countries will head to the polls this year, including in eight of the ten most populous nation in the world. But some of those elections are less legitimate than others and one of them is happening right now. At some point today, we will get the results of russias president ial election. Its a real nail biter. Putin is facing off against three nobody who barely campaigned and in reality its a foregone conclusion. Even though you may see images like this, of people casting ballots at Polling Stations in russia this weekend, the choice has already been made for them. The government previously disqualified a pair of Opposition Candidates and those who remain on the ballot pose no actual threat to the russian president. Putin will, quote, unquote, win a fifth term in office and run the country for another six years. Putins russia is an autocracy dressed up to appear like a democracy. Thats why its troubling donald trump who is now the Republican Partys presumptive president ial nominee openly admired the russian president for years. Shortly after putin won in 2018, then President Trump was given briefing notes ahead of a call with the russian president. It was from Trumps National security advisers and in one section they wrote in all caps, do not congratulate. But of course, trump picked up the phone and congratulated putin for winning the fake election anyway. There were plenty of reasons not to congratulate the russian president then. The American Government had just blamed moscow for poisoning a former russian spy on british Soil Which Trump neglected to condemn during that same call. Putins chief critic Alexi Navalny was banned for running for the president ial race that year. He is now gone having died last month in a siberian prison under mistiersous circumstances. But that phone call was a classic trump moment. At once, it exposed disregard for political norms his apparent i go nance of diplomatic relations, and his admiration for strong men. It was not an isolated incident either and it is not limited to putin. Ten days ago, trump welcomed the Hungarian Prime Minister to his maralago resort in florida. It was a great photo op for one of europes most notorious leaders to be seen with a former american president and didnt take long for orban to make a propaganda featuring trumps remarks about him. Theres nobody thats better smarter or a better leader than victor orban. Hes fantastic. The Prime Minister of hugary. And does a great job. He is a noncontroversial figure because he said this is the way its going to be and thats the end of it right . He is the boss. A lot of laughs in that room. Democracy in hungary eroded under his rule for the last 14 years like in putin He Russia Corruption is rampant both cracked down on the press and free speech and suppressed lgbtq rights among other reports of Human Rights Abuse. A week and a half ago he called him fantastic leader and said having him at maralago was a great honor and uncritical of auto kratts with corruption and Human Rights Abuse depicts kim jong un as a tough, smart guy and boasts about Friendship Claim kim wrote him beautiful letters and they fell in love. He praised chinese president xi and his hard lien tactics during a fox news town hall last july he had this to say. Think of President Xi Central Casting brilliant guy. When i say he is brilliant they say thats terrible. He runs 1. 4 billion people with an iron fist. Smart brilliant and everything perfect. Trumps warp respect for thor tarians extends to some historys worst figurer jon kelly said he said hidler did good things. Trumps continued reverence for thor tarians is troubling to say the least. At gop presumptive president ial nominee has tried to overturn the results of an American Election once before. Despite his continuing attempts to weaken our system of government we still have a democracy for now. But if trump is able to power and control it he may not let go of it again. Joining me is Senior Correspondent covering college democracy and right wing popsie and staff righter and author of important books. Welcome to both of you. Thanks for being with us. And the title of your book, seductive lure of thor of author terrorism. It lured donald trump and he talks about thor tarians with unabashed admiration. Its true we in america we assumed that certainly since the end of the cold war, we assumed that democracy was more attractive than Departicular Ateorship and most leaders would prefer that. Trump has broken with that, and reminded us that throughout history most democracy failed. Most of them eventually fall apart. Most eventually collapse into civil war. And ours has in the past. And, of course, could again. His affiliation, his alignment with foreign dictators is because he admires strength but he is interested and has actually imitated some of the things he has done. You mentioned victor orban didnt become a dictator in one day. He was democratically elected and after the election, he proceeded to step by step take part the take apart the democratic institutes of the country and you can see trump questioning the validity of election attacking independent organizations and Research Organizations of all kinds. Attacking judges and seeking to assuming theres my judges and their judges. And seeking to perpetuate that. Talking about the military as if it was my military and if it was something he could use personally for his personal political gains. American Foreign Policy to be use personally. Those are things he is learning from other dictatorships. And thinking about and people around him are thinking about bringing them here. Zach, lets. That more looking at russia where theres elections today or iran where there are elects, but they are rigged and you cant run if the government doesnt approve of you. The results are foregone. But lets talk about some of the places like hungary where in the midst of slightly dismantling democracy orban won or turkey where he does similar things in human rights and won again. Or underan where he will likely win again this year despite doing similar things. This idea that you have the vote and you vote for people who take little bits away on the edges of your democracy. So, think its important to understand the Democracy Thor Terrorism a bright line and a spectrum which i