Maddow: Three ways Trump is trying to rig the 2026 midterm elections

The Rachel Maddow Show

Rachel Maddow, MS NOW

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4.5 • 34K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rachel Maddow lays out three different avenues Donald Trump is following to manipulate the administration of elections in the United States so that his control of the government is assured through the coming 2026 midterms. Journalist and historian Garrett Graff joins to discuss how Donald Trump can subvert democracy without cancelling elections outright.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks to at home for joining us this hour.
0:01.2	Really happy to have you here.
0:03.0	In the United States, the work week is Monday to Friday.
0:07.0	The weekend is Saturday and Sunday.
0:09.4	In Israel, Sunday is a work day.
0:12.9	The way they do their work week in Israel, Friday is a short day.
0:17.6	Saturday is off.
0:19.4	But Sunday is the start of the work week, generally speaking. Except for
0:25.1	this Sunday, yesterday it was not the start of the work week. Did you see the size of the protests
0:31.7	there this weekend? The families of hostages still being held in Gaza called on Israelis all over the country
0:39.1	to protest yesterday on Sunday. Again, that's the start of the work week. Because it was
0:45.8	the start of the work week, they also called on schools and businesses all over the country
0:50.0	to close yesterday. Essentially, a general strike, a nationwide work stoppage. And people did that
0:58.6	all over the country. Everything was shut down. People marched all over Israel against their
1:03.4	own government, demanding an end to the war in Gaza. There were protests and marches all over
1:08.8	the country yesterday. In some cases angry ones.
1:11.9	In some cases, people set fires and blocked highways.
1:17.3	It all culminated last night, Sunday night, in an absolutely massive protest in Tel Aviv.
1:23.1	Organizers say they had a turnout of nearly 500,000 people in Tel Aviv last night,
1:29.3	all demanding that Israel end the war, bring home the hostages and end it.
1:35.0	I mean, just for context, if they got 500,000 people, that size of a crowd in that size of a
1:40.7	country, if you adjusted for population, that would be the equivalent in our country
	...

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