On the same night former President Barack Obama was headlining a Detroit rally for the Michigan Democratic ticket featuring U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, the line was out the door for another election event at Walled Lake Northern High School about an hour away.

More than 800 people — including buses of voters from Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids — turned out for an evening with historian and bestselling author Heather Cox Richardson, Red Wine & Blue Founder Katie Paris, and Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who ran for U.S. Senate this year. Organizers said the Michigan rally might have been the largest event in the group’s history. Attendees pledged to contact over 8,000 people before Election Day.

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The atmosphere was festive, with the lobby featuring plenty of voter information, signs like “Good Moms Make Good Trouble,” and Red Wine & Blue swag, as well as a cardboard cutout of Obama attendees could pose with (so they didn’t have FOMO). Before the event started, photos of past RWB events and pro-democracy protests played on screen as Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” thumped in the background.

Paris kicked off the program by stressing how important the Nov. 3 election is, especially in Michigan.

“The whole U.S. Senate could come down to y’all,” she said.

Before Richardson, Paris, and McMorrow took to the stage, Lincoln Square CEO and Executive Editor Susan J. Demas interviewed them about Michigan’s tight Senate race between Democratic Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and GOP former Congressman Mike Rogers; President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and corruption; parallels to the 1850s, 1890s, and 1930s; the importance of women voters; and much more:

Susan J. Demas: We are a little over a week away from the election. So why are you both in Michigan?

Katie Paris: We are excited to be here in Michigan on the day that early voting starts. We are celebrating democracy, the first time that Michiganders can vote early in person. [Editor’s Note: Michiganders voted in 2022 for Proposal 2, a constitutional amendment expanding voting rights that required in-person early voting and was in place for the 2024 election.]

And our intention tonight is to make sure that not only all almost 1,000 people here make sure to cast their votes in the next 10 days, but that they get tens of thousands of their friends to do that, too. We believe in the power of friend-to-friend organizing at Red Wine & Blue. And we see Heather Cox Richardson and Mallory McMorrow as our friends. So there’s no better people to come do this with.

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Demas: Professor, you have a very competitive Senate seat in Maine [between Democrat Troy Jackson and GOP Sen. Susan Collins.] We have one here in Michigan. How are you feeling as we’re going into the midterms?

Heather Cox Richardson: Well, I predict the past, not the future. So I’m not going to take a stand on that. But I want to echo what Katie said. I’m here for the first day of voting. And I’m here for my friends. I mean, this is how we’re doing this. And one of the things that I have found traveling around the country makes it a wonderful thing to be doing is that the American people are taking back their agency and they are reclaiming their democracy. And Michigan is such an important state. Watching the enthusiasm here is just something I didn’t want to miss out on.

Demas: Professor, I know you just spoke with Abdul El-Sayed a few days ago. What was your biggest takeaway? What did you learn the most from him?

Richardson: Well, I find him fascinating. You know, one of the things that the interviews I’ve been doing have been because there is this dramatic change in American politics right now. And I think it’s more than generational change. I think it’s one of those ones that will be marked in the history books the way the 1850s or the 1890s were, for example.

And what I took from not so much the interview I did with him, but from the way he talks more generally, is that there is this really interesting — and this may be way more than weeds than you may want — but there’s this really interesting thing happening around the country where we are watching people in the Democratic Party or associated with the anti-Trumpers rethinking what American political ideology should be. And there’s this really interesting moment where people are going back to the greats, to Lincoln especially, at the same time that they’re applying those principles to the new conditions of modern America.

And El-Sayed is doing that in spades. So it’s just fascinating to watch him talk about immigration and religion and data centers with the language of Abraham Lincoln. I think it’s fascinating. It makes you rethink the entire way people come up with ideology, which I had always thought sort of came from an understanding of political positions and rethinking them. I’m watching it growing organically, and I did not expect to see that.

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Demas: Sen.McMorrow, you ran against Abdul El-Sayed. You’ve been there every step of the way trying to support him and the rest of the ticket. How are you feeling at this moment?

McMorrow: You know, I feel good. The biggest takeaway — and I did three canvas kickoffs in West Michigan this morning — I was out in Southwest Michigan last night with supporters of mine who had reached out after the primary to say they were disappointed. But their immediate followup question is: “Will you come and do a fundraiser with us for Abdul?”

