On this week’s It’s Happening Here, they examine the diverse coalition behind Democratic victories, the limits of culture-war attacks, and why multicultural America offers renewed hope for democracy.

But winning an election is only the beginning. Bill and Tom discuss why Democrats must turn their victories into meaningful oversight, accountability, and protection for civil liberties—and why the fight continues through Trump’s remaining two years in office.

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This past August, Trump thought it was a winning strategy to tell his hand-picked Republican candidates to “pretend I’m on that ballot” in the midterms. Lots of them have taken up the offer, appearing with him at campaign rallies, featuring him in their ads, and showing their faces at his ill-fated midterm convention in Dallas.

But we don’t actually have to pretend Trump is on the ballot. Because, for all intents and purposes, he is.

The issues that voters are most concerned about right now are the direct result of Trump’s policy agenda: high prices, rampant corruption, masked agents killing innocent people, and America’s global standing irreparably damaged.

All of this happened because of Trump’s decisions since re-taking office. And none of this would have been possible without those down-ballot Republicans who have enabled his every move these past two years.

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Now these people are coming back to us asking for another shot at power. This Election Day, it’s worthwhile to take a look at exactly what they’ve done with power to date:

Prices across the board are way up, thanks to Trump’s tariffs and failed war of choice in Iran. Ground beef is up nearly 8 percent year over year, and diesel is up nearly 45 percent.

The war has killed 18 service members, cost America $47 billion, and resulted in Iran having the ability to hold the global economy hostage—indefinitely.

The Republicans’ so-called Big Beautiful Bill slashed health care for millions of Americans, accounting for as much as $11 billion in lost federal healthcare funding.

They brought ghastly scenes of violence to America’s streets, unleashing tens of thousands of under-trained, unaccountable masked ICE agents to stalk, harass, intimidate, and kill innocent people.

If this is what they’ve done with two years in power, just imagine what they’d do with another two. And then ask yourself: Is that an America that we can afford to live in?

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Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.

On January 6, 2021, there were about 800 police officers trying to hold back more than 10,000 rioters. I was one of those officers.

At one point I was dragged into the crowd, beaten, and tased. On that day about 140 officers were injured. Rioters broke into the Capitol building, many intent on not only stopping the certification of the election, but harming our public servants. That day, our job was to protect the people inside that building, Republicans and Democrats alike from a mob roaming the halls.

These rioters stood for everything that the United States does not. They showed no respect for our Constitution. No respect for our government. No respect for our democracy.

And yet on the day of his second inauguration, Donald Trump pardoned all of them, and Republicans supported him. Just like that, roughly 1,600 dangerous criminals were back on the street, and many have already re-offended.

Now many of those Republican officials who stood alongside Trump and the rioters are on your ballots. There’s Andy Biggs, running for governor of Arizona, who was a staunch supporter of pardoning the rioters.

In 2020, when some racial justice protests turned violent, Biggs said rioters, “do not, however, have the right to attack other people, steal, or destroy property.” He didn’t apply those same standards to the people who attacked us on January 6.

Lauren Boebert is running for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, and she supported the pardons wholeheartedly, posting “RELEASE THEM NOW” from outside the D.C. jail saying they “have already paid too much time.”

On January 6, Boebert said she was, “grateful to the Capitol Police for their service.” Somehow though, she has seemed to forget her gratitude.

There’s Scott Perry, running for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District who, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee, was a key player in attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.

In 2019, he said, “Even though somebody’s elected that you don’t agree with, you accept the will of the people and you get on with it.” Scott, why did you not uphold this same value set only a year later?

Biggs has urged Americans to “back the blue.” Yet he, Boebert and Perry were among just 21 House members, all Republicans, who voted in June 2021 against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to my fellow officers who defended the Capitol.

There’s Tommy Tuberville running for governor of Alabama. He called the rioters “innocent patriotic Americans,” and when asked about the officers being attacked he deflected, saying, “I didn’t see it.”

