by Brian Tyler Cohen
Democracy Watch episode 270: Marc Elias responds to Trump name checking him during his DOJ speech.
Mar 15, 2025
[Donald Trump] With the help of radicals like Marc Elias, Mark Pomerantz -- these are people that nobody's ever seen anything like it, and so many others. But these are people that are bad people, really bad people. They try to turn America into a corrupt communist and third world country.
Transcript
With the help of radicals like Marc
Elias, Mark
Pomerantz, and these are people that
nobody's ever seen anything like
it so many others but these are people
that are bad people really bad people
they try to turn America into a corrupt
communist and third world country this
is democracy watch Mark that was Donald
Trump at the Department of Justice
dropping your name apparently in some
effort to convince people that you are
helping to usher in communism which I'm
sure is a surprise to you as well uh
what do you make of the fact that he
decided to name drop you and and why do
you think he is so intent because this
isn't the first time lately that he's
brought you up uh in public yeah so
first of all I think if you are ping
around with Vladimir Putin you probably
should not be like claiming that anybody
else is coing up and creating commun you
know I mean like I don't think that's I
don't think that's Donald Trump's
strongest uh strongest argument here
look Donald Trump is focused on me
because I have been someone who has
stood up to him I don't back away from
standing up to him and I beaten him in
court right I mean let's like start with
the fact that he is still smarting from
the fact that in 2020 he lost an
election to Joe Biden I represented
President Biden's campaign in the
post-election litigation beat him more
than 60 times that obviously then led to
him instigating a violent Insurrection
in the nation's capital uh and so you
see in that clip him confusing a a lot
of pieces like you see a lot of synapses
going on there but I think his his uh
his focus on me and his frustration with
me stems from the fact that he views me
as someone who has been effective at
holding him accountable and not being
willing to back away from from my
criticisms of him you know he's been
attacking you for the better part of a
decade now I'm going to put a tweet
right up here on the screen this is from
2018 as soon as Democrats sent their
best election stealing lawyer Mark Elias
to Broward County they miraculously
started finding Democrat vote don't
worry Florida I am sending much better
lawyers to expose the fraud and so those
were his early early attacks against you
cut to today I mean when we're hearing
him talk about how you're somehow
helping usher in uh the spread of
Communism what do you make of that that
the the de evolution of his message to
the point where it's just kind of some
it is angry and aimed toward you but
there doesn't seem to be any coherent
through line in what he's actually
saying yeah and look I think that this
is an important thing for the Legacy
Media because they never they never hold
Donald Trump to the standard that they
hold any Democrat to yeah but I mean you
know when Donald Trump in 2018 said I
was the Democratic party's best election
stealing lawyer but that he was gonna
send better lawyers like that feel felt
very authentic to Vintage Trump right
which is here is this guy I don't like
I'm gonna say this portive thing about
him but it kind of held together like
you know Little Marco or low energy jab
or lion Ted Cruz I think the lion headed
was always my favorite one you know it
kind of like it it was a pejorative but
it kind of was uh clever in a way not
that he's that he was that clever but it
was clever and way and then it was
paired with of course just boast like
but I have even better lawyers watch I
give at the Department of Justice that
clip it's just like he's like an old you
know mob boss shuffling around in his
bathrobe and slippers yeah you know kind
of muttering things and like saying
words that you sort of loosely connect
from one thing to like synaps going off
and I just I don't understand why the
Legacy Media gives him a pass on stuff
like that you know his goal here by
virtue of putting putting specific names
out there like yours like Norm eisen's
which you also did in that same speech
is obviously to have something of a
chilling effect on the people who are uh
brave enough to fight back against him
and so how do you think about that in
terms of whether he's going to be
effective at chilling what you are doing
by fighting back by virtue of not just
naming you in public but also the the
the the downstream effects of that which
is obviously to try and sick his his you
know Army of minions of followers onto
you yeah so let's start with the most
chilling part of it which is that he
didn't just name check me he didn't just
name check me in a incoherent rant in