And I think exactly to Heather’s point, there is a realigning on corruption versus the rest of us. It is not along a left-right political ideology. It is who is going to tackle these really big systemic issues for us. So I feel like that gives us a tremendous opportunity. But it’s Michigan. I also want to make sure people don’t get burned out. Or people don’t read the polls and get complacent and recognize we have 10 days of work left to do to talk to everybody we know to make sure they have a voting plan and to go out and vote.

Demas: Professor, I was really struck by something you wrote recently, that “everything feels out of whack in the United States.” And you were also talking about how Republicans are peddling “fear porn” right now during this election. Can you talk with us about how Americans can stay grounded amid all of this chaos? And what is your hope about what 2027 might look like if we see some change this election?

Richardson: So small questions. [Laughs]

Demas: [Laughs] Yes, very small.

Richardson: So to be clear, the term “fear porn” …

Demas: … Came from [Fox News host] Jesse Watters, actually.

Richardson: And it was reported by Media Matters. So they’re really a go-to place for that kind of language. So what I meant when I said the country feels out of whack is, as you know, I’m trying to take a snapshot of every day in American history.

If you look at the behavior of the president right now, he’s not OK. And you don’t know what’s going to happen next. And that is, for all that a president is a political and a governmental leader, he’s also a symbolic leader. And you don’t expect to see your president, you know, talking about some senator’s ass. [Editor’s Note: On the campaign trail, President Trump has made repeated comments about the backside of Ohio GOP U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, as reported by USA Today and other outlets.]

I’m sorry, but whatever. There’s that. There’s the economy being as out of control as it seems to be. There’s the fact that we don’t know what’s going to happen with the war in the Middle East. And then there is the extraordinary fact that it appears for the first time in our history that the president has openly sold out to a foreign country.

Demas: Are you speaking specifically about Russia?

Richardson: Russia, yes. And you and I are speaking on the day after the news broke [in the New York Times] about Russian investments in Alaska, liquid natural gas. And I think that just makes people terrified to pick up their phone. You know, what are we going to see next?

And one of the things that I think is so important in this moment is for those of us who care about democracy to hold the guardrails and say, “Listen, many of the institutions are under stress. Certainly the things that are happening to us are bonkers, but there are things we can hold on to.”

We can hold on to voting. We can hold on to our state legislatures, the delegations we send to Congress. We can hold on to our neighbors and to the principles that are outlined in the Declaration of Independence. We have a right to be treated equally before the law. We have a right to equal access to resources. We have a right to have a say in our government.

And if we can hold on to that, I think what we are seeing is, again, what we saw in the 1850s or the 1890s, or the 1930s, the American people, as a whole, waking up, in part because they’re punched by things like diesel prices, and saying, “We’re all in this together against the corruption, against the backroom dealing, against the things that are so badly hurting us.”

And if we do that, we can go into 2027 with the Democrats in control of at least the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate and continue to build that pressure in a way that looks very much like 1975, 1976, where they managed to rein in a president [Richard Nixon] that was out of control. And then once Jimmy Carter was elected [president] in ‘76, most people forget it. But there was actually a lot of extraordinary legislation that passed in ‘77 and ‘78.

Demas: A lot of anti-corruption legislation.

Richardson: And also a lot of social welfare legislation. We get [no-fault] divorce in a lot of states. There’s a lot of stuff that happened. Most people are forgotten now, but that’s what I hope to see going forward. And then we have a presidential election [in 2028], then we have another midterm [in 2030]. And by then, if we all keep our hands down and keep working, we should have a different kind of country.

Demas: Katie, you have helped build a grassroots organization for hundreds of thousands of women. Back in the 2018 midterms, that was a pink wave election. We elected [U.S. Reps.] Ilhan Omar and AOC and [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer and a lot of women who have made a difference in this country. What we saw after the 2024 election loss was Democrats seem to be very focused on winning back men, finding their Joe Rogan. Do you think women are being taken for granted by the party?

Paris: I think that women are used to being taken for granted, period, in all walks of life. But you know who talks a lot to men? Women. And you know who actually tends to listen to the women that they trust in their life? It is men and women.

And so … I see women stepping up in ways that are more courageous than ever because they know the stakes are that high. And they understand exactly what is going on here in terms of the distractions, the chaos. We know that they’re trying to burn us out by design.

And we also know that there’s more of us than them. And we know that community is ultimately the antidote to extremism and to all this mess. So we are keeping our heads down, reading Heather Cox Richardson every morning. And then talking to our friends, our family, our neighbors — everyone we know, everyone we meet — to make sure everyone votes in this election.

