rerement, ben is feeling totally zen. that's the planning effect from fidelity. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com reminder, don't miss if you will circle, our digital news show. you can catch it live mondays, wednesdays, thursdays at cnn.com. the news continues with jim acosta and "democracy in peril." thank you very much. tonight as we continue our series, we have to consider this very serious possibility. >> we are going to take back

america. this is so important. and in 2024 we are going to take back the white house. >> now, despite all of the lies donald trump tells, this could actually come true. remember 2015 and that escalator ride into all of our lives. a lot of people didn't take him seriously before that. there was a lot of disbelief he would actually follow through on his bluster of running the first time. so, this time around we might want to believe him. we have no reason not to believe he's running again, which means the nation would be facing the nightmare scenario of a wanna be dictator in which people died attempting to regain the highest office of the land. imagine trump thugs wearing trump hats and t-shirts after running loose inside the halls of congress. imagine those thugs carrying that man back into power,

cheering him on at the next inaugural parade just three years from now. please don't tell me that can happen again because you know it could. but none of that is a disqualifier for most of his party in congress. even lindsey "enough is enough" graham is back on the trump train after a brief -- and i mean brief -- moment of clarity on january 6th. >> can we move forward without president trump? the answer is no. >> and that's from someone who once called trump unfit for office and a race baiting, xenophobic bigot. 147 republicans voted to overturn the election to keep trump in power because of his power over them, because he owns them. they know he's not going anywhere any time soon. they're not going to cross trump when he still commands a vast network of right wing propagandists, people like lou

dobbs, the same dobbs who was fired by fox after they were sued by the company smartmatic for spreading lies. >> we're trying to get to the truth. i was demanding investigations throughout. there were so many irregularities, so many anomalies, as they're called, so many bizarre instances where it looked like someone was committing fraud because otherwise why would they put cardboard over windows to keep prying eyes away. >> they accumulate thousands of votes and they just dump them. it's such a phony deal. this whole thing with the ballots, you know, the mail-in ballots -- >> right. >> -- it's a terrible, terrible thing. >> you know what's terrible? that. he knows he lost. he knew before the election he might lose. that's why he planted the seeds of the big lie early on and created this alternate reality. and now his supporters have taken refuge in that reality all because of the real possibility

the lord of the lies could run again. and if he does and wins or tries to steal it from the voters, all bets are off. as one trump adviser once told me, if trump gets another term in office, he will be even worse. and don't take it from me. take it from his former press secretary. >> if he gets in office, he doesn't run for re-election again, he'll be able to do whatever he wants. and we know there's going to be retribution. there's going to be revenge. people think that the people in that trump white house were bad, perhaps? i have a feeling the 1/6 crowd might be working in the white house in 2024. >> believe it. joining us now for more context on the ongoing impact of the big lie is right ben gee yot, a professor of history at nyu and author of "strong man: mussolini to the present." right, great to see you. thanks so much and thanks for all of your expertise on this

subject. why do you think it is so important for p trump, do you think, he be seen at least for now as the only real republican contender for 2024? >> because he's invested a huge amount of time and effort creating his authoritarian leader cult and imposing that on the gop to make them do his bidding. and he's been highly successful. and when he was voted out, some people said, oh, his cult will go away now. and i said, no, no, it's not because he will be thinking about coming back. in fact, it's been very interesting. what the big lie did, very smart on his part, was meant that his supporters never had to reckon with the fact that he was defeated, so they didn't turn the page. he kept them loyal to him through the big lie. and this is -- this is the typical autocratic move. one of the reasons trump loves viktor orban so much, identifies

with him, the head of hungary, is that orban was voted out and spent all this time figuring out how to come back and stay there. >> wow, which is something we could see repeat itself here in this country. and you see all of these right wing cheerleaders on fox like tucker carlson almost begging for it to happen. right, how is it that a defeated president who lost the popular vote by any other president retains this power over his party the way one does? is it because he is -- he's invented this fantasy world and he's got them all trapped in there? >> what he did is what so many strong men in the past have done. he scanned the political marketplace, and he saw an opening in creating a kind of big tent for all the malcontents, all the the extremists, and allowing the gop to partner with him to realize this kind of fantasy built on

