The Adam Mockler Show - Trump’s Plan BACKFIRES INSTANTLY as Dems OUTSMART HIM

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

Adam Mockler with MeidasTouch Network speaks to Texas State Representatives who left Texas to keep the fight going in Illinois, follow them below: Rep. Martinez-Fischer https://www.instagram.com/realtmftx?igsh=MTV4cGt3b28xZTAwbg== Rep. Fletcher https://www.instagram.com/repfletcher?igsh=MzM2NzBhaW9ueGly Rep. Hinojosa https://www.instagram.com/ginahinojosaatx?igsh=czB1MWtwY3EybnZ4 DNC Chair Ken Martin: https://www.instagram.com/kenmartin1973?igsh=MWlrZ2I1Y2pkdDFmeA== Shop Adam's new merch collection ➡️ https://shop.adammockler.com/ Click below for premium Adam Mockler content 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@adammockler/join 👉 https://adammockler.com JOIN THE COMMUNITY: Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AdamMockler/ Discord: https://discord.gg/y9yzMU3Gff Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adammockler/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adammockler.bsky.social Twitter: https://x.com/adammocklerr/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/Adammockler Contact me at: [e-mail] Adam Mockler - Mockler Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's patriotism. Unlike this bozo, this orange-faced bozo in the White House, who calls himself a patriot as he's shredding the Constitution. This is not the Democratic Party of your grandfather that used to bring a pencil to a knife fight. We're bringing a gun to a knife fight. We're not going to roll over on this. We have some major breaking news. Texas Republicans are trying to redraw the state map in order to rig the midterms in their favor at the request of Donald Trump. I am standing here with two Texas state representatives who have bravely and heroically disrupted this process by breaking quorum, leaving the state, and stopping Republicans dead in their tracks.

I am here with Representative Trey Martinez-Fisher. How are you? Doing well. I'm here with Representative Gina Hinojosa. It's good to be here. Let's start with this. You guys had to leave on very short notice when Republicans began this process. Can you explain to me what the process was leaving when you knew you had to leave your family?

And you have a son and a husband you had to leave on short notice. Can you explain to me what's this like? Yeah, so we got word this was going to happen probably about a month ago we started hearing rumors. But it became real when we saw the maps that gutted our communities and their voice in Congress. And then I knew right away, and enough of us knew it was time to go to defend the rights and the voice of our constituents. I did not know where we were going to break harm until that afternoon. That morning I thought we were going somewhere else. So I was packed, but really taking it on faith that it was going to be okay.

We were in the hands of our very able staff at the House Democratic Caucus. So I showed up, I said goodbye to my husband, my son, who is in middle school still. That's hard to say goodbye for that amount of time, but I couldn't do this without their support. They are so supportive of the work we're doing. And really, I do this work because of my son. I do this because of him. I went on a vacation this summer to Philadelphia. We went to Independence Hall.

And it was so important for me that my son connected to who we are, our founding principles that are good, that we really can't see anymore in this country. What Donald Trump and Abbott are doing to take away representation, to take away the ability of the people of Texans to hold them accountable for the ways they are hurting our people is contrary to who we are as Americans. It is contrary to our identity.

I want my son to grow up in a place that is true to our founding values, and that's why I do this work. The founding values of America are to have a free and fair election, and Republicans are taking that away. Representative Hinojosa, can you expand on the idea that

Republicans are surgically targeting either black communities or black representatives to lock them out of their district? Also Latino communities, black and brown communities. So the ultimate goal is to add five more Republican members of Congress to the U.S. Congress out of Texas. That's what Trump's stated goal is. That's what the maps show. But they're doing it on the backs of Latino communities and black communities.

I'll give you a couple of examples. In Austin, we have two members of Congress. One, we share actually with San Antonio. And one is Latino represented, and it is a Latino opportunity district where that community has an opportunity. to elect the representative of their choosing, and the other isn't. The one that is eliminated by the Trump map is the Latino district. Houston is the same thing. We have a member of Congress from Houston, Sylvia Garcia.