which he accused me of various things
that aren't true but he did it at the
Department of Justice yeah he did it
with Pam Bondi in the room he did it
with C after he praised cash
he did it after he praised a number the
head of the the deputy attorney general
the head of the Criminal Division right
these are this was done in a setting in
which you know the president United
States is standing in front of the
leadership of the Department of Justice
and mentioning lawyer after lawyer you
know you mentioned Norm Eisen who named
Jack Mark pomerance whose name also came
up is a well-known uh lawyer in New York
City and he's doing it in an audience
because he is trying to uh
implicitly suggests to those people hey
you know who I really hate these are the
people I really hate and so yes it has
Downstream effects with you know the
mobs of angry Mega trolls and the like
and I have to take that seriously but I
you know I have said for many many
months now and you and I have talked
about this I've written about this for
democracy docket like we are going to
see the weaponization of justice
department in fact we have already seen
the weaponization of the justice
department we have seen chilling um
examples of how he is trying to turn the
the the full force of the federal
government against his political um
opponent and so I think that is the
other context that we saw here but let
me say something loud and clear um I am
not going to back down from speaking the
truth about Donald Trump I'm not going
to back away from suing or litigating
against Donald Trump I have a case right
now uh in which uh uh we are in which I
am litigating against uh Donald Trump
for his excesses
uh in the in the uh in his executive
orders uh so it's not going to affect me
you know I'm not going to Bow and scrape
I'm not going to I'm not going to bend a
knee like I'm Gonna Stand Tall and keep
doing what I'm doing but Brian what do
we have seen him do in Industry after
industry is impact others right so what
message is he sending to other lawyers
who maybe weren't mentioned what is he
what message sending to other law firms
uh uh uh through this and you and I have
talked about the the chilling effect
he's trying to have on on the media on
Corporate America on billionaires on law
firms and that's really what I worry
about well first of all I should note
that your best antidote to um Trump's
efforts to quash dissent or silence you
specifically is going to be your ability
to speak out to a broader and broader
audience so if anybody watching right
now wants to help Mark build up that
audience the best way to do that is to
sign up for democracy docket that is
that is his newsletter that he founded
to focus on everything voting in
elections and importantly it's not
focused on some social media platform
even if Trump pressures Google or
Facebook or or Tik Tok to clamp down on
what Mark is saying the newsletter is
just his ability to communicate directly
with you so if you want to support his
work even amid even amid an
Administration that is very focused on
silencing him specifically please make
sure to sign up for democracy doet I'll
put the link right here on the screen
and also in the post description of this
video Mark you're you're right in the
sense that this was his signal his not
so subtle signal directly to the people
who would be able to to prosecute you to
prosecute critics do you think that it's
going to be effective like there's a
difference between in his adult mind
what he thinks is going to be effective
while he free Wheels about
msdnc and we should we should it should
be illegal to to to say an ill word of
Judge Cannon and unconstitutional to
criticize the president and and you
shouldn't be allowed to have a license
if you don't if you don't uh genu flect
at the altar of trump he he can say all
this crazy all he wants but the
reality is that these prosecutors have
to by not by Trump's innan ramblings and
diet tries but by the law and so when
he's in that room talking to prosecutors
at the doj which by the way
notwithstanding the fact that if a
Democrat did anything close to this uh
the Republicans would lose their
skulls but we'll just put that aside for
a moment before you put that aside can I
just jump in I mean Barack Obama went to
the Department of Justice once it was it
literally was Eric Holders going away
like that was it and he's still got
criticized for Yeah by by the same
people by the same people who are just
the the by offering up deafening silence
when Trump is in the building basically
telling these prosecutors that he wants
them to focus not on domestic terrorism
not on rapists or murderers but rather
on just quashing dissent among his
political opponents but with that said
to that point then do you think that
he's going to be effective at at pushing
any of those people who again their