lies and, you know, white christian utopia because both of them know that the gop, you know, can't win the popular vote. it needs to use trickery to have minority rule because it won't accept what we are in america, which is a multiracial democracy, something to be proud of. instead, it creates this universe full of, you know, fantasies and lies. and so donald trump, you know, they use each other. this was what happens with autocrats and their parties. it's like a mutual using. and one of the rules is once the party is domesticated at the beginning by the autocrat, they stick with him to the bitter end, through impeachment, through, you know, negligence like pandemic mismanagement. it's quite extraordinary, but it's completely backed up by history. >> and they will stick to his alternate universe, his alternate reality in pursuit of those common goals.

you know, ruth, even if trump doesn't run -- and i think there's a real possibility he will run. i think he just can't stand the fact that he got beat, and he doesn't want to spend the remaining days of his life being a loser. how likely is it that the threat of authoritarianism inside the republican party remains. could they find a smarter trump, a more crafty trump, who doesn't make the same bumbling mistakes that trump did? >> yeah, well, a lot of people are auditioning. i've got my eye on ron desantis, who, you know, we can laugh at him copying trump's hand gestures. i won't demonstrate. but he's in florida creating his own little autocracy. it's like all these people are rehearsing for their parts in the autocracy to come, and there's tucker carlson, minister of information. and this is very typical. what we're living through now is the gop is constructing a authoritarian political culture

to support a liberal rule. and a lot of the stuff going on now -- like, look how many people were involved in january 6th are running for office. that's because -- >> right. >> -- you need extremists in government and in the party. and then you have these mini-trumps who have learned the lessons of trump and want to surpass him like desantis. so, all of these things are legible, are understandable through the, you know, making an authoritarian culture for the future. >> and based on all -- should we even view the republican party as the republican party, you know, of, you know, just the last ten years? i mean, has it changed so much that it really -- it should be called something else? the trump -- i've been calling it the trump-owned party, the t.o.p. but it's not really the republican party you and i grew up with. >> no. it was already on its way to becoming an extremist party, but -- and losing some of the

values of bipartisanism. and then trump arrived just to kind of soup it up and accelerate it. and they were ready. and this is where it's this meeting of circumstance and charismatic leader. and the party has completely transformed itself. but the thing is that trump put it under a kind of authoritarian discipline that you see really in regimes. and so think about the unified messaging. think about how he punished people who voted for his impeachment. you know, they had to go buy body armor. all of these -- this is like authoritarian dynamics. and trump was very successful in doing this. and so the republican party is now a far right party, an authoritarian party, which is not invested or interested anymore in the practice of democracy. >> all right. thank you so much for those insights. we appreciate -- always great to talk to you, give us a lot to

think about. you've done it again tonight. thanks for your time. great to see ruth. if trump does run in 2024, there could be different people in positions of power to oversee elections in key battleground states, people who might be willing to find him the votes next time like this. >> i believe it was stolen, yeah. >> there you go. much more in a special report, when "democracy in peril" continues. why do people who live with generalized myasthenia gravis want a new treatment option? because we want to be able to get up and get ready for work. because the animals need to be cared for, and we like taking care of them. because we want to go out to dinner with our friends. because, in family photos, we want to be able to smile. a new fda-approved treatment for adults with generalized myasthenia gravis could help them do more of the daily activities they care about.

