Good morning. It is Sunday, August the 31st. I'm Ali Velshi. We begin this hour with

fight ahead in this perilous second Trump term and the emerging class of political fighters

who are rising to this crucial and challenging moment. In a 1940 letter to

Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, quote, substantial justice remains a higher aim

for our civilization than technical legalism, end quote, I'll explain. In his four terms,

Roosevelt played dirty politics plenty. As he expanded his power,

critical newspaper cartoonists often drew him in a king's regalia. But he made the gamble that if you

broke a few rules to improve people's lives, they'd forgive you for it. If there was ever a time

for Democrats to return to the FDR School of Politics, it's now in the face of rising authoritarianism

of a reinvigorated and revenge-seeking Donald Trump. California Governor Gavin Newsom understands

what Democrats are up against. To me, the essence of the challenge of the party is weakness.

Weakness. And I think it was not lost on me.

And I think, I don't think, I really at the core believe this.

The most eloquent spokesperson that understood this decades ago

was Bill Clinton after we got Schlaq to one of the midterms.

And Clinton summed it up, said, given the choice the American people always support strong and wrong versus weak and right. And I think our party needs to wake up to that.

They may just be starting to. The Democratic Party has been accused of bringing a pencil to a knife

fight, but many are pledging to come to knife fights more prepared.

So who's packing the knives?

Well, new leaders emerge each time Trump pushes the boundaries further toward authoritarianism.

Right now in Illinois, as the president threatens to sick the National Guard onto the

city of Chicago, Governor J.B. Pritzker is matching tone with Trump, warning the president

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