msw media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Wednesday, September 9, 2026. Today, the United Arab Emirates warned Bibi Netanyah of a major Hamas operation 10 days before the October 7th attack on Israel. Corey Lewandowski shook down Qatar and the UAE for money in exchange for his help with the Trump administration. When Senator Roger Marshall was a doctor, he sued 700 patients, 81 of whom were arrested. Mayor Mamdani has released 170,000 pages of documents that suggest New Yorkers were misled about the safety of the air quality following the 911 attacks. Trump is asking the Supreme Court to restore states access to the SAVE database of voters. The D.C. circuit Court of Appeals upholds a block on IRS sharing taxpayer data with ICE. And the Supreme Court has denied a bid from Missouri Republicans to let them use their garbage map in the midterm elections. But just hours later, a federal district judge approved the Republican map. I'm your host, Alison Gill. Yeah, everybody get ready. It's going to be lawsuit after lawsuit going back and forth with denials and approvals and appeals for all of this, you know, attempted voter suppression by this regime. It's just going to get, like, amped up as we get closer to the election and especially after the election. And speaking of that, I'm going to be speaking today with the Secretary of State of Nevada and Chair of the Democratic association of Secretaries of State. His name is Cisco Aguilar. And we're going to talk about what Secretaries of state are doing to prepare for all of the shenanigans. And we're going to talk about physical preparedness, we're going to talk about legal preparedness. It's going to be a fascinating conversation, so I hope you stick around for that also. You guys are the best. Thank you so much for hanging in with me solo. Thanks for all the kind messages. Dana will be back by the end of the week, so please share our show with your communities and your networks. 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All right, everybody, we have a ton of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from the Associated Press. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directly warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive just days before the militant group attacked on October 7, 2023. And that's according to an Israeli newspaper report. UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed spoke with Netanyahu 10 days before the attack and said Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza at the time, was planning an operation. And this is from the Haaretz now, bin said it would lead to bloodshed and could destabilize the region and undermine the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab and M Muslim majority nations. But Netanyahu, quote, reacted with relative calm, according to Haaretz, which said he assured bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario and a possible attack was more likely to come from the occupied West Bank. Anyhow, Haaretz, reported that Netanyahu's office called the report an absolute lie and said Netanyahu never spoke with the UAE president during the period in question and received no warning from him. Now, Netanyahu has rejected calls for an official government inquiry into the events surrounding the October 7th attack because it's clear he allowed it to happen. I added that part. That's my opinion. His office denied Tuesday that the UAE gave him a warning, quote, if there was any relevant information, it was passed through intelligence channels between the two countries. That's what the statement said. The UAE's foreign ministry also said it would not comment on speculation regarding conversations between government leaders. Okay. Now, Israel and the UAE have maintained open and direct lines of communication since they formally established ties five years ago, the statement said. It added, when necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated. But that's not what happened. Israel is holding national elections next month, and Netanyahu's, actions around the time of October 7th are a key issue in the campaign. Gotti Eisenkot, a former top general who is seen as Netanyahu's main opponent in the election accused Netanyahu of ignoring dozens of warnings ahead of the attack. He is unfit. That's what Eisenkot wrote on social media. Another Netanyahu rival, Naftali Bennett, said, quote, netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility for the failures that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis on his watch. Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. some details that are missing from this Associated Press report. Netanyahu was called by the president of uae, but he did not tell his party. He didn't tell the intelligence agency, the Mossad. He didn't tell anyone. He kept that a secret. And something else in the Haaretz report that got no mention. Shortly after the attack on October 7, Hamas met with Palestinians who told them. The Palestinians told Hamas, in order to get a mediator in place for talks, that Hamas, you're going to have to release the hostages. And Hamas says, all right, I'll get right back to you. They came back an hour later and Hamas said, we agree to release the civilians, all of them. Now, civilians to Hamas are those up to 18 years old and over 50 years old. But they said, we'll release them all under 18 and over 50. Quote, he told me that in the first stage, they had no problem releasing all civilians without anything in return. That's what Musharrawi recounts from that conversation. Quote, I swear those were his exact words. All civilians without anything in return. They had only one condition. They wanted us to bring in an agreed upon mediator as quickly as possible so that negotiations could immediately begin over everything else. The release of the soldiers and officers in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and then the issue of the blockade on Gaza. The Palestinian official named Dahlin then reached out to his contacts in Israel and quote, the unofficial response Dahlin received from them. Netanyahu doesn't want to talk about anything. He only wants war and the elimination of Hamas. The Israelis perception was, first we eliminate Hamas, then we'll retrieve the hostages by force. Hamas was willing to return all of the civilian hostages under 18 and over 50. And I wonder how many people have died because Netanyahu refused that deal. And the Haaretz report also talks about all the stuff leading up to all these talks that were going on between Hamas and Israel. They had agreed on a lot of things with the Fatah in there helping out the Palestinian Authority, or at least representatives of the Palestinian Authority. And Netanyahu