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these candidates are gaining traction. >> good morning! we thought we would catch up with you here. >> reporter: for someone running to be nevada's chief elections officer, republican secretary of state candidate jim martian doesn't want to say much. >> what are you here talking about? >> election interrogation. >> what do you mean by that? >> election interrogation. >> reporter: he doesn't want to talk to the press. >> so, anyway, thank you. >> reporter: but the owner of the sandwich shop invited us in to the public section of the restaurant, where we heard behind this gray curtain marchant tell a crowd the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. >> i'm the only one that believes in the election fraud. >> reporter: eliminate all voting machines, early voting, and mail-in ballots and get new paper ballots from an unknown company somewhere in texas, he says.

>> this ballot you hold it up to a black light you can see water marks and holograms. >> after his speech we ask him again about nevada's 2020 election results. trump lost the battleground state by more than 30,000 votes. >> i believe it was stolen, yeah. i mean, i believe that there were enough irregularities that we need to do an audit. >> 30,000 irregularities? >> sure. i think more. do an audit. why won't you do an audit? >> because there's no evidence to suggest -- >> oh, there's plenty of evidence. >> reporter: there is not plenty of evidence. four separate nevada court cases were dismissed due to lack of evidence. and the current secretary of state, a republican, investigated and dismissed dozens of claims of fraud. with the midterms and 2024 on the horizon -- >> we formed a coalition may 1st, and these are the

candidates here, patriots. >> reporter: marchant says this group of big lie believers have organized to run in secretary of state races, hoping to administer elections in key battleground states. this is a qanon convention last fall. on stage with marchant in his trademark white cowboy hat. >> we know it and they know it. donald trump won. >> reporter: trump has endorsed finch m to be the secretary of state. he believes the will of arizona voters should have been ignored in 2020. >> with all the evidence we have, the election should have been desert identified. >> reporter: another candidate, jodi heist -- >> the results remain unchanged. >> reporter: is challenging the secretary of state in georgia. >> jody is running against rhino brad raffensperger.

>> reporter: raffensperger denied this outrageous trump request. >> i just want to find 11,780 votes. >> reporter: and then there's michigan's christina kra mow. >> i want to thank jim marchant for putting the coalition together. >> reporter: another marchant ally. she's posted lie after lie about michigan's elections. >> it is not right. there are hundreds of thousands of votes allowed to be considered as lawful votes and we know they're illegal. >> reporter: we've been trying to reach her for several days, and she has not replied to our request for interview. so, on her campaign website, there is no address for a campaign office. we did get an address for her house. so, since it's her house, we're not going to go up there with a camera or a microphone, but i am going to knock on the door and see if she will consent to an interview. >> so, i talked to her father. at least that's how he

identified himself. and he said leave your business card. we'll see if she calls you back. >> reporter: a few days later she posted my business card on her facebook page, writing, i will not be intimidated. but she never did call me. >> we are seeing a coordinated effort by extreme republicans to undo american democracy. and part of that effort is to win these key swing state, secretary of state seats. >> colorado secretary of state is chair of the association of secretaries of state. democrats raised $4.5 million last year for secretaries of state races, a record for the group. >> the stakes could not be higher. we are at code red for american democracy. and secretaries of state are one of the last stop gates to safeguarding democracy. >> reporter: but the true battle will happen in the primary, says ben ginsburg, who hopes his party will flush out the extremists. >> please pay attention to these races. they matter about whether your

vote counts. as a republican, it worries me a great deal for the future of popular credibility in elections that the role of secretary of state, a non-partisan election role where you have to call balls and strikes, is becoming so politicized. >> reporter: back in reno, nevada, at jim marchand's campaign stop, the lies sink in. p. >> i believe in his efforts, and i totally support him. >> yes, there was fraud. 100%. >> i just want to understand in 2020 because a republican secretary of state was in office, you still think that there was fraud. >> oh, yes. oh, yeah. >> is it just having a republican secretary of state or a trump-backed secretary of state? >> a trump-backed, yeah. because we have a lot of rhinos. >> reporter: and marchant is ready to put his plan in place. >> what would you do as secretary of state that would change things? >> i'd do the job that the