That’s a strange answer from a man who, announcing his Back the Blue Act, said, “We have to send a message loud and clear: violence against law enforcement will not be tolerated.” Apparently he can tolerate some violence against law enforcement.

Ken Paxton, running for Senate in Texas spoke at the rally that came just before the attack on the Capitol. He sued battleground states to overturn their results, and has long raised suspicions about the authenticity of 2020 election results.

Just this year, Paxton said, “I’ve supported law enforcement … protecting them from political attacks.” But when hundreds of people who assaulted police were pardoned, the man who now says he protects officers from political attacks said nothing.

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These elections aren’t symbolic jobs. Governors sign the certificates that send their state’s electoral votes to Congress. Senators and House members count them. Some of the people who tried to stop the count in 2021 are asking for the power to run it in 2028.

These politicians say their duty is to their country. Yet when it called on them to tell the truth about January 6, they looked away, or cheered the mob on. We deserve leaders who will say plainly what happened that day, and who it happened to.

I held the line on January 6 so Congress could finish counting your votes. I didn’t face down that mob just to back down now. On November 3, look at who’s on your ballot and ask a simple question: When it mattered, whose side were they on?

Michael Fanone is a former police officer who defended the Capitol on January 6. He is an Advisory Board Member and Spokesman for Home of the Brave.

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“I just grew up with a deep love and respect for what the country could be. And I believed it was part of my job to show the distance between American reality and the American dream. And to do my best to narrow that gap. That was my job here on planet Earth, if I had one.”

The rock icon joined the Home of the Brave crew recently to talk about this moment in our country’s history, and what artists, fans, and everyday people can do to stand up against this administration’s cruelty and incompetence.

You can listen to the conversation now, part of our new limited-run series, Home of the Brave Backstage. Bruce sat down with our crew—Dropkick Murphys frontman Ken Casey, former MPD officer and January 6 hero Michael Fanone, and advisory board member Sarah Longwell—for a candid conversation about the threats we’re facing, and what it’s going to take to pull American democracy back from the brink.

People like Bruce aren’t afraid to speak up. And Home of the Brave is here to deliver their message straight to you. In the coming weeks, we’ll bring you conversations with legendary singer-songwriter Joan Baez, Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett, and more.

They’ll sound off about why they’re still using their platform to speak out, what they hear from people as they travel the country, and what gives them hope for breaking out of our current authoritarian moment. Because, as Bruce says: “You can’t succumb to the alternative of hope. You’ve got to have hope. Without that, we’re nothing.”

We’ll be back soon with the next episode of Home of the Brave Backstage. Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss an episode:

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Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.

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In recent weeks, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, groveled before Putin in St. Petersburg, calling him a “humanitarian.” The administration stalled delivery of critical Patriot missiles to Ukraine, despite the fact that they’ve already been paid for. US intelligence warnings about Ukraine’s home defense have failed to reach the government there. Elon Musk throttled Ukraine’s Starlink and Starshield access during the course of Russian attacks.

And then, in contravention of recently passed US law, Trump waived Russian sanctions and struck a ludicrously lopsided “diesel deal” in which Russia supplied America with less than two weeks’ worth of fuel to offset the economic impacts of Trump’s disastrous war on Iran. For good measure, Trump also blamed Ukraine for high energy prices.

All of this is a betrayal of America’s longstanding legacy as the global security guarantor and, as we used to say, the leader of the free world. It debases America’s credibility around the world, elevates rogue petrostates like Russia to a false pedestal of great powerdom, and signals to America’s allies that the word of our president is worthless. It is a slow-rolling superpower suicide the likes of which we haven’t seen in living memory. And every day it gets a little worse.

This White House doesn’t hesitate to trash our allies and leaders of free democratic nations. Yet Trump and his cronies always stop short of criticizing Russia, or taking the necessary steps to help Ukraine win the war. All of this begs one big question: Why is Trump selling America out to Putin?

