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PODCAST

How Trump’s Ugliest Authoritarian Threats May Soon Blow Up in His Face

With Team Biden preparing to highlight Trump’s authoritarianism at this month’s debate, legal writer Dahlia Lithwick talks about the prospects for awakening voters to the threat we face.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump in Phoenix, on June 6

Donald Trump is now leveling his authoritarian threats right out in the open. He appears supremely confident that none of it will alienate swing voters. Now NBC News reports that the Biden campaign hopes to draw out this side of Trump at their upcoming debatebut if Trump doesn’t see these things as liabilities, he may advertise them all over again when voters are paying attention. We talked to Slate legal writer Dahlia Lithwick, author of an excellent new piece outlining how Trump is running on an overt promise of authoritarianism, about whether voters will awaken to the threat he posesand how this could cause his confidence to blow up in his face. Listen to this episode here.