How Authoritarians Use Disinformation | Former US Attorney Barb McQuade Joins Anchor Watch

On Anchor Watch this week, Bobby Jones welcomes former U.S. Attorney and Michigan Law Professor Barb McQuade, whose career has spanned everything from prosecuting Detroit’s most powerful figures to sounding the alarm on disinformation.

“I was told as a girl in the 1960s that I couldn’t be shortstop or president,” she recalls — a slight that lit her lifelong drive to knock down barriers. Watergate did the rest: watching ordinary lawyers and reporters take on the most powerful man in the world convinced her that the law could, and should, hold leaders to account.

That sense of justice shapes her warning about today’s Department of Justice. Trump’s claims of “weaponization,” McQuade argues, are nothing but projection. “It’s smoke and mirrors,” she tells Bobby. “Instead of supplementing local law enforcement, federal forces are being used as theater — tanks on tourist streets, cuts to community programs, arrests in hospitals and schools.” The real damage, she insists, isn’t just policy, but trust in the rule of law itself.

Her book, Attack from Within, widens the lens. “Authoritarians have always known how to use the communication device of their day,” she says. “Stalin had newspapers, Mussolini had newsreels, Hitler had radio — Trump has social media.” Disinformation, she argues, has become the weapon of choice, and polarization makes America uniquely vulnerable. The solution isn’t only legislation but collective resistance: “Be the change you want to see in the world. Don’t dunk on your opponents. Show the same grace and respect you expect in return.”

Tune in to hear why McQuade believes the fight for justice can’t be left to prosecutors or professors — it belongs to all of us. And let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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