Today on The BradCast: Election coverage for a change! Of tomorrow’s primary elections in four states and on the pretend “controversy” about several primary elections from last week that are still being tallied up. [Audio to show follows below this summary.]
FIRST UP… We get you caught up with the latest news on the U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday in Maine, where progressive oyster farmer and combat veteran Graham Platner appears to be on the cusp of winning the Democratic nomination to run against five-term Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins this fall. That, despite an avalanche of controversies — some real, some questionable — being front-loaded against him by opponents.
Voters in Maine will join those in Nevada, North Dakota and South Dakota Carolina holding statewide primaries tomorrow. [I accidentally said South DAKOTA on the show! Apologies!]
But last week’s primaries in six states are not over yet, especially here in California, where there were some big changes over the weekend in two key races receiving nationwide focus.
As counting of vote-by-mail ballots continues across the huge state where ballots postmarked by Election Day may be received and tallied for up to seven days after the election, the late wave of progressive leaning ballots — for reasons explained on today’s program — is beginning to add up. Over the weekend, progressive Democratic L.A. City Council member Nithya Raman overtook Trumpy Republican former reality TV star Spencer Pratt to take the second position in Los Angeles’ top-two mayoral primary. If Raman can retain that position, she would face off in November against fellow Democrat and former ally Mayor Karen Bass, who is seeking her second term in office after apparently winning the top slot in last week’s contest.
Also since we last spoke, former Congressman, state A.G. and Joe Biden’s HHS Director Xavier Beccera appears to have clinched the top spot in the top-two Gubernatorial primary in the Golden State, to go on to the November runoff. Trump-endorsed Republican Fox “News” host, Steve Hilton, is still holding on to the second spot, for now. But progressives have eyed Raman’s move into second place with late-arriving ballots in the Mayoral race and are hoping that billionaire activist Tom Steyer may be able to do the same in the race to replace termed-out Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Either way, with the call made for Beccera coming out on top, Democrats are breathing easier after their that, with 24 Dems on the ballot splitting the vote, two Republicans might come out on top in both of the top slots in the otherwise very “blue” state.
All of which appears to have driven Donald Trump even crazier than he is already. Over the weekend, he threw an angry fit during an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press and ended up storming out of the interview. He railed against California’s elections as “crooked” and “rigged”, without presenting any evidence in support of his never-ending allegations.
When Welker asked for evidence in support of his claim that the election in California was “crooked,” he sited his own failed 2020 election as being similarly rigged by Democrats. “The election was rigged, it was a dirty election, and it’s happening right now in California!” he shouted.
As his face turned from its usual burnt orange to deep, angry, bitter, beet red, Trump charged, “They’re crooked just like you’re crooked. Your press is crooked. And Meet the Press is crooked,” he spat. “You’re either crooked or your stupid,” he told Welker, if she didn’t agree with his evidence-free claims of stolen elections.
After repeatedly being asked for evidence to support his claims, and clearly being unable to offer any, Trump escalated: “You’re a one-sided crooked network. Sorry. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough.” He condescendingly added a “Thank you, darling,” before storming off the set. We share a bit more of the insane exchange with our President of the United States on today’s program.
We also share a clip from Jacob Soboroff’s MS Now interview with Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan over the weekend, which helps explain — as we do as well — why it takes so long to count ballots in California, especially in L.A. County which, by itself, has more voters than each of 41 entire states!
Even before Trump’s embarrassing weekend rant, his U.S. Attorney here in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, had announced on social media: “Without commenting on any specific investigation, my office,” wrote U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced on social media that he “has multiple election fraud investigations underway in coordination with @FBILosAngeles.” His post revealed that he was “working closely” with Main Justice in D.C., as we vowed to “follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent.”
Cool. I welcome his “investigations,” for reasons explained on today’s program.
THEN… We open the phones to callers here in Southern California who ring with thoughts on all of the above. Given that we believe in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) on The BradCast, we move a couple of the rightwing callers to the top of the list to discuss their own misguided and/or inaccurate claims of fraud in California’s elections. Sadly, none of that comes as a surprise given the Republican Party’s decade-long false claims of “voter fraud,” which are all happily now echoed by Trump to his easily hoaxed band of mislead followers…
Trump is projecting again, and again, and again ad infinitum.
