Could Trump deploy troops to polling stations to sway the midterm elections?
This midweek edition of Legal AF opens with an extended discussion of the U.S. military intervention in Iran, which the hosts characterize as poorly planned and impulsive. An errant Tomahawk missile struck a school and killed over 160 girls because the military was operating with outdated maps showing the school at a previous location. Iran retaliated by striking 17 U.S. military and allied targets and blockading the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of global oil passes. The hosts note that 32 allied nations released 400 million barrels of oil reserves to stabilize markets, effectively bailing out the American economy despite the Trump administration having repeatedly antagonized those same allies. The February jobs report showed a loss of 90,000 jobs. Seven U.S. service members had been killed and over 130 seriously injured at the time of recording. The hosts argue the war was driven by intelligence from Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff rather than professional diplomats, and draw parallels to Nixon-era attempts to use foreign conflict to distract from domestic problems. On the domestic political front, the episode details a string of Democratic electoral wins since Trump took office. In the special election for Marjorie Taylor Greene congressional seat, a Black Democrat, retired Brigadier General Sean Harris, led the field with nearly 40 percent in a district Trump won by 37 points. A New Hampshire district that had not gone Democratic in 10 years flipped by double digits. Democrats have overperformed Kamala Harris benchmarks in 253 of 283 races and flipped 9 state house seats without losing any. The SAVE Act, which would require citizenship documentation to vote and effectively eliminate most mail-in and absentee voting, passed the House but faces a dead end in the Senate because Majority Leader John Thune will not eliminate the filibuster, recognizing Republicans may soon be the minority party. The DNC filed a lawsuit after Freedom of Information Act requests to the DOJ, DHS, and DOD about potential military deployment at polling places went largely unanswered. The hosts also discuss Kristi Noem 220 million dollar DHS advertising campaign, the revelation that Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi have been living in military barracks, and Trump reported obsession with men shoe sizes. The episode notes Trump desire to be a wartime president as a mechanism for expanding executive power, drawing on declared emergencies both domestic and foreign.
