Stacey Abrams: ‘We’ve Actually Hit Every Single Step in the 10-Step Playbook of Authoritarians’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
CAPEHART: “Let’s put back up on the screen the 10 steps to autocracy and authoritarianism so folks can read it for themselves. And when you go, when you go through it from when an election which we have seen up to blame, vulnerable group, vulnerable groups for national woes. The we’re their dismantle support systems. We’re there encourage or incentivize private violence to stifle dissent. One could argue that we have been there for a little bit, but the last step is the one where we are. We have not hit quite yet, and that is cancel future elections. Stacey, given that we are through most of the 10 steps and the 10th one being the one I just mentioned, how close do you think we are to having the 2026 midterm elections be canceled?”

ABRAMS: “Thank you so much for having me. And I want to be clear, the canceling of future elections is an illusion because you’ll still have the elections. Putin has elections in Russia. What happens is that the elections have no meaning because the outcome is preordained. And what we know is happening is that in Texas and in Missouri, they have redrawn the lines in the middle of the decade in order to guarantee an extra number of seats. This week on assembly required my podcast, I had Ari Berman on who walked through how Trump and Republicans plan to game the 2026 elections. We have to shift our focus from the grand cinematic moments that we’re used to and recognize that this is done in piecemeal, but very much in a pattern. And so it’s not just that, it’s also the save act that would make it almost impossible for 50% of women to get the proper id to cast their ballots without going through a lot of administrative hoops. It’s what they’ve done in Georgia purging 400,000 plus voters this year alone. It is incremental. It is administrative, it is intentional, and it’s part of—“