National Republican Party to be clear, in context, theres a whole bunch of problems that the trump dpan has for the Republican Party. Theres a new poll that puts donald trump nationwide 14 points behind Hillary Clinton. 14 points behind . Now, that is not the only poll in the world, right . Theres another National Poll out also tonight from fox news that says hes only 3 points behind Hillary Clinton. Well be talking later on in the show with an expert about how to read the various polls right now. How to know whats right, especially when youve got results like these that are so disparate. In either case 13 points behind or 3 points behind, he is still behind. The headwinds seem very clear right now. Tonight at fivethirtyeight. Com theyre reading those headwinds for the president ial race and looking at the senate polls. Fivethirtyeight is giving the Republican Party a 68 chance of losing control of the United States senate this year. So that is just one of the problems that it appears the donald trump candidacy has created for the Republican Party. Heres another new one that i think nobodys been talking about thus far at the National Level but this could be really important. Today the National Conference of state legislatures said that theyre watching for Party Control to potentially flip this year in 11 State Senates and in 7 state assemblies. In the vast majority of those they expect to flip they are republican controlled now, which means if they flip, theyre ready to flip to democrat, if the now expected blue wave comes in just at the right time and the right way. Thats another part of the bad news that the Republican Party i think can largely blame on the president ial candidacy of donald trump. So i get that. But what we reported here on monday night that has now all of a sudden come to fruition as truly bad news for the Republican Party brought upon them by donald trump, its a very specific thing. Its something that leading republicans are tearing their hair about tonight. And it is having to do with this. Several of these signs were reported at Polling Places in newarks north ward. Republican poll watcher, some of them offduty policemen wearing guns and arm bands were also near the polls. It was all part of the National BallotSecurity Task force set up by the Republican National and state committees to guard against vote fraud. But democrats charge it was a Scare Campaign to intimidate voters primarily in minority neighborhoods. This was 1981, the new jersey governors race that year. We reported on this monday night. This is the case where the national Republican Party got involved in that gubernatorial
election. They flew in basically a goon squad of National Operatives on election day and these guys flooded into minority precincts as basically Vigilante Poll watchers. Governors race in new jersey was going to be close that year. This group from the rnc decided they wanted to keep the vote down, so in trenton, camden, newark, they put up these big warning, warning, Warning Signs telling people that these Voting Locations would be patrolled by the Ballot Security Task force and they brought in offduty cops and offduty Sheriffs Deputies who in many cases wore guns on their hips and these guys put on these hooptie ballot Security Forces arm bands which made them look quasiofficial, then they physically patrolled the voting sites in dozens of precincts that had mostly minority voters. If you did call the phone number that was listed on the big Warning Signs because you wanted to collect their thousand Dollar Reward for voter fraud, the
1800 number reportedly went directly to the Republican NationalCommittee Headquarters at the time. So there was no obfuscating this. It was straight up an rnc op. And it worked. The republican won the governors race that year in new jersey by a tiny, tiny fraction. Both parties at the time claimed that this Ballot Security Task force stunt is how they did it. These armed guys in semiofficial looking Arm Bands Stomping around minority neighborhoods. Both parties claimed at the time that was probably enough to make a difference in that race. So for the shortterm political calculation that op worked for the Republican Party, but for the longterm that was a bad move because theyre still living with the consequences of what they did there and the fact they got caught for it. Because the Democratic Party sued them over what they did in new jersey that year and the democrats won. And now 35 years later the Republican Party is still trying to get out from under the legal
restrictions that were placed on them because of them getting caught and losing that case. And that is the problem that donald trump has now gotten the national Republican Party into tonight. In that news footage from that time in 1981, you saw those arm bands that the Ballot Security Task force wore . You could go to a website called stop the steel or another called Vote Protectors, they directed you to the same place. If you went to those websites until tonight, you could use something called an i. D. Badge generator. You enter your details and print out effectively this years version of the Republican PartyBallot Security Task force. This year in 2016, this is the badge you get if you use that thing onhine. A Vote Protector semiofficial looking i. D. Badge. Thats the picture there and the name of a reporter from the Huffington Post on the left. She also added in joe schmo, not
a real person and a picture of the Frog Racist Trump Character from online to show that you can enter anybodys photo and anybodys name and get one of these badges. Makes you look quasilegit, right . Back in the day when they got in trouble for it in new jersey, the republicans Ballot Security Task force targeted 75 different minority heavy precincts. This year the pro trump vigilante effort. The forces using the fake i. D. Badges, online tutorials teaching people to videotape and livestream video of voters at their Polling Places. This year they havent pick just three minority heavy cities in one state. This year the effort is targeting minority heavy cities in swing states, cleveland, ohio, detroit, michigan, philly, las vegas, milwaukee, ft. Lauderdale, richmond, virginia, fayetteville and charlotte,
north carolina. These are parallel efforts, right . What the republicans got caught for in 1981 was organizing these supposed poll watching intimidation schemes, specifically in minorityheavy areas. Whats that list look like to you for 2016 . Right. They only did it in new jersey in 1981, now theyre all over the map. But you see the theme there. Also a key element of the intimidation back in the day that they got caught for was that they used offduty Law Enforcement. That helped both in terms of you know, these intimidating Ballot Security Task force personnel having firearms. Theyre offduty cops, offduty sheriff sheriffs. They had firearms. That added a quasiofficial character to it. Random citizens can still be intimidating on their own whether or not theyre armed. But when you get Law Enforcement to do it, thats like the gold
