In short
The hosts argue Donald Trump is laying groundwork for another January 6-style attempt to overturn elections, focusing on a Supreme Court emergency ruling against new mail-in voting restrictions.
Guests/backgrounds
Jennifer and Josh Welch host the episode; no other guests are interviewed. The transcript cites Benjamin Hovland (former Election Assistance Commission commissioner) as an external source.
Key claims
The Supreme Court blocked an executive effort to restrict mail voting via USPS involvement. The hosts claim Trump wants voter lists, barcoded envelopes, USPS screening, and federal intimidation of election officials to enable exclusion of voters and manipulation. They also allege Trump is pressuring Supreme Court justices through Truth Social posts and promising “slush fund” rewards to January 6 felons.
Notable examples
The emergency shadow docket decision; references to dissents by Justices Thomas and Alito; DOJ letters and lawsuits seeking unredacted voter lists; claims of election deniers placed in county roles; threats involving DOJ, Homeland Security/FEMA funding, and “election integrity officers.”
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOSupreme Court Ruling on Mail-in Voting
1:05 to 2:58
Discussion on the Supreme Court's ruling against Trump's mail-in voting restrictions.
“And we have to ask the question, is Trump trying to create another January 6th?”
Critique of Conservative Values
2:58 to 4:35
Exploration of the hypocrisy within conservative stances on states' rights and federal intervention.
“So, number one, my whole life, all I have heard about is states' rights from conservatives.”
Trump's Manipulation of Voting Process
4:35 to 7:18
Analysis of Trump's attempts to influence the mail-in voting process and the implications for democracy.
“Whenever you think of fascist governments, authoritarian governments, and you think of lists, very unsavory historical things come to mind.”
Political Pressure and Threats
7:18 to 10:12
Discussion on Trump's tactics to intimidate justices and undermine election integrity.
“You've got workers that will do the things that he wants you to do.”
Election Manipulation Strategies
10:12 to 14:00
Insights into Trump's strategies for undermining election integrity and the role of federal agencies.
“California has two senators and North Dakota has two senators.”
Trump's Election Tactics and Democracy in Danger
14:00 to 19:24
The discussion centers on Trump's strategies to influence elections and potential threats to democracy.
“And that's why we want to shine a light on it.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:28Honey, what are you listening to? Who says Halloween only lasts one day? With Wayfair, one night of Halloween becomes a whole season at home. From larger-than-life yard decor and moody lighting, to festive accents for every room in the house, Wayfair has what you need to make Halloween feel like magic all in one place. Because the best Halloween memories aren't made in just one night. They're made all season long. Shop Halloween decor now at Wayfair.com. Wayfair, every style, every home.
1:01Thank you for joining us. It's Jennifer and Josh Welch. And we have to ask the question, is Trump trying to create another January 6th? And think about it. He keeps talking about wanting to pay the slush fund. He wants to reward people that commit crimes for him, specifically people that are willing to commit felonies to overthrow an election. And this week, the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration's request for new unprecedented mail-in voting restrictions. Josh, tell us about that. Well, the court ruled, obviously, that President Trump could not use the United States Postal Service for this mail ballot.
1:42Basically, didn't give a long opinion. This was on the emergency shadow docket. None of the justices signed that opinion. I think it was only maybe two paragraphs. There were two notable dissents, obviously, from the two bootlickers. You've got Justice Thomas and Justice Alito that President Trump could literally take a shit on the White House lawn and they would probably vote that that was he had a constitutional right to do that. They would do whatever this man says. So it's no surprise that he did not have those two. But I mean, this is pretty it's a it's a huge victory for Democrats, because if that executive order were to be implemented, it would throw the election cycle into complete chaos.
2:27It's not legal, but assuming that the court did allow it, there's not enough time to implement it either. So it would have opened the door for the federal government to intervene in state elections and given Trump the right to make these false claims and use his authority and power in that way to impede the will of the American people. So this was a huge victory for the American people and the people doing the hard work taking these cases to the Supreme Court. The lawyers, kudos to them. They deserve credit. All right. And here's some tidbits from this, what Trump wants. Trump's plan would have required states to provide lists of voters' names approved to receive mail ballots, require specific barcodes on envelopes, which would require a rushed redesign of ballots ahead of elections, and use USPS to screen ballot envelopes after they are submitted.
3:19So, number one, my whole life, all I have heard about is states' rights from conservatives. States' rights. I believe they overturned my right to go to an OBGYN and have a private appointment because they valued states' rights. Conservatives did. But conservatives believe in absolutely nothing. They want states' rights when they can take away people's rights. And now that they have the federal government, they want a big, overreaching federal government. And poof, guess what's happened? The don't tread on me crowd are now all ICE agents, the people who warned and went bananas about, oh, the federal government.
4:00We have to be a well-armed militia. Well, now they are a well-armed Gestapo-style force for Donald Trump. I imagine that Samuel Alito's wife has had to change her flag collection quite a bit, considering the don't tread on me folk are now big federalists and they're all about the big federal government. Democrats and voting rights groups have said that Trump's plan is unconstitutional, a danger to our democratic process, and would deny millions the ability to vote. But I also want to get back to, Josh, the lists. Lists. Whenever you think of fascist governments, authoritarian governments, and you think of lists, very unsavory historical things come to mind.