had created a backchannel communication between Hamas and Palestine. But once they reached a deal, a ceasefire and to allow aid into Gaza and everything. Netanyahu started dragging his feet. He knew that without a war he could go to prison. And he was in the middle of trying to reform the court to give him unimaginable powers over the judiciary so that he wouldn't have to go to prison, which led to massive protests in the country. All of that was going on. And when Netanyahu stopped and didn't go forward with this plan that he had negotiated with the Palestinians and Hamas, that's when tensions started to boil over. That's when Egypt called and warned him. We knew about that. Egypt had warned Netanyahu through back channel talks that Hamas was going to attack. But we didn't know until today that the president of the UAE called him just 10 days before. Just, absolutely horrible to think about everything that could have been avoided if Bibi Netanyahu weren't trying to keep himself out of prison. Anyway, that's that story. I suggest reading the Haaretz report, if you're able. Next up from the Wall Street Journal. When Corey Lewandowski was at the Department of Homeland Security, he approached senior cuttery officials with this proposal. Hire me on the side, the longtime Trump aide who was effectively the shadow secretary at the department last year told them. Hire me on the side. That's according to people familiar with his pitch. He said he could help the tiny, wealthy Gulf state with any issues that fell under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, such as visas, for example. He approached representatives in the United Arab Emirates as well with similar offers. Now, some of the foreigners were taken aback and confused why they would need Lewandowski when they already had traditional relationships with top administration officials. Qatar and UAE declined the proposals. The alleged money making efforts, which appeared to be offers by Lewandowski to sell government services for personal gain, came while he had an expansive portfolio at one of the most powerful agencies in the government. The role gave him de facto decision making authority over large amounts of recently appropriated billions and billions of dollars. Remember the One big beautiful bill act, 130 billion alone for ICE and CBP, the President's border and immigration enforcement agenda. He was also in charge of that and the collection of tariffs which have been vastly expanded under Trump. Lewandowski held the status of special government employee which allowed him to carry out private business. He also was in close personal relationships with the actual DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem. A wide ranging probe by the department's internal watchdog is scrutinizing any potential improprieties in the contracting process, including any evidence of personal enrichment by top officials. It has since found evidence that Lewandowski was probably involved in improperly awarding government contracts. Remember when he created his own little consulting firm and said, hire my consulting firm for $14 million and we'll make sure you keep your contracts? Or we'll help you get some? Lewandowski now operates as a consultant. One client is Bahrain, which signed a contract with him after he left office. Officials say they don't know the extent to which Noem herself was aware of Lewandowski's alleged efforts. Lewandowski traveled and attended most department meetings with Noemi, remember the fuck jet? And the pair have reportedly been romantically linked for years. Lewandowski and Noem have denied having such a relationship. A spokesperson for Noem didn't respond to requests for comment. Mullen and, White House officials have been briefed on the DHS Inspector General inquiry. Now investigators are weighing a potential criminal referral to the Justice Department. And Democrats in the House of Representatives are preparing for a related probe. If I say when the party wins a majority in November's midterm elections, that's just one. That's just one investigation. A White House spokeswoman declined to comment. And DHS representatives didn't respond to comment for requests either. So, yeah, big surprise there. Next up from the Times. Continuing the theme that Republicans suck. It was easter weekend in 2007 when a police car pulled up to Joe Vasquez's home in rural Kansas. A doctor had filed a lawsuit against him and his wife over an unpaid $4,561 bill from her emergency hysterectomy three years earlier. They had missed a court date, and the doctor's lawyer asked the court to issue an arrest warrant. The doctor's lawyer. The police took the couple into custody as their grandchildren prepared for an egg hunt. They spent two days in jail before their son could borrow the money to post bond. We had no money to pay, said Mr. M. Vasquez, now 68. At the time, his wife was working at a manufacturing plant and he was on disability. Now, the doctor who sued the couple was Roger Marshall, the now senator from Kansas. Mr. Marshall, a Republican who's seeking reelection this fall, filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients with outstanding bills during his decades long career as an obstetrician, an obgyn. And that's according to a, New York Times analysis of Kansas court records. Patients were arrested in 81 of those cases for missing court dates, the records show. In an additional 13 lawsuits. Mr. Marshall's lawyers sought warrants for arrests. They also garnished patients paychecks and bank accounts. They routinely charged patients an 18% annual interest rate for giving birth. Unpaid bills ranged from several thousand dollars to as little as $101. About half the lawsuits were filed under Mr. Marshall's name and the rest by Heartland Regional Obgyn, the medical practice he solely owned from 98 to 2012 and then co owned with another doctor from 2013 to 2019. Some facing lawsuits were new mothers. New mothers with outstanding bills from their deliveries. Most lived in Barton County, a rural area with above average uninsured and poverty rates. Some patients that the Times spoke with lacked insurance. Others had health coverage but still were responsible for part of their bill. New mothers, A doctor sued them for 100 bucks, 4,500 bucks for a C section. And when they couldn't pay, some asked like multiple times if they could make payment installments. And Senator Marshall just had the courts issue a warrant for their arrest and they would spend time in jail. That's not very pro life, is it? Next up, from the Times. In the harrowing months that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center, New Yorkers were repeatedly assured that the air around the fallen towers was safe to breathe. But 10 