Good morning. It is saturday, april 6. In nine days, Donald Trumps first criminal trial and the first involving a former president will begin in manhattan. Despite becoming the Republican Party presumptive nominee, 2024 has not been off to a great start for the twice impeached indicted expresident. Already penalized hundreds of millions of dollars in a pair of civil cases and soon faces the possibility of being convicted and going to jail. As his legal situation grows more worrisome, trump has escalated his rhetoric. He is abusing his platform to publicly intimidate those involved in his cases and we are already seeing the consequences of it. Late last month, tyler vogel, a 26yearold from lancaster, new york was arrested for allegedly sending threatening Text Messages to two people connected to a highprofile civil case. This week we found out that the targets of the harassment were George Arthur and goran and the new York Attorney general leticia james, two key figures in trumps recent civil fraud trial. Vogel allegedly told gorham he would go after him of the former president was in prison or if his assets were seized and allegedly called the judge unamerican and texted him that trump was innocent. This is not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern of attacks against Public Officials involved in Donald Trumps legal cases that coincide with the important dates related to those cases. In january for instance, hours before the start of Closing Arguments in the civil fraud trial, a bomb threat was reported at the home. Shortly after the judge issued the judgment in the case, an envelope containing white powder was sent to the New York City courthouse where he works and additionally, every one of the judges and lead prosecutors working on the trump criminal cases, everyone, have been threatened or harassed as a result of this highly politicized Environment Trump has stoked. The fear is the point. Vogels arrest occurred against the backdrop of Trump Tripling down on his recent morning that if he loses the election, there will be a quote bloodbath. He and a lot of irresponsible journalists tried to pass that off as his discussion of economics it was not. But it was not. Rather than move on from the controversy of the bloodbath, his campaign is using the term as part of a new anti biden slogan instead. At an event in michigan tuesday, the former president spoke from behind the podium that had a placard on it that read stop Biden Percent border bloodbath. Not about chinese cars pick Republican National committee paid for a new website using that slogan to criticize bidens immigration policies. It is no secret that the American Immigration system is deeply broken. There is no bloodbath at the border. There is no invasion. These are outrageous lies just like the false claim that crime is on the rise around the country. But we know what this is about. Fear and Fear Mongering. The real strategy at play. It has worked for other autocrats in the past unfailingly including for trump who began Fear Mongering about immigrants from the moment he launched his first president ial bid in 2015. He spent his entire political career disregarding norms and cultivating a culture of violence. It is no longer unusual for Trump Supporters look at this. To wear merchandise or wear flags that have threatening slogans or imagery of guns. And 2017, he defended the participants of the violent and racist Unite The Right rally in charlottesville claiming they were good people on both sides. He is also been reading the january 6 convicts now, dismissing the gravity of their crimes and calling them hostages which is offensive. Unbelievable patriots. Trump is simultaneously preparing his loyalist base for an authoritarian takeover of the federal government if he will win a second term and sewing seeds of doubt to delegitimize the outcome of this years election in case he loses. The question is, what can we do to stop this . For nearly a decade, the former president has made the Republican Party bend to his will. He has been a file to the political system to work to his benefit. He has worked the nation head Moral Compass along the way. No one person alone will be able to right the many wrongs that trump has committed but we all have a Civic Responsibility to keep him in check by being well informed, by organizing and of course by voting. To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March On Washington in 2013, president barack obama said at the same spot that dr. Martin luther king jr. Delivered his I Have A Dream speech. Obama recalled the marches, boycotts, Voter Registration and sit ins and all the small incremental actions that define the Civil Rights Movement in effect the change. To drive his point home, he invoked one of dr. Kings most famous quotes with a small tweak of his own, the Ark Of Moral Universe may bend toward justice but it does not bend on its own. Join me as a Democratic State representative, The Justin J Pierson of tennessee who knows very well that the arc of history does not bend on its own. Representative, good to see you again. Thank you for joining us. Good to see you again. Glad to be here with you. We will need to have people like you like Jazmine Crockett and by the way, she invoked you but need people like you not to get angry because they are angry anyway but to motivate people and inspire people about