WASHINGTON, DC – In a special edition of the Legal AF podcast by the MediasTouch Network, Michael Popok hosted a group of Democratic attorneys general to talk through how the coalition has banded together to take on the Trump administration’s lawlessness and what their successes mean to them, their states, and the rule of law.

From discussing how the group has worked together as a united front against executive federal overreach to talking through how they are combating state specific issues in their homes, Democratic AGs reemphasized their commitment to upholding Democracy and protecting all Americans from harm.

Key highlights from Part 1:

• “We have to do the job of protecting the people of our states, whether that’s protecting people against consumer fraud, fighting utility rate increases, fighting the fentanyl crisis in our states, going after criminals,” AG Mayes said. “But we also have to protect American democracy and stop this coup that’s happening. So it’s just we just have to do it all. And the good news is and I’m sure we’ll talk about this is we have each other and we’re doing this together.”
• “I depend upon my other Democratic attorneys general to hold the line and be that check on the president that Congress is not being, that the Supreme Court is having a hard time doing,” AG Frey said. “And so working together, I think I’ve heard it described by one of our colleagues, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, he’s described us as one of the largest law firms in the country holding the line on democracy and liberty that all of our constituents need us doing. It’s because we’re working together to do that.”
• “I might add, Michael, that we have small and mighty states like Maine, and we have larger states and everything in between, and we all come to the table together with one goal in mind: to enforce the rule of law, to protect our democracy, to protect rights and freedoms, make sure that checks and balances, separation of powers, all of that is honored and followed,” AG Bonta said.
• “We are the sovereigns, 50 of us, joined by our consent in a federation known as the United States of America and we delegated limited powers to the federal government,” AG Tong said. “Everything else we kept through the 10th amendment. So the power lies not just with the people but with the states acting through our attorneys general which is why we together link arms and serve as a firewall to protect our country and the people that live within it.”
• “In Trump 2.0, what we’re seeing is in a complete abandonment of any sort of guardrails from cabinet secretaries, from the attorney general, from Congress, from other Republicans,” AG Frey said. “And we’re seeing all of this power used for the self promotion as opposed to the promotion of a certain political ideal, it’s all about what pleases Trump.”
• “So huge amounts of money that our states would have lost, and our people would have lost if we hadn’t done this if we hadn’t banded together and if we weren’t doing this work together and that’s what’s most important,” AG Mayes said.
• “This guy claims the he claims the power to tax, which is what a tariff is,” AG Ellison said. “He claims the power to spend because he’s trying to say, you know, impound money and stuff like that. He’s claiming the power to control all of the national guards, which is to, you know, control military power. There’s a four-letter word for that: it’s called a king. And so we find ourselves protecting democracy from monarchy. And unfortunately his Congress has not been a check on him.”
• “We’re at double the pace so it’s high speed, high volume flood the zone strategy,” AG Bonta said. “So we’re in court way more. We’re winning over 80% of the time and in the early days it was temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions. More and more now with the progression of the cases, it’s permanent injunctions after trials, final judgments in the trial court. And I also want to observe that Republican AGs are doing absolutely nothing. They have sat on their hands.”
• “People ask me, ‘What do you need right now?’ and they expect me to say, ‘Budget, more lawyers.’ I say, ‘I need Republicans to stand up,’” AG Tong said. “Kansas, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, they’re getting crushed in many cases, even worse. And in many states, they’re much bigger takers of federal funding and much more dependent on federal funding than some of our states are. So, they need to stand up and fight alongside us. That’s what we need.”

Key highlights from Part 2:

• “I would say that we are speaking with one voice and have been since he took office for the second time in defending people’s rights,” Delaware AG Kathy Jennings said. “I think of us as this very effective resistance to the erosion of the rule of law, to taking away people’s rights, taking away funding for people who need funding in our states.”
• “What has changed in this year is the bad actor is the President of the United States and his administration,” Washington AG Nick Brown said. “The abuses and harms that we’re facing is now coming from the federal government and all the significance and power that um that that comes with that And so now we have to respond to a different type of challenge.”
• “One thing I love about my AG colleagues is every single one of them is more than happy to stand up for what they think is right and to push back and to fight for the interests of their states,” Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul said. “And we’ve done that in literally dozens of cases now. And it’s not just about policy. The policy implications are huge and they’re critical.”
• “We do this work every single day, we protect our residents from harm,” New Jersey AG Platkin said. “We prosecute bad guys. We go after people who are scamming you. Like Nick said, the difference is it’s the federal government. I never thought I’d have to sue the federal government not to distribute 12,000 machine guns into our communities. That was a real lawsuit that we filed. Only those of us on stage and our Democratic colleagues joined that suit. It shocked me that there weren’t 50 states saying don’t put machine guns on the street at a time when we’re trying to keep people safe.”
• “The American public is calling out for somebody to fight,” Illinois AG Kwame Raoul said. “And it’s our family of attorneys general who are uniquely positioned to put up that fight. And not in a performative way, but in a real way where we have standing to fight on behalf of the citizens of our state, but quite frankly, we’re also fighting for the citizens of states that are represented by state AGs who are not stepping up to the task.”
• “But I think it’s abject fear,” AG Jennings said. “If he has appointed sycophants in his cabinet and to head the office of the attorney general, and he has, people who cannot and will not say no to him and will not stand up to him. State AGs are doing the same thing. No one is willing to defend our Constitution except us.”
• “I think it’s a it’s unfortunate that and I think Kathy hit it on nail, the politics of self-preservation has led to a place where, as Josh pointed out, the citizens in these red states or these states represented by Republican attorneys general are not being advocated for,” AG Raoul said. “I think for I can speak for each and every one of us. We don’t want to be AG just to call ourselves AG and just to be reelected and call ourselves AG. We want to serve in these positions to advocate for uh the people who have elected us to this office.”
• “My career has been in the courtroom fighting for justice and now I’m doing the same thing, but we’re doing it in a much broader and I think important way because you have to meet the moment,” AG Jennings said. “And the moment we are in right now, I’ve never seen before. We have a president who simply doesn’t think the law applies to him. Nor does he believe in separation of powers. He believes in absolute power. Somebody needs to stand up to this guy and say no.”
• “The idea that you wouldn’t say join a lawsuit to keep 42 million Americans from starving at the hands of their own government. My state, 850,000 New Jerseyians, 350,000 children […] that would be the easiest lawsuit I would ever have to join,” AG Platkin said. “And so I do not understand how you can sit there and say you you’re fulfilling your oath to the people you serve to millions of people if you’re going to sit there and be quiet when the federal government is starving them for the first time in our nation’s history.”
• “We’re making sure that we’re ready that people’s rights at the polls are protected, there’s not voter intimidation, that we know and have briefs ready to go and we have to challenge things on election day, but we don’t want to wait until just a couple months before election,” AG Brown said. “We want to start doing that work now. And we’re also suing, pushing back on these really crazy unconstitutional executive orders that the president issued this earlier this year in an attempt to try to take control of our very unique voter systems.”
• “I’ll tell you who’s been standing up to this administration, it’s the people of this country,” AG Kaul said. “And when we have elections, people are going to make sure their voices are heard. And that to me is ultimately the best defense against any attacks in our system.”

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