months later, health officials were still finding evidence of asbestos as much as a half a mile away, according to a sample of air quality records that was just released this Tuesday, 25 years later. The documents, reviewed by the Times in advance of their release, include more than 170,000 pages of air quality reports, contamination records, and correspondence among city officials. The records were stored in 68 boxes in a city office shielded from public view for more than two decades, and according to city officials, discovered only last year. Mayor Zoran Mamdani directed his administration to release the records to the public through an online portal, timing it to the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the attacks in Lower Manhattan. Over the course of the next year, his administration intends to review, redact, and publicize many more papers found in municipal and insurance offices that relate to the environmental toxins brought about by September 11, the documents are limited in scope, offering only a fraction of the air quality reports taken around ground Zero. And while they also include a smattering of internal memos, including the so called Harding memo, in which the city discussed its potential liability stemming from 9, 11 air quality, many more of these documents are presumably absent. But even in a scattershot way, the record seemed to strengthen the notion that New Yorkers were instructed to return to the ground zero area before it was safe to do so, potentially exposing workers and residents to dangerous toxins. Quote On Friday, we will mark 25 years since the worst tragedy ever to befall our city, the darkest day New York City has ever known. That's what Mamdani said on Tuesday at the news conference to introduce the records. And yet the devastating truth is that the suffering did not end once the smoke cleared and the dust settled. People got sick because their leaders, the leaders they trusted, lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air. That's what Mamdani said. The release of the documents resolves litigation brought by 911 Healthwatch, an advocacy organization that sued to force the publication of these documents. Ben Shavat, the group's executive director, said the document showed that the city knew about the toxic chemical danger and even as city officials continued messaging to the public that the air was safe and acceptable. But they want to put Mamdani behind bars because he told people to wear masks during COVID Right. But the documents released may expose the city to new or amended lawsuits. Good. Remember when Congress fought really hard not to give health care to the 911 first responders? The information could also help those sickened in the years after September 11th with their applications for federal victim compensation funds. Absolutely. It will 100% help them. Well done, Mayor Mamdani. See, that is how you lead. Not by suing your new mother patients and putting them in jail and charging them 18% interest. These people, ah, they pretend to be Christian. That's just abhorrent. All right, from Politico. Another legal battle over the 2026 midterms reached the Supreme Court Tuesday as the Trump administration begged the just to restore broad access for states to a federal database of some, but not all U.S. citizens. I put the word begged in there. Solicitor General D. John Sour asked the high court to lift a lower court order that blocks states from using Social Security numbers to search a Department of Homeland Security database known as Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or Save the SAVE database. Some states use the database to confirm the citizenship of people registering to vote or those already registered. But until last year, the SAFE system relied almost entirely on DHS records. The Trump administration, though, expanded the system to permit states to use Social Security data in their queries and allowed them to make speedier bulk inquiries. In a lawsuit brought by voting rights and privacy rights groups, U.S. district Judge Sparkle Souknanan ruled in June that the SAVE database was error prone and had resulted in states removing citizens from voter rolls Sukhnanen, a ah, Washington based Biden appointee, said the system had trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens and threatened their right to vote. Last week, a divided federal appellate court panel sided with Judge Suknan two to one, maintaining the blockade on the Trump administration's expanded use of the SAVE system. D. John Sauer, Emergency. He went directly went to the Supreme Court emergency appeal, and in it, he called Suknan's ruling an indefensible order that threatens the integrity of upcoming elections. Quote, by making SAVE more difficult to use, the district court's order impairs the proper administration of federal elections. You don't have control over elections. The states do. He complained that the ruling, quote, makes it harder to detect ineligible voters. this is not a problem. The Heritage foundation themselves said there's been fewer than 100 instances of non residents voting in the last 20 years. It's like a 0.00004% rate. Bob, it's. Your ruling makes it harder to detect ineligible voters, undermining the integrity of federal elections and public confidence in the results of those elections. Bullshit. Sauer cited the Supreme Court's ruling last month overturning a different judge's order blocking part of Trump's plan to use to limit delivery of mail in ballots, which is such a dumb thing to cite because that's about the Postal Service, not about your SAVE list. And it was a lifting of a block that was purportedly because the final rule hadn't been published, but it is now. So that was a standing issue, and no one's challenging standing here. I mean, I'm no Solicitor General, I'm not even a fucking lawyer, but Sauer is an idiot. Now, litigation in that USPS issue is still pending before the Supreme Court. And from the Post, starting on some better news stories here, thank you. The Trump administration faced a legal setback in its effort to share taxpayer information with ICE to enforce immigration laws. That's according to a federal appellate court. On Tuesday. As you know, last year, IRS shared more than 47,000 taxpayer records with ICE. A federal court blocked the IRS from sharing that taxpayer information, ruling that the data sharing plan between the IRS and ICE is illegal. The new ruling, affirms that lower court decision from November to keep blocking the sharing of information. As this court already cautioned, we expect that going forward, the IRS will adhere to the representations made before this court regarding the address requirement. And we stress that the same applies to the other requirements