She is the Latina member of Congress that is elected in a Latino opportunity district. That is eliminated, or actually the Latino number is taken below 50% in the new Trump map. So, yes, the ultimate goal is five more Republicans in Congress, but it is on the backs of black and brown communities. Representative Trey Martinez-Fisher, Governor Greg Abbott said that Texas troopers should arrest you on the spot. What's your response to this? Yeah, well, look, I think my colleague said it, well, when you're a Democrat in Texas, you have to keep a bag packed under the bed because you never know when you have to leave the state. This hyper-partisan, ultra-maga mentality, what America is seeing today, Texas has been living for the last 30 years. And so, look, we're not scared of empty threats, but we recognize this.

I mean, people have paid a much higher price for the right to vote, and so, but this is necessary because we have to stop and make sure that this country is waking up. America has to wake up because our democracy is being taken right before our very eyes, and we need to not just wake up, we need to rise up. And for every Trump takeover district they try to make in Texas, we will offset that in California, New York, Maryland, and other places. We're going to fight fire with fire. And so if it takes Gene and I to leave our families, it's tough.

It's a sacrifice. But we recognize that we never underestimate the American people when it comes to preserving our democracy and standing up for something. And that's, you know, we're hoping that we're going to start that conversation across this country. First of all, thank you for making the sacrifice, both of you. But an analogy I always draw is that norms in a democracy work like consent. You can't have meaningful consent when only one party is engaged in the same way that you can't have a meaningful democratic system when only one party is engaged in the norms. So what we're seeing now is the Democratic Party, for the first time in a while, it feels like punching back and making sure that we are there. Can you explain to me how, on a broader level, this is a fight we need to take to the federal stage?

Yeah, absolutely. So in some ways, this fight is a gift, right? So many Americans would like to take the fight directly to Donald Trump, and they can't. And here, we in Texas have an opportunity to do just that and to fight to win. the amount of opposition that we heard just in the couple of days after the maps were released and the couple of weeks after this was added to the agenda, the issue of mid-decade redistricting, was inspiring. Texans are ready to fight and it is an honor to be part of that fight and to show the world

really what it looks like to fight to win. Very well said. And what we're dealing with here, I mean, President Trump said this morning he's entitled to these seats in Texas, right? that's what we're talking about. Entitlement president, you know, this is not the commander in chief. This is the commander in cheat, right? Somebody who would cheat to steal this election. And that's why people should be pissed everywhere, right? And I think that's what Texas Democrats are doing. We know we're the spark. And if our job is to wake the country up so that we push back, then we're doing our jobs. And so this is something we take seriously. And I think everybody

who's paying attention should also take seriously. And you know what bothers me. Republicans are now taking all these examples of gerrymandering across the country to try to gaslight us and make us act like this is normal. Is it a lot? Is it? Is it fair to say that redistricting in a mid-cycle, not near a census, but in a mid-cycle right before the mid-terms, is an intentional disenfranchisement of voters? It's not just a normal thing. So look, it usually never happened, right? It happened every 10 years.

A guy named Tom DeLay back in 2003 did it one time. The true issue here is Trump knows he's going to lose the 26th election, and we know that Lizzie Fletcher's going to be in charge in the U.S. Congress, right? So what does he do? He doesn't want accountability. You think you want Lizzie Fletcher asking you question? questions, right, under oath? So he's going to cheat, change these districts, and keep his majority. And so what? The Supreme Court said, hey, you can redistrict any time. But what they also

said is you're not going to do it on the backs of Latinos and African Americans and Asians. You still have to protect them. And these guys have disregarded that. And that's why we were fighting on this principle. And whether we win on this walkout, we will also try to win in the courthouse. That's where it becomes illegal, right? Because they always say gerrymandering in itself is legal, which it shouldn't be. But when you begin to surgically target minority communities, that's when becomes incredibly illegal. And here's the crazy part about it, right? And so Senator Huffman from Houston, a Republican, a strong Republican, drew these maps in 2021.