It’s a question that should keep Americans up at night, and one that we’re putting on hundreds of new billboards going up across the country. We’re spending $2.5 million on this effort, because it’s critical that people come to grips with the full scope of this administration’s coziness with Putin:

We’re also dropping a brand-new video ad that’s running nationwide, which spells out all the ways Trump has prostrated himself before the Russian leader. The ad, which will reach millions of Americans over the coming days, states the obvious: “This isn’t America first, it’s Putin first. So why does Trump keep selling out America to Putin? Americans deserve to know.”

To go along with all of this, we’re out with a new site, WhyPutinFirst.org, that contains a detailed breakdown of Russia’s hostility toward the US-led international order, and this administration’s policy friendliness toward the Putin regime.

Everyday Trump is putting Putin first. With the economy in the gutter, masked agents prowling the streets, and rampant public corruption going unchecked, it’s easy for the American people to lose sight of our self-inflicted humiliation on the world stage. We’re here to remind them that we can’t just move past these betrayals—not while there are still Ukrainians fighting for freedom on the front lines, and yearning for a helping hand from the democratic nations of the world. We owe them an answer to this question—why Putin first?—and we’ll keep shining a light until we have one.

To support our work and ensure we can keep running ad campaigns like this one, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or donating to Home of the Brave today:

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Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.

Fresh back from Ukraine, Snyder describes how stalled interceptors, intelligence gaps, and Pete Hegseth’s delays on Patriot missiles are leaving Ukrainian civilians exposed. They also discuss Trump’s lie that Ukraine has done nothing for America, and why this moment offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take on the issue of runaway public corruption here in the US.

Listen to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast.

Jury Convicts Four Leaders of the Proud Boys of Seditious Conspiracy Related to US Capitol Breach.

Texas Man Sentenced For Assaulting Officers With a Dangerous Weapon During January 6 Capitol Breach.

Florida Man Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement with a Weapon and Other Offenses During January 6 Capitol Breach.

These are just three of the hundreds of Department of Justice (DOJ) press releases stemming from the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol that the Trump administration has deleted. When the DOJ got caught removing the statements from its website earlier this year, the administration lied, claiming the releases were “partisan propaganda.” The administration pressed forward with its attempt to erase history.

This was utterly predictable. In fact, I predicted it. In early 2025, I downloaded more than 1,000 DOJ press releases pertaining to January 6 cases. I wanted to ensure that they would not be lost. Today, we’ve made those downloaded statements available to the public on a new website: The January 6 Memory Project. We won’t let this administration get away with whitewashing an unprecedented attack on our democracy. But we need your support.

Support the January 6 Memory Project, an effort of Home of the Brave and January 6 report author Tom Joscelyn:

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It’s easy to see why the Trump administration is so eager to delete the DOJ’s press releases. The January 6 investigation was one of the largest law enforcement operations in our country’s history. Hundreds of DOJ prosecutors and FBI agents spent years examining the mountainous record—video footage, text messages, phone records, emails, and the rioters’ own social media posts—to identify offenders one by one. That nationwide investigation resulted in nearly 1,600 January 6 defendants being charged in a court of law.

The DOJ’s releases cover these cases. The releases also serve as a reminder that President Trump’s sweeping pardons and commutations covered the worst of the worst offenders. The president did not distinguish between violent and non-violent offenders. He granted clemency to all of them.

Many of the January 6 defendants were convicted of violent crimes, including assaulting police officers. The press releases also highlight the role played by far-right extremists. Among them were leaders and members of the Proud Boys, the group chiefly responsible for storming the US Capitol. Members of the Proud Boys and another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the US government—the most serious charge levied against any of the January 6 defendants.

But on his first day back in office, Trump ordered that they all be set free, falsely portraying the January 6 defendants as victims of “a grave national injustice.”

Read the DOJ’s press releases for yourself. This is what justice looks like.

As a principal author of the House’s January 6 Committee report, released in December 2022, I spent hundreds of hours alongside my colleagues combing through the record. The result was the comprehensive 814-page report detailing the full scope of Trump’s plot to overturn a democratically held election for the first time in our nation’s history. That plot culminated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol—one of the most thoroughly documented days in our nation’s history.