of the law. That's Judge Cornelia Pillard on behalf of a unanimous three judge panel of the U.S. court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit. Last spring, the treasury and Homeland Security departments signed an agreement in which DHS provided 1.3 million names and addresses of people it wanted to detain and deport. The IRS would check in its confidential database to confirm the identities and the addresses. That's what kicked it all off. DC Circuit says nope. Lower court was right. You aren't allowed to do that. It's illegal. Next stop either. En banc at the D.C. circuit, but probably not. Probably go straight to the Supreme Court. And from cnn, speaking of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Tuesday, the Supreme Court in the United States denied Missouri's request to use a congressional map for the November midterm election that would have given Republicans a chance to flip a seat, a rare setback for the Republicans effort to keep control of the House next year by eking out an advantage from its political boundaries. Missouri moved to the 7:1 Republican map under pressure from Trump, who has inspired an unusual mid decade redistricting war in Republican and Democratic states. With Missouri's map blocked, Republicans are poised to gain a net of nine seats in the US House of Representatives because of the effort. It was 10. The decision was issued Tuesday by Justice Kavanaugh, who handles emergency cases rising from parts of the Midwest. He's the justice that sits atop the circuit court that includes Missouri. There are 13 circuits but only nine justices. That's why one of the reasons we need 13. Anyway, it was Kavanaugh. And Kavanaugh didn't explain his reasoning. He just said no. And there were no dissents. Missouri officials raced up to the Supreme Court on Friday arguing that the state court, the state Supreme Court decision would create a federal election administration disaster and unprecedented chaos. No, my friends, that is what you are trying to do. One of the organizers of the referendum who sued over the use of the map, Richard Von Glan, countered in his own briefing that if there was an election emergency, it's Missouri's own making. You're trying to shove a map down everybody's throat the last minute. But wait, but wait. Judge Stephen Clark, a district judge in the Eastern District of Missouri has granted the Republicans bid to use the new Republican Mac by blocking the old one, the old one that kept the two Democratic seats. Now, this is a different case than the one the Supreme Court just refused to overturn today. Local reporter from KSDK News Mark Maxwell says it this way. A federal judge has ordered Missouri to use the new map for November. Seven minutes before the 5pm ballot deadline. And just hours after Kavanaugh declined to do the same, Hoskins, who's the attorney general there in Missouri, a Republican is now under two opposite injunctions. This one is a 14 day temporary restraining order on federal grounds. An appeal is expected within hours. So Supreme Court says you can't. This district judge in a different case says you can use the Republican new map. Two opposite orders, appeal expected within hours. We will keep you posted on this. by the way, Judge Stephen Clark, Trump appointee. Anyway, speaking of voting and voting rights and protecting voting rights, we're gonna talk to the Secretary of State of Nevada, Cisco Aguilar, right after this break. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
We'll be right back.
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I'm good. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here.
Oh, it's so great to talk to you. It's a pleasure to meet you. And I wanted to talk first about the Democratic Association Secretaries of State, because a while back, I spoke to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson from Michigan, who's now the Democratic nominee for governor in that state. And she told me that your group, y' all had been conducting, because, you know, we were like, well, what happens if ICE shows up to the polls? What happens if. If they come and seize voting machines or ballots, and they've got some sort of magistrate judge warrant in their hands like they did in Georgia? And I asked her what the Secretaries of State were doing to prepare, and she's like, we have been running tabletop exercises. We have been doing war games. We have been talking about this, and this has been since at least January. And I wanted to ask you how that's going. I know you can't reveal the things that you're doing, because otherwise we'll give the bad guys a heads up about how we might respond to this. But what's the general sort of atmosphere with the Secretaries of State?
Well, look, I think secretaries are some of the toughest people in the country. And you spoke about Jocelyn Benson. Jocelyn is a superb secretary, and I'm excited to see that she's continuing her leadership in Michigan. The fact that I get to be the secretary I am is because Jocelyn spent the time to help me understand what this role meant, what our responsibilities are, and showed her leadership by leading. And I'm super grateful for everything that she's done. But, yes, the secretaries are coming together consistently. We are talking all the time about legal strategy. What are some of the things that have popped up most recently? Secretaries have to be crisis managers. We have to be on our toes constantly because we have to be willing to take anything that comes at us and be able to respond strategically. We know this administration's throwing a lot of things at the wall. We call it flooding the zone. And we have to be able to fight that. But we have to be careful not to get reactive. We have to be strategic in our approach, and we have to be to build the muscle to be able to respond in a smart, intelligent way. And we're working on that. You know, the grateful thing is we have a lot of really smart lawyers. We're working with all of us. You've seen us collectively come together and file suit against the administration, push back against the administration. But also, too, we're getting some wins. You know, I'm going to speak in terms that this president speaks in. Winners and losers. In most recent litigation about private, voter data, the secretaries are 23 and 0. The White House and the president are 0. They have won no cases. And I would say they're losers in that situation. And so we're continuing to keep our winning legacy going and battling the United States Postal Service, but also too standing up for voters. That's what we're doing here is understanding that this is not a Democrat, Republican issue. This is an issue about American voters having a voice about the future of our country.
