if. you are. hello i'm tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture bipartisan resistance to donald trump's selection integrity commission is growing by the day but is it really what it seems more on that with greg palast in just a moment and of donald trump isn't

a fascist why does he keep making speeches the sound like they're straight out of the nuremberg rallies brian pruitt alex lawson in tonight's politics. forty five states have now said that they won't give sensitive voter data to donald trump's so-called electoral election integrity commission theoretically at least this is good news the election integrity commission is a sham led by the king of cross-check himself former secretary of state from kansas kris kobach it's a blatant attempt at a national voter suppression campaign but according to my next guest the bipartisan resistance forseen to the states and the commission's data request isn't what a scene is joining me now is greg palast investigative reporter and creator of the new documentary the best democracy money can buy a tale of billionaires and bandit ballots alice welcome back. me with you

tom so first off can you explain for us alou will more detail about what the specific voter data the trump is or the trump administration co back is asking for and why do they want that data and why is it such a big deal for them to be asking for ok number one what they want is the entire voter files of all fifty states you know your name last four numbers of your social security number your address your voting history your party preference etc and. and that's what they want for the national for this investigation of voter fraud now what's the danger why not give it to them by the way most of this information is public the danger is this we know what kobach has done with these lists before and the g.o.p. is done specifically kobach who by the way has kept his title as secretary of state of kansas and is running for governor there while he's on the presidential commission and he's also by the way kept a third hat he is counsel to

a group called fair which is a guess what white supremacist organization he has these three titles and what he's done with the list before for example has created what we've talked about on this program something called interstate cross-check where he hunts for double voters if people vote in two states in the same election yeah that's a crime put him in jail but what he's done is he's created a list ready seven point two million names of suspects of people who are suspected of voting twice this is where ronald because they were all rated this were donald trump has said that there are three million illegal double voters because those seven million names those are three million pairs of names like james brown. who they say are voting twice in the evidence and i have those lists tom i'm the only journalist who asked for the list and got them. you know it's james thomas brown's mostly the same voters james edwards in other words. double voting on

a mass basis is a fraud these are there are millions of fraudulent voters there are fraudulent secretaries of state and con artists like kris kobach that's why they want the list because he's got twenty eight states he wants the others especially california and texas to knuckle under to turn over their files because it will have a whole bunch of names to match like you know out of california jose rodriguez david wong and he can knock off more voters of color because that's what this list ultimately does it's a way to suppress the the vote of african-americans asian americans hispanics and by the way it's done a real job on student voters as well that's why they want the rest of the list because he's only got twenty eight mostly republicans so as i mentioned forty five states have said no we're not going to give you that data you say you know a wait a minute hold your horses this is not what it sounds like. well as frank sinatra

told us fairy tales may come true they could happen to you but not in not with republican secretaries of state they in fact so for example the louisiana and mississippi republican secretaries of state there little katherine harris's in charge of the voting in those states they say the guy from mississippi said kobach and trump can jump in the gulf of mexico as far as he's concerned never given the stuff louisiana said they've asked for this stuff these files before will never give them over guess what fact check both the louisiana and the mississippi secretary of state both republicans handed over their lists to kris kobach in january but instead of sending him to their washington to his washington office they sent it to his wichita office. the secretary of state's office in kansas same thing no difference so they gave him the voter files including the social security numbers etc twenty eight states have done so by the way of the forty four resistors

i've counted twenty one of the resistors have already turned over their list to kobach so guys i love the press releases and i know you were called by c.n.n. and said would you dare turn over these listen coursing not i but sixteen republican states on the c.n.n. resistors list have already turned over their voter rolls with all that information to kris kobach in wichita and by the way and one and a democratic state virginia we've called their office and asked why are you doing this if they know we don't want to be in cross-check i said why do you give them the list we don't use the names why'd you give kris kobach the list terry mcauliffe the governor has said we would never give them the list but sorry governor you already have how. well what they do is and talk about and secure they actually e-mail this information to the secretary of state of kansas