secretary is supposed to do, secretary of state is supposed to do. >> which is what? >> ensure that we have a fair and transparent election. >> and you do not believe that that's currently what's happened? >> i think there are enough anomalies that warrant an investigation. >> and kyung lah joins us now. incredible piece. great work as always. i've got to ask you do you think any of these candidates have a shot at winning? would they actually go through with overturning election results that clearly show perhaps a democrat won instead of a trump-backed republican? >> well, there are some containers, some guardrails on what a secretary of state does. and it has to go through the legislature. but certainly there could be some significant issues if any of them do become the chief election administrator in a battleground state where there's so much attention. now, as far as whether any of them actually stand a chance,

it's early. but we do have some tea leaves at least in the fundraising numbers. i want to point you to arizona and to candidate mark finchem, the guy in the white hat you saw in the story. >> right. >> he raised more than $650,000, a close number, jim, that suggests he certainly has a lot of energy. and the people donating to him are small dollar amounts. election experts fear he has certainly a lot of momentum on his side. >> wow. to think all that fundraising is going into races most people didn't even think about in years past, and now a lot of attention being paid to these very important contests. kyung lah, thank you for that report. for other troubling threats to democracy rngs disinformation fox news and yes, you, tucker carlson. >> why is it disloyal to side with russia but loyal to side with ukraine? >> we're going to help him out with an answer.

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if you've seen my comments about fox news in the past, you are well aware of the nickname i've given the network. it's the bullfactory, but maybe it should be the bull sho vicks. judging by how the network spews pro-putin propaganda. >> why is it disloyal to side with russia but loyal to side with ukraine. they're both foreign countries that don't care anything about the united states. kind of strange. imagine if mexico fell under the direct military control of china. we would see that as a threat, of course. there would be no reason for

that. that's how russia views nato control of ukraine, why wouldn't they. we don't get anything out of pushing ukraine into nato, so why are we doing this? >> you should hear how conrad tucker sounds when he's translated into russian, as in russian state television. they're eating it up like a bowl full of borscht, pointing to what he's been saying for months. apparently the same goes for viewers of trump state tv, and that is fox, of course. tom malinowski says his office is getting calls from folks who say they watch tucker carlson and are upset we're not siding with russia. tucker has even laughed at the idea that the u.s. would defend ukraine militarily. >> fringe has sent this tweet, quote, having lost in afghanistan, the graveyard of empires, the regimes next military adventure, invading russia in winter. perfect. >> yeah, not sure why he's laughing. it should be noted that lawmakers from both parties, as

well as foreign policy experts, have long said that putin's chief objective is to reconstitute the soviet union. sound farfetched? last december reuters reported that russian state tv had aired some provocative comments from a documentary "russia: new history." in that documentary, putin lamented the collapse of the soviet union, saying it was a disintegration of the historical russia under the name of soviet union. we turned into a completely different country. and what had been built up over 1,000 years was largely lost. yet for months during the escalating tensions between russia and ukraine, tucker has been questioning by the u.s. doesn't side with the kremlin. >> why would we take ukraine's side and not russia's side. sincere question. if you're looking for the american perspective -- but why? who's got the energy reserves? who's the major player in world affairs? who's the potential counterbalance against china, which is the actual threat? why would we take ukraine's

side? why don't we have russia's side? i'm totally confused. >> clearly. ukraine is a democracy. russia is an authoritarian regime that is seeking to impose its will on a validly elected democracy in ukraine. we're on the side of democracy. >> yeah, i'm for democracy in other countries, i guess. >> that was ohio republican con congressman mike turner taking tucker to school, saying the u.s. stands up against dictators who want to expand their borders by force because we're the good guys. now sure putin is more czar than communist, he may be the oligarchs oligarch. but don't forget the russians jail -- last september a european human rights court found the kremlin responsible for the 2006 poisoning of a former russian intelligence official who defected to the west. so, tucker is clearly standing on the side of a dangerous

autocrat with delusions of grandeur. and not just because tucker can relate to that. it's because tucker seems to have a thing for autocrats, a strong man fetish. lately he's been fixated on hungary and victor war bonn. last year tucker aired his show from hungary, and now he's back with an interview with orban, who makes clear his disdain for migrants coming into his country. >> birthrates are declining. that's true in this country as well. it's true in europe. the populations are literally disappearing. most governments ignore this trend or import more citizens from the rest of the world. >> we would not like to leave this country to the migrants. >> we would not like to leave this country to the migrants, orban said. sounds familiar if you watch tucker's show and all of his segments demonizing immigrants as, quote, making the u.s.