I’m confident that the Trump administration won’t get away with erasing this history. There’s just too much publicly available evidence. But I wanted to make sure the administration couldn’t get away with deleting the DOJ’s press releases. That’s why I personally saved more than 1,000 original DOJ statements for posterity.

Authoritarian movements whitewash history. We won’t let them get away with it. You can’t let them get away with it. So please share The January 6 Memory Project with your friends, family, and colleagues. This record belongs to the American people.

Tom Joscelyn is president of the Civil Defense Institute and co-host of It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast. He was a senior professional staff member on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, and one of the principal authors of the committee’s final, 814-page report.

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Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine all of this, plus the Republican Party’s growing extremism problem, Pete Hegseth’s failed push for a public execution, and why the midterms may be a defining test for American democracy.

Listen now to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Jackie Scheller is a real estate broker in Stockbridge, Michigan. After Trump’s election, she saw the challenges ahead—rising interest rates and loss of assistance for homebuyers—and decided it wasn’t worth the uphill battle. After 15 years, she was forced to make the difficult choice to close her doors and let her staff go.

Julie Robbins is a small business owner in Akron, Ohio. Together with her husband, she runs a guitar pedal business that’s worked with some of the nation’s biggest musical acts. Now, thanks to Trump, she says, “my company has paid more than $60,000 in tariffs”—with no end to the pain in sight.

Mike Carberry is a farmer who lives in Iowa City, Iowa. He serves on the board of the Iowa Farmers Union, and he says, “the American family farmer is just getting hit over and over again with Trump’s trade policies, his tariff policies. And I just don’t know when we’re going to learn that he really doesn’t have our best interests in mind.”

Trump won all three of these states—Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa—on the promise of delivering “a brand new Trump economic boom” and a new “golden age.” Then, once in office, he implemented across-the-board tariffs and launched an ill-conceived war on Iran that has sent global energy prices skyrocketing. The result: Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of his economic record, and most feel that the economy is worse than the day he took office.

Up and down the ballot, Trump’s hand-picked Republican candidates have bought into his economic policies, giving lip service to them and acting as a rubber stamp in Congress. This includes Republicans running in those very states that Trump won, and whose citizens are now suffering the consequences of his economic illiteracy.

Here are Trump’s flunkies in their own words: In Michigan, Mike Rogers has said “tariffs are necessary.” In Ohio, Jon Husted has said tariffs “haven’t affected the economy negatively.” And in Iowa, Ashley Hinson has called Trump’s trade policies “really good for Iowa producers.”

These people need to be held accountable for betraying their constituents. That’s why, from now through Election Day, Home of the Brave is spending $1 million to put up more than 225 new billboards in these states reminding voters who is to blame for the dumpster-fire economy we are living through. This comes on top of the $1.25 million we spent last month bringing similar messages to these states:

These ads are running statewide, including in competitive House districts where vulnerable Republicans are up for election. The goal is—in these final, critical weeks—to make sure voters know that Trump and his MAGA Republicans are to blame. Voters are angry, and it’s critical that they don’t buy into MAGA lies that the current economy is somehow the fault of the previous administration. Trump and MAGA Republicans own this, full stop.

Trump has said that he wants his supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” this November. We agree, and this campaign is aimed at doing just that. The historic unpopularity of this administration has created an opening for Democrats to take back the Senate and exert a check on the president. By driving the message that Trump and his hand-picked candidates are failing the voters of these states, we are ensuring accountability for those currently in power.

To support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber, or donate to Home of the Brave today:

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Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.

Listen now to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast.

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Drawing on his new book, Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain, Pakman explains how algorithms shape our politics—and what it takes to break through.

Listen now to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast.

In February 2026, before the war started, diesel prices sat at a national average of $3.72 per gallon. As of September, they have nearly doubled, peaking at $6.53 per gallon.

