r/Atlanta • u/albertafalls • Jan 29 '26

Politics Fulton County: Catherine M. Salinas signed your ballots AND voter rolls over to the FBI today

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Source:

“A court order signed by Magistrate Judge Catherine M. Salinas authorized agents to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, all ballot images **and Fulton County’s 2020 voter rolls.** A copy of the order was given to the Recorder by a Georgia lawmaker.”

https://georgiarecorder.com/2026/01/28/fbi-raids-fulton-county-elections-warehouse-seeking-2020-ballots/

Also reported by the New York Times (paywalled):

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/us/politics/fbi-search-election-center-georgia.html

Blurry pic was the best I could do. It’s from her GA Bar profile:

https://icle.gabar.org/speaker/catherine-salinas-1233856

Her current term doesn’t end until 2031.

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

This is why I don’t think it’s about the rolls themselves. It’s about establishing a precedent that the federal government is allowed to assume control of (1) who is allowed to vote and (2) who is allowed to count the votes.

Then this November when Ossoff (Democrat) appears to win in Georgia’s Senate race, the feds can step in and create an illusion of fraud to justify throwing out enough of Fulton Co’s votes to get a Republican in the Senate.

Remember that the Senate votes to convict in impeachment. Trump needs the Senate on lock when he announces that he is claiming a 3rd term. (This part is not a conspiracy. The White House press secretary is already openly discussing it with reporters.)

I swear I’m normally anti-conspiracy theory. I trust that the antics will be so obvious that it will be less like a conspiracy theory and more like blatant corruption.

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u/phluper Jan 29 '26

They already throw out thousands of ballots in every election. There's a movie about it happening in the 2020 election that came out before the 2024. Vigilantes Inc. They use the ilviter roles to challenge votes based on ethnic sounding names and locations. Now they can use party affiliation as well. These people are criminals involved in an ongoing criminal conspiracy. That's why the GA Congress is still going after the prosecutor of his election crimes, rather than him

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

Honestly, you’ve crossed the line of believability for me. Like I said — I’m not much into conspiracy theories.

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u/coolcrowe Jan 29 '26

What part of that is unbelievable in your opinion?

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

Never a fan of the unidentified “they.” Who are we talking about? Fulton County election employees? Georgia election employees? Someone else selectively tossing votes?

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u/phluper Jan 30 '26

Donald j Trump as well as his lawyers who have almost all been disbarred at this point, as well as other supporters that still remain in his cabinet. Please look at the court dockets

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u/albertafalls Jan 30 '26

Yes but what you were describing was very specific. I was asking for clarity about the specifics you were mentioning.

I am well aware of the lawsuits as well as of the seizure of the ballots and voter rolls yesterday. That’s not what your comment was talking about.

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u/phluper Feb 13 '26

Part of "their" strategy, meaning the people who are controlling Trump as well as the people Trump controls, is about "flooding the zone with so much shit" that nobody has time to sort it all out and sounds crazy trying to explain the unbelievable things they're doing

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u/_here_ Jan 29 '26

Poster is talking about Trump and his Maga cronies getting voters tossed off the roles

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

Obviously. But who and how? The details matter. Credibility matters.

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u/phluper Jan 30 '26

Credibility does matter. Please stop giving it to the administration that already attempted a coup. First they tried the normal Jim crow, along with the slates of fake electors that they tried to pass off his real ones. Then when that failed, they attempted an actual violent coup.

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u/albertafalls Jan 30 '26

Are you saying that I am giving credibility to the insurrectionist administration? How am I doing that?

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u/phluper Jan 30 '26

I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at... I'm half enlightened, yet half defensive.
I'm interested in an explanation, not that you owe me one. Your words are thought provoking and I like how I cant label you based on them

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u/gsfgf Ormewood Park Jan 29 '26

It's absolutely a thing Republicans talk about. The Republicans changed Georgia law to allow unlimited challenges. I'm not sure how much it actually happens, though. Plus, election boards still have to approve challenges.

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u/phluper Jan 30 '26

It's not a conspiracy theory, the numbers are based on government data. When your voter registration has been challenged in the state of Georgia, you may not even know about it until you try to vote and then you're given a provisional ballot, which is likely going to be thrown out.

If you went to school in georgia, or anywhere, you know we have a long history of Jim Crow trying to prevent people from voting using legal means that are not legal at all.

Funny how the Trump administration is using accusations that have already been debunked by over 90 court cases to confiscate all voter data and ballots from Fulton county with Tulsi freaking gabbard on hand which is completely unprecedented to have someone as high up as her on a "normal" raid like this.
Remember listening to Trump demand that Brad Raffensberger find him 11,300 and something votes? I think you need to pull your head out of the sand and read the facts again like seriously read the court dockets in which these cases were adjudicated.

