This week, a team of New York Times reporters produced a comprehensive, 2,673-word examination of how Donald Trump has unleashed an “all of government” campaign using a host of federal agencies to subvert the midterm elections. They reported:
President Trump is trying to use the levers of the federal government, along with personal influence over state and local lawmakers, to reshape the rules governing the 2026 midterms and future elections in extraordinary ways …
“While many of Mr. Trump’s directives have been blocked or delayed by the courts, election experts say that their potential harm remains significant, and that some of the efforts have already eroded faith in the process.” (Gift link.)
On a new episode of Newsmakers TV, Mark Z. Barabak, the veteran roving political columnist for the Los Angeles Times, discusses the effort Trump has mounted to block Democrats from winning either or both houses of Congress — and what it will take to ensure that the undermining strategy fails.
What Democrats need, he said, “is, to use the George W. Bush term, a ‘thumping’ … what Barack Obama described as a ‘shellacking,’” he said, citing the overwhelming midterm defeats two previous presidents endured.
“A very definitive, incontrovertible, even-Donald-Trump-cannot-subvert election result on November 3rd,” Barabak termed it.
Surveying the political landscape four months before the election, the LAT ace said that while Republicans have greatly benefited from a wave of midterm gerrymandering, as well as a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act, Democrats are still well-positioned to capture the net three seats needed to win back the House, and maintain an outside chance of flipping the four U.S. Senate seats they need to control that body.
In our conversation, Barabak also offered his perspective on the administration’s investigation of Gov. Newsom’s personal finances, the latest on the potential presidential candidacies of Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris, and an update on the governor’s race between Democrat Xavier Becerra, the odds-on favorite, and MAGA Republican Steve Hilton.
He also broke down the political hazard that California’s slow ballot-counting presents to Democrats, handing Trump and his allies a cudgel to falsely claim our elections are “rigged” — including recent steps Newsom and his party have taken to respond to the challenge.
“Are there ways the state can speed it up?” Barabak said. “Yeah, the governor and the legislature passed a budget that includes $40 million that is going to pay for more staff. It’s going to pay for better technology, software, whatever it’s going to take … there are technical steps that can be taken and that presumably will be taken.”
Plus: the Northern California representative — one of only four admitted atheists in Congress — who founded the “Free Thought Caucus” and just published a book warning of the clear and present danger of a Christian nationalist takeover of the federal government.
All this and more, right here, right now, on Newsmakers TV. Check out our conversation with Mark Barabak via YouTube below or by clicking this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on SoundCloud. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends.
I’m going to re-watch this interview. This is the first hint of someone - anyone - thinking about a Democratic strategy. All we have now is basically snivelling: ACT BLUE is the worst offender: “We lost,” “It’s all over,” “Statue of Liberty, gone?” Etc. A coup has taken place in this the country, we’re under siege, and we get nothing but text spams for more money:” we just need this seat in Maine,” “we can win back the house,” and so forth. Rome is burning and the Democratic Party is looking for squirt guns.
At the rate we’re going, The Statue of Liberty should be dismantled asap, and Trump’s likeness - in gold - on top - with a blowtorch. Then, maybe we can all see how we’ve been overtaken. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free….” Doesn’t fit anymore…instead, we’re taking the tired, poor and huddled masses and putting them in detention centers. The coup has already taken place, and we’re talking about a house seat?
This interview talks about FOCUS - a Democratic candidacy we can be thinking about.