We turn now to our series on democracy, where we hear a range of perspectives on how government should function, what's led to this moment in American history, and where the country goes next.

Tonight will focus on the rule of law and President Trump's apparent willingness to test its limits.

I spoke earlier with Alberto Gonzalez, dean of Belmont University's law school.

He served as Attorney General and White House Counsel under the George W. Bush administration

and is the only person to ever hold both positions.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for joining us.

I'm happy to do so. So even though you are a Republican

in the last election, you did choose to come forward and endorse Kamala Harris. And saying so at the time,

you said Donald Trump is, quote, the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation. Just a

month ago, you said, what we're seeing today is even more than I

had imagined. So a hundred days in to this second Trump presidency, what is your assessment?

Is the rule of law safe? Is it protected in this country? Well, one of the things that's important

for people to understand is that the rule of law

constraints power. And there are other things that constrain power, you know, such as norms

and institutions, customs, things of that nature. And people who want to exercise powers

without restrictions, they want to eliminate or at least weaken those constraints. And so obviously, it seems to be that the rule of law is under some serious stress.

Well, the president has lawyers around it, right? He has his general counsel in the White House. He has the

attorney general who's advising him on this. And even when you were in the White House under President

George W. Bush, you were accused of enabling an abuse of executive power for some of the legal

arguments you crafted regarding the war on terror. So is it just true that every White House

craft the legal arguments that it needs to move its agenda forward? I think what we're seeing

here is the president surrounding himself of loyalists who give

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