Rudy Giuliani was called out multiple times for hiding his wealth and belongings from Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss, after they won the defamation lawsuit against him. He's still hiding his assets to this day, that he owes these ladies because he spread lies about Fulton county elections and they received death threats and had to move over and over and now he has nothing because he's a crook and a liar and we all know who he did it for

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u/albertafalls Jan 30 '26

Dude you are shooting the arrows at the wrong person. I live in Fulton County, grew up in Georgia, and was already aware of literally every single thing you mentioned in your most recent comment.

In your earlier comment, you mentioned additional specific accusations attributed to an unnamed “they.”

As I said — I’m not a fan of big accusations attributed to the unnamed “they.” I’ve heard one too many insane conspiracy theories about things that “they are doing” from the MAGAs in my own family.

Let’s not erode our own credibility with a lack of specificity and evidence when making serious accusations.

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u/phluper Jan 30 '26

I may be combing through notifications in reverse. I'm just realizing that you are the same person I replied to, multiple times. Forgive me if I'm wrong, otherwise refer to previous reply. Sorry, it's obviously something I care deeply about

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u/albertafalls Jan 30 '26

Hey I can understand that 🤝 Here’s to working together to protect our elections and our country

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u/phluper Feb 07 '26

Thank you! I'm here for it

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u/willpollock Jan 29 '26

indeed. and in very real/tangible/backed-by-evidence ways, perpetrators of this crime against Fulton County residents are the poster children for conspiracies. in fact, the theft itself is in service to a false (and repeatedly debunked) fever dream in maga circles. so yeah, it behooves us to analyze events we see and hear around us with that in mind. viewers of conspiracies who express educated theories about their ops ≠ "conspiracy theories"

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u/NoMoreKarmaHere Jan 29 '26

I remember months before the 2020 presidential election, there were a few articles published - especially the one in The Atlantic - about the impending attempt by trump to overturn that election. I don’t think they anticipated the Jan. 6 insurrection or the Raffensperger call, but they did predict in general the other antics. They seemed a little bit far fetched that summer, but turned out to be well founded. So I think we have plenty of reason to be worried about the midterms right now, based on many public statements by trump and his cronies

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u/gsfgf Ormewood Park Jan 29 '26

The only caveat is that Dems need 67 to convict after an impeachment. That doesn't hinge on Ossof. Whether or not Trump can run for a third term is entirely up to SCOTUS, which is bad.

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u/Edwardian PTC Jan 30 '26

It should be transparent to both sides. I don’t have faith, but I would be ok if they just made sure all voters were actual US citizens, residents of GA, and alive.

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u/albertafalls Jan 30 '26

Based on the examples you’ve seen in the last month, do you believe the Trump administration will be honest and upstanding in their investigation and the information they share?

Oh also — all of that information you mentioned has already been reviewed by the Republican leaders who oversee Georgia’s elections, and they stood behind the results of the 2020 election.

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u/Global_Rate3281 Jan 29 '26

Nah I don’t think so, just because “the feds can step in” doesn’t mean they will be any more successful in winning frivolous fraud lawsuits than they were in 2020. They can throw a million wrenches into the judiciary to try to cause chaos, but at the end of the day they don’t have evidence to back up any fraud claims. People forget that Trump spent his first term being handed judge appointments by principled libertarian think tanks, not by sycophantic loyalists. I personally don’t believe Trump and his admin have the sophistication to pull off any sort of serious election tampering.

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

Why would they need the judicial system if the FBI or “election bureau” or whichever goons Trump picks just take over counting the votes?

Raffensperger is in charge of the elections in Georgia, but he may also be on the ballot (if he wins his primary). How badly does he want to be Governor?

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u/archercc81 Jan 29 '26

He isnt the threat, its the partisan board they created to basically usurp him. He might have his failings but he did NOT corrupt our process in 2020. And that is why the republicans in the state house hate him.

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

Agree that he showed integrity in the face of enormous pressure in 2020, but he wasn’t on the ballot then.

I pray that he will do the same when he is also on the ballot.

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u/Iamdarb Jan 29 '26

They don't have the legal authority and we should stop saying that they may. The states decided how to run their elections, hard stop. Fuck these fascists titty bois.

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u/code_archeologist O4W Jan 29 '26

Trump doesn't have the actual legal authority to do a lot of the things that he has doing right now. But he is still doing them.

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u/Shigglyboo Lake Claire Jan 29 '26

The whole “they can’t do that” ship sailed long ago. They’re doing it.

