this hour in our country s history stands in contrast to a republican party devoid of an agenda, other than serving a disgraced twice impeached ex-president who tried to overturn and steal the results of the 2020 election. president biden described the 2022 election has a, quote, defining moment for the country, denouncing the gop s embrace of rhetoric that all too often has resulted in or coincided with violence, most recently with the attack on speaker pelosi s husband paul pelosi and his democratic predecessor president barack obama used his talent as a speaker, as a message deliver, as a leader, and lent his credibility as a popular two-term president to that message that democrats are right now the only ones, the only party, that believes in democracy and fundamental american values. it was something. watch. what we have to remind ourselves is that there s this common thread, there s this thing that binds us together as americans, a belief that no matter who we are or
true count maybe on election day. and i just want to ask you one more question. i think that what happened in 2000 was this earthquake, right? trump sowed doubt about the election we know from the january 6th committee that he was working with tom fitton on invalidating the election seven months before he lost it. the truth is our democracy is in worse shape now. i mean, 48 states passed voter integrity laws after the courts, many of them led by trump-appointed judges, found zero fraud. the democracy s in worse shape now than it was two years ago. do you think that our expectations are too bleak? do you think they are not bleak enough for what could happen tomorrow? i think that we ought to have a high level of concern because otherwise we ll be taken by surprise. so i think it is legitimate to be alarmed. look, the window of what is acceptable has shifted. so again, in my home state of wisconsin the chairwoman of the state assembly elections committee actually is pushing to
themselves as the party of patriots, how does that square with any patriot who wouldn t want to make election day a holiday? great question, stephanie. it really boils down to respond first to marco rubio by saying the root of this is the 2020 election and president trump claiming there was widespread election fraud in the system, and fact is, there is none, there is no widespread, systemic fraud. and the greatest fraud perpetuated in american politics today is the notion there was. all the discussions about the voting rights bills and federal holidays and mail-in voting all stem from the 2020 election and the lie that president trump sowed then, millions of dollars of lawsuits, texas attorney general, the arizona audit, all
shown nothing, in fact only thing some shown, handful of cases of voter fraud for president trump. it doesn t exist but that s the root of all the legislation. three-quarters of republicans in the party still believe the election was stolen, so they think any efforts by democrats are designed to make the fraud even greater when we know that s not the case. those republicans still believe it or trying to still sell it to people who don t know better and warp other truths? perfect example, kill the filibuster is getting misrepresented just like defund the police. don t need to get rid of either but both need reform and improvements. is that what democrats need to lead with? because republicans are going to make this a talking point and run with it, just like defund the police. i mean republicans are going to lie just like they have every