Because if that happens, we will win.

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After our interview, Richardson, Paris, and McMorrow took to the stage and spoke to the crowd about the midterms, early voting, organizing, the Michigan U.S. Senate race, and more.

During the event, Paris referenced our interview and asked Richardson to expound on one of the topics:

Paris: Before this, we were talking backstage to a reporter. And she asked us: “Did we think since the 2024 election there’s been a lot of focus on the men’s vote? And did we think that that meant that women were being taken for granted, maybe underestimated when it comes to politics and influencing elections?”

And, you know, just looking now at the audience here today, [there’s] a lot of women. And a few very good men. What do you have to say to that question to whether or not women are underestimated, women are taken for granted in terms of our role in the political press?

Richardson: So I love this question because I think this is the story that many people have missed, and I would say most of the media has missed. For women of a certain age, we are the first generation of women who had access to reliable contraception, which comes into America in 1965 [with the Supreme Court’s Griswold decision]. That’s really when we get prescriptions for the Pill and IUDs. And has, at least for most of our lifetimes, meant we’ve had reliable access to reproductive health care. That meant that we had the opportunity to join the economy, to get involved in our communities in ways that our mothers did not.

But it also meant that we benefited from Title IX, which goes into place in 1972. And most people think that’s about sports. What that said was that women had to have equal access to educational opportunities that were available to men. And you know what that meant? That meant women went to professional schools, which until then had caps of between one and five percent on how many women could go into those professions, into those professional schools.

So what I think we are seeing now is those women who then went into the workforce in a way that they had not been able to in previous generations and then benefited from the extraordinary strides we’ve had in healthcare since World War II. So we are the first generation of women who have 20 to 30 years [left] after our kids have left home or after our careers have gotten to where we want them to be. And we have skills and we have friends and we have connections and we know what we’re doing and often we have money. And now we have 30 to 40 years to decide what we’re going to do with that, in a way, second life.

And it turns out that what we want to do is save democracy. And I think the fact they haven’t figured it out is our superpower. Because they, you know, I always laugh when I come to these things because, like, you will read, oh my God, this guy on the radical right, he’s got 30,000 followers. And every time I see that I think, “Have y’all looked at Katie Paris’ numbers?”

Paris: Have you looked at Heather Cox Richardson’s numbers?

Richardson: And that’s us, right? So I think it’s our superpower, and I think we should take it out for a spin.

Elon Musk must be feeling the heat. Last week, the man who spent $44 billion purchasing Twitter because his favorite bigots kept getting thrown off the platform decided to use his overpriced digital dumpster to threaten Democrats who intend to investigate him if they win control of Congress on Nov. 3.

“Live by the sword, die by the sword,” he wrote, responding to a Politico report detailing the investigations Democrats are preparing. Then, because subtlety has never been one of his intellectual strengths, he warned that he would “find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets.” Well, goddamn. Lex Luthor has discovered congressional oversight, and somebody needs to explain to him that the United States Constitution does not have a customer-service department where billionaires can demand to speak to the manager.

Elon Musk has proven himself, time and time again, to be a piece-of-shit human being. He is an extraordinarily wealthy man with the emotional maturity of a thirteen-year-old boy who just got suspended from Xbox Live for calling somebody a racial slur. He does not understand how American government works, and he has demonstrated absolutely no curiosity about learning. Congress is not a corporate board he can stack with ass-kissers, intimidate with stock options, or fire because somebody hurt his feelings. Congressional subpoenas do not give a flying fuck how many satellites he owns, how many rockets he launches, or how many zeros appear on his bank statements. The legislative branch was conducting investigations long before Elon Musk was born, and it will continue doing so long after his latest midlife crisis has been converted into another embarrassing social media post.

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What Musk understands is money. It is the only language he speaks fluently, the foundation of his entire personality, and the yardstick by which he measures his own importance: how much wealth he can accumulate, how many companies he can purchase, how many politicians he can bankroll, and how many women he can bed and impregnate along the way. The man approaches reproduction like he is personally responsible for solving an imaginary population shortage. Somewhere in America, a family court clerk probably sees his name on the docket and starts calculating overtime. For all his talk about advancing civilization, Musk seems convinced that humanity’s greatest technological achievement would be producing enough little Elons to populate a medium-sized congressional district.

