Since returning to office, President Trump’s Department of Justice has now indicted former FBI Director James Comey three separate times. On Oct. 26, Comey was charged with allegedly leaking a sensitive national security document in October of 2016, when he was still director of the FBI.

“It would almost be funny if it weren’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to,” Comey said in a video posted to social media.

The charges have not yet been presented to a grand jury — what DOJ filed on October 26 was a “criminal information,” meant to extend the 10-year statutory deadline for official charges that DOJ says are still to come. The information was unsealed the same day that a court ordered that Comey’s daughter Maurene was unlawfully fired from DOJ last year. Regardless of the exact reasons for the filing, though, the investigations into Comey are simply the latest example of the president’s willingness to individually target those who have spoken out against him using the full weight of the federal government.

On Oct. 12, federal agents raided the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar — a prominent critic and longtime target of the president’s racist attacks. One of the things that made this outrageous action even more troubling is that the agents weren’t from the FBI; they were from Homeland Security Investigations, which is a unit within ICE.

This is the same sprawling federal policing operation that the administration has turned into a lever of power to do its political bidding. HSI has already been deployed across the country as part of an attempt to intimidate naturalized Americans citizens ahead of the midterms. They also continue to take part in the brutal crackdown on multiple cities over the last year and a half.

Raiding the home of a political opponent who immigrated to America without so much as naming an alleged crime is a blatant attempt to try to demonize and frighten naturalized citizens. Declaring certain citizens loyal and others a threat is standard practice for authoritarians trying to entrench their positions of power. Rep. Omar’s public statements indicate that she is unlikely to let this raid intimidate her, and regular Americans should trust that just because an administration is working to tamp down dissent does not mean they will succeed.

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump vilified the Somali community in Minnesota, before encouraging others in Minnesota to take action against them:

“The once Great State of Minnesota is being taken over by Somali Immigrants. There is Violence, Murder, and Mayhem all over the State. The people of Minnesota must fight back. You have been robbed, and abandoned by your State Government. Your Governor is an incompetent thief who doesn’t want to get involved. He just wants to get out of town with as much as he can steal, and then, lead a quiet life. The Somalians should not be allowed to get away with what they are doing. They view you as weak and stupid people. Fight back Minnesota, fight back! If you need, the Federal Government will come to your rescue.”

This is a direct call to violence from the president of the United States, one designed to reinforce existing prejudices in parts of Minnesota. It’s not the first time that he has spoken this way about the Somali community, but that does not make these kind of calls for racist violence any less startling. Thankfully, these calls do not appear to have resulted in any actual violence in the state yet. Nevertheless, they undermine the safety of American communities that have done nothing to deserve the ire of the president or his millions of supporters.

Under a new state law, Florida officials have designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the most prominent Muslim advocacy organizations in the country, as a “domestic terrorist” organization. They are one of dozens of nonprofits now subject to this new law, but the inclusion of this organization is particularly revealing. Under the new law, five Florida executive officials now have the authority to designate certain nonprofits as terrorist organizations without any due process.

Once designated, it becomes virtually impossible for an organization to conduct legal activities in the state. The consequences of violating the prohibitions are severe, and can include up to lifetime imprisonment.

CAIR has already filed a lawsuit asserting that the law is unconstitutional, but the brazen attempt to undermine the Muslim community in the state is a clear signal that vulnerable communities are facing discriminatory attacks at both the state and federal level.

We got the good news America desperately needed last night: an undeniable repudiation of the authoritarian faction that controlled every lever of the federal government with disastrous results.

Americans turned out in exceptional numbers to reject rampant corruption and save our democracy, which were top voting issues in the 2026 midterm cycle. Voters could plainly see how a lack of guardrails on an out-of-control president led to terrible outcomes for the economy, government services, and basic personal freedoms.

This outcome didn’t happen by accident; it’s the result of years of meticulous planning, broad-tent cooperation, and relentless grassroots organizing by a united pro-democracy coalition. From day one, “No Kings” protesters recognized the power of organizing early and often with a unifying message: An autocrat with full control of the federal government was an urgent danger to the country that was antithetical to our founding principles.

The president’s willingness to leverage the executive branch to his own ends will continue to be a major story over the next two years. On Nov. 3, though, voters made it clear that the war in Iran, his use of the office for personal gain, and his retaliation against perceived enemies were not what they wanted for the country. The president might continue to aggrandize his own role, but he will now face a Congress more willing to assert its role as a co-equal branch.

Ever since President Trump launched his first campaign for the White House in 2015, American politics has been dogged by persistent claims of election rigging. In 2026, though, candidates of both parties largely conceded defeat, including the president himself.

For most of American history, conceding defeat after the voters have made their choice clear was an unremarkable, standard part of every election cycle. The news that these candidates, some of whom have denied elections in previous cycles, have decided to concede, speaks both the margins by which they lost and, perhaps, to a realization that election denialism was part of the reason for their defeat.

After months of President Trump and those in his orbit suggesting that they would work to upend election results they didn’t like, election deniers appear to be in retreat. The clear margins of victory across the country, coupled with the work pro-democracy groups did to organize a resistance to these efforts, has left them stalled.

The Trump administration and its allies had full control of the federal government, but voters were still able to cast their ballots, and it appears that they will have their voices heard.

The pro-democracy coalition foresaw every dirty trick in the authoritarian election playbook — from ICE intimidation, to the harassment of political opponents, to redistricting, to ballot seizures, to voter data grabs — and spent months organizing, litigating, and building firewalls to neutralize them in advance. Specifically, Protect Democracy identified authoritarian strategies, explained how they would unfold in Trump’s second term, and strategized how to counter their plans to deceive voters, disrupt elections, and deny unfavorable midterm results.

This cycle, elections were free and fair — the best signal we have that America is still a democracy.