standard. We have a lot of Law Enforcement people working that day. Were hiring a lot of people. Were putting a lot of Law Enforcement. Were going to watch pennsylvania very quickly. Were going to watch Pennsylvania Go down to certain areas and watch and study and make sure other people dont come in and vote five times. Let me just tell you, i looked all over pennsylvania. And im studying it. And we have some great people here. Some great leaders here of the Republican Party. Theyre very concerned about that. And thats the way we can lose the state. We have to call up Law Enforcement and we have to have the sheriffs and the Police Chiefs and everybody watching because if we get cheated out of this election, if we get cheated out of a win in pennsylvania, which is such a vital state, especially when i know Whats Happening here, folks. I know. She cant beat Whats Happening here. The only way they can beat it, in my opinion and i mean this
100 if in certain sections of the state they cheat. Okay . So i hope you people can sort of not just vote on the 8th. Go around and look and wam other po watch other Polling Places. You guys go make sure. You guys go watch. We have a lot of Law Enforcement. We have to call up Law Enforcement, we have a lot of Law Enforcement people working that day. Were hiring a lot of people. Were putting out a lot of Law Enforcement. A lot of observers of this election, journalists and just regular citizens have been a little ubbed out by the campaign. Not just saying the election is rigged, its being stolen but telling his supporters to go out and do this Vigilante Poll watching this Swing State Cities in particular. And when i say watch, you know what im talking about, right . You know what im talking about. Take a look at philadelphia, whats been going on. Take a look at chicago, st. Louis. Its not been a subtle thing. People have been ubbed out about it when trump has been calling for people, you know what i mean, go out and watch in these cities. But listen to what hes saying there about the getting Law Enforcement out there to do the watching. I mean, beyond the ick factor of what hes been doing, the fact that this just seems a little sketchy to a lot of people, but beyond that there is this now plainly observable fact and legally important fact that what the Trump Campaign seems to be ginning up for election day this year is really a carbon copy of what the Republican Party did back in 1981 with their arm bands and their offduty cops and their targeting minority districts. Thats what they did in 1981 in new jersey. Thats very clearly exactly what they are trying to do now, targeting minority districts,
having offduty Law Enforcement show up. Right . Identifying themselves as semiofficial officials of some kind. Right . Its an exact parallel to what they did in 1981 in new jersey. Thats not just an interesting parallel in history. Its now a huge, huge legal problem for the Republican Party. Dont just take it from me. Take it from the man who for many years was the top lawyer in the Republican Party. Thats a huge problem for the Republican Party. The Republican National committee is under a Consent Decree that severely limits its election day activities because of some actions back in the 80s. If they prosecute that the Consent Degree Due to come off next year will not come off. The rnc is very eager to have that Consent Decree come off next year when it expires. This activity i can promise you will cause the democrats to go back into court to try to extend
it. Ding. That was republican lawyer ben ginsberg warning after the last debate that what the Trump Campaign and republicans were threatening in terms of this poll watching effort that trump keeps talking about out on the stump, he was saying that is a Clear And Present Danger to the Republican Party because when they got in trouble for that with the court, they ended up signing a Consent Degree that prohibits them from doing any poll watching like this whatsoever because of their terrible history with this stuff. The Republican National committee is banned from any Election Day Poll watching stuff at all that in any way targets minority districts. Theyve been banned, legally banned from doing that stuff since the 1980s. And its really important to them that they follow what they are legally bound to follow here because that Consent Decree restricts what theyre allowed to do and that is finally due to expire next year. The only way it wont expire is
if the court finds the republicans are violating it, that they are doing racist poll watching again in defiance of the court in which case that Consent Decree wont expire next year, it will get extended for another, oh, eight years or so. Ben ginsberg on our air sounded the alarm last week that the Trump Campaign was edging up against a legal line. We reported on monday in the activities very much looked like they are violating this order with the Consent Decree, then last night Huffington Post reported that the Online Training for donald trump poll watchers, for them to learn how they can livestream and videotape people while they were voting. And heres where you go online to down load your fake, semiofficial looking badge that defines you as a Vote Protector. And now tonight its happened. The Democratic Party has just filed papers in court in new jersey asking that court to hold
the rnc in violation of that ancient Consent Decree to which they are still legally bound. Theyre asking the court to stop the rnc from helping the Trump Campaign organize these poll watch voter intimidation efforts in minority areas around the country. Theyre asking that the Consent Decree should be extended since they say the Republican Party is in violation of this consent decr decree, democrats say it should be extended another eight years until 2025. So those papers were filed in Federal Court tonight. I told you that donald trump was creating a big problem for the Republican Party here. This is going to prove to be a fascinating new test of whether or not the Republican Party thinks it is in its interests to officially try to dump him in some way ahead of this election that he really looks like hes going to lose anyway. Were told by Election Law Experts tonight including rick hazen from the university of california irvine, were told that this case, now that its been filed, it may hinge on
whether or not the Republican Party can tell the court that theyre totally divorced from donald trump, that anything highways happening by Trump Supporters, that anything that donald trump is asking him supporters to do, anything happening from the Point Of View of the trump pence campaign, that has nothing to do with the rnc. Hes not an agent of the rnc. They cant be judged by his behavior, held accountable for it. That may be the only way the Republican Party can legally save their skins on this. Were also told to expect that the court may act very fast on this case given that the election is two weeks