And for a man who worships money, he has demonstrated a truly spectacular inability to spend it intelligently. Consider his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which deserves its own chapter in the history of billionaires doing dumb shit because nobody in their immediate orbit has the courage to tell them to sit their stupid asses down. Musk became increasingly irritated that Twitter was suspending accounts belonging to his favorite collection of racists, conspiracy theorists, and professional grievance merchants. Evidently, the possibility that people might face consequences for behaving like assholes on a privately owned platform was an intolerable assault on Western civilization. So, rather than find another website where his bigoted buddies could gather and exchange their latest theories about why minorities are responsible for everything, this fool decided to buy the entire goddamn company.

And here is the part that makes me laugh. There was a reason Jack Dorsey wanted out of the Twitter business.

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And what does Joe think is missing from all these polls that might make this even bigger for Democrats? What question is Joe looking at in basically every poll to buy or sell what they’re putting out?

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The U.S. is leaving GRECO, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption watchdog, after the State Department said membership offered too little benefit. GRECO had urged Washington to tighten rules on presidential conflicts of interest, lobbying and FBI integrity, and its public record shows no completed U.S. compliance review before the withdrawal was announced.

The Trump administration is ending the United States’ 26-year membership in the Council of Europe’s principal anti-corruption monitoring body, withdrawing from a system in which participating governments examine one another’s safeguards against abuses of public power.

The administration notified the Council of Europe in late September that the United States would leave the Group of States against Corruption, known as GRECO. American membership, which began in 2000, is scheduled to end Dec. 31.

Only Russia and Belarus had previously left the organization.

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The State Department said participation required an annual contribution while providing no “tangible benefits to U.S. national security,” and said it preferred what it called higher-impact tools, including sanctions, visa restrictions and targeted assistance for foreign corruption investigations.

GRECO operates differently. It does not prosecute cases or compel changes to American law. Member governments examine one another’s anti-corruption safeguards, issue recommendations and later assess whether those recommendations were carried out.

Its most recent review of the United States, adopted in 2023, examined what GRECO calls “top executive functions” and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The organization credited the United States with a substantial integrity framework, including ethics laws, inspectors general and the Office of Government Ethics. But it also identified gaps at the highest levels of government, noting that the president and vice president are exempt from many statutory and regulatory conflict-of-interest and integrity rules that apply to other executive officials.

GRECO issued 15 recommendations. It urged the United States to require presidents and vice presidents to relinquish outside positions and divest assets that could create conflicts of interest, or place them in qualified trusts. It also called for more durable ethics restrictions, greater disclosure of contacts between senior officials and lobbyists, tighter rules governing officials who move between government and private employment, and stronger safeguards for FBI whistleblowers.

GRECO directed Washington to report by June 30, 2025, on the measures it had taken. But GRECO’s published Fifth Round registry lists no subsequent compliance assessment for the United States. The organization’s published materials reviewed for this article also do not disclose whether Washington submitted the underlying report.

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Lisa also calls for crucial judicial reform, including radically reforming the Supreme Court and completely eradicating the Citizens United decision.

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Trump has always loved a “strongman,” but MAGA masculinity is manifesting some unavoidably homoerotic undertones … Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth looks like he’s preparing to exit, far right … And Elon Musk is having a meltdown over his potential fate if Democrats win a majority in Congress in November.

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Jenifer and Joe also take a closer look at races in key states, like Democrat Scott Colom vs. GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, Democrat Gina Hinojosa vs. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, and Democrat James Talarico vs. Texas AG Ken Paxton in the state’s U.S. Senate race.

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We can have democracy, or we can have Elon Musk, but we can’t have both. His wealth and his impact on our social fabric, on our democracy, are obscene to the point of total abstraction.

When I was a kid, my family went through a rough patch. It’s not an unusual story. It happens. I was able to get an off-the-books job at a bottling plant when I was 12. I made $4 an hour putting labels on bottles of engine oil additive at the end of the line, and got my checks made to cash. Sometimes, the man who owned the operation would accidentally forget to sign my checks.

At 20 hours a week, the checks I couldn’t cash were for $80.

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As of this writing, Elon Musk’s net worth is around $1,000,000,000,000, give or take a few billion or a few tens of billions of dollars. So far, he’s reportedly given around $366,000,000 to federal committees supporting Republican candidates for national office. Most of it — about $275,000,000 — landed between July and September of this year.

$366,000,000 is the floor of his giving. It’s possible, maybe even likely, that he’s giving to groups that don’t disclose donors.