mean theres a real distinction a clear one between a democracy and authoritarian systems but there are variance of different kinds of thor terrorism from china and russia on one end thats extremely repressive to like hungary if row are not familiar with the technical ways he rigs the elections functionally without stopping the ballot box it would look like a democracy and it does. And a lot of people in the United States especially a lot of sympathetic conservatives, really believe its democracy and gets upset when you tell them the 0 of the state of the media is controlled by the government and its allies and that several society functionally doesnt have a free voice. And that the Electoral System is through gerrymandering and different means such as the district use of Campaign Funding it is rigged so he can stay in power. Its not designed to look that way. People genuinely believe in what the government is selling for a variety of reasons and they need that otherwise the softer thor terrorism doesnt work. And so they are supporters but it doesnt take away from the fact democracy disappears. The Chinese Party has genuine supporters and you can have supporters real ones and be in an authoritarian system. When donald trump makes speeches and i you know he did one last night and he goes farther and farther one might think it would ill ate mainstream voters. It wont ill ate the hardest Core Trump Supports but others. Why does it not . Why does it creep towards authoritarianism and not alarm more people when they tell you this is just him talking. Its trump being trump. How do you respond to that . I think there are a couple of answers. I think one of them is that people again, people have this assumption that our system is the best, and its always going to be the way it is and they cant imagine or they are unable to see the ways in which its deteriorated or declined. I remember once working on an article venezuela and reading that even well into many years into the chavez regime when he was in position when he couldnt lose elections, some large percentage of venezuelans still believed their country was a democracy. So, reminding people that its not just thability to vote or say what you want around your table reminding them there are consequences and subtle changes can bring about big changes. I think thats part of it. And i think another part of it is connected to extreme polarization. And many people say, okay, trump is bad, but the left is worse or okay trump is bad, but markists are taking over the schools. So the way in which a part of the former Conservative Movement has weaponized issues and made people feel they have to make a stark choice on the one hand they will be they will go down a left wing markist hell hole and keep america together thats been much more successful than others like to naj. One of the things trump said because it sounds like someone worried about trump becoming president might use he says if it is not one i am not sure you will have nor election does that make sense . I dont think you will have another election if we dont win. I dont think you will have another election or certainly not oop election thats meaningful. He is got his followers who believe that to be true, theres a a deterioration of democracy of america something we can all understand, but in the view of donald trump and his supporters, the other is responsible for the deterioration of democracy not him who denied an election and continues to fight the outcome of the last election. So, thats a really critical point. So inside established democracy like the United States, the typical pattern for authoritarian deckry days which we the from a digsal style is not this what they say are things along the lines. They salem protecting demock so and orban says theres no democracy in europe that liberalism is antidemocratic and and he is protecting Hung Hungarian democracy and Benjamin Netanyahu said we dont live in democracy but a rule by courts. You see similar patterns in india. All of these and i discuss all the examples in the fourth coming book the Reactionary Spirit that analyzes this but the basic point is when democracy is dominant when people around the world use the language of democracy in human rights and the Gold Standard which we judge regimes even nondemocratic regimes want to be democratic because they risk losing support of the people especially a country of a long robust history of democracy or lip service to democrat being ideals. Thats happening in the u. S. And hungary and increasingly central problem to understand if we want to grapple with the decline of democracy around the world. What an important discussion. Thank you. I wish i had continued the conversation for the two hours but we will have you on more to have the conversations because they are crucial. Zach senior Coursens For Vox And Applebaum historian and staff writer. Also during the dark rally last night in ohio, republican nominee for president described the human, trying to come to the United States as animals. Sadly didnt stop there. In a moment we will talk to the political pollster about what that means for the future of our democracy and how it is affecting the National Discourse in america. Also, msnbc joy reid joins me to discuss what trump said and litany of legal troubles and her new book coming up on velshi. Coming up on velshi. New footlong sidekick. Like the ultimate bmt with the new Footlong Pretzel. 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You will destroy Small Business. Reporter Tiktok Creators Desending on the capitol. You need to make your voices heard. Call them and tell them to stop the ban. Reporter hoping to save the social media giant. Tiktok appealing directly to its users. We had millions of kids calling congress and some cases threatening suicide. Reporter and flying them to washington. What would it mean to you and your family. It would be devastated to launch out a positive message would be message. Reporter and it passed in a landslide and heads to the senate if signed into law it would force bytedance to sell the platform within six months or face a possible ban in the u. S. The big of the markets 167 million americans use the platform including 7 million Small Business owners now worried about their livelihoods. Its