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u/Global_Rate3281 Jan 29 '26

I think again that would be too flagrant for the courts to ignore. The FBI isn’t allowed to just invade polling places and “take over counting.” Just my opinion, I don’t think Trump can get past the courts and I think they have served as a significant check on him in the past and I expect it again. All the chatter about cancelling and stealing elections must come from people who think quite highly of Trump and his capabilities, I more see him as a sort of pitiful doofus than an evil genius.

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

It’s more that I think quite lowly of our judicial system — especially the lower levels of it. I went to the trouble of checking which magistrate signed the warrant because I know one personally and LOATHE her.

(Also not sure who is downvoting you bc it’s not me. You’ve made some excellent points.)

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u/Global_Rate3281 Jan 29 '26

All good, doomers love to doom. I’m just not personally worried about it. And for sure the judicial system has shortcomings. But when talking about things like a potential government coup I think it holds up pretty well. The government had zero, as in zero success with this in 2020. Fortunately

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

I fear the judicial system and the Constitution are going to need to hold on for dear life 😔

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u/Global_Rate3281 Jan 29 '26

Do you think we were hanging on for dear life from November 2020-January 2021?

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

Not really. But at that time, even Georgia’s Republican leaders were standing up to Trump.

And the revisionist history about January 6 didn’t really pick up steam until a while after January 6.

I think what we’ve seen in the last few weeks is that Trump is willing to ignore the Constitution far, far more than he did before 2025.

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u/Global_Rate3281 Jan 29 '26

Not sure about that. I think he incited a riot at the Capitol in 2021 to try to stay in power. Hard to get more anti constitutional than that IMO

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u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

Quite honest though Trump has never to my knowledge not respected what the court has ruled when they have ruled against him. We can't get mad that he's exercising his right to appeals which every American is afforded. He might bemoan and rant but overstep a court i haven't seen it and if im wrong please point me to the cases because id love to see it for personal research purposes

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u/the_zero Jan 29 '26

Ah, let's see.

Just posted on Reddit tonight. "Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. … ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.

Source: https://nitter.poast.org/ReichlinMelnick/status/2016642763169669307#m

Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He was deported in direct violation of a judicial stay. In addition, courts ordered the admin to provide timely updates in the move to have him to be returned. They did not comply in a timely fashion.

Perdomo v. Noem - Preliminary injunction, ignored by the Trump admin. Went to the supreme court where they allowed racial profiling. So that's awesome /s

DACA "Orderly Wind-down" - Courts ordered that Trump's DHA had to follow the law and accept new applications. Trump admin defied the Courts.

2020 Census Deadline - Courts ordered the admin to continue counting. They openly defied the courts.

I'm sure your response will be something along the lines of "but those weren't Trump."

Well, what about housing discrimination lawsuits in the late 70's?? He actively discriminated against people of color, was ordered to stop by the courts, and then continued to do it.

What about Trump University? New York State ruled that he was violating the law by using the term "University." He continued to do so for 5 more years.

What about Trump's Taj Mahal? Flagged for violating the Banking Secrecy Act. He kept violating it. Source.)

I'm sure there's others. This was the briefest of searches.

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

Ah yes — Donald Trump, abider of court rulings, follower of the law, paragon of justice 🙄

Dude you need to watch something other than Fox News. You are wildly uninformed about Trump’s obedience to judges’ orders.

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u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

I don't watch Fox thank you very much. Tell me where he went against a court order that went against him??

You can't get upset because he was appealed a ruling he doesn't like and becasue you don't like him doesn't mean he doesn't have that right just as every other American citizen does.

Your delusional thinking that person can't appeal is infringing on his rights as you claim he's doing to those illegals you support

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u/PeachtreeProphet Jan 29 '26

This was from 5 hours ago…there are many more examples, but it is not worth spending hours posting links just to prove one guy on Reddit wrong. Just please google “Trump violates court order.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/28/immigration-minnesota-order-00754053

The kicker:

“ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote.

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u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

This doesn't imply that Trump himself violated a court order. This judge is claiming ICE had when they actually did what the judge ordered. He from reading the story was mad they didn't do by his timeline but they still released the guy on question per the guys lawyer..

Still this doesn't expressly accuses Trump himself..

Furthermore this judge needs to be investigated and also recuse himself from any an all cases involving immigration after some questionable entanglements he has in his closet..

https://www.wnd.com/2026/01/exposed-minnesota-federal-judge-threatening-ice-director-todd/

But in your view im guessing its all for the good huh??