the things you can do. Because what you and your colleagues did in the Tennessee State legislature, we did not know about the Tennessee State legislature. We did not know that much about you. Now he left. He turned off the lights. He will be back in a second. We we need you to inspire people to do the kinds of things done in tennessee that drew National Attention just like during the Civil Rights Movement where they did those things and crossed those bridges and sat in at those Soda Counters but made sure the press was there to see what was going on. Jason stanley is in the studio with me to have a similar conversation. A professor of philosophy at Yale University and has been sitting next to me the whole time. We didnt just do that as a backup. We will get representative pierson back. The fact here is that it is the Little Things that win sometimes. That is right. We have to organize against a mass attempts to cut down on Voter Registration drives and to penalize Voter Registration groups that are helping to organize the vote and in states like florida. The forces that are trying to suppress the vote, they are planning. The forces trying to suppress the vote or planning so those that want to keep democracy alive have to plan as well. Let me stop you there. This is the core of the whole thing. There are people that say, i did not look for this fight. I was not looking for donald trump or this autocratic movement. I will vote for my guy and we will be fine. But that is not fundamentally true. There is a fight that has been brought to us and now we are all in the arena. Now we are all in the arena and it is absolutely crucial that people take this seriously. The Horserace Discussion in the media has to end. Donald trump is very explicit about what he wants to deal. It really looks like he wants to turn the country into a branch of the trump family business. We cant let that happen. This time, and a second term, he has a team organized. So that there wont be the chaos of the first term. If we are going to save democracy, whether you are a republican or democrat, you need similar organizations right now. That means standing up against those that are minimizing. Standing up against media say that four more years of trump. Is not going to be known for more years of trump. We already know and we are seeing people calling for trump to run again in 2028. The first thing we can do is stand up and resist minimization of the threat we face. And that and that means not objecting to the fact that these things have to be covered by the media properly. Not without context or you can object to randomly running trump rallies without any context pick that would be irresponsible for journalists. But we have to tell you outrageous he gets every week so you understand what you get if he becomes your president. His followers are taking him literally. The fact that his followers are taking him literally means Everyone Needs to take him literally. This idea that those who oppose him or are independence or are like, i dont know what side in this horserace am going to take, and they think it is just rhetoric, his followers dont view it is just rhetoric. We have seen this time and time again. And we have seen him say each time that the election will be rigged. We have seen him say that he will stay in office and he has done it. This idea that we dont take him seriously is complicity in whatever will happen. The last time around, we were worried about what would happen january 20th. Would somebody have to remove donald trump from the white house. Until january 6th, 7th or 8th, it looked like a reality. Now we have a different problem. You may not think he will get more votes or Electoral College votes. He doesnt need to win at this point to cause the mayhem he wants to cause because he is telling everybody it is rigged. His supporters will believe that if it comes out that joe biden will win the election, his supporters will believe that and i you see that mixed in with Bloodbath Talk and fight and weaponry and guns. Again, this will be a fight we will be invited into. So better to solve it early. We have rhetoric that justifies Political Violence. That is the goal of the rhetoric. And the idea that you have the rhetoric that justifies Political Violence and it holds a leader in replacement of u. S. Symbols like the flag with signs of Political Violence and guns on flags. Trump replacing flags. Those are all signs that the United States itself is going to be replaced by a kind of colt of a leader for trump. That is what we face. The election, if he loses, is going to be contested on the streets. That is what it looks like. He is telling supporters that. And he is threatening us that if he does not win the election, that there will be chaos. What do you do . Everybody that watches the show, i would imagine the Voter Turnout on this show is 100 . Everybody votes. That is the minimum. In 2024, i wonder if there are things you have to think about, obligations as a citizen, that go beyond just the vote. It might be simple or smaller about supporting your library or your teachers. But it does feel like you can feel better about this if you feel like you own the result. Democracy only works if everyone participates of course. That is a clichi but we see it now. We are going to have to emphasize the stakes. People have to organize in their communities. Not alone