Speaker 1: All right. A few things to sort of get caught up on here as we still are seeing 20,
22 results come in and so many other different things. Want to get a couple
of catch ups going here. We have made it abundantly clear how much is at stake.
How much was at stake in 2022, and how it relates to so much being at stake in 2024.
Just too. I feel like I'm quoting Rachel MADDOW here to give you some of the contours and texture
of really what may happen in 2024, depending on the path forward. There is a stunning new
article in Rolling Stone from ryan budget and eisa. When sub sang about donald trump looking
for ways to imprison journalists, jail reporters if he is indeed able to retake the White House.
Trump keeps musing about journalists being raped in prison, and he's not joking, they write. A
knowledgeable source tells Rolling Stone that the former president has wondered how he might be able
to jail reporters if he takes the White House, which, of course, is absolutely and completely
chilling. You might remember, in fact, I think we even have a clip here. Donald Trump telling these
sorts of stories about prison rape during his. Speaker 2: Regime leaking from the Supreme
Court. First time it's ever happened is just unbelievable. But you get the information very
easily. You tell the reporter, who is it? And the reporter will either tell you or not. And if the
reporter doesn't want to tell you, it's bye by the reporter goes to jail. And when the reporter
learns that he's going to be married in two days to a certain prisoner, that's extremely strong,
tough and mean, he will say, you know, he or she you know, I think I'm going to give you the
information. Is the leaker. Get me out of here. Speaker 1: Yeah. So that is a joke about prison
rape, but it doesn't stop there. And this isn't merely idle. The article explains this year,
as Trump has privately strategized about what a second term would look like. He's begun
occasionally soliciting ideas from conservative allies for how the U.S. government and Justice
Department could go about turning his desires for brutally imprisoning significant numbers
of reporters into reality. Several months ago, the former president briefly asked a
small gathering of allies and at least one of his lawyers what would have to be done to make
that vision a norm. He said Other countries do it. The implication being, why not here now? You know,
as the article points out, Trump for a long time has sort of idolized or at least looked
favorably upon the authoritarian states that do exactly that type of thing. North Korea,
as the article says, does not tolerate free expression. China and Russia are well known for
jailing journalists or bond. The Trump endorsed autocrat of Hungary has been targeting reporters,
etc., etc. Trump has also been praising Xi in China for the so-called quick trials with
a nearly 100% conviction of drug dealers in China, followed by the death penalty. This is
why he's so taken with these sorts of folks. And I here's my desire. You know, we've done
the exercise in 2016 where many of us said this is not an academic or theoretical distinction.
When you consider the Supreme Court. The attack on press liberties, all of these things.
Hillary Clinton for four years and Donald Trump for four years could not have been more different.
And all those people who said, let's shake it up, let's just see what happens. If it's not Bernie,
it's Trump, then that's fine. Or I don't see any real difference between Hillary and Trump
and I'll stay home or all the people that were saying these things. We left around and found out
maybe it would be the way to say it. And at this point, we need to believe the things Trump says.
He would like to be able to imprison journalists when they say or write things he doesn't like.
He's talking about it with allies and he's talking about it with lawyers.
Let's not. Explore or find out what will happen. And that's why,
as I said yesterday, this Trump DeSantis stuff, I could not care less about these
individuals as people. My concern is how can they most damage themselves and their party?
Such that none of them will win in 2024, and we will probably find that out relatively soon.