4:44And so this is something that the Don't Tread on Me crowd should be leading on. And again, I point this out to show that conservatism is solely about eroding civil liberties and handing big fat checks to rich people. They are a death cult. And Donald Trump had a complete truth social meltdown about this, which is basically just a Tuesday in America. And he says Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the court system took forever to give and then blamed it in part on no time left to implement a solution to our totally corrupt and out of control mail-in voting disaster, which is a laughingstock all over the world.
5:33That is a lie. That is a lie. Foreign countries send observers to observe our elections because voter fraud is so minuscule. Even the Heritage Foundation, which I believe the Heritage Foundation's book, Project 2025, is a modern day Mein Kampf. That's what I think. I think the Heritage Foundation are Nazis. Even they did their own investigation into voter fraud. And surprise, surprise, they found very little, minuscule instances of it. Teens share everything. That may include the bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease known as meningitis. Even if your teen's been vaccinated in the past, they could still be missing meningitis vaccinations.
6:19Ask your teen's doctor or visit meningitis.com today. Sponsored by GSK. Well, and it's just another example. I mean, President Trump uses his truth social account for propaganda to lie. And he does it every day with impunity. And the media in America don't properly frame everything that he does. Like there's no truth in anything that he says. We have a leader that you can't believe because he lies at will. He's a compulsive liar. He's a racist. All these things are proven by his own conduct. And so what they were trying to do here was try to get the Postal Service under the thumb of Donald Trump to be involved in the election process, to be involved in getting the names of the voters in these states, getting their addresses.
7:10And that's kind of a pretext. Once you get the Postal Service involved in it, then you've got someone who will conduct the will of Donald Trump. You've got workers that will do the things that he wants you to do. And then he can manipulate whatever it is he needs to manipulate. Whatever database he needs to exclude voters from, he can do that. And so it was a huge victory, again, for this not to happen. But there's nothing that this man won't do. He's just that one tweet alone targets all of the members of the Supreme Court. And I don't like the Supreme Court, You and I are very critical of them.
7:48But when he does that, he's selectively targeting them to put pressure on them, to intimidate them to not do this again. That's his tactic. And they feel it. And those justices feel it, too, which they should. But they've created this monster. So they need to lie in bed with it a little bit and feel that. And so the question that I proposed at the top of this episode is, is Trump trying to create the next January 6th? And we know that he learned from Trump 1.0, there were too many guardrails. There's just too many. I wasn't able to cheat. And the most humiliating narcissistic injury he's ever experienced was not the 34 felony count convictions.
8:33It was losing to Joe Biden, having to get a Marine one and get helicoptered out. And the injury was so profound to his little fragile ego that he couldn't even be a big boy enough to go stand on stage for the peaceful transfer of power. Think about, you know, Josh and I, we watch a lot of tennis and you see these tennis players battle for five hours and the loser has to stand on stage and go through a whole trophy presentation and say, you know, and they're about to cry. They're about to vomit. They're cramping and all this stuff. This guy couldn't even do that because he wanted to cheat. January 6th was a failure.
9:08So he goes on to post on this. It is a big loss for Republicans and America itself and makes cheating by the radical left Democrats on mail-in ballots a much easier thing to do. And now they have an open field to do so. And then he puts this in bold. The Supreme Court has really let our country down. Certain justices are petrified of these crazed and depraved Democrats and are totally unable to show the courage necessary to save our America. He is laying the groundwork here that these justices are not saving you. So only you can save you. The current Supreme Court is a 6-3 conservative majority and three justices that Trump appointed himself.
9:57And I want to remind everybody, it's really important that everybody understand this. Those three justices were appointed by a president in Trump 1.0 that didn't win the popular vote. So much of our government is a lie. We're a democracy. It's representative of the people. California has two senators and North Dakota has two senators. The problem with that is there's tens of millions of people that are underrepresented in California because of that. Likewise with the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court is minority rule. A lot of these justices as well were appointed by George W. Bush, the dumb Bush, who also didn't win the popular vote.
10:39And so you have minority rule in this country of mediocre white people clinging on to the patriarchal rigged system that helped them get to where they are. So in creating this split screen about how dangerous this moment is, you hear him putting pressure on the Supreme Court. They're totally unable to show courage. That's what it told these these justices are totally unable to show courage necessary to save our America. Kylie, pop up what he tweeted about Mike Pence. Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution. This is eerily similar, eerily similar.
11:24And on top of the fact, Josh, that he is telling these J6 felons that they're going to get a slush fund. And we've reported that some of these felons are molesting kids, sexually raping kids and telling them, If you don't tell anybody, as soon as I get my money from Trump, I'll pay you off. And that's documented. Well, and one of the things that scares me the most is during Trump's first term, he had Mike Pence. He had Bill Barr. He had some people that when he came down to his plan to overturn the election, they pushed back. Certain people did, in fact, push back. And I'm reminded now that Trump has the full will of the Department of Justice under Todd Blanche.
