{"podcast":{"title":"Defending Democracy with Marc Elias","slug":"defending-democracy-with-marc-elias-5919693","podcast_index_feed_id":5919693,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/d61b2cf0/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://democracydocket.com","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/35821052/35821052-1671721853517-b7d153b9f5426.jpg","author":"Democracy Docket","episode_count":252,"summary":"Every week, election lawyer Marc Elias interviews lawmakers, policy leaders and changemakers about the problems facing our democracy and how we fix them.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T08:18:04.128879+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/defending-democracy-with-marc-elias-5919693"},"episode":{"title":"Trump Just Disabled a Key Federal Election Agency Months Before Midterms","slug":"trump-just-disabled-a-key-federal-election-agency-months-before-midterms","published_at":"2026-07-13T19:10:04+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/defending-democracy-with-marc-elias-5919693/trump-just-disabled-a-key-federal-election-agency-months-before-midterms","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/defending-democracy-with-marc-elias-5919693","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/democracydocket/episodes/Trump-Just-Disabled-a-Key-Federal-Election-Agency-Months-Before-Midterms-e3m1l8v","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1566698665.mp3","summary":"Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias breaks down Trump's firing of the remaining commissioners at the Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency that certifies voting equipment, administers a national backup voter registration form and provides expertise and training to state election officials. It's now legally paralyzed months before the 2026 midterms. Marc argues Trump likely has two main motives: sidelining nonpartisan election expertise (as he's done with vaccines, food safety and the military) and deliberately degrading state election administration to manufacture a post-election narrative. He also warns that without commissioners, the White House may try to pressure EAC staff directly.","meta_description":"Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias breaks down Trump's firing of the remaining commissioners at the Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency th…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1575,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/defending-democracy-with-marc-elias-5919693/episodes/trump-just-disabled-a-key-federal-election-agency-months-before-midterms/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/defending-democracy-with-marc-elias-5919693/trump-just-disabled-a-key-federal-election-agency-months-before-midterms.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}