Is america because little by little over the last three and a half years this country has changed. Have you noticed it is not the same america we once knew . If you havent, thats part of the point. Thats how democracy starts to slip into authoritarianism. It doesnt happen all at once. But at some point you start to realize that the values of the country that you know and love have been replaced with more sinister ideals by the people in charge. And you realize those sinister ideals are designed to keep those in power in power. It is not about you or us. It is about them. And anything that goes against those sinister ideals, no matter how central they are to the founding of this country gets tossed aside. Rules fail, norms change, institutions begin to crumble. This isnt some futuristic dystopian novel about america. This is america in 2020. America is in crisis. Our democracy is under attack. The historic social unrest, the recession, the ever raging pandemic is bringing those sinister ideals into relief. The constitution protects the freedom of free speech and assembly and protest. But not in portland, oregon tonight. Armed federal agents are patrolling the streets of portland. Federal forces wearing camouflage and military gear as if they were in war, using tear gas on demonstrators. According to a lawsuit filed by oregons attorney general last week, federal agents, quote, have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown portland, detain protesters and place them into the officers unmarked vehicles. And breaking just now, a federal judge has denied a request by the Oregon AttorneyGenerals Office for an order that would have required federal Law Enforcement officers in portland to identify themselves when making arrests and would place limits on the detention and arrest of protesters. It is one of several lawsuits challenging the Trump Administrations deployment of federal officers. But the deployment itself is only part of the problem. Since when do we tear gas Peaceful Protesters in america or shove them into vans . It is not the actions. Its not just the actions. It is the justification for them. Listen to how the president of the United States described the situation in portland. Let us go in. Well clean it up. Well clean it up. Now, in portland, we had to do it because thats their anarchists. Thats a level that people havent seen. But theyre anarchists. And they were going wild for 51 days. All right. Lets be clear. At no point has portland seen anarchists. The city is not going wild. And for that matter, no city that has seen protests for racial and social justice since the death of george floyd has devolved into any of the anarchy that trump talks about. Cities are not burning. No one is coming for the suburbs. Homeland security official called out portland protesters for vegas masks and shields, claiming that protesters were preparing for violence. The protesters are protecting themselves against a government not allowed to use tear gas on its enemies and adversaries but who use tear gas on them. When i covered the protests in minneapolis, i had a gas mask and a hardened helmet and a bulletproof vest to protect myself from authorities. I was caught in the middle of four different tear gas deployments. So were many of my colleagues covering protests across the country. The constitution protects free speech. And, yet, our government appears to be criminalizing it. These protesters are, quote, petitions their government for the redress of grievance or as we say today fighting injustice. Theyre doing it without tear gas and rubber bullets. Sometimes they link arms to protect each other. Yet, they are demonized by those in power to inspire fear in americans, fear that in turn is used to remain in power and put even darker ideals in place. It is why trump tweets about law and order every couple of days. It is why he lied in a tweet to, quote, suburban housewives claiming that joe biden would destroy their neighborhoods. He wants you to be afraid. He wants you to think only he has the power to take away that fear. Ifs a zero sum game. If someone else gains, you lose. Such an old trick and it keeps on working. Later in the hour, ill talk about how trumps rhetoric reinforces that fear and sews division. But lets step back for a minute. There are three things to remember about the founding of this nation. America was born of protests, protests that was often violent. Two, america was forged in slavery which was also violent. And, three, a key part of our constitution written by the Founding Fathers who in many cases engaged in violence and supported slavery is protection not from the protests of the people but protection from the tyranny of government. So the idea that our federal government is using the guise of law and order to bring in government agents to suppress protests should be shocking to everyones sensibility no matter what your politics. It is antiamerican. What is more shocking is that the president is not operating alone. He has many, many accomplices in the federal government and in congress. None of this would be possible without the attorney general, william barr. Barrs role in ordering this attack on protesters and then participating in what amounts to propaganda events to justify possibly entering other cities with similar federal agents raises troubling questions about whether our Justice Department is actually concerned about upholding the rule of law or rather with bolstering the president s political power. A member of the Senate Judiciary committee will join us later in the hour on that. Sadly, though, trumps accomplices extend beyond the department of Homeland Security. Even the cdc is now bending to the president s will. Despite polling that Shows Americans overwhelming fear of students returning to school in the fall, the cdc is down playing health risks from the coronavirus. The president wants schools to reopen and the president gets what he wants. It doesnt matter if it puts