We can look at these numbers and shake our heads and say something like One guy shouldn’t have that much power. But it’s important to sit with it a second. We have to at least try to wrap our heads around what this kind of wealth means for us, personally. It’s almost impossible.

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Hey patriots! Max Burns here.

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Ramaswamy’s Train Wreck

Before I dive into the latest disaster facing Vivek Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign in Ohio, I want to include a warning for our viewers. This story discusses sexual assault and creeps like Ramaswamy who seem to enjoy inflicting pain on the victims of childhood trauma.

Earlier this week, Ramaswamy decided to air an absolutely disgusting ad against his opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, featuring Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur. This is a particularly low blow even by Ramaswamy’s standards, since Arthur lost custody of both her children when Acton was just twelve after failing to protect them from the alleged sexual predation of Acton’s stepfather. Adding to that heartbreak and trauma, Arthur chose to defend her husband in court against her own daughter. The whole story is deeply tragic, and Ramaswamy’s desire to exploit it is disgusting.

Instead of admitting the ad was in more than poor taste, Ramaswamy doubled down and mocked Acton for “complain[ing] about what someone else did to her.” Even worse, Vice President JD Vance defended Ramaswamy’s ad and criticized Republicans who dared to express their moral outrage.

There is no bar too low for MAGA. Remember that.

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If you’re appalled, you’re not alone. Even Republicans are calling out Ramaswamy for the heinous move — but Vivek is still getting support from some of the biggest slimeballs in the MAGA movement. It’s another new low from a party that seems to find new lows every single day.

Get angry, and then get out and vote. Scumbags like Ramaswamy shouldn’t be anywhere near political power. At least voters got to see who Vivek really was before they cast their ballots. Stay safe out there, folks.

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Tim and April go through some of the vile measures the GOP is taking to scare people, rather than run on their own record.

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Steven welcomes Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI Assistant Director and host of Lincoln Square’s The Frank Figliuzzi Show to talk about the state of intelligence agencies under Trump, the threats we face, and what comes next.

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Dear Lincoln Loyal,

We are 12 days away from the most critical midterm election of our lives. Right now, pro-democracy, independent media is being systematically drowned out and suppressed at the exact moment Americans need facts most.

While Lincoln Square fights tirelessly for the truth, we are up against millions in dark money and MAGA-enabling tech oligarchs controlling access to information.

Look at what is happening right now:

• Meta Silenced NoKings: Meta temporarily suspended the official NoKings Instagram account during nationwide protests, blocking millions from seeing why Americans took to the streets, and enabling the regime to ignore the millions of people who are standing up against Trump’s authoritarian policies and unprecedented self-dealing and corruption.

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• Elon Musk Throttled Starshield: Musk restricted Starshield speeds used by Ukrainian forces, disabling interceptor drones in a direct attempt to weaken our allies and aid Putin’s imperialist goals.

• Fox News Ignores Corruption: Fox News has refused to report on White House corruption, choosing partisan power over public truth.

When oligarchs can control what information we can access, we lose our sovereignty, our elections, and our fundamental freedoms.

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Susan’s investigative reporting and commentary have appeared in over 100 national and international publications, including The New York Times, NBC News, Newsweek, C-SPAN, MSNOW, Forbes, and NPR. Throughout her career, Demas has established herself as a leading voice in political journalism, specializing in government accountability, campaign finance, public policy, and institutional transparency. Under her leadership, Lincoln Square reached profitability in its very first year and has expanded our reach to over 100 million Americans with over 1 billion media impressions across all digital channels.

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Over the last twelve months, Republicans have given this country an embarrassing, deadly, and unpopular war, a president whose approval ratings are scraping the bottom of the political toilet, and a midterm slate featuring some of the most pathetic MAGA candidates ever to file paperwork.

Ken Paxton is among them, which tells you something about the competition. And somehow, with that much concentrated stupidity fighting for our attention, Ohio GOP gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy has found a way to distinguish himself. When your party has turned public embarrassment into an Olympic sport and you are still finding innovative ways to take home the gold, that is a special kind of talent. Vivek has managed to offend people on both the left and the right, which is just a regular Tuesday for him, but this time he might have tanked his own campaign.