who then puts all these twenty eight lists that he has together looks for these phony matches and the way puts them together he sends them to an insecure server in alabama which just merges all these names together and every time it finds james brown and i kid you not five hundred eighty seven james brown's in georgia have been tagged by his double voters even though almost none of the middle names match . so he just mushes them together it's all in secure and then he sends the the data back to each state saying here's your potential double voters and and then they start the process of removing people from the list first they send you a postcard don't return that postcard my friend you'll lose your vote what kobach wants to do in his federal position is get the states that are completely resisting his interstate cross-check operation california is is he's been in a big fight with alex but dia the secretary of state of california says you're not

getting your hands on our list mr kobach we know what you're going to do with them you're not going to get them that's going to be some states are honest but but you have to understand most of the republican in fact almost every republican state that says we're resisting almost everyone has already given kobach their lists oh well our viewers should know that you actually confronted kris kobach during about cross-checked or in the film in your documentary at its best democracy money can buy there's like a year ago let's take a look at this right now let's listen to the secretary of state and this is a you know how can you have these is the same voter potentially the same voters that are our system we're not you know this is from your system but. john all of these are his matches this is the list you gave your genius and on the basis of this list you know that region you remove forty one thousand voters based on the list you gave them that is all. but three. cancel the registrations of these voters. yeah so why why

and given what you know about what i already why why how do you see this situation with the so-called election integrity commission playing out. well you know putting kris kobach in charge of investing election integrity is putting al capone in charge of investigating the mob i mean look i've been on this guy for four or five years now and he's you know i'm like the sherlock holmes his dr moriarty i've been tracing this guy he's behind trump's when absolutely cross-check gave michigan and had something to do with with turning over ohio arizona and and other states i mean the problem is that i've been raising the warnings about kobach but it's very hard to get the mainstream media to focus in on the facts and so they love fairy tales like oh everyone's resisting the request to turn

over their records that's press releases they just ask him would you turn over your records they say no i'm sorry this is not how the game works the republican secretaries of state are very have joined together not only on interstate cross-check but i understand that using list for a second purpose kobach has stated are you ready for this time that he's got access to all of the homeland security files based on his new federal appointment and he's going to use those files a list of all the deportees to look for people who've been deported as aliens and see if they're on the voter rolls that means every guy name one if there's a want gonzales who's been deported and there's a want gonzales on the voter rolls of florida want gonzales the voter better look out because he's been accused of swimming back from el salvador to vote in an american election it would be a joke it would be laughable if it weren't so serious florida did this once before it actually took those homeland security lists and identified one hundred. eighty

one thousand floridians as potentially alien voters there was one who happened to be a republican from austria while while on my radio show after you were on the show i got a call from a woman in arizona who is a precinct committee person she's in the democratic party she contacted the secretary of state's office and said i would like to buy the cross check list arizona's cross check list and they offered to sell it to her and she was able to buy her county for one hundred dollars they gave it to her on a u.s.b. drive she drove down and picked it up and she said there's as i recall seventeen thousand names or something in that neighborhood and she had already spotted several people who had been cross checked against other people who had different middle names so she's she's committed to contacting these people in her county to tell them that they've been thrown off the voting rolls by kris kobach do you know any other states that mind that might allow citizens to buy their cross check lists

and you know is this you know i know that that's interesting because arizona refused to give it to me i did get it from georgia. and but george has been you know karen handel as i mentioned in my last report she was the secretary of state she's a big fan of crosschecked she says that they got all kinds of illegal voters and i said that but you haven't convicted any have you the answer was no she hasn't convicted a but she has removed as secretary of state her and now her successor brian kemp who's running for governor as a republican they're running right through those polls and today in fact i got someone who got what i call the cross check card to get a get a card to mail please if you're watching this be aware this you get in postcard the mail it says from your county board of elections or secretary of state saying please confirm your address there actually they don't tell you've been accused of voting twice but you've been accused if you don't return that card you're going to

lose your vote returned that. card please make a photocopy of it or take a picture and send it to greg palast to greg palast dot com because i'm collecting these things so we can take so we can expose it and litigate and you may also want to contact the a.c.l.u. i'm guessing you're collaborating with they're working with me yes i am al elaborating with we are flat out of time but thanks so much for being with us tonight and for the great work you're doing great keep it up thank you very much for coming out donald trump gave a speech today in poland that was straight out of a minute beer hall circa one nine hundred thirty three is he a fascist i'll ask brian pruitt alex lawson in tonight's politics panel right after this break.

