WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.380 In the years leading up to the 2024 presidential election, the Democrats and establishment Republicans 00:05.380 --> 00:11.320 who wanted to see Joe Biden and later Kamala Harris remain in office, went all in on one 00:11.320 --> 00:16.620 overarching narrative above all, that Donald Trump represented an existential threat to 00:16.620 --> 00:20.500 American democracy. Biden's team and their allies in politics and media 00:20.500 --> 00:25.300 repeated this claim day after day, essentially trying to convince millions of Americans 00:25.300 --> 00:29.160 that elections would literally stop happening in this country if Trump won. 00:29.160 --> 00:34.320 Taking a step back, Trump was framed as the domestic enemy in a broader international fight 00:34.320 --> 00:39.060 that saw autocratic leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Brazilian 00:39.060 --> 00:43.780 President Jair Bolsonaro, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and others 00:43.780 --> 00:50.100 facing down a coalition of democratic governments. Democracy versus autocracy was meant to be the 00:50.100 --> 00:55.140 defining dynamic of the day, meaning everything from the war in Ukraine to the fight over 00:55.140 --> 01:00.580 climate change was framed as one big battle where the good guys were defined purely by their 01:00.580 --> 01:06.060 commitment to the democratic process. And in that global fight, no effort was more important, 01:06.200 --> 01:10.180 we were told, than keeping Trump out of the White House. But then, he won. 01:10.500 --> 01:14.680 Despite the establishment's efforts, a majority of American voters were not swayed by the 01:14.680 --> 01:20.160 democracy versus autocracy narrative. Or, at least, they demonstrated that they preferred a 01:20.160 --> 01:24.440 candidate who promised to close the border, wind down the war in Ukraine, cut down the 01:24.440 --> 01:30.000 extremely bloated federal bureaucracy, investigate the weaponization of the DOJ in recent years, 01:30.460 --> 01:35.440 and roll back federal climate policies while celebrating and vowing to continue the appointment 01:35.440 --> 01:38.900 of conservative judges and justices, among other campaign promises. 01:39.340 --> 01:43.340 Now, President Biden and really all the people around him who are actually running things 01:43.340 --> 01:47.360 are in their so-called lame duck period. And what are they doing as they wait to 01:47.360 --> 01:51.820 hand power over to the next administration? They're doing whatever they can to make it 01:51.820 --> 01:56.380 harder for Trump's team to implement the very policies voters just sent them to the White House 01:56.380 --> 02:01.160 to carry out. Last week, we learned that the Biden administration is moving unassembled border 02:01.160 --> 02:06.140 wall material away from the southern border and selling it at an auction. Groups allied with 02:06.140 --> 02:10.500 the president are also calling on him to close ICE detention facilities before leaving office, 02:10.720 --> 02:15.220 to hamper Trump's plans to deport illegal immigrants. After losing the election last 02:15.220 --> 02:19.740 month, the Biden administration escalated the war in Ukraine by helping Ukrainian forces 02:19.740 --> 02:24.380 shoot long-range American missiles further into Russia. Now, the president's team is rushing 02:24.380 --> 02:30.620 to send another $725 million to Ukraine before Trump is sworn in on January 20th. 02:30.680 --> 02:35.080 Earlier this year, the Office of Personnel Management issued a ruling that makes it 02:35.080 --> 02:39.060 much harder for Trump's team to overhaul the federal workforce. While Trump could still 02:39.060 --> 02:43.860 carry out this campaign promise, he now cannot do so through an executive order. He is required 02:43.860 --> 02:49.080 to propose a new rule, which will likely bring years of legal battles. Biden pardoned 02:49.080 --> 02:54.020 his son Hunter after he was facing prison sentences for federal felony gun and tax convictions. 02:54.900 --> 03:00.000 Now, the president is reportedly considering preemptive pardons for numerous allies that his 03:00.000 --> 03:04.700 team expects to be investigated by Trump's DOJ. Members of the president's cabinet are rushing 03:04.700 --> 03:09.260 to spend as much money as possible in the various departments they oversee. EPA officials 03:09.260 --> 03:14.660 are hurrying to implement as many new environmental and climate policies as they can, and the 03:14.660 --> 03:20.000 and Senate Democrats are racing to fill as many federal judicial positions as they're able to 03:20.000 --> 03:24.480 before losing the White House and Senate. Depending on where you stand on Trump's agenda, you could 03:24.480 --> 03:29.380 see these efforts as heroic or disgraceful. But because the president and political establishment 03:29.380 --> 03:33.660 are ramming through policies that a majority of Americans just voted against, 03:34.160 --> 03:38.480 it's impossible to seriously label these actions as anything other than explicitly 03:38.480 --> 03:42.880 undemocratic. As someone who does not believe democracy is the most ethical system 03:42.880 --> 03:46.480 or the best way to organize society, this alone does not bother me. 03:47.400 --> 03:51.040 But the hypocrisy is still important to call out, because with their actions, 03:51.520 --> 03:55.460 the political class has again revealed that they do not actually care about democracy. 03:56.100 --> 04:01.160 They only use the fact that much of the public does care about democracy to try and serve their 04:01.160 --> 04:05.980 own ends. The same goes for human rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent carried out by 04:05.980 --> 04:09.960 foreign governments that Washington wants to overthrow. When true, these are totally 04:09.960 --> 04:15.120 legitimate criticisms to level out these state leaders. But our government officials have demonstrated 04:15.120 --> 04:21.060 a complete willingness to ignore, support, and even partake in the same abuses when it's useful to 04:21.060 --> 04:26.000 them. So again, they are only using the fact that decent people care about these issues 04:26.000 --> 04:31.100 to serve their own agenda. It is important to have principles, but it's also important to 04:31.100 --> 04:35.260 recognize when people who do not share your principles are using your commitment to those 04:35.260 --> 04:39.140 principles to manipulate you. The political establishment in recent weeks has shown, 04:39.540 --> 04:42.820 yet again, that they do this. It's time we stop falling for it.