Yeah. And Speaking of those lawyers, 23, 0. I mean, that's a pretty good track record. But it's also important to note that that's not all blue states. There's some red states in who are pushing back on this too, which I think is, fairly important. Now, regarding your lawyers, are you working with the state attorneys general? Do you have like, lawsuits ready to go for like the, you know, whatever's going to happen post election?
Well, when I was a kid, I love Mad Libs and so I kind of call it our legal filing of Mad Libs. We have the legal research done on a number of issues that could come at us. And it's just figuring out who's going to be the plaintiff, the defendant, and the jurisdiction in which we file when these issues arise and become ripe for us to file our challenge. We're not going to allow this administration to have an opportunity to get time over us. There's not enough time to be able to protect voters and voters deserve, and they demand a consistent, a calm, a pragmatic elections process.
Yeah, no, I agree. I'm mostly concerned also about ICE or National Guard showing up to the polls just as an intimidation factor.
And we know that's a big issue. And it's an issue we have to talk about with our voters, especially in Nevada where you have 30% of the voter base who are Latinos. And that whole conversation is just an intent to scare voters from showing up on election day. But we know our community strong and they're gonna show up. And I keep telling them this is our opportunity to show up at Mass and show the rest of the country what we can do.
Yeah, actually new polling shows that, in some states like Texas, where it was a tie for Hispanic voters in 2024, Democrats are up 20 now. It's a 20 point swing. It's a 14 point swing toward Democrats in Florida. I mean, there's just, it's quite clear that a lot of those voters are going to be lost. They're not going to vote Republican this time, which is very important. And we just had our Democratic candidate for governor, Javier Becerra, give a speech telling Latino voters, do not be intimidated. You are citizens. Don't let them take away your right to vote.
That's very true. And that's what I keep telling my family, I keep telling my friends is, and telling the community, this is the time when we have to show up and we have to make our voice heard.
Yeah, I agree.
Because those win margins are important.
They are. Right. Because of course, Donald Trump says he wanted a landslide and there's a mandate when it was like nine votes or whatever. But I wanted to ask you because we recently learned, I interviewed the whistleblower aide, lawyer for the whistleblower from the usps, the Postal Service, who's talking about this chaotic vote portal that's set up that could, you know, reject entire batches of ballots based on one improperly scanned barcode. And I had posted on social media, I'm like, everybody, ask your Secretary of State if they're going to voluntarily participate in this portal. Because the judge's recent preliminary injunction blocks mandatory rollout of this program. But she cannot. And she says, look, the states, they do their own thing. I can't get involved with that. And so I can't block them from voluntarily participating. And so now that I'm speaking to a Secretary of State, is Nevada going want to participate in this mail ballot portal fiasco?
No, because again, let's be honest, the federal government does nothing well. And the fact that they're trying to build this massive database in a short period of time is going to be impossible for them to be successful. And knowing that we know what we know about Nevada voters, we've run some of the safest, most secure and accessible elections in the country. We're going to continue to operate elections as we've operated them in the past. And it's not me just saying we have great elections, but MIT just did a report and ranked Nevada second for our, elections. So that shows me that we're doing something right. Our legislature believes in our process. Our, governor, who is Republican, has, believes in our elections processes. So we don't need the extra help of the federal government when it's something they've never done before. Nevadans don't need to be a test case for the rest of the country, especially when it comes to the president's delusional obsession with the 2020 elections. Nevadans don't need that chaos. They needed leadership. And that's what we're going to do.
Yeah. And you do it well. And it's also constitutionally mandated that you do it and that he doesn't do it. So there's also that bit of a merits argument. Who came in number one? I'm just curious.
Minnesota Steve Simon. So I told Simon, hey, I'm coming for you, buddy.
Look out, look out. Biting at your heels. Now, yesterday, the Nevada Independent reported that you actually received a letter just this past Friday from the Justice Department saying that you have to retain 20, 24 voting records even though you only have to retain them for 22 months because you're in the middle of this litigation. They're trying to get these voter files with sensitive voter data like last four of Social Security numbers and dates of birth. And the Justice Department also told you in this letter that you're under investigation for refusing to hand over sensitive voter data. Now, I would wear that as a badge of honor in this particular administration. But how do you respond generally to threats like this?