i think the average viewer just after watching a couple of segments understands that we're telling stories in our critics can't tell you know why because their advertisers won't let them. in order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell the truth parties able to do that every story is built on going after the back story to what's really happening out there to the american what's happening when a corporation makes a pharmaceutical the chills when a company in the environmental business ends up polluting a river that causes cancer and other illnesses they put all the health risk all the dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every we can you know want they're working. all. right.

my problem with. what. you put them so. they did accept the reject. so when you want to be president. some want to. have to do it. this is what the three of them will be. interested in the. question.

is donald trump a neo fascist judging by the speech he gave today in poland the answer is almost certainly yes for more on that let's turn things over to tonight's politics. with a first that i'd politics panel our brian pruitt contributor from red state and alex lawson executive director at social security works thank you both for being here with us tonight thanks you guys beck so donald trump gave what was arguably the most right wing speech of his presidency today in poland flush with the imagery of blood and soil luden aired i think is the german the original german blood and soil nationalism brooding laments about the existential crisis facing in the west the speech sounded at times like something straight out of nazi germany the fundamental question of our time is whether the west says the will to survive do we have the

confidence in our values. used to defend them added he cost do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it this speech was of course written by steven miller how concerned should we be by the omnipresence of nazi or fascistic imagery in trump speeches i actually went back after after watching trump speech sat down with balls moving the triumph of the will and it's an hour forty minute movie but we watched about probably forty five minutes of it and oh my god it was like flashback over and over and over again you know we have struggled so much we have fought so hard you know the nation will be first among nations you know all of you know it was just wow you know a day and do we have the will to survive and i mean a course i was nine hundred thirty four but it. i think there's

a couple takeaways from the speech first and foremost among conservatives is that when trump welcomed or acknowledged. the crowd booed him you know the basically the man who gave the polish people the right to boo people. is not considered a liberal so that's never happened in conservative circles that's the first take away the second takeaway i don't think we should be surprised by this i was less shocked by it because i think liberals are more shocked by it because they were so used to eight years of barack obama coddling the europeans and saying ok whatever you want today what connel in the fascists and poet i think it was i mean i was i don't i'm saying we will be the you know the one indispensable nation but he was he was definitely talking to the right wing in europe he was that's who it was aimed at i mean and those people call themselves fascists i don't. i only have it's one

word to describe that's my only analysis of that speech it's doesn't shock me i'm not shocked by the idiocy of the altar right and miller and all of them or of president trump it's just a disgrace at this point it is just a continual disgrace to our country just over and over and over again and what our country stands for and what our country what actually makes our country great you know and he's so disconnected from it the bigger question for me and i would love to hear both your thoughts on this we have we are seen if we look at the at the at the so-called democracies of the world we are seeing democracy after democracy flippant autocracy and i'm not talking about like saudi arabia the u.a.e. they've always been autocratic kingdoms but orbán and hungary if i'm saying his name right there to on in turkey. dude i think that's his name

right. like kept on races but the president of poland i mean it and it seems like there's like this this broad you know let's not pay attention of this let's not acknowledge it was not discuss it nobody's pointing out the fact that duda in poland has shut down the independent press to a large extent now and has changed i mean actually passed a law changing the judiciary and they're making it possible now for politicians to sue reporters which is exactly what trump wants so here's here's the interesting flip in my opinion is that back in the george w. bush days when basically liberals and democrats were criticizing him for wanting to export democracy now democrats because we're in a time where we where we've come to terms with the fact that not every democracy is going to be as free as america or as free as france was free is great britain now

democrats all of a sudden are up in up in arms that democracy is actually a spectrum it's not one size fits all speaking for myself i you know i support the idea of encouraging democracy my problem is exporting democracy with the barrel of a gun alex i mean it's it. it's hard for me to take like that chris. this has nothing to do with what democrats in the past said and i just like i think that should be carved on the tomb of the modern republican like they did it too or something like that because it just allows people to not focus on the travesty that just absolute disgrace that's happening right now in the name of the republican party that you have donald trump going around in the spousal absolutely anti-conservative talking points i mean there's nothing that he's saying that is in any way even near traditional small c.

