Madam Secretary, always a pleasure to see you.

Thank you for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

A lot of news in your space this week, not in Michigan, but Fulton County, Georgia. And you're here for the National Association of Secretaries of State. As I understand it, later today, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, security christ Nob, all due to talk to secretaries of state across the country. Try to evaluate those two things for me,

if you can. Yeah, I mean, it really reinforces what we've seen unfolding since the 2020

election, which is that we continue to be in the middle of a battle over the future of our democracy,

over the future of our rights and freedoms.

And it's a battle that's increasingly,

it's made it increasingly clear as things unfolded

in Minnesota as well, how critical state officials are

to standing up, to lies, to threats,

to the misuse and abuse of authority at the federal level,

and do so to stand up in furtherance

of the truth of the law and to protect the voices, the votes, the safety of the residents

and citizens in our respective cities and states. So I'm proud to have always been that official

who will do that, but now more than ever, we need all states officials, regardless of your

political background, regardless of your party affiliation, to just stand up to the threats, the lies, all designed, ultimately, I think,

not just to dismantle democracy and all that we talk about in this battle, but to make us feel small,

like our voices don't matter, and to deter the American people from actually exercising their rights to hold this administration accountable at the ballot box, all of which, of course, is tied up in the other rhetoric we're hearing about President Trump joking about canceling an election and all the rest, not on our watch, but also, again, let's read

between the lines.

This is about making us feel like we don't have the power that we do as citizens in this

country to hold elected officials, leaders accountable, especially when they do things

...