…not sure whether you saw the Rachel Maddow & Lawrence O’Donnell shows yesterday (6-9-2026) — but they were so shamefully (or willfully?) ignorant, I was hoping to get your take on how to correct them.
Maddow was trying to contradict Trump regarding mail-in voting —saying that it’s secure and safe and that it’s “transparent.” Then they had Soboroff walking thru the LA County Clerk’s mail-in ballot section of the building, insisting how “transparent” everything was — that you could watch the process through glass. Then Lawrence piped in when his show came on, mocking Trump, agreeing with Rachel about how secure mail-in ballots are.
These people know NOTHING about secret software, the scanning devices for even the handmarked mail in ballots, BMDs, etc. plus the fact that 3 corporations supply 95% (please correct the percentage — I’m not sure I remember the exact %) of the voting equipment — busting the myth that states run their own elections independently nationwide — and the software is proprietary and some machine models contain modems (including in the swing states in the 2024 election) which can be connected to the internet, including Starlink.
I am soooo disgusted with Rachel, and Jacob, and Lawrence’s lack of understanding of how elections are run and the spread of their dangerous ingnorance.
Hey Allin! You might not like my reply. Yes, I did see the segment.
First, of course, I agree with you on all of your points about the serious concerns you mention. That said, in their case, they were responding to Trump’s claims that somehow Dems are rigging elections by stuffing ballot boxes, taking too long to count, that the ID measures in CA are not restrictive enough, that vote-by-mail, in and of itself, is somehow fraudulent, and that everyone must vote on Election Day, etc. etc.
The case they were making about how votes are carefully opened, signatures verified, and that it all takes time and is done in public, is the correct response to Trump’s tirade.
Sadly, he has no clue about the dangers of voting systems. And while Rachel, Lawrence and Jacob may not either (actually, I believe Jacob does, as he was an EI guy before he became a reporter) — and that is certainly maddening — their response was to his specific complaints, generally speaking.
Yes, they are wildly pro-Dem/anti-Trump and that ways in to their response to all of this. And can be annoying. But the response in and of itself didn’t infuriate me the way it did you.
Though maybe I’m too generous in my old age?
Thanks for your thoughtful response, Brad. As I see it, the narrative is being controlled by Orange Caligula – using, in part, reverse psychology — if the Rs say the machines are rigged, then the Ds will say the opposite. It’s high time we get the national convo focused on a realistic assessment of the cybersecurity of our elections, modems in the machines, ownership of Liberty by Ed Martin’s associate, etc. For example, why not push for Padilla to hold shadow hearings about all of this?
Exactly. And that is the difficult place that decades-long Election Integrity folks find themselves in. (Though, to be honest, Dems, by and large never like talking about this issue, as I’m sure you’ll remember!)
Well, when Padilla was the SOS in California, you couldn’t even get him to take these concerns seriously. Ya think he’s gonna do it now, when concern about voting systems largely messes up the Dem idea that Republicans are upending elections by falsely claiming they are being stolen by Democrats?!
Yes, it is that much of a mess, as you’ve noticed. Though, I should say, that the thing Dems fear — that Repubs will claim that Dems are joining them in claiming stolen elections — is a justifiable concern. Republicans will misuse that good faith from Democrats for nefarious purposes. Take it from me! I saw first-hand how they were more than happy to misuse my own accurate reporting for nefarious purposes by bastardizing it to claim that that it said something that it didn’t. Where do you think they got all those false claims about (a dead) Hugo Chavez stealing the 2020 election?
In the meantime, staying focused on rebutting the false claims being made by Republicans is actually the right thing to do, IMO.
Maybe Padilla isn’t the right person to hold an election cybersecurity hearing — do you think there is anyone in Congress right for the job?
At this point, if there is, I don’t actually know who that would be. It would take more than just one person. It takes a movement of Dems actually interested in opening up that can of worms. And — politically, at this point — I’m not sure why they would want to, to be frank. (As much as I would love them to!)