This look, this is administration is one of desperation. And when you get desperation, you start getting some crazy responses. And one of those responses, this is a constant threat, constant intimidation. It's the bullying. It started with when they requested the original voter private information of Nevada voters. It then led into this non citizen conversation of the president going on primetime tv, the secretary then making the statement that he would consider prison time if we didn't comply, and then sending over, you know, this kind of backwards data analysis that didn't have really any real information. I say third graders are required to show more of their work than the officials at dhs. And so the fact that they're not being truthful or honest with us or acting like adults, there's no reason for us to participate in these shenanigans. And again, because we keep pushing back and saying, look, the Constitution's clear. States run elections, not the federal government. And this is exactly why the federal government shouldn't be running elections. You have a president who wants to choose his voters rather than voters choosing the electeds. And we know that 26 is about the 28 election. Every secretary that gets elected in 26 is going to be the secretary responsible for administering the elections in 28. And when they want to put their hand on the scale and we keep telling them no, what do you think they're going to do? They're going to resort to this intimidation. And that letter was just another effort to say, hey, you better be scared of us. But in reality, I'm not. This is something where we can, as Americans, stand up and push back and say the elitists aren't entitled to tell us how to do what we need to do in our own states. And again, I do wear with a badge of honor. I was very excited when I got the letter. I shared it with my parents and showed them, look, here's what's happening. But again, it's just all of this nonsense and I think Americans are starting to see through it for what it is. And it's just another. A bad, attempt to be relevant.
Yeah. An act of desperation, like you said. One last thing. Can you address. Remember in July, Donald Trump got on TV and said there were 250,000 non citizens registered to vote in four states and 16,000 and change belong to Nevada. Non citizens registered to vote in your state. You didn't just sit on your hands and let that stand. You brought in people and said, show up us, Bring it. Show us the proof, show me the money. And they've been able to maybe pick out a ceiling of 185 voters instead of 16,000 and change. What else have you discovered about that allegation?
Well, not only that, they sent us a data sheet of about 6,400 voters. And it had four columns, this worksheet. It was an Excel spreadsheet. It had voter case number, it was even voter ID number was one column. The second column was the state of Nevada was the home state of this voter. And that was whether or not yes or no this person was a citizen or alleged person. And then the fourth column was whether or not they had the opportunity to research that individual. That is not real information to verify a voter, especially when you're going to accuse them of being a non citizen. That standard for slander or Bible is pretty high. And so we said in that meeting, send us the information, set us the data, explain to us your methodology. They tried. They couldn't pronounce Nevada appropriately. And then we finally get the information, the Excel spreadsheet, and said, what is this? And we wrote back and said, hey, can you send us some additional information so we can actually go through our system and do the analysis I think you would expect us to do? And they said, no, that's all they were going to send us. And we said, okay, well, we're stuck. We're not going to fall into this trap of using your bad information and your lazy work to do something that's really going to have an impact on Nevada voters.
Yeah, well, I mean, I have a spreadsheet showing that 80% of Indiana Republican voters are actually French citizens. And I've sent it to them they haven't. I didn't put any appendixes or anything on it. They haven't gotten back to me. We'll see how it goes. But, I mean, what a bunch of bs. I think the only thing we learned that was factual from the release of those classified documents was that no votes were flipped in 2020. So thanks for that.
Absolutely right. And then look, again, it goes back to the fact that this is just all bullshit. And I am not scared of these fuckers. They can come and do whatever they want, but I know what my legal rights are. I know that we follow the laws. The secretaries are standing up for the law. We know that every decision we make is going to get challenged in court. So before we make a decision, we make sure we do our homework and we understand where the implications are, what the risks are, and do what's in the right interest of every single voter.
Yeah. And we have better lawyers than they do. Let's face it.
We do. And that's the great thing.
Yeah. So what kind of advice do you have for voters this midterm? I know we already said, you know, hey, if you're a citizen and you're eligible to vote, don't be afraid, get out to the polls. What would you suggest about mail voting, about, any advice that you have, particularly just in this atmosphere with what everything that, you know, that this administration is trying to do to curtail the vote.
First of all, we need to show up in Mass. We need to make sure that we turn out because we need to show that they will have no opportunity to contest the election if number of us vote and those margins are wide. The second is go to your voter profile, make sure all your information is up to date, especially in Nevada, so that you can get your mail ballot, make a plan for voting, or if you're going to choose to mail your ballot, do it a week before election day. If you're going to hold it until closer to election day, drop it off at a polling location in a Dropbox. But also check the status of your ballot. Make sure to track it so that you know it's going through the appropriate processes. But then again, take people with you to vote. If you want to wait till election day and you're nervous, take your family with you, go in a group, show up in Mass and really take that responsibility serious. Again, this is our one opportunity to show that Americans run this country, not a single elite individual.
Wonderful. It's been a pleasure to talk to you. I really appreciate all the work that you're doing. Can you tell everyone where to find and follow you on social media? Yeah.
You know, that's the complicated part about all of this, is the fact that we have to focus on administering the election, but at the same time, we have to get our message out to voters so they can buy what we're trying to do to protect the fundamental right to vote. Go to voteforsisco.com and you can learn a lot more about what we're doing.
Wonderful. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time today. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. And, I look forward to catching up again after the blue wave.
Sounds good. Talk to you soon. Thanks, Allison.