Republicans up and down Austin has swore on the road. These are great maps, perfect maps. Race had nothing to do with drawing these maps. And they testified to that in court. You know what happens when you lie in federal court? You get put in an iron cell, right? Yeah. And then all of a sudden, the Justice Department from Trump administration said, hey, wait a minute,

these districts are bad because you use race. So our question, Gene and I keep asking, well, who's lying? Right? Who's lying? Is the Trump DOJ line or is the senator who says these maps are race blind or lying? And that's what we should focus on. Is who's lying? Because these are maps that they picked and they wouldn't run it on and they've been winning on. But it's not enough to keep Trump in the White House. That's why they want to change the rules in the middle of the game. If they thought they could win naturally, they wouldn't have to change the rules and rewrite the rule book. Representative Hinojosa, I have a question and help me have a better understanding of this. So I was reading an article that they charge you $500 a day for leaving the state. disincentivize this from happening, but state representatives for their job as a representative don't make enough salary to cover this $500 a day, not nearly. So can you explain to me how not only you're leaving your family, not only are you leaving your home and what you're comfortable with, but you're also giving up a lot of comfort and sacrificing even more than that. Can you help further my understanding of this? Yes, well, you're right. And I think that those fines are unconstitutional under our Texas

Constitution. Breaking quorum is a tool that we have, that we are allowed to use to represent our constituents to fight for them, to defend them. We are one of four states in the whole United States of America with this ability. And so it is our right to use it. That set aside, you heard earlier Representative Martinez-Fisher talk about much greater sacrifices have been made for our freedoms. And so, yes, we're facing the threat of these fines. Yes, we don't make a lot of money, but when you look at it in the grand scheme of things, it's not too much to ask for us to take on these risks to defend our constituents and their rights.

And I appreciate you guys for taking on these risks. You guys can find Representative Gina Hinojosa and Representative Trey Martinez-Fisher in the description. Go check them out. They're on the front lines. I'm going to walk over and now talk to federal representative, Liz Fletcher. How are you doing? Hey, I'm okay. How are you?

Doing well. Thank you for coming out to Illinois. I guess thank you for coming out in grim circumstances. I guess I want to start here. If Donald Trump and Republicans could win fairly, I feel like they would win fairly in campaign, but they can't. They know they can't.

They know the tariffs have hurt Americans. They know that their immigration policy is absolutely unpopular. So can you explain to me, why is this blatant power grab happening, and why can't they win naturally? Well, there are a whole lot of layers to that question, and I do think it's really important to understand that you're right.

They see the writing on the wall that what they are doing, what they've been doing in the beginning of this administration is harmful to Americans. They're not delivering on their campaign promises. They're not bringing down prices. They're not making people safer. And they're implementing policies that are going to hurt people. You look at that one big ugly bill, and it's going to take health care away from 17 million Americans, cutting back on food assistance, $6 a day for people across the country who are going to be hungrier, people are going to be sicker. And they're doing all of this, implementing these tariffs, as you mentioned, that are driving costs up. And they're doing all these things to benefit billionaire buddies, right?

And so they can't win at the ballot box on these policies. They see the writing on the wall. And so they're looking at changing the playing field, moving the goalposts and changing the game itself. And so that's really why I'm here is to thank my representatives in the Texas legislature who are fighting for Texans and for all Americans. right now to make sure that all of us can exercise our right to vote and have it count, have it mean something. Know that when you walk into the polling place and you cast your ballot, you have the ability

to affect the outcome of that election. Can you provide some broader context on the history of gerrymandering in Texas briefly? Because we could probably be here for three days talking about the history of gerrymandering. But I was doing a lot of reading over the past month, as I'm sure a lot of people have. And there's a lot of context surrounding this that makes this fight even more heroic and even more necessary. Yeah, you're right. There's a lot to say around what's happened in Texas,