dirtier. never mind the fact that this nation was built by immigrants and that our traditional national motto is e pluribus e numb, out of many one. he is playing divide and conquer for ratings. the biggest example of that may be closer to home and the covid pandemic. on almost a nightly basis, tucker brings on guests who peddle antivaccine non-sense, like this segment that aired last night. >> these mrna covid vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market now. no one should get them. no one should get boosted. no one should get double boosted. they are a dangerous and ineffective product at this point against omicron. despite that they make your body make that you then produce antibodies to is not the omicron spike. >> to be totally clear, what he is saying is absolute garbage. no pushback from tucker. these vaccines have been proven

to be safe and highly effective. and just as tucker and the bolshevik factory are acting as a mouth piece for putin, they are doing something perhaps even more destructive. with the u.s. approaching 1 million deaths from covid, fox and the people ultimately in charge there, the murdock family, are inflaming a public health crisis. to the murdocks, it's your network. you own this. you own tucker's program that's putting our health care workers in peril, putting our hospitals in peril, putting all of us in peril for ratings, for money, so these american oligarchs can keep pumping out bull into our homes. now, if only there were a vaccine for all of that. and if only there were an answer to this question pushed by another trump sympathizer. a u.s. congressman is openly wondering if we've ever seen a

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the far right in this country is still in an unrar after president biden apologized for insulting a fox news reporter with an expletive. of course it wasn't great. it was wrong. but this is the same group of folks who came up with excuse after excuse for this behavior. >> the fake news is in fact -- and i hate to say this, in fact -- the enemy of the people. >> you didn't use it to ramp up testing -- >> you're so -- you're so -- you're so disgraceful. >> do you want them to bring in robert mueller. >> what a stupid question that

is. what a stupid question. but i watch you a lot. you ask a lot of stupid questions. thank you for telling me that. see, there's a typical fake news deal. no, look, look -- >> i told you when she was reported -- >> you're a third rate reporter. and you're a disgrace. the same thing with april ryan. i watch her get up. you talk about somebody who's a loser. she doesn't know what the hell she's doing? >> what do you say to americans who are scared? >> i say you're a terrible person. you're a rude, terrible person. you shouldn't be working for cnn. when you report fake news, which cnn does a lot, you are the enemy of the people. >> and of course i can't forget the moment where the president called me the enemy of the people. but now compare sean hannity last night responding to biden's blunder with his reaction to trump's attack on the media. >> biden once promised to restore civility, telling his appointees he would fire them on

the spot if they disrespected others. of course the rules, they don't apply to joe. and his comments about peter ducey are especially ridiculous, given that biden's own weakened mental abilities -- >> by the way, all those people in the back are fake news. >> there's sean, trump's mouth piece. now, given trump wants to run again and will likely have the full support of fox and the rest of the right wing echo chamber, what could that mean for the fate of the free press? it's an important question tonight. i want to bring in media attorney ted boutrous. great to see you, as always. i must note ted actually represented me when trump tried to take my press pass away at the white house. we got it back. we beat trump. but, ted, i was thinking of sending a fainting couch over to fox news in their studios, but i figure they had plenty of those, along with some pearls to clutch. your thoughts?