Practically everything we eat, wear, and use in our daily lives comes off a truck, and it’s time we listen to the truckers about what they’re going through. So that’s exactly what Home of the Brave did.

We traveled to truck stops to speak with truckers about what they’re going through, and how these higher diesel prices are affecting their bottom line.

The video speaks for itself. Truckers are pissed off that Trump is more focused on his war than he is on the Americans he promised to stand up for.

As truckers converge on Washington, D.C., for the annual TenFour trucking summit, Home of the Brave wants to make sure that Americans know that our truckers are at a crisis point, forced to choose between driving for less money or giving up altogether.

Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.

How many times has Trump said the war was almost over? At least sixty, and counting. Here are just some of the contradictory promises Trump has made in recent months about his nonexistent exit strategy:

• March 7: “We’re winning the war by a lot. It’ll continue for a little while.”

• March 31: “Maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days.”

• April 16: “We’re very close to making a deal.”

• June 9: “The Strait [of Hormuz] will open up right away.”

• July 8: “They want to make a deal so bad.”

• August 3: “Literally by tomorrow.”

• August 6: “It could be soon.”

• September 2: “We’ve already won.”

• September 9: “The war will be over very shortly after the election.”

• September 16: “Before the midterms. Very soon. Watch. You just watch.”

In partnership with our friends at VoteVets, Home of the Brave compiled all of the public instances of Trump promising that the war he started would be over soon. We released a new video showing Trump’s broken promises of peace. And we put them all together in a helpful tracker, which you can find at AboutTwoWeeks.com.

Trump promised to be the president of “no more wars,” and vowed repeatedly to keep America out of military quagmires on foreign shores. Once in office, he started his illegal war with Iran without seeking Congressional approval, and without even attempting to make a cogent case for military action to the American public.

Millions of Americans are feeling the effects of those decisions in their pocket books. But the real pain is being felt by that one percent of Americans who serve in uniform. For the 19 American service members who died, their families are left to pick up the pieces while this administration demonstrates every day its fecklessness and incompetence.

Generations of military planners have known that, at the most basic level, you cannot take an army to war without an exit strategy. But that’s exactly what Trump has done. He sees no way out, and rather than cut his losses, he vacillates wildly between telegraphing peace and promising civilizational annihilation and war crimes.

While this administration keeps promising we are “two weeks” away from a resolution, ordinary Americans—especially our uniformed military personnel—are left to suffer the consequences of his actions. Trump has no plan, no exit strategy, and no shame about lying and blustering America through yet another catastrophic war. Our men and women in uniform deserve better.

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Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.

VoteVets provides a bold, veteran-led perspective on the intersection of national security, democracy, and the fight for the rights of those who served.

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They discuss Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to “pace the frontier,” the dangers posed by AI-enabled cyberattacks and bioweapons, and why experts inside the industry are increasingly alarmed.

They also explain why Trump’s prepared remarks at the United Nations suggest that treating AI risk as a hoax is now the official position of the U.S. government.

Listen now to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast.

Editor’s Note: A version of this article appeared on Lisa Stark’s Substack over the weekend, and has garnered sign-on from more than 100 journalists in recent days. The authors are former journalists from ABC News. Lisa Stark was a correspondent and Ian Cameron was a senior and executive producer.

President Donald Trump enjoys playing to the cameras, notably the network television news pool cameras that cover his every public move. But when he departed for New York on Monday, those cameras didn’t go with him. In an unprecedented move, the major television networks that run the television pool—ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC—agreed to cut off coverage of the president after he banned MS NOW, Politico, and CNN from the White House.

Trump announced his ban on Friday. It came after a terrible political week for the president, who is still stuck in his quagmire in Iran, while confronted with skyrocketing diesel and gas prices, and a US Supreme Court rejection of his attempt to curtail mail-in ballots. So, the president did what he does best: tried to change the conversation.

Apparently catching even his own press office by surprise, Trump announced the bans with his usual claim of “fake news” to justify his actions. He also threatened more bans to come. There was just one problem: CNN was the designated pool network for his foray to New York and the United Nations General Assembly this week. With CNN banned from the White House, who would run the pool?