Talk to you soon. Have a good day, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone. Then good news, everyone. Good news, Good news. For the good news, send it all to us dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. I've got good news for you. Dana will be back at end of the week, but between now and then, you got to flood the zone with sunshine. Send us all your good news. Send us all your baby pictures. Dana loves baby pictures. She loves otters. She likes panda bears. Send it all to us. and again, it can be big good news or small good news. It can be your favorite street joke or misheard song lyrics. Or maybe you want to give a shout out to your amazing partner or spouse or family member or chosen family member. Right? Or a self shout out. We love those. Or let us know about a nonprofit you love. Send your good Trouble suggestions. I mean, anything at all. If you felt like it may be all right in one day. Today is the day. Today is the day your ship has come in. So write to us by going to DailyBeansPod.com and click on contact. All right, first up, good trouble. Good trouble today comes from Jana. Pronouns. She and her hi, Ag and Dana. Blue.in the hellscape of Texas and a longtime voter. I checked that Texas voter roll, and sure enough, I was one of those purged off the rolls. Yes, in Tarrant county, where they've closed 92 voting sites. Also, I grabbed one of my like minded mom friends and we were able to attend the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile. That's coinciding with the midterm GOP rally in Dallas. I've included two picks to pay my pod tax. My pooch Stevie is in her element when she's being messed with by her favorite people. Second pick is her, in her other favorite element. Hiking to escape the Texas heat. Keep up the great work. Can't start my day without listening to you, too, Jana. Thank you so much. And yeah, I think today, actually Wednesday, if you're listening to this Wednesday, if you're a Patreon, then you're gonna be hearing this Tuesday night because we release the episodes the night before for patrons before they go public. But Today, Wednesday at 11:00am Pacific, I am going live with Myles Taylor from the Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile. So you definitely want to tune into that. You can watch it for free over at my substack, mellisherote.com if you subscribe for free. I mean, you could have a paid subscription if you want, but there's nothing extra. You're just helping us out. No, paywalls on any of the stuff that I post there. But, if you subscribe for free, you'll get a notification when Miles and I go live on substack. And then once it's over, it'll be on substack and Memoriam for you to watch. And here's a producer note, just like Jana. Every Texas voter needs to make sure they're registered to vote@vote.org or texas.gov Texas Registration and Voting deadlines. The last day to register to vote is October 5th. Postmarked October 5th. Last day to apply for a ballot by mail, October 23rd, and that has to be received. They have to receive your request by October 23rd. Not postmarked. Early voting October 19th through the 30th. Those are the deadlines. I'm going to early vote in person this year, I think. And we'll have a link to Texas voter registration and vote.org in the show notes. And the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile is currently in Dallas until Friday, and then it goes on to Omaha, Nebraska, and then Iowa starting next week. And like I said, I'll be talking to Miles later today about that. And there will be links in the show notes to get more information about the Trump Epstein bookmobile tour. Jana's included two picks to pay my tax. My pooch. Stevie in her element. Right. And. And the second pick is her hiking. As we said before, I. Baby, is that a wheaten terrier? What a sweet baby. Or a goldendoodle? I love it. There's no breed behind a black box for me to guess, so I must be right. Next up from Jess, pronouns, she and her hello, beans, Queens. Thanks for all you do. My partner Gwen and I have created a cooperative board game called groundswell, in which the players are a group of activists working together to bring down an authoritarian regime before it consolidates power. Our hope is that people will play Groundswell with friends and family, including folks who aren't yet activists, and as they do, they'll learn how to defeat competitive authoritarianism. The game involves engaging more of the population in sustained resistance, moving the pillars of society toward defiance, winning an election, and leveraging mass non cooperation to defend the results. Ultimately, we hope Groundswell will inspire and empower them to engage in real world activists. Groundswell is a print and play game. Folks can download it for free@, groundswellgame.com we're thrilled to have finally launched the game after nine months of hard work. Thank you for helping spread the word. And it's free for my POD Pet tariff, I'm attaching a photo of Gwen with our friend's beloved dog Sunny. The best ever. Sunny is adorable Jess. Thank you so much for that. We'll have a link in the show notes groundswellgame.com Next up from Suzanne Last week a big tree was snapped in half in Dupont Circle during a storm. A tiny limb projects from the top of the stump. Love notes have been slipped into the bark of the trunk, thanking it for its gift to the denizens of dupont and encouraging it to fight for its life. Look at that. And look at the notes. Oh that's amazing Suzanne. Thank you for sharing that. I love that so much. All right, next up from Deborah. She her greetings from Canada. Thank you for keeping this dual citizen sane. I'm giving myself a reluctant shout out because after talking about it for years, I finally launched my business Dog Person Knitwear. It was inspired by my dear rescue pup and best friend Scruffy, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge two years ago at 17 and my love of knitting matching sweaters for us to twin. I make slow fashion pieces for dogs and people out of 100% Canadian wool. Launching as a one woman operation during the current trade tensions isn't easy, but