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In an extraordinary display of political desperation, a one-minute video surfaced Monday night featuring Donna Arthur, the mother of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton, telling Ohioans not to vote for her daughter. The video initially circulated on Twitter without identifying its sponsor, raising questions about Ohio’s political advertising disclosure requirements. Ramaswamy’s campaign didn’t run from it. His spokesperson called Acton a “serial fabulist” and insisted the public needed to be warned about her. Then, according to Axios, the campaign committed $4 million to putting this garbage on the air. Four million dollars! Somewhere, a political consultant is collecting a handsome paycheck for convincing a gubernatorial candidate that publicly humiliating a survivor of childhood sexual abuse was a brilliant use of campaign resources. I would love to sit in on that strategy meeting just to find out whether anyone in the room possessed a functioning conscience.

The problem with this ad is that Acton is estranged from her mother for reasons that should make any decent human being recoil. Acton was removed from her mother’s home at age twelve after her stepfather was indicted on a charge of raping her. Her mother went to court to support the man her daughter had accused, then left town with him. As Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, explained, their mother “stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.” Think about the magnitude of that betrayal. A child reports sexual abuse, her mother sides with the accused, and decades later a multimillionaire politician decides the mother would make an excellent character witness against the daughter.

What Vivek doesn’t seem to understand is how many people can identify with some version of Acton’s experience. Ask anybody who grew up with an asshole stepfather and a mother who consistently took the man’s side, even when her own child was suffering. Family therapists have studied these dynamics for decades, particularly the emotional damage that occurs when a parent prioritizes a romantic relationship over a child’s safety and well-being. Acton’s experience involves an especially horrific allegation, but the underlying betrayal is painfully recognizable. There are adults walking around today who haven’t spoken to a parent in twenty years for precisely that reason. And Vivek, displaying all the emotional intelligence of a parking meter, thinks Ohioans are going to watch this woman attack her estranged daughter and automatically conclude the daughter must be the problem. His spokesperson even presented Arthur as one of the people who knows Acton best. Somebody needs to explain to these idiots that being biologically related to someone doesn’t automatically make you a credible witness to their character.

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Hey patriots! Max Burns here.

It’s hard to believe, but this is our second-to-last Poll Position Wednesday, so I’m having some fun with this one with the Michigan U.S. Senate race.

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Poll Position Wednesday

With Election Day so close, you’d think Michigan’s MAGA Mike Rogers would be more careful about the slop that falls out of his mouth. Thanks to a bunch of leaked audio from a recent Rogers event, we now know he’s only running for Senate because Donald Trump told him to. Oh yeah — and his top priority is stripping health care coverage from sick Michiganders.

The early voting numbers don’t favor Rogers, and he seems to know it, because earlier this week he was allegedly caught on tape (again!) begging the Republican National Committee to send in off-duty cops to intimidate Black voters at polling stations in Detroit. Yikes.

Despite Democrats’ strong lead in the polls, the peninsular state hasn’t drawn in many new voters. Almost everyone casting their early ballot also voted in 2022 or 2024. Even so, Democratic nominee Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is still favored to win. Just remember that those are projections. Things can still change drastically.

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MAGA Mike’s grotesque slip-ups are an embarrassment to Michigan, and I’ve only mentioned half of them. You can do better, Michigan. I believe in you.

If you’re a Michigander, it’s time to make a plan to vote early! Statewide early in-person voting begins Oct. 24, so make sure to bank your vote before Republicans have the chance to engage in any election hijinks. And as always, stay safe out there.

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Now McGurk is sharing his perspective as the man who led negotiations to free the hostages held by Hamas, in his new book, Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages.

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Media critic Mark Jacob, who writes the the Stop the Presses newsletter for COURIER, joins Joan to talk about the state of governance, electability, and journalism as we look at the midterms and into 2027.

On The Line callers told us they are especially concerned about Trump’s power-abusing tantrums. Joan and Mark answered questions about Trump’s possible power grabs during the midterm elections — and what the first 100 days look like if there isn’t any interference! And you also asked who’s the next to get fired from the Trump administration.

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Got even more questions? Good! Leave them in the comments for the next show!

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Errin Haines, founding member and editor-at-large with The 19th and co-host of Crooked’s Long Play podcast, has been covering that race and more. She joins Susan J. Demas on First Draft to talk about the messaging and the polling math in the South, as well as Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s disturbing new attack ad against Democratic Dr. Amy Acton in the Ohio gubernatorial race.

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Millions of Americans took to the streets Saturday for No Kings Day, a pro-democracy mobilization against the concern that a single, unitary authority seeks to control our freedoms.