The pool consortium had two options: succumb to the White House and find another network to serve as the pool camera or say, “we’re not playing your game, Mr. President.” Thankfully the networks stood up, citing the public’s “vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government.” Their statement went on to say, “no administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”

We applaud the principled action taken by the networks to halt the pool coverage. Action is always more impactful than words with this president. You can issue statements to condemn the president’s subpoenas of reporters, settle spurious lawsuits, invite him to your dinners in an effort to convince him of the vital role journalists play in our democracy, or feel uncomfortable in the Oval Office when he attacks colleagues, but Trump will still carry on with his authoritarian campaign to intimidate and delegitimize the free press.

We have documented dozens of instances of the Trump administration’s attacks on the press. Some of the most egregious of Trump’s actions are those where he singles out news organizations for doing their jobs. Trump’s FCC tries to take away broadcast licenses from networks whose coverage he doesn’t like. His Justice Department issues subpoenas to journalists who write stories he doesn’t like. And he bans CNN, MS NOW and Politico from reporting from the White House because, as he posted on Truth Social Monday afternoon, “Virtually every story about me, or anything having to do with me, is negative, wrong and, in many cases, DANGEROUS for our Country.”

In reacting to Trump’s media ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico, FOX News’ Jacqui Heinrich, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, threw Trump’s words back at him—pointing out that the president described his own action as a “ban on the free press.” As she said in a statement, “The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference. The WHCA stands in defense of our colleagues from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs.”

Monday, some news organizations, including the Washington Post and the New York Times pledged not to publish photos of Trump’s events in New York City during the day, in “a show of support of the banned outlets.” NPR said it won’t use audio from White House events until further notice.

After Trump’s decision to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico, we called on the White House Correspondents’ Association and all its members to take decisive action: Tell Trump that until he removes his ban, other news organizations won’t be there either. Present a united front and force the president’s hand. White House reporters need not be at the White House to report on the president and his administration. Journalists have proven with their excellent reporting that they can cover this administration without being in the room where it happens. It won’t be long before the president gets very lonely.

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The White House effort to conjure up an alternative, a YouTube livestream called Trump TV, would offer nothing but a steady diet of Trump-approved news. Trump TV will not supplant the outstanding reporting from credible journalists with legitimate news operations. It won’t satisfy the critical tenets underlying the First Amendment, that of an informed citizenry necessary to a functioning democracy.

Before Trump becomes too lonely, however, his latest attack on press freedom may come to a quick end if the courts act to reinstate the banned news organizations. CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a lawsuit Monday morning asking for their White House press credentials to be restored immediately. As they rightfully argue, the president’s action is unconstitutional—violating their First Amendment rights. They argue it also violates their Fifth Amendment right to due process. Trump already anticipates he will lose and has promised to appeal.

But even if this latest assault is resolved and credentials are reinstated, this escalation cannot be dismissed and forgotten. Trump’s drumbeat against the press is dangerous and un-American. This will not be his last attack on press freedom. Journalists, news organizations and the public must continue to push back relentlessly. Stand up. Don’t back down. Be united. Nothing less than freedom of the press is at stake.

Ian Cameron is a former ABC News senior and executive producer. Lisa Stark is a former ABC News correspondent.

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Trump did a lot of bizarre things from the stage at his all-about-me convention in Dallas. He led the crowd in a recitation of the pledge of allegiance—to himself. He rambled for two hours about transgender athletes and attempted to bribe voters with make-believe $5,000 checks. He stumbled over his words a lot, and looked and sounded very much like an unwell 80-year-old man.

But maybe the most significant thing he said was addressed directly at Republican candidates running in the midterms: “So what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot. Just come and vote. It’s so important.” Trump made clear that he wants this election to be a referendum on his second term.