every piece is handcrafted with the same care I put into Scruffy's original sweaters. You can find us@dogpersonknitwear ca or on Instagram and TikTok ogpersonknitwear. Even if you're not shopping right now, a quick follow, a like or a comment really helps with the algorithms and gets my new business in front of fellow dog lovers. For my podpet tariff, I've attached a photo of my current babies Lily and Coco modeling one of my designs. Can you guess Their breeds. Lily is a blank, and Coco is a blank mix. These are amazing sweaters, everybody. You can find this@dogpersonnitwear.ca. deborah, these are beautiful. I love this. And Canadian wool. 100 Canadian wool. That's incredible. And yeah, you're right. Everybody follow if you're on TikTok at DogPerson Knitwear. And maybe let us know when you set up an insta account or anything like that, and we'll make sure to put it out there because it really does help the algorithms. Even if you're not somebody who goes on that site a lot or whatever, just following really makes a difference. All right, let's guess what kind of of doges these are. Well, the little one looks like some kind of fox terrier or something. Those ears are amazing. The other one, I don't know, looks like a gentlemanly dog. So, like, maybe. I don't know. I don't know. What's that one? That's kind of like a. I don't know, maybe a schnauzer. I don't know. Let's see. All right, the little one, Coco, is a terrier mix. Okay, I said fox terrier. That's close. And a schnauzer mix. I got schnauzer. Whoop, whoop. I was trying to think of the gentlemanly dogs that look like English professors. Schnauzer. Thank you so much for that. Nora is up next. Pronoun. She and her. Allison and Dana. Good news from the UP I volunteer at SUNY National Wildlife Refuge in the eastern Upper peninsula of Michigan. A Ah Yooper. It is 96,000 acres of refuge for all types of flora and fauna since 1935. A few years ago, we received some money to replace our aging visitor center and improve infrastructure. It took a while, but we will reopen at the new location shown in the photos in 2027. We are excited to educate the visitors in a new, improved environment. The building was constructed with the nod to the Civilian Conservation Corps, AKA the ccc. Young men who formed the pools and dikes in the 1930s in an attempt to bring back flocks of common loons, Canada geese, trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, etc. The program was part of the New Deal, and it put young men back to work and paid them wages, most of which were sent home to their hungry families during the Depression. this building will last another 50 years or more in the capable hands of the Fish and Wildlife staff. If you're traveling in the UP in May of 2027 when we reopen, come celebrate with us and enjoy the wonders of Sandy. I hope I'm pronouncing that properly. This is beautiful. Congratulations, Nora. That's gorgeous. Next up, from Laura D. Pronoun she and her. Hi AG and dg Love, love, love your show. Thank you for keeping us informed with appropriate swears. Did you hear I got a couple of swears out of the Nevada Secretary of State earlier. He said, and that was great. I can't be the only one to hear this, but when you drop the in and say just mail ballots, I hear M, M A L E mail ballots every single time. And every time I hear mail ballots, a part of my brain does start to wonder, what would our country be like if we actually did stop all mail ballots from being counted for a cycle or two? Obviously, this is just a joke and we know mail in ballots are what they are and should remain safe and secure. I also think men should have the same rights as women. See what I did there? But boy howdy, a lot of men and the insecure women who have aligned themselves with the them have really shown their true colors over the last 10 years. And the amount of education needed to get us back on track seems monumental. Thank you for the joy you bring. I listen to you every day while walking in my beautiful Minneapolis and listening to you bring hope. Please keep doing what you do for as long as you can. Keep doing it. for pod tacks, I submit my sister's dog, Moose. Spelled like the hair product, not the antlered undulate. I took a photo this summer at the Slavic Fest held here in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis and home of Al Franken. Moose always elicits smiles from passersby. He has the heart of a therapy dog. He looks like a movie star and the brains of a turnip. And he literally loves everyone he meets. No need to guess the breed. Oh, yeah, you do need to guess that breed. But what a cool dog. By the way, everyone is a big giant poodle, which I believe they call standard. Or do they have giant poodles? I think they do have giant poodles. They have a giant standard miniature toy teacup. They come in all sorts of sizes. Anyway, Laura D. Thank you so much. I love Minneapolis so much and what a good idea. You know, I was just, thinking about bringing back when we used to, like, if the episode was 36 minutes long every day. We would say if you walk while you listen to this episode, you'll burn enough calories to have 1¾ glasses of wine or something to that effect. I don't know. That was always fun. But popping in your earphones and going for a walk in the morning is such a really, such a good way to start the day. If you're able, if you're able to do that. and, you know, I am, and I'm very grateful that I am. But, you know, just pop us in, listen, get your news, get, get a little uplift at the end with the good news submitted by listeners and then go about your day. I think it might really help. Anyways, thank you so much, everybody. Please continue to send in your good news. Right. Like I said, flood it right now with all Dana's favorite stuff because she'll be back in a couple days here. So we want to have a good surprise for her when she returns. And I will see you over on Beans Talk. My power's been restored, by the way, so the lights will be on and I'll see you here tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family at Ben A G. And them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com com msw media.