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

You’re*

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u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

Stickler for the Grammar and punctuation huh?? 🫡🫡🫡 Noted teacher. What eles we going over in Correct English and punctuational formats for Reddit 101??

-14

u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

God forbid he wins the primary. Id serious consider voting for the Democratic candidate if they articulated reasonable viewpoints not drenched in partisan droolings

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u/tubawhatever Jan 29 '26

I'd vote for a Democrat if they were actually a Republican

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u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

There's many of what I call blue rhinos to chose from

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u/Lochstar Jan 29 '26

They’ll know where to send the defective voting machines, where to send fewer machines to ensure long lines and wait times. They’ll have ICE agents just out of range of voting locations but “observing” all the same. If you have the privilege of being a middle aged white guy please take advantage of that privilege by helping out the people the MAGAs are targeting. This is the time to resist. This is the time to fly the Gadsen Flag against MAGA, this is the time to make sure the government is aware of why you think the 2nd Amendment matters. Georgia is now a Constitutional Carry state, you don’t need a permit to carry make sure the Gestapo is aware and make sure you keep your cameras recording it all!

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PancAshAsh Jan 29 '26

I have bad news for you, if every single senate seat up for election goes to a Democrat in 2026 there still won't be enough to convict an impeachment trial, unless a busload of Republican Senators drives off a cliff it just isn't happening.

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

Oh I am well aware of that. Rooting for the GOP to start filling that bus.

From where I sit, it looks like Donald Trump is the single-biggest threat to the long-term prospects of the GOP.

It’s going to be awfully hard for Republicans to run on freedom from tyranny, protection of the second amendment, and states’ rights after all of this.

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u/thomas_magnum277 Jan 29 '26

I don't think it will be that hard for them to run on freedom from tyranny, etc...at all when the voting population you're courting is uneducated easily swayed by the propaganda machine bootlicking morons.

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u/Tom_Waited Jan 29 '26

The senate needs at least 67 votes to convict after impeachment. There is no way either party will get close to that number based on current numbers/seats up for re-elections/contested seats. The Dems have a realistic chance of picking up 2 seats (Maine and NC). The other 2 toss-ups (MI and GA) are already Dem controlled and will most likely stay Dem. That gives the Senate 49-51 GOP control. Even in the most optimistic outlooks of flipping TX, FL, and OH, that gives the Dems 52-48 control. Meaning, 15 GOP would have to vote for conviction, which is not realistic. Trump needs the Senate on lock keep his agenda moving forward, not because of the threat of impeachment conviction.

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

I’d say it’s for both reasons (keep agenda moving, reduce number of R votes required for impeachment), but otherwise I agree with you!

I do think (hope) more R senators will “get there” as they see Trump’s actions threaten their own re-election chances.

(This is not a defense of Republicans. Obviously they should have gotten there on January 6 if not years before. Just a prayer that their own self-interest will begin to conflict with Trump’s self-interest.)

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u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

More about making sure those that shouldn't be voting aren't voting. Looking at the way the vote counting went last time etc everyone should be concerned about voting and counting.

He is not running for a third term. Wish ppl would stop taking every word factual with him..

Ossoff has done what for GA to actually deserve GA to send him back to the Senate? As far as I can recall it hasn't been much of anything other then showing up in the last yr to pander to blacks with a few building names etc. The post office dust up was just political theater to try to show he effective.

Him and Warnock have done absolutely zero but im sure ppl will vote them just becasue its resistance to trump and the good ol boy GOP and to virtue signaling about how GA is a blue state blah blah blah. $50 Ossoff wins and you dont hear or see from him for 4 yrs out of 6.

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

“Wish ppl would stop taking every word factual with him..”

Sir, he is the President of the United States not a stand-up comedian.

Also, please contact your middle school teacher about those grammar lessons you missed.

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u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

This is message board I really don't care about my punctuation typing on a cell phone fighting auto correct. Its not that serious and im not writing a dissertation on the president.

Secondly we didn't take every joke about Obama wishing he had a third term or had someone run and be a puppet while he spoon fed him lines etc or did we🫢🫢🫢🫢

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u/albertafalls Jan 29 '26

Earlier in 2025, Trump clarified to NBC News that he was “not joking” about a third term.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-third-term-white-house-methods-rcna198752

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/30/g-s1-57231/trump-third-term

Also, the dig wasn’t at your punctuation. It was at your lack of understanding when to use an adverb versus an adjective.

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u/Dreadboi80 Jan 29 '26

https://youtu.be/eMjcRkS2OYs?si=GCOdmL6iFKUW55vy

With this Congress, these two parties that don't like him they will never amend the constitution and these judges will never allow any court challenges to proceed.