Just as the rallies reached their peak, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta reached in and proved their point. The movement’s most vital communication channel suddenly vanished. Meta temporarily shut down the official No Kings Instagram account, along with the pages of several key organizers and leaders. For hours, during the most critical window of the mobilization, the digital heartbeat of the protest went dark, leaving organizers locked out and fueling immediate fears of political censorship.

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The fallout was swift, and the explanation from Silicon Valley was frustratingly familiar. Tech giants like Meta operate with the power of sovereign royalty, yet when their systems disrupt core constitutional activities, they retreat behind the shield of technical glitches. This incident exposes a dangerous vulnerability in our public square: the automated suppression of legitimate political speech during a highly volatile election year.

Meta’s initial response was a brief, hollow apology about algorithms. Company spokesperson Andy Stone stated on X (not even a Meta platform) that an automated trigger designed to catch accounts posting, sharing, or commenting at unusually high frequencies, had been pulled “in error.”

It took a full 24 hours for Meta to offer a more granular, detailed explanation. On Sunday, Stone clarified that engineering teams found the restriction was triggered not by outgoing posts, but by the account’s intense “reading” behavior, which network security systems mistakenly flagged as an automated Claude AI tool that might be scraping data. Humans blaming an automated system they created, for wrongly perceiving the presence of an AI tool created by humans, which ultimately suppressed the freedom of humans.

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Those who continuously defend and fight for our democracy deserve to lead it.

Dear Friend,

Take a breath for a moment and really look around at where we are—because after everything we’ve weathered, we are standing on the very edge of something historic.

We are fingertip-close to turning back authoritarianism and breathing vibrant life into the true Promise of America: a multiracial, multiethnic democracy where every single one of us has a seat at the table, where everyone is heard, and where no one is left behind.

For years, cynical politicians and divisive voices have tried to convince us to look at our neighbors with suspicion. They’ve peddled the zero-sum lie that for one community to rise, another must fall—that when a person of color, an immigrant, a Muslim, a Jew, or a working mother gains a voice, someone else loses theirs. But you and I know the truth deep in our bones: diversity is never a threat to our country; it is the ultimate fulfillment of our country. When we expand the circle of who belongs, democracy doesn’t weaken—it grows stronger, sturdier, and richer. Electing leaders of color and welcoming every culture into the halls of power isn’t something to fear; it is the living proof that equality lifts everyone.

The dark days of division only last as long as we allow them to. This November 3rd, we have an extraordinary opportunity to send a message so loud, clear, and defiant that no autocrat, gerrymandered line, or fear campaign can ever silence us again.

Just look at the groundswell rising across this country.

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Texas: A Dream Team Turning the Tables

Down in Texas, the political machine is shaking. A grassroots Dream Team is stepping up to reclaim the Lone Star State: Gina Hinojosa running for Governor, James Talarico for the U.S. Senate, and beloved Tejano icon Bobby Pulido stepping into the arena for Congress.

For years, the Texas GOP has clung to power through calculated, mid-decade gerrymandering schemes—carving up neighborhoods and slicing through communities of color to manufacture artificial majorities. But that cynical cheat is blowing up in their faces.

With Gina Hinojosa, Texans are lifting up a fearless Latina champion who knows firsthand what our neighborhood schools, clinics, and families need. Beside her, James Talarico—a white man of deep Christian faith—is reclaiming the gospel from the grip of Christian nationalism, speaking with bold moral conviction to remind us that faith is about love, justice, and lifting up the vulnerable. And with Bobby Pulido carrying the music, heartbeat, and fierce pride of the Tejano community directly onto the ballot, this coalition is turning voter suppression into the very catalyst for change.

When this trio wins, it will deliver a gut punch to MAGA and the status quo. It sends a thunderous message to Austin and Washington: Texas’s Latino community is not an afterthought to be boxed in—they are the beating heart and the future of Texas.

Michigan: Solidarity That Shatters the Status Quo

In Michigan, something unforgettable is taking shape. Picture what it will mean when Michigan sends Abdul El-Sayed to join Elissa Slotkin to the United States Senate together.

Consider the sheer beauty and power of that partnership: an Arab American Muslim doctor and organizer standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a Jewish woman, representing the Great Lakes State as one united team in the halls of power.

At a time when propagandists and bad-faith actors work overtime to pit Muslim and Jewish communities against one another, Michigan can show the nation and the world what unbreakable solidarity looks like. For Michigan’s Muslim and Jewish families—and for everyday working people across the state—this is living proof that our hopes and struggles are deeply intertwined.