But you have to wonder why. The vast majority of Americans currently believe that this administration’s economic track record to date has been an unmitigated disaster. Trump’s overall approval rating stands in the 30s, and he is underwater on how people feel he’s handling the economy—historically a strong suit for the “businessman” president.

You would think that Congressional Republicans would know people are hurting out there. You would think that they would know how wildly out of touch it looks to follow Trump’s lead in publicly spiking the football about having “the greatest economy in history.”

You would be wrong.

In House races across some of the most highly contested districts this cycle, we’re hearing Republicans double and triple down on their support for Trump’s economic agenda.

For example, Bill Huizenga, running in Michigan’s 4th Congressional district, said of the tariffs, “Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely it is.” Max Miller, running in Ohio’s 7th, said, “The economy is actually doing very well right now.” And Zach Nunn, running in Iowa’s 3rd, said, “I think that tariffs are the best way to go after” other countries. That would be news to the people of Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa, who are currently dealing with crushing inflation, with no end in sight.

Yes, these are incredibly dumb things for Congressional Republicans to say out loud, just weeks away from an election. They’re also an opportunity for those of us who care about democracy. We here at Home of the Brave count ourselves proudly in this camp.

That’s why this week, we’re spending $1.25 million to put up more than 100 new billboards across three states—Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa—hammering this message relentlessly. The billboards say things like “Groceries cost more because of Trump” and “Trump’s tariffs raised prices. Republicans supported it.” You can see them here:

The core message we’re sending with this new campaign is: Trump and the Republican Party are responsible for increased prices. We are focusing on Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio because they are each key battleground states with multiple competitive races for the House, Senate, or governor. And we’re going to keep up the pressure through election day.

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Sarah Matthews served as White House deputy press secretary and resigned in protest on January 6, 2021. She is an advisory board member and spokesperson for Home of the Brave, which exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.

Check out the Civil Defense Institute here: civildefenseinstitute.org

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Editor’s Note: This essay is excerpted from Sarah Longwell’s new book, New York Times bestseller “How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time.” Sarah is an advisory board member for Home of the Brave, and in her book she lays out a game plan for how the pro-democracy coalition can unite to beat back the authoritarian threat—for good.

As I sit here today, lots of people who care about democracy and the fate of our republic are feeling both cynical and optimistic. Because Donald Trump is currently in a free fall. Public opinion is turning against him and his dark, dystopian vision for the presidency.

But also, the first two years of Trump 2.0 have been wildly destructive. Not beyond the imaginations of those of us who foresaw him as the existential threat he was from the jump, but beyond the imaginations of everyone who wasn’t afflicted with our particular strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome. They said we were overreacting when we warned how much havoc Trump and his sycophants could wreak.

But we were, unfortunately, right. And as far as I’m concerned, we have spent the last decade under-reacting to Trump and the manifest ways he is reshaping America.

Many of our civic guardrails—law firms, media companies, universities, tech companies, big businesses—have acquiesced to Trump’s assault on the country. We are now a nation led by profiteers and cowards. The only way to fight back is for average Americans to turn against this perversion of American democracy with such force that Trump’s entire project is viewed as a catastrophic failure.

This is not a moment for regular order. It has to be bigger than that. Trump needs to be seen for exactly what he is: a corrupt, failed president who turned America’s economy into a smoldering dumpster fire and started pointless wars across the globe while dismantling the pillars of our democratic order, all to satisfy his own fragile ego. We cannot waste our time and energy with short-term thinking. We need to adjust the pro-democracy coalition’s strategy for the long game.

Who is this pro-democracy coalition? Like any coalition big and broad enough to do great things, it is composed of somewhat uncomfortable allies, bound together by the necessity of purpose. The broad-but-imperfect swathe of Americans who count themselves as friends of liberal democracy are the only available counterweight to the illiberal forces in our country that are thrusting us further down this dark road to authoritarianism.

Many of the most effective coalitions in history—the Grand Alliance of World War II, the antislavery coalition, the American Revolutionary coalition—were birthed out of extremely uncomfortable bedfellows having the discipline to prioritize one larger shared goal over their bespoke conflicts. These coalitions are made possible by the existential nature of the threat they face.