their adherence is not to Trump's um you
know some eron synaps fires in his brain
and he decides he wants to go after
somebody their adherence has to be to
the law and what's actually prosecutable
so how effective do you think he's going
to be look I think that it's the jury is
still out on that I mean I don't think
we know I think we know this I think you
know Pam Bondi was an election denier
before she became a general she was an
election denier who denied the outcome
of the election results in Pennsylvania
to Curry favor with Donald Trump yeah
what cash Patel I mean I mean how many
episodes Have You Done in cash Patel I
mean cash Patel is such a sick of hand
of Donald Trump's he wrote a children's
book He wrote a children's book in which
Donald Trump is like the good King and I
think it was Hillary Clinton is like the
evil I don't know if she's the evil
queen or what what she is but she's like
the the villain in it and literally
published a book with an enemies list
like as an appendix so you know like
sure they have to have law and they have
to have facts in order to you know
indict and convict and you know you hope
that that system works but they can do a
whole lot of damage to their political
opponents through just opening criminal
investigations and we've seen you know
already instances in which federal
prosecutors have resigned I mean Ed
Martin has he's basically dedicated his
entire tenure as uh as us attorney in
Washington DC to sending these bogus
letters of inquiry to people who who
committed the cardinal sin of speaking
an ill word of the god king right and
we've seen the the prosecutors resign in
um uh in the southern district of New
York for refusing to you know file a
motion to miss the Adams investigation
we you know there have been articles
written in the last few days that they
may close the entire public Integrity
section the entire division of of the of
the Department of Justice that is there
to ensure that you do not have political
uh uh treatment or political
considerations in the prose
investigation and prosecution of
political figures is going to be
shuttered or at least cut to such a
small extent that they will be able to
to uh to bring their own cases instead
these cases will be brought by political
appointees out in the US attorney's
office so look I I think we have to take
him both literally and seriously when he
says that he believes someone is an
enemy and he uh wants Vengeance or you
know he will be the Public's Vengeance
or he wants to be a dictator for a day
we have to assume that those things are
true and and the White House keeps
saying that they don't believe that the
Department of Justice is independent of
the president of the United States and
what we saw was him show up at the
Department of Justice to give that
speech to give that speech right like
something he could have done on Rumble
right you know with with Steve Bannon he
showed up at the Department of Justice
today and finally Mark let's finish off
with this what is your message if you
had to deliver one to Donald Trump in
response to him offering up you as some
villain during the speech at the doj
look I wear your scorn like a badge of
honor you know I mean Donald Trump you
are an election you are a threat to
democracy you tried to overturn a free
and fair election in 2020 you spread you
spread lies and disinformation about uh
about uh our voting systems and the
security of Elections and you continue
to lie to the American people almost
every single day and I am going to
continue to say that I don't you you you
can't go after some corporate Overlord
as Brian said we you know democracy Doc
is published on its own platform um and
you're not going to intimidate me so you
know we're going to I'm going to
continue to do what I need to do as a
responsible citizen I'm GNA speak out
against tyranny I'm G to speak out
against Donald Trump's uh uh unlawful
actions and I'm going to litigate and
I'm not going to be be cowed or backed
down from that well look I I will just
add that um the heroes of this moment
right now are the people who are willing
to fight and to show some courage in the
face of some major adversity I don't
think that could find more adversity
than having the the person with the
biggest bully pulpit in the entire world
uh name you as a a a villain um today
but the fact that you're responding in
the way that you are is a testament to
the fact that that um that you know you
are meeting this moment with the urgency
that it deserves so again for everybody
who's watching right now to support the
invaluable work that Mark is doing both
in the courts and in the media please
make sure to sign up for democracy. I'll
put the link right here on the screen
and also in the post description of this
video I'm Brian teller Cohen I'm Mark
Elias this is democracy watch
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