but there are a couple really important things to note in this moment. Number one, Texas has a long history of discriminating against minority voters. It was a case from Texas, actually, in 1944, where the Supreme Court struck down the white primaries, where Democrats at the time ruled the state and had whites-only primaries. That got struck down by the Supreme Court. About 20 years later, you have the Voting Rights Act. And Texas was one of the states that had to clear its maps before they changed the legislative maps in the districts because of the history of discrimination, poll taxes, literacy tests, all kinds of things to keep people from voting. And so we know that in every decade since the Voting Rights Act passed, Texas was found to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Every time. Every time. And so the courts have stepped in and required the state to redraw the rights. maps do different things. And actually there's a case in court right now that Representative Martinez Fisher was just talking about, about the 2021 maps. And so what we know is that Texas is a majority minority state, more than 60% of our state is minority voters, black, brown, Asian American. And yet, when you look at these maps, those voters control less than 40% of the seats in Congress. And what do I mean by that? We have 38 seats. in this congressional delegation, 13 of them are represented by Democrats,

and those 13 seats are the only seats where minority communities consistently and reliably elect their candidate of choice. In the other 25 districts, Anglo voters control the outcome of that election. They elect Republicans. The minority communities have all elected Democrats, and I'm very proud to be one of their candidates

of choice in Houston. But what we know is that for Donald Trump or anyone to come in and come after any of those five districts means you're intentionally diluting the voting power of those minority communities. And that's what they're doing here. It's discriminatory. And that's why it's a violation of the Voting Rights Act. It's a violation of the Constitution. And it's a violation of the principles that we all agree on in a democratic society that we should be able to pick our politicians and not have politicians pick their voters. And Republicans have been doing this in different states across the country for

a while, disenfranchising minority communities. I remember a lawsuit back in North Carolina said that Republicans were, with surgical precision, disenfranchising black voters because they would introduce or take away certain types of IDs. This was the whole voter ID debate. So now we see this happening, what's been happening in Texas for a while, but we see this happening state by state. Do you endorse the Democratic plan if this passes? Hopefully it doesn't. Do you endorse the Democratic plan to punch back and redistrict their own states? Oh, I definitely support the Democratic plan, and I'm so grateful that we have Democrats from across the country who are standing up, speaking out, and showing up for Texas and Texans and for all Americans right now.

And I think it's really important to understand that we are seeing a lot of these challenges, and over time, some of the protections of the Voting Rights Act have been eroded. And so what Democrats in Congress have been trying to do for years is to bring back the protections, right? We had a bill when we were in the majority in Congress, democracy reform package to help address so many of the challenges that we face, including gerrymandering, and also to protect the right to vote with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. So we are ready to protect all voters. And what you see is Democrats have been doing that and are continuing to do that. But this is a new chapter in the fight. And we're so lucky to have incredible leaders of the National Party and leaders in states across the country who are standing with Texans in this moment. moment because they understand how important it is for us to be able to exercise our right to vote. They also understand that this can happen everywhere. We like to say in Texas, everything's bigger in Texas. That's one of our big things. Maybe is annoying to some. But this is

really bigger than Texas. And that's what the Texans are here to say. And they're saying it across the country. And people are listening and we're so incredibly grateful because this is important for all Americans. And we have friends in this fight and we're lucky to have. Thank you for being one of the leaders standing up, Representative Fletcher. I appreciate this a lot. Thank you for your time. You can find Representative Lizzie Fletcher in the description below. Go follow the people on the front lines.

We have one final interview with another leader who has been standing up. DNC Chair Ken Martin. How are you doing today, sir? Hey, Adam. How are you? We've chatted a few times. I'm glad to be back. We're currently in Illinois, and this is a high-stakes situation.

Republicans, I mean, in 2020, they tried to steal the election in not so subtle ways through electoral fraud, through electoral schemes, John Eastman coming up with this, and this all culminated into January 6th. So now, at a high level, they're trying to steal the midterms. Maybe they're using slightly more legal ways, but it's not legal. They're disenfranchising minorities. As somebody who's one of the highest leaders in the Democratic Party,

how are you approaching this? And explain to me the high-level stakes. Well, let me just say this. I mean, just the other day Donald Trump fired his BLS director, a Bureau of Labor Statistics Director, because he didn't like the jobs report that that person put out, so he fired us them, right? Now, Donald Trump's numbers are in the shitter.