There’s a great deal that’s tricky about building such coalitions, but perhaps the most difficult is balancing necessary moral boundaries and firmly held principles with sufficient latitude for conflicting ideas and necessary compromises. My personal red line is those who use violence or violent rhetoric. But your mileage may vary.

I spend a lot of time wrestling with this. Because there are a number of friction points—immigration, social issues, race, Israel and Palestine—where key parts of the pro-democracy coalition are reluctant to compromise firmly held principles in order to be more palatable to the widest possible swathe of Americans.

But what if that’s the wrong way to look at the challenge in front of us? What if instead of an interminable, self-defeating intra-coalition struggle session, we change the conversation to what we’re going to build next? Forget about fighting over the best way to build the coalition and instead focus on what the coalition can come together to build.

Because Trump is in the process of burning it all down—our institutions, our social cohesion, the norms and values that used to sustain us as a country. So we—that is, anyone who loves America and wants to save it before it’s too late—have to provide a vision of what we’re going to build in its place.

I spend a lot of time traveling the country, hearing from ordinary Americans who would count themselves as part of the pro-democracy coalition. I’m not talking about professional political practitioners or other DC types here; I mean regular people who desperately want to do something—anything—to combat the feeling of helplessness that accompanies each fresh headline about authoritarian overreach coming out of this administration.

Often, when I speak to these people, I get a version of the same few questions over and over: What the hell is happening? And what can I do to save the country? Here is my best big-picture advice: Be not afraid.

Trump and his MAGA acolytes are bullies working to intimidate you into silence. They were successful—shockingly, disgracefully successful—at menacing American institutions into submission. Trump’s second term launched with an unprecedented assault on universities, law firms, massive legacy media companies, business leaders, tech titans, and philanthropy. Some fought back, but many caved. And a great many more went quiet. It’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen.

And that, my friend, is where you come in. You can become part of a stalwart bloc of the country that refuses to allow itself to be cowed the way our oligarchs have. You can, and must, speak out. Wherever and whenever you are able.

I went to Minneapolis during ICE’s occupation of that city, after agents had killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti. There I found sixty-year-old ladies standing out in the cold, with long johns and hand warmers, telling me about secret Signal chat networks they had set up to provide mutual aid to their neighbors. They told me about the underground doula network that they set up to help pregnant immigrants who were too scared to leave their homes.

Here at Home of the Brave, we’ve documented the stories of people like Daniel Hernandez, an immigrant who is protecting his employees from ICE’s predations; veterans who are standing in the breach to block Trump’s vainglorious arch; artists and musicians who are refusing to take this administration’s censorship of the arts lying down; peaceful protestors who are facing down masked agents in their communities; and survivors of ICE detention who refuse to stop speaking out about the injustices committed against them.

The point is, everyone can do something. Whatever your version of concrete, peaceful action is, go out there and do it honestly and fearlessly. Because as small and insignificant as you may feel in this moment, I promise that those actions add up and make a real difference for people who you might never even meet. That’s the honest work of a true pro-democracy coalition worthy of its name, and it’s on all of us to do our part.

The words that come to me again and again in this moment are all of the quotations about the destructive force of silence:

From Edmund Burke: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

From Albert Einstein: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

From Elie Wiesel: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”

This is the answer to the oft-asked question of, “What can I do?” Don’t be silent. Don’t be indifferent. When you speak up, your courage will be contagious. It will build a permission structure for someone else who is nervous and help them speak out, too. It will help someone who has opted out of our shared civic life, because it’s all too dark, to come back in and join the fight.

Every one of us has the power to set an example. It’s only a question of whether—and how—we exercise that power.

Sarah Longwell is an advisory board member of Home of the Brave and author of the New York Times bestseller “How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time.”

They discuss what U.S. leaders misunderstood about al-Qaeda, the political backlash that helped fuel Trump’s rise, and why defending democracy requires more than a return to the old normal.

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