and just say, im going to vote alone but do something. My colleague tim snyder went to ohio to go doortodoor in the 2016 elections because he is an ohio boy. That kind of thing. Going doortodoor and talking to neighbors and defending School Boards that are being attacked and defending the media picked defending the institutions of democracy. The universities and the schools and the media and the unions. Labor unions. Those are the institutions of democracy. Defend them, organize with them. Likes dont count as a Famous Ukrainian Activist said in 2014. That is right. Great to see you. Thank you as always. Jason stanley, professor of philosophy and author of the politics of language. We had a bit of a technical difficulty am told. I hope it is nothing more than that. Justin j pierson, state representative, is back with me. I wanted to go back to the fact that what you did in the Tennessee Legislature to object to the legislature not wishing to consider gun control after a very serious shooting in your state was what i call a small act of courage. Meaning a small political statement that you took in the legislature and it became a very big thing. The world learned about tennessee and the world learned about you and the world learned about the situation because you did something. Im trying to figure out ways in which you talk to people, inspiring them to say, in this moment in which democracy is at stake, what are the things you can do that will help fix it . I always want to talk with you. I think the tennessee Republican Party did not want me to. But we are back. We all have the power to have courage in difficult moments and we have a responsibility and obligation in such a moment as this to stand up and speak truth to power and to use our voices in this moment in time to encourage others to tap into the power that we know they have. A lot of people in these positions want to silence us. They want us to not stand up or speak up. And we know the truth. We know the voices of the marginalized need to be brought into the center of the conversation. We know people are often relegated to the back of the room and need to be brought to the front of the conversation and the reality is that our democracy is at stake and it is at stake in the election for the white house and for the general assemblies across the country. I see every day what it looks like for our country to move to more and more of an authoritarian state. s policies and practices are supported that silence dissent and continue to hurt Immigrant Communities and hurt poor people and heard the lgbtq community. It does take small acts of courage and often times, that sometimes looks like going to the will of the house floor but making phone calls on behalf of candidates you believe in and knocking on the doors for people who are looking to uphold our democracy. And it is always important that we tell the truth and we hold that value. Other people running for office are going to lie and we have to make sure we are always telling the truth. Lets get to the brass tacks of what the courage takes. You are a politician and im a journalist. We are used to criticism. We deserve criticism. We should welcome it. Going to a rally and talking to people that know you gives you a Certain Energy and adrenaline rush. When you go to the well of the Tennessee Legislature, what you did with justin jones, the you are in the lions den at that point. Talk to me about how you got through that. How you decided to do that and how you got through it and what you thought the other side would look like. One year ago today is the anniversary of our expulsion from the tennessee general assembly. We went to the will of the house floor after the most significant Mass Shooting in our States History where 39 yearold children were killed and three School Administrators and staff were killed. It was a couple of months after my classmate from high school was killed. A few months after my mentor, dr. Nelson, was killed. The Gun Violence Epidemic is very real to our communities and in my district unfortunately, we received this every day. We went to the house floor. And myself, Representative Jones and revisited johnson. We believe the people we serve with should not just be sending thoughts and prayers. When you are in a position of power, you have a responsibility to do more than send more than thoughts and prayers. You have the responsibility to act pick the cowardice of the Republican Party in tennessee was not to Act On Gun Violence or to prevent tragedies like this from happening but to expel the two youngest black lawmakers in the state of tennessee. That is the response they had and it is because they do not believe in a democracy where peoples voices are valued. They do not believe in a democracy or 7000 people came to the State Capitol tennessee asking us to do something. To do anything. And instead of taking the plea seriously and passing a red flag law or anything, they decided that instead, it was better to assault our democracy and reduce the voices of 140,000 of our constituents. What it takes for us now is to see them for who they are and to use that as our determination to fight for the democracy and the American Democratic experiment that we believe in. And we believe in one where everyones voices are valued. We can disagree on so many things but it is so important that we are heard. It is so im