Thursday’s edition of PBS’s Amanpour and Company went off the rails when guest host Bianna Golodryga welcomed The Atlantic staff writer David Graham to discuss supposed threats to next year’s midterm elections. The duo would muse about everything from Marines seizing ballot boxes to the idea that the elections will be the fake sort that you get in places like Russia, but no evidence was presented to justify any of the fearmongering.
Discussing a recent article Graham wrote, Golodryga gave credence to a wild idea, “You open the piece with a fictional but plausible scenario, and that is Marines seizing voting ballots in Arizona. Just walk us through some other possible scenarios that you envision. And I guess what keeps you up at night is what you haven't thought of yet.”
After recalling the aftermath of the 2020 election, Graham claimed that, “One of the things that I worry about and that voting experts worry about a lot is the presence of potentially, you know, the military or other armed law enforcement on the streets around the election. Obviously, we've seen the National Guard and, in some cases, Marines on the streets, ICE, and other federal law enforcement. And that's a way that can interfere with elections as well. It may drive turnout down. It can create inconveniences. It can intimidate people. So, you know, that's something that election officials are very concerned about and something we haven't seen before.”
Troops currently deployed to big cities for law enforcement purposes aren’t even arresting people, so why would there be any reason to assume they will tamper with elections?
However, freaking out about a potential martial takeover of the 2026 elections wasn’t enough for Golodryga and Graham. A few minutes later, the former sought to bring in some foreign examples of what next year might look like:
You also write off the bat that Trump will not cancel elections, but we shouldn't be resting assured that all will go well, and without, sort of, the administration stepping in and overreaching here, because you note that other countries around the world where you have authoritarians in place, if you're looking at Russia, Turkey, and Hungary, for example, these are countries run by leaders who like to have and host elections, but obviously they're not free and fair. So, talk about some of the concerns and parallels you may see or you worry about here with Donald Trump.
Graham elaborated, “You know, I've had people ask me if we'll have elections in 2026, and I think the answer is yes. You know, Trump would not be, for example, pushing Republican states to redistrict if he didn't expect to have elections. What we see in countries like those is a kind of modern variety of authoritarianism where you don't ban the opposition party, you don't cancel elections, you don't ban an opposition media entirely. You just make it much harder for the opposition to compete. So, there's an election, but they can't fundraise as effectively, or they don't have the media to get to it, or the votes are suppressed in some way.”
Anyone who lives in Virginia can tell you that Democrats had no problem getting their ads on the air for everyone to see.
Nevertheless, Graham continued, “That way, from the outside, it looks like a democracy. Voters have the sense that they have a say, but in practice, you don't have to wield up a lot of power. And we see, you know, in intimidation of the media, in arrests and investigations of adversaries, for example, a lot of the steps that have happened in other countries, like Turkey or Hungary, now taking place here.”
The media are so intimidated by Trump they are still doing their best to avoid blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. If the simple presence of “investigations of adversaries” is enough to compare Trump’s America to Russia, Turkey, or Hungary, then what was Biden’s America?
Here is a transcript for the November 6-taped show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
11/6/2025
BIANNA GOLODRYGA: You open the piece with a fictional but plausible scenario, and that is Marines seizing voting ballots in Arizona. Just walk us through some other possible scenarios that you envision. And I guess what keeps you up at night is what you haven't thought of yet.
DAVID GRAHAM: That's right. I think it's—you know, it's hard to imagine the possibilities. You know, nobody, I think, really anticipated something like January 6, 2021, before it happened. And I'm not sure many people anticipated the kind of broad legal effort that Trump mounted after the 2020 election also to change those results.
One of the things that I worry about and that voting experts worry about a lot is the presence of potentially, you know, the military or other armed law enforcement on the streets around the election. Obviously, we've seen the National Guard and, in some cases, Marines on the streets, ICE, and other federal law enforcement. And that's a way that can interfere with elections as well. It may drive turnout down. It can create inconveniences. It can intimidate people. So, you know, that's something that election officials are very concerned about and something we haven't seen before.
…
GOLODRYGA: You also write off the bat that Trump will not cancel elections, but we shouldn't be resting assured that all will go well, and without, sort of, the administration stepping in and overreaching here, because you note that other countries around the world where you have authoritarians in place, if you're looking at Russia, Turkey, and Hungary, for example, these are countries run by leaders who like to have and host elections, but obviously they're not free and fair. So, talk about some of the concerns and parallels you may see or you worry about here with Donald Trump.
GRAHAM: Yes. You know, I've had people ask me if we'll have elections in 2026, and I think the answer is yes. You know, Trump would not be, for example, pushing Republican states to redistrict if he didn't expect to have elections. What we see in countries like those is a kind of modern variety of authoritarianism where you don't ban the opposition party, you don't cancel elections, you don't ban an opposition media entirely. You just make it much harder for the opposition to compete. So, there's an election, but they can't fundraise as effectively, or they don't have the media to get to it, or the votes are suppressed in some way.
That way, from the outside, it looks like a democracy. Voters have the sense that they have a say, but in practice, you don't have to wield up a lot of power. And we see, you know, in intimidation of the media, in arrests and investigations of adversaries, for example, a lot of the steps that have happened in other countries, like Turkey or Hungary, now taking place here.