12:17He has he has them doing whatever it is he wants them to do. He's got all of his agencies are now, as you pointed out on this show, that are filled by people that are as corrupt as he is, that will do whatever he wants them to do. So if, in fact, he's laying the groundwork for another 1-6, the danger here, the real danger is the fact that he now has people in these positions that will be complicit with these government agencies, whether it's the Department of Justice, whether it's the FBI, Department of Defense even with Pete Hexeth. I mean, he's got all of these different agencies that will follow along with this plan, and that's dangerous.
13:01He didn't have that before. He had to rely upon these one sixers on the ground. Now he's got government. And he's still trying to sow as much distrust as possible. Benjamin Hovland, former commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission, who was pushed out by the Trump administration this year, said, What you're seeing is using the apparatus of government, using federal agencies, using taxpayer dollars to push that narrative that only undermines confidence in our democracy and ultimately hurts voters and election officials. Trump keeps claiming widespread election fraud. He's also placed at least 25 election deniers in critical county level election positions across the country.
13:52You guys, what we're covering here is the fix. And the fix is he is trying to get this fix in. And that's why we want to shine a light on it. Since 2024, he's, wait, I'm sorry, guys, since 2024, adding to at least 69 who were already in office, the Justice Department has sent letters to election officials in at least 30 states demanding access to voter data and election records. Again, again, is it states' rights conservatives or is it a big, big brother overreaching surveillance state? Pick a side and Let us know. The DOJ has also sued 30 states for unredacted voter lists and have lost 23 of these cases with pending decisions in the remaining seven.
14:40So, again, when Trump goes to court, he loses unless he goes to the shadow docket. And this time, miraculously, they held the line. But each decision on these shadow dockets, Josh, they keep inching closer and closer and they keep turning up the temperature more and more, in my opinion. And when you see pushback from the Supreme Court, it's normally something that's so blatantly clear and obvious or something they're concerned about as far as the state of democracy. I mean, our democracy is on the line now. All of it is up for grabs. I mean, these are not normal times at all. One of the things we failed to mention is that DOJ has called a lot of these states to and basically threatened to charge them if they find any election fraud or anyone voting.
15:30They can't vote. So he's using DOJ to basically intimidate. It's his own police force that he's using to intimidate state officials anywhere. And then we covered, I think, a few days ago, the segment about whether or not Kash Patel is going to try to have FBI officers at the polls. That's another tactic that they're using, these election integrity officers. Yes. And he's also using another department of the United States, aside from the FBI, which is the Homeland Security. And the Secretary of Homeland Security, Senator Boosterbox, Mark Wayne Mullin, claimed election officials may face prison time if they do not comply with Trump's attempts to change election policies.
16:16FEMA is threatening that if states do not change election policies, they'll risk losing millions in federal terrorism prevention funds. Trump has also cut funds for election security. And so we're asking you guys very seriously, use your critical thinking here. Is this guy planning another January 6th? Is he planning that for the midterms? Because there's no way this man is not capable of tucking his miniature balls between his legs and saying, you beat me fair and square. You know, I respect the will of the American people. That's not what we're going to hear. And it goes back to the point that you bring up all the time, Josh, and I bring all the time.
16:59So many Americans celebrate a cheater and a liar. Yeah. It's the first time, I think, in our history where it became cool to troll people and be mean to people. It became acceptable to do that. I think one of the times we saw the White House trolling maybe Venezuela or the president of Venezuela when he was arrested, like doing these things that— When he was kidnapped. Yeah, kidnapped. Yeah. Basically against his will that the democracies don't do that countries that have a legal system where there's a presumption of innocence. You don't engage in that. But we're just in a completely different time with a completely different president.
17:41He's going to do whatever he has to do to remain in power, period. Right. And keep the Republicans in power during the midterms, too, because he knows what's coming if he doesn't. So every means necessary will be deployed. Expect that. And I want to just encourage our viewers, reject wholly the corporate media narrative, where they are not fixated and focusing on this, where they are asking Democratic candidates if they campaigned with Hassan Piker and all of this shit that doesn't matter. What matters is our democracy. What matters right now is this regime are liars and cheaters and crooks and criminals and diabolical war criminals.
18:21And they are locking people up in concentration camps right now. It is happening right now. There are children separated from their parents, crying, eating food with worms in it. And anybody who is talking about all the comment section politics is a corporate shill who wants to put a shiny object in front of you because this man is incapable of the truth of free and fair elections. He cannot, his narcissism cannot handle this type of injury. And so is he with those true social posts, is he riling up the next round of rubes, going to promise them big payouts, you know, their lottery win if they go and harass Supreme Court justices or go and do something at the Capitol?
19:24Who says Halloween only lasts one day? With Wayfair, one night of Halloween becomes a whole season at home. From larger-than-life yard decor and moody lighting to festive accents for every room in the house, Wayfair has what you need to make Halloween feel like magic all in one place. Because the best Halloween memories aren't made in just one night. They're made all season long. Shop Halloween decor now at Wayfair.com. Every home.
From the publisher
Is Trump gearing up for a second insurrection attempt?
Pre-order Jennifer’s new book Not Today, Fascists today: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast
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