i mean, we just saw trump -- he drove all of these attacks against the media. what happens to the media, do you think, if trump runs again and wins? >> well, jim, it was very amazing. it's great to be with you, and it brought back a lot of memories. i think what we're going to see are continued attacks on the press. the legitimate news gathering that's so important. the supreme court has said over and over again, including in citizen's united, a case that conservatives like and liberals don't like, that the first amendment protects the ability of citizens to hold the powerful accountable, to get the information they need to govern themselves. and so this disinformation campaign coupled with attacks on the press is really harmful to our democracy, which is, i guess, the topic of this entire show. >> no question about it. and what about this anti-press sentiment that's taken hold inside the gop over at fox? that's just not going anywhere.

and what does that mean for news organizations here in the united states? i mean, i guess i should say around the world because as you and i both know, ted -- we've talked about this -- there are so many regimes around the world that have adopted trump's name calling, calling news organizations fake news and using things like "the enemy of the people" to defame journalists and so on. >> it's very, very troubling and very dangerous. it em boldens leaders around the world to abuse the press, to clamp down on the press. the republican party -- most republicans in office in running for office, part of their brand is to denigrate and dely jit mize the press. the harmful thing is that makes it so that citizens don't believe what some of the best reporters and journalists in the world are telling them based on their news gathering activity. but they're believing the disinformation, the lies about the 2020 election, the lies about covid.

and that makes it so we're in an ir rational society and democracy just can't function. so, if we have a replay, if this continues, it's going to hurt everybody. it's going to hurt republicans. it's going to hurt all journalists, all commentators. it really needs to stop if we want to preserve the country that we have. >> and what about these lines being blurred between those in trump media and trump government? you know, he enlisted fox news anchors as his advisers, hannity, ingram and so on. he hired a former fox exec bill shine to run his communication shop at the white house, had robert els helping him with the debate in 2016. it goes on and on. if trump or someone like trump were to take office in 2024, how much further can we see that line get blurred between the government and the media? and what does that mean for the first amendment, for the free press in this country? i mean, it was almost becoming like a state tv type situation

the first time around. >> it's terrible. and it's gotten even worse. trump has hired devin nunes, the former congressman who broke a record for filing lawsuits against reporters and journalists and a fake pal on twitter for defamation. he's going to be the head of trump's new media company, which is just crazy. and i think the sort of blending together of what the public sees as journalists with the government is a very, very bad development for everyone, for citizens, for journalists, for the political people who want to run a government. so, i think it's dangerous, jim. i did think it was funny all the hand wringing over pete ducey and president biden called him and apologized. and in your case, they stripped your press pass away in the dead of night. >> right. >> so, there is a huge contrast. and, again, no presidents really like being badgered by the

press, but that's what reporters do. they're meant to irritate the president and the government on behalf of all of us to get information out of them to protect us against autocracy and authoritarianism and abuse of power. >> that's right. i mean, that's what we do. we're doing our jobs. and that noise is the sound of functioning democracy makes. and ted, as you know all too well, going along with trump's attacks on the media you see death threats against journalists. you see, you know, people like, you know, my long-time friend brian karim, april ryan, people like that getting all kinds of death threats because they went up against trump. we'll talk about this further another time, ted. but really appreciate the insights. thanks so much for coming on. ted boutrous, thanks again for your insights tonight. we appreciate it. >> so great to be with you, jim. thanks. >> all right. great to see you, ted. and toxic polarization is poisoning america, but if there's any hope of finding the

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as we close another night reflecting on the state of democracy and how it's going to be saved, one thing is clear. it's going to take all of us, everyone on the left and the right, to reach solutions. but how do we do that in the age of toxic tribalism and the big lie? perhaps it's a matter of realizing the dangers of illiberalism. john avlon, that is a concept that he's going to break down for us in tonight's "reality check." john, it's an important topic. >> it sure is. it goes to the heart of what we're death with right now. because jim, the core o'problem in our politics is this poisonous polarization. it's the feedback loop that drives americans into competing rival tribal camps convinced that the other side is not only mistaken they're evil. and this is primariesly a matter

