We begin tonight with how Donald Trump is barreling towards these authoritarian tactics and quite blatant promises to push America as far away from democracy or into a dictatorship as he can if he wins next year.

Critics, meanwhile, are going at the kind of MAGA allies who not only are enabling this, but really arguing that anyone trying to hold Donald Trump accountable or protect the rule

of law and democracy are themselves enemies of the state. It's all part of the same plotting.

Now, Trump said in this kind of odd exchange with Fox as Sean Hannity, who actually seemed to be

pushing against the idea that he would be a dictator, that that would be a bad thing.

Trump said, well, he'd be a dictator only on day one, which builds on his claims, promises,

and vows to have retribution against his perceived opponents in the United States.

Liz Cheney has been on a book tour.

She has been on several news programs, including on MSNBC, other channels, and right here on The Beat.

She brings a very important perspective to this because, as many people remember, she was in leadership.

She had a front row seat to this. She also took a stand, pushing for Donald Trump's impeachment over the insurrection, then chairing the Jan 6th committee.

And here's what she told us.

Donald Trump won't deny that he has plans like the ones we've been discussing.

What the lesson of Donald Trump of the last several years has taught us is we have to take him seriously and we have to take him literally.

And he has shown us what he's willing to do.

He has shown us, take him literally, and be ready to resist the type of strategy of diminishment,

sometimes appeasement, sometimes just a general kind of trolling, undermining of these very real concerns,

because that itself is designed to help Donald Trump not only return to power, anyone can run for office,

but return to power and perhaps not leave office.

The guardrails are clearly eroding on the right.

Take a sitting Republican senator, echoing Donald

Trump's discussion of abusing power, potentially illegally, to get the DOJ to go after opponents,

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