The Founding Fathers Didn't Plan For Trump | Gov. Josh Shapiro
Defending Democracy with Marc Elias
Democracy Docket
4.9 • 702 Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they couldn't have imagined that we would have a president with no shame or integrity. Today, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro joins Marc Elias to break down the consequential voter roll lawsuits, how Democratic governors are holding the line against the White House, and what we can all do to join the opposition movement.
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00:00 Today's Guest: Governor Josh Shapiro
00:59 State of U.S. Democracy Under Trump
04:45 Political Courage, Integrity, and Leadership
07:42 Fighting Trump’s 2020 Election Challenges
10:51 Why Republicans Still Question 2020 Results
12:07 Lawsuit Over Voter Data & Election Security
15:53 From Attorney General to Governor: Legal Strategy
17:36 Fixing I-95 Fast & Government Efficiency
20:15 Balancing Fighting Trump with Broad Popularity
22:42 What Voters Actually Care About in 2026
25:59 Midterm Outlook & Control of Congress
29:30 Voting Rights Reforms & Election Modernization
33:52 Cost, Efficiency & Fixing Election Systems
38:03 Writing a Book & Personal Reflections
40:18 What Citizens Can Do to Defend Democracy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Donald Trump is launching an unprecedented assault on free and fair elections. |
| 0:04.8 | And Republican governors, well, they're just given him everything he needs without putting up a fight. |
| 0:09.2 | But today's guest, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, |
| 0:11.7 | while he's fighting tooth and nail to protect your right to vote. |
| 0:14.6 | He joins me to discuss the consequential multi-state lawsuit that he is helping to lead against Donald Trump's executive order. |
| 0:21.5 | We talk about Donald Trump's blatant betrayal of Pennsylvania voters and how Democratic governors |
| 0:26.8 | like him, well, they're holding the line against this White House. |
| 0:30.0 | But before we get into it, democracy docket is only made possible by viewers like you. |
| 0:34.8 | So click on the link in the description to learn how you can support our mission and help defend democracy. |
| 0:40.3 | Governor Josh Shapiro, welcome to defending democracy. |
| 0:42.3 | It's great to be with you, Mark. Thanks for having me on. |
| 0:44.3 | All right, I've been looking forward to this conversation for a while. |
| 0:47.3 | You are truly one of the champions in the fight for democracy, free and fair elections, |
| 0:51.3 | standing up to Donald Trump, so we got a lot to cover. |
| 0:54.5 | So let me just sort of start with an open-ended big picture question that I get a lot. We're less |
| 1:00.1 | than halfway through the Trump administration, or maybe, I don't know, 35 percent, 40 percent of |
| 1:06.8 | the way through. We're a little more than a year in. People feel like the system of government has been under enormous strain and is showing cracks. So I'm not going to be a lot of the way through, or a little more than a year in. People feel like the system of government |
| 1:11.0 | has been under enormous strain and is showing cracks. So people are worried about the midterms, |
| 1:16.4 | they're worried about rule of law. They're worried that this administration is, you know, |
| 1:20.0 | disappearing people off the streets. They're worried that, you know, they don't pay that close |
| 1:24.4 | attention to what judges say. And they're also, you know, want to know |
| 1:29.3 | what they can do to sort of be part of a movement to stand up against it. So just sort of start |
... |
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