With his unwavering integrity and deep compassion for everyday people, Abdul El-Sayed is going to win over hearts across the country and shatter tired, hateful Islamophobic tropes once and for all. He will show Washington what genuine public service looks like. Together, Slotkin and El-Sayed will deliver an unmistakable message: our bonds are stronger than their wedge issues, and real solidarity cannot be broken.

Protect the Promise of America ---->

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The New South: Florida and Georgia Rewriting the Playbook

That energy isn’t stopping at the Texas border. Across the South, old political barriers are collapsing before our eyes.

The rising momentum behind David Jolly for Governor and Angie Nixon for U.S. Senate represents a powerful rejection of MAGA extremism in a traditionally red stronghold. It brings together a former Republican who chose country over party and a grassroots Black community organizer.

Their partnership shows that everyday Floridians are done with manufactured culture wars—they want good schools, affordable housing, clean water, homeowners insurance, and basic human dignity.

Angie Nixon’s primary win against Washington insider Alex Vindman, despite being outspent 10-to-1, proves that voters are ready to reject establishment politics in favor of authentic community leadership.

In Georgia, we see the generational coalition of the Civil Rights movement carried boldly into tomorrow. Senator Jon Ossoff, grounded in his Jewish heritage and values, is running alongside Keisha Lance Bottoms, a trailblazing Black leader and executive. Together, they prove that Georgia’s multiracial coalition isn’t a fluke—it’s the new standard. When Black, brown, Jewish, and white voters link arms, the politics of voter suppression simply cannot hold the line.

Beyond that, this ticket is a stinging rebuke of Donald Trump’s cruel, racist attacks on Black women and every effort to erase who actually keeps this country afloat. For generations, Black Americans—and Black women in particular—have carried American democracy on their backs, showing up faithfully at the ballot box cycle after cycle, even when America failed to show up for them. Elevating Keisha Lance Bottoms alongside Jon Ossoff honors that tireless dedication, delivering an unmistakable message: the very people who continuously defend and rescue our democracy deserve to lead it.

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A Tectonic Shift Toward a More Perfect Union

When these leaders win, it won’t just flip the House and the Senate blue—it will mark a tectonic shift toward the more perfect union we have chased for generations.

Winning these majorities is far more than a victory of numbers; it is a decisive, national referendum against authoritarianism and systemic suppression. It means finally passing bold federal protections to shut down voter suppression schemes, discriminatory voter purges, and rigged maps for good.

It means using the full weight of representative government to roll back the cruel, suppressive policies of this administration that have targeted communities of color, working families, and vulnerable neighbors. It means replacing institutional cruelty with restorative justice, climate resilience, and real economic dignity.

Most of all, this tectonic shift will fill America with hope, momentum, and undeniable progress. It sends an unmistakable message to every faction fighting so hard against an inclusive society: the dark days of fear and suppression are coming to an end, and the future belongs to all of us.

The Power Has Always Belonged to the People

Here is the most important truth of all: the autocrats don’t hold the power. The billionaires don’t hold the power. The people hold all the power.

Authoritarianism relies on convincing you that you are small, that your voice is useless, and that the promise of America was never meant for you. But history proves that only the people can defeat authoritarianism democratically. We hold the keys to our own liberation.

• Turn out at the protests tomorrow. Fill the streets with your presence, your voices, and your determination to fight. Send a message that we aren’t afraid to rise up and take our power back.

• Turn out in droves at the polls on November 3rd. Bring your friends, your family, and your neighbors. Cast your vote as a shield for our democracy and a declaration of who we are.

• Keep fighting long after Election Day. Voting is where the work begins, not where it ends. We must stay organized, engaged, and mobilized well after November 3rd to safehold the victories we win, hold every leader accountable, and guarantee the promise of America for our children and their children.

Hope isn’t just a feeling; it’s an action we take together. Let’s take back our country and build the multiracial democracy we all deserve.

If you support our work informing and mobilizing Americans through independent, fact-based commentary, please consider continuing to support our work today by upgrading your subscription or donating. Every contribution and subscription upgrade helps us keep this platform independent, accessible, and fiercely dedicated to defending our democracy.

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In solidarity,

Lincoln Square Media

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Democratic strategists Max Burns, Joe Trippi, and Joel Payne take on the technocrats throttling democracy as we get closer to Election Day. They also discuss the enormous turnout we’re seeing already in early voting states and the message it’s sending.

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Tell us what you’re seeing in your communities in the comments!