your children at risk. The president wants it, so it will happen. And there are far too many people around the president who will make it happen for him. As one lifelong american diplomat wrote in 2018, a fascist is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly concerned with the rights of others and is willing to use violence or whatever other means necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have, end quote. Fascism doesnt just show up. You stretch the laws. You ignore the laws. You use loopholes in the laws until the laws themselves become irrelevant. Americans are protesting as their constitution allows them to do in greater numbers than they have ever protested before in history. That sound you hear in the streets of america is the music of democracy. Trump wants you to think our cities are on fire and out of control and that you are in danger. Its a tactic used against legitimate protests throughout the world and throughout history. John lewiss death reminded us of how americans handled protesters in the 60s. They cracked his skull. They jailed him. It was very long then and this is very long now. The real peril is where would we be without protests, without people who go out and under trump risk their health and freedom and their lives to protest. This abnormal World Without them would be normalized. Trump wants you to think what hes doing is normal. He wants you to be afraid so he can stop people from calling out these abnormalities. He wants you to stop fighting. He wants you to stop supporting the fight. How did we get here . How did we get to the point where the specific ideals upon which this nation were founded have been blurred and smudged and erased. Look around you. Do you think were still in america . Leading off our discussion, coauthor of the book tight rope. He has been in oregon. Hes been tear gassed twice. Thank you. Nicholas, you have been there. Tell us about the anarchy and the burning of portland. So portland is a beautiful city that is completely at odds with President Trumps description of it of worse than afghanistan or Tucker Carlsons description of it as a war zone. There is, obviously, about a two block area around the federal courthouse named after a legendary senator and governor who was something of a passivist and the presence of the federal troops has resulted in more and more oregonians turning out to protest against what they see as foreign invaders by President Trump. There are a lot of moms who take up the front row. They link arms. And they try to protect the protesters behind them from getting arrested or beaten. Simply, if President Trump claims this was an effort to bring law and order to the streets of portland, the protests had been subsiding before he sent in those troops. Now they are growing. There is increasing anger and every night there is tear gas. President trump got in trouble for one incident in Lafayette Park where he tear gassed Peaceful Protesters for a photo op. Well, every night in portland hes tear gassing Peaceful Protesters for a photo op. Laurence tribe, help me understand this. I will be talking to a number of senators who put forward legislation to prevent federal troops from going in. I certainly do not understand the constitution the way you do. But it does actually our First Amendment does give us a right to protest. The president is criminalizing protesting in general rather than arresting people who set fires to things and threaten public buildings. Youre clearly right. And in fact just listening to nick reminds all of us that the destruction of america is underway in the hands of this tyrannical president. There is no ill legality except occasional minor offenses that the police of oregon can take care of themselves. And the Homeland Security acting director chad wolf and the attorney general are deploying para militaries on the streets of america sweeping up lawful protesters, targeting the press, essentially creating a nation that was the Worst Nightmare of the framers. The people who fought a revolution to preserve this new republic, the people who gave their last measure of devotion in the civil car, the people who fought fascism in world war ii would not recognize what the president is doing as consistent with america. The american tradition is being shattered before our very eyes. Its true. One court declined to issue an injunction. But in the end, i believe that american traditions will prevail. I cant believe that we are going to allow this monster, really, to destroy the country. And thats exactly whats going on. People have a right to protest. They have a right to go to the streets. And this is the time to do it. Its not an abstract right. Thats right. I mean, we talk and it its whats written in the constitution. Its more than just written in the constitution. Its written in blood in the history of our country. People have given their lives to live in freedom, and this president who claims that he stands for law and order is destroying freedom before our very eyes. We cannot standstill through this. Courts have to be evoked in even better declined lawsuits. People cannot be cowed and deterred from protest. When the president says im going to do it in every city, he now says hes going to send 60,000 troops to seattle, to albuquerque, to seattle, to new york. When the attorney general, the District Attorney of philadelphia is saying that if you start kidnapping our citizens on the streets of our cities, the fact that you have a federal badge is not going to prevent you from being prosecuted for kidnapping. That was remarkable. The philadelphia d. A. Has said he will arrest he will have them arrested. We have two responses, by the way, to this lawsuit. Let me just read you these two responses. The interim executive director of the aclu of oregon has said about this oregon ruling that you were talking about, while the decision in the states lawsuit is disappointing, federal agents should not for a minute think their