of negative perception driven by which side of the divide people feel is a bigger threat to our country. that of course makes reasoning together almost impossible. but we've got to recognize both sides of the feedback loop before we can fix it because it's compounded by a coring confusion over political labels today. namely this. the far right today is not conservative. and the for left is not liberal. think about it. conservatives often trace their roots back to edmund burke, an 18th century british statesman who rightly criticized the mob rule rad koolism of the french revolution. he preached gradualism, the wisdom of tradition and constitutional order. so there's literally nothing less conservative than the trumpist mob's attack on our capitol and the constitution's peaceful transfer of power. embracing a lie to attack the foundations of our democracy is the opposite of reason and patriotism. on the far left there's a perception that a rising generation of radical activists sees america primarily through a lens of group identity politics, pursuing the goals of social

justice with a cancel culture fervor that condemns even reasoned dissent. this fixation on our differences rather than our common humanity is inconsistent with classical liberalism. and it it ends up fueling reactionary forces. taken together, this fixation on negative perceptions amplified by hyperpartisan media kills societal trust and creates mutual incomprehension. but here's an essential point to remember. these two perceptions are not equivalent, not remotely, when it comes to the reality of our politics or the danger to our democracy right now. as conservatives pete wenner and jonathan rouse recently wrote. "the liberalism -- it dominates the trumpist republican party with its big lie litmus tests. by comparison the far left is primarily a cultural porous. only 15% of democrats describe themselves as very liberal according to a 2020 pew survey. neither president biden nor democratic leaders in congress support defund the police or

open borders or any of the other ster dwro types pushed on right-wing talk tv. but they do serve a powerful cultural ifrtant to folks who see their anxieties about demographic change taking place in real time, and all this can fuel political backlash as liberal "new york times" columnist michelle goldberg pointed out in a recent essay called "has the left gone wrong?" over the past year a lot of leftists and liberals alike have come to believe the language of social justice left is needlessly alienating, she wrote. the broader left has got to let go of the illusion that there exists a mass of alienated potential voters waiting to be roused by a sufficiently radical message. that means progressives have got to go into elections with the electorate they have, one that's more conservative than the one they would like. that's an important concession to reality because the fixation on what she calls the language of the social justice left does undercut the big tent coalition that's needed right now to defend democracy from the forces of the big lie. perhaps one way to find common

ground while countering these illliberal trends on the left and right is to to forthrightly dechd liberalism again. yeah, i know, the term liberal's been a political weapon since the days of lee atwater. but here's the thing. it's actually about something much bigger than partisan politics. because liberal values include absolute equality under the law, the right to self-determination, freedom of religion consistent with the separation of church and state, and freedom of speech, even on college campuses. with vibrant civic debates rooted in the understanding that everyone's entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts. what a concept. but perhaps most of all, liberal values are rooted in universal individualism, the belief that all human beings should be seen as individuals first and not primarily as members of a group. this remains a rebellious idea because it rejects the reflexive tribal groupthink that dumbs everybody down while fueling resentments that exacerbate our divides. and by offering a road map to reconciliation in a time of reactionaries and radicals it

might just help americans refocus on what really matters right now. the common defense of our liberal democracy. and that's your "reality check." >> great stuff, john avlon. a lot to think about. really appreciate that. john avlon, thank you. and we'll be right back. ent. ...with a typo. aaaand most of the info is totally outdated. orrrr... you could use slack. and edit your message after it's sent. [sigh of relief.] slack. where the future works. and it's easy to get a quote at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows a whistle. [a vulture squawks.] oh boy. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty♪

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and that's it for us tonight. join us tomorrow as we examine the trump loyalist takeover of the georgia gop. "don lemon tonight" starts right now. >> mr. acosta, i've often wondered on this very program if we are past the point of no return re our democracy in peril. and watching kyung lah's piece tonight kind of made me think we might be past the point of no return. it's really frightening what republicans have done across the country when it comes to putting election officials in place even on the judiciary.