The week we became an autocracy

Friday, March 20

Fulton County, Georgia has been a target of baseless election conspiracy theories and debunked claims for five and a half years. In 2020, Donald Trump targeted the county with false accusations of election fraud.

Now, the county is in the spotlight. Last month, the FBI raided its election facility and seized its ballots from 2020. Despite all that has been written on the subject, one question remains: What did the president know, and when did he know it?

The president is not in the chain of command to execute search warrants, but Trump clearly knew about the raid prior to its execution. In fact, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard happened to find herself at the election facility the evening of the raid.

During a hearing before a Senate committee on Wednesday, Gabbard dodged questions about her involvement, and Trump’s prior knowledge of the search warrant.

“I was at Fulton County, sir, at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe this action that had long been awaited. I was not aware of what was in the warrant or not in the warrant,” she told the committee.

Gabbard’s presence and awareness of the search warrant matters. For months, she has been investigating the results of the 2020 election and debunked claims of foreign interference — apparently at Trump’s request.

The fact that Trump sent her to Fulton County raises alarm bells. But it doesn’t answer the question about what Trump knew and who told him.

It’s clear: Trump is going to use the election materials to cry foreign interference, try to cast doubt on his loss, and continue the same scheme across the country. In fact, his FBI has already subpoenaed election materials in Maricopa County, Arizona — another place that has been plagued by election conspiracies.

Do not brush off Gabbard’s presence in Fulton County. Do not ignore these raids. 2026 will not be a normal election year, and this is only the beginning.

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What worried me this week

This week, the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute – one of the world’s most credible sources on the health of democratic nations — released a disturbing report declaring that the United States is speed-racing toward autocracy.

In “Unraveling The Democratic Era?”, the Swedish institute concluded that the United States has lost its status as a liberal democracy and is now rapidly going through a process called “autocratisation.” Even scarier? The U.S. is going through the process at a faster rate than countries like Hungary and India.

“For Orbán in Hungary, it took about four years, for Vučić in Serbia, it took eight years, and for Erdoğan in Turkey and Modi in India, it took about 10 years to accomplish the suppression of democratic institutions that Trump has achieved in only one year,” V-Dem founder Staffan Lindberg said.

V-Dem collects data on various principles to measure the health of democracies. You’ll recognize where our country is failing. From the decline of freedom of expression to undermining the rule of law, the U.S. is exhibiting all of the characteristics of an autocracy. As their report declared, “President Trump’s second term can be summarized as a rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency.”

I recommend reading the report in its entirety, but the collapse of our democracy can be summarized in one shocking sentence: “The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history.”

I’m worried. You should be too.

What I’m watching in the courts

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Watson v. RNC. I am not exaggerating when I say that the future of free and fair elections could hinge on the outcome of this case.

The lawsuit pits the RNC against Mississippi. The GOP is arguing that federal law bars states from accepting mail ballots that are postmarked by election day but arrive afterwards — as Mississippi and many other states do. It’s simple: Republicans are trying to make it harder for your mail-in ballot to count.

Some in the Trump administration ultimately want to go further — banning early voting, as well, to return us to the days of one-day elections.

This case folds neatly into Donald Trump’s plan to rig the 2026 midterm elections for Republicans. As the RNC is trying to suppress vote by mail in the courts, Republicans spent the week fighting to ban vote by mail on the Senate floor.

This is not about election integrity. This is not about curbing fraud. This is about making it harder to vote in a midterm year that Republicans are sure to lose. I will be keeping a close eye on this case. On Sunday, I will provide my complete analysis. On Monday, Democracy Docket will be reporting on it live.

If you're worried about the midterm elections, tune in.

What gave me hope this week

Last month, I outlined four federal laws that could help safeguard our elections. Yesterday, one of those suggestions was introduced as an amendment to the SAVE America Act.

The amendment states that search warrants “may only be requested by a United States attorney who is confirmed by the Senate and who is appointed to the judicial district in which the alleged violation took place.”

Donald Trump has attempted to circumvent U.S. attorney offices to pursue political investigations and prosecutions. For example, the search warrant in Fulton County was sought by the U.S. attorney in Missouri, not by federal prosecutors in Georgia. This proposal would prevent Republican U.S. attorneys from shopping for election cases outside of their judicial district.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal took charge and offered the amendment. I’m thrilled to see that this idea has made it to the Senate floor. This is progress, and it gives me hope.

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