He's literally at 37%, which is an all-time low for a president in this point in their presidency. Why do you think he's trying to change the rules? He can't win. Well, because they're not on a path to win next year. And so what do they do? They cheat.

They rig the system. They're on the wrong side of the issues. This is one of the most unpopular bills that they just passed in over a half a century. The American people are backlashing against the tariffs, against the destructive policies from earlier in this administration and this bill. All they've got left right now is to actually change the rules midstream of the game to actually rig the system in their favor. That's what this is really about. And look, what are they doing in the process?

They're ripping apart and shredding apart to our Constitution. They're trampling on voting rights. They're basically throwing people under the bus all in this craven power grab. And this is just the tip of the spear. The reality is they're going to bring this to Missouri, they're going to bring this to Ohio, they're going to bring this throughout the nation. What do we need to do right now? Democrats need to resist with everything we have, with every fiber of our being.

We need to get off our asses and realize that this is much bigger than Texas. At the end of the day, this is about our democracy, this is about voting rights, this is about our Constitution. And as I've said to you before, if we're not willing to fight like hell for the things we believe in, do we really believe in them at all? Do we believe in our democracy? Do we believe in our Constitution? do we believe in voting rights? Because if we do, now is the time. This is the fight. If not

now, when? If you're not going to fight now, when are you going to fight? Stand up. Join us right now as the Democratic Party as we stand with these brave patriots. And they are patriots, these Texas House members who fled their state to stand up for their constituents, to stand up for their state, to stand up for democracy. That's patriotism. Unlike this bozo, this orange-faced Bozo in the White House who calls himself a patriot as he's shredding the Constitution, as he's trampling on voting rights. Let's call it out for what it is. It's bullshit and we're going to stand up and fight. He thought we weren't going to fight. He thought that we were going to roll over, but Democrats have shown up strong. Across the country, Democrats have come out in a unified

way and pushed back against this blatant authoritarianism. If you had a message to Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, what would it be? Well, I said this on the day one. You were at that press conference when I won the race for a DNC chair. People asked me what message do I have for Donald Trump. It's the same message I said that. Gloves are off. We're coming for you. And guess what? Right now, we have seen an unprecedented assault on the constitution of this country, on the foundational values that have made this country great. Donald Trump is ripping that apart as he destroys people's lives and shatters communities. Make no mistake about it. Think about this. Greg Abbott, use the flood as an excuse to call a special session. You know how many hearings they had on flood relief?

One. You know how many hearings they had on changing the map? Eight. This was a bait and switch. Greg Abbott did this on the request of Donald Trump. He bent the knee to Donald Trump and the National Republican Party. He sold his constituents literally down the river after a flood to essentially steal power for Donald Trump, who's so desperate, he knows he. He knows he, he's going to lose the elections unless he rigs the system. This is what it's about. And I'll just tell you right now. Again, I just want to reiterate this. If people aren't willing to fight now, when are they going to actually fight? Because this isn't just about Texas. This is about our democracy. This is truly about whether or not we can win in 2026. The Republicans are trying to cheat

and rig the system. Final question. If Republicans push this through, do you unequivocally support Governor Newsom's plan to redistrict his state? I support governors and every elected official across the country and using whatever levers of power they have to actually push back against this. All options are on the table right now. This is not the Democratic Party of your grandfather that used to bring a pencil to a knife fight. We're bringing a gun to a knife fight. We're not going to roll over on this. Donald Trump has picked a fight with the wrong party on this one, and I will tell you right now, this is a line in the sand that we are not going to cross. We are going to stand up and fight for everyone's right to vote and to participate in their democracy.

Well said. DNC Chair Ken Martin. Thank you. You can find him in the description below. A great fighter. You can find a lot more information about this. Also in the description. My name is Adam Mockler. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel for more breaking news updates and we'll see you guys next time. Thank you.