unconstitutional actions should go unanswered. The aclu will be in court again to hold federal agents accountable. And the Oregon Attorney general said if the state of oregon does not have standing, who does . Nick, you have traveled i think everywhere in the world. I dont know if there is anywhere that you havent been. I have been looking at these scenes of American Cities since the night after george floyd died. If you and i were in other countries reporting on this thing, we would be reporting on authorities that are silencing dissent, that are targeting in some cases journalists who are not letting observers know whats going on. I havent seen video in america of anything like this since the 60s. We see this in other parts of the world, not in america usually. Thats right. I use my gas mask in all kinds of countries across the world covering democratic movements. And its not something we typically do here. I do think that ultimately what is going to matter is not only the legal courts but also the court of public opinion. And i see that i mean, there is a struggle over the narrative here and President Trump is portraying this and to some degree you see this on fox news as well as rioters who were trying to burn down the federal courthouse. And i think that ultimately truth will prevail. And, look, i mean, there are some people who are violent in those protests. And i think they undermine the cause, but there are people who start fires, who throw things at the federal officers. But overwhelmingly, the protesters are peaceful. Overwhelmingly the risk of injury and the nature of the violence comes from these federal troops. And i dont know what else to call them but troops. If this was in any other country, they would call them troops. And, so, i think that, you know, at the end of the day, facts matter. And anybody who goes down to portland sees this growing crowd of people trying to protect their city, trying to protect each other from what they see as invaders who were bringing disproportionate force and in some cases causing injury. A young man was hit, was standing there doing no provocation and was hit in the face with a supposedly less lethal round, fractured his skull, had facial reconstruction surgery. There is a woman called naked athena. We dont know quite who she was, but she walked naked only wearing a face mask toward the federal troops, and they fired these pepper rounds at her feet. Now, what kind of a threat could a woman wearing only a face mask possibly present . Yet, she too was fired at. So to your point about public opinion, there is a poll that indicates who do you trust more to handle crime and safety. Joe biden is actually beating donald trump on that. 50 say joe biden. 41 say donald trump. Larry . Well, i was going to say the moms who are joining arms in order to confront these storm troopers, and thats what they are, represent the best of portland. The people who are standing up to these illegitimate uses of power ultimately have the law and the right on their side. This reminds me of the people who were swept off the streets in argentina. There are people who have been arrested by unidentified officers in unmarked vehicles, swept off the street, not given any reason for their arrest. There are regular violations of the First Amendment and the fourth amendment. There are violations of the kidnapping laws of oregon and other states. And in the end, it is more than ironic. It is deeply cynical for this president to say that he is the president of law and order when his whole strategy is to get people to forget about his other ineptitude about the pandemic by changing the subject to conflict and clashes of power that he himself is generating. Its a distraction. Its a diversion. And its a deeply distressing distortion of what america is all about. And i think that it has got to stop. Well, we have nicholas cristoff who goes around the world to bear witness to these things so we can put them on tv and talk about them. And we have people like you, lawrence, who are constitutional experts. And we have the courts. And in 102 days we have an election. Thanks to both of you for helpi helping kick this off. Coming up, assault on our elections. We have more than russian interference to worry about. The incumbent president who is trailing badly in the polls is at every opportunity attacking mailin voting in the middle of a Health Pandemic and creating doubt of the middle of the election outcome in advance. Well talk about that next. Out. Well talk about that next audi etron. The next frontier of electric. Get an exceptional offer at your local audi dealer. I appreciate what makes each person unique. Thats why i like Liberty Mutual. They get that no two people are alike and customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Almost done. What do you think . I dont see it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. announcer reliability is everything. So, if your networks down, youre down. Verizon knows your customers need to reach you seamlessly. Your team needs to work from different places across many devices. Plus, you want the security trusted by some of the Largest Companies in the world. And thats why you trust us. The most Reliable Network in america. vo touch and go. Handwriting recognition and the audi a4. Get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer. Simon pagenaud takes the lead at the indy 500 coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. Theyre off. In the kentucky derby. Rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. Touchdown only mahomes. The big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. The United States is facing an assault on our elections. Both domestically and internationally. Donald trump is attacking the legitimacy of this years election. The president has made it clear he does not support allowing all registered voters access to mailin votes this fall. Here is what the president said on fox news earlier this week. I thi