conservatism so i mean i just at some point i think you have to say this isn't about partisan politics this is about that speech was un-american if barry goldwater had given a blood and soil speech in one thousand nine hundred sixty four at the republican convention william f. buckley would have disowned him i mean. i'm not going to get any disagreement from either you guys i'm innocent ok all right eighteen states and the district of columbia are suing education secretary betsy devolves for delaying the implementation of rules meant to protect the victims of for profit college scams like the failed trump university those protections which were put in place by the obama administration make it easier for people who were defrauded by their college to get loan forgiveness they were supposed to go into effect on july first but why why do we even have for profit colleges these are engines of fraud we don't why don't we just make college free like they've done all across europe and most of the rest of the world and and by the way this rules pacifically i read the rule today

this rule specifically says that you have to have to have i forget the phrase like some preponderance of the evidence some overwhelming it's a very clear and unambiguous adjective of evidence you have to prove that the college actually defrauded people in order to qualify for those and thirty six. thousand people have already proven that i mean you had twenty thousand people at trump university i don't know if any of them got you know and then back on to this one because they had their own lawsuit they got twenty four million bucks from trump but but betsy de vos a say no no we don't want you to be able to just where you can talk about suing we're just talking about getting your damn tuition back from an institution that explicitly defrauded you why why does betsy device say no to this first and foremost i've always said on the show the trumpet ministration there was an example of it i believe two weeks ago when when we were talking of a different department they should not be delaying wofully implemented either laws

or regulations that were sort of on the train already fully along the way of being implemented that shouldn't be you shouldn't slow it down if it was it was perfectly rightfully done within the administrative process the bigger point on for profit colleges is the their problem is that they weren't pete putting people on a track to actually graduate that's the problem with the for profit college model is they never had a plan and that's where their that's where the in my opinion the defrauding is coming from they need to get people even if it's for profit we need to get people a degree so that they can get into the labor market and pay off their student loans . this is the other part of the republican party the modern republican party so look at the disk race full speeches that are going on over here so that you can just have the whole sale and looting that's going on with the other hand so that's what this is about this is about seeing the american people as suckers that the

government can actually help people like to vos right that's her that's her model it's suckers it's extracting money from people and treating their people as marks and that is what this is this is gangster government this is saying the government's not. responsibility isn't to protect anyone except for the big powerful money the donors to the process so that they can continue to defraud people and extract money from them it's tragically or could be you know what brian was pointing out is that this is just need jerk you know if obama did it we're going to destroy it whether it's good or not which just seems to me crazy but you know i get it and i get your point too alex and i don't disagree with it as donald trump escalates his war with c.n.n. reports suggest that is administration could go as far as blackmailing that network if it doesn't change its ways in the new york times white house advisers have discussed a potential range of leverage over their adversary

a pending merger between c.n.n.'s parent company time warner and a t.n.t. mr trump's justice department will decide whether the whether to approve the merger and while analysts say there's little to stop the deal from moving forward the president's animists toward c.n.n. remains a wild card so i oppose this merger on antitrust grounds where it's going to create a giant internet service provider and media company that that you know will become the tail that wags the dog or the media but you know the trumpet ministrations saying hey we're going to we're going to hold this merger for blackmail this just seems wrong i think this one they they pretty much can't hold it the majority of the work on these kind of merger deals is done by professional staff that have been there for twenty to twenty five years so it makes for a good story and it kind of gets people gend up losing likely has a quote actually came out of the administration but they can they can say the sky is a purple ink they want they can say they can change the clouds to being purple that

doesn't make it true but they can put a lot of power and weight into it doesn't the president they find they already over antitrust it was nixon who busted up a t.n.t. they can put an enormous amount of weight through the executive on specifically blocking a merger like this but to your point tom it trumps so bad that he almost has me defending him. monopolies you know monopolists monopoly and the corporate media but philosophically the attacks on the press are incredibly dangerous and we should disaggregate that from everything else that that is the tactic of a weak person who wants to be a strongman i'm quite seen him standing up to them all but all the information in the public statements coming out of c.n.n. this is it's really rallied their troops i mean they they see this as a mission now that's interesting we'll see if this you know what this does for their ratings brian and alex thank you both thanks. and that's the way it is tonight and don't forget democracy is not a spectator sport get out there get active tag you're it.

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