The Lincoln Project

This week, it’s a Florida DOUBLE-HEADER on the Lincoln Project Podcast. First up: retired Army Brigadier General Leela Gray, the Democratic nominee running against Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in Florida's 13th District. Gray breaks down the cost-of-living crisis squeezing Pinellas County, Luna's refusal to hold town halls or debate, and the anti-corruption agenda she wants to take to Congress, including a REAL ban on congressional stock trading. Then, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried explains how the party rebuilt from a 19-point statewide loss into a year-round organizing machine called Pendulum, going toe-to-toe with a Republican money advantage fueled by billionaires and no-bid contracts like ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ. Fried digs into the Hope Florida scandal, the insurance industry's shell-game finances, Byron Donalds' campaign for governor, and the congressional seats Democrats are targeting in November.•••••You can find Leela Gray and all of her socials on her website, https://LeelaGray.comThe Florida Democratic Party's website is https://FloridaDems.org.Nikki Fried is on X @NikkiFried & Blusky @NikkiFried.bsky.social.Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.

With 18 DAYS to Election Day, reality is finally setting in. Republicans are watching the House slip away. Trump's supporters are staring at a visibly declining leader. And MAGA voters are learning that $5-plus diesel, lost health insurance, and data centers in their backyard WERE the deal all along. Rick's warning: don't get complacent, VOTE EARLY. Then he looks past November to a long, patient accountability process, modeled on France's postwar purge rather than a tidy Nuremberg fantasy, led by state attorneys general. And his challenge to incoming Democrats: don't chase normalcy, stay on the economy and corruption, and on day one, TAKE THE TARIFF POWER AWAY. The real fight is just beginning.•••••Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.

Rick sits down with Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney about MUSK, his four-hour film that started as a business profile and turned into something much bigger once Elon hitched his wagon to Trump. Gibney says Musk's fortune was built less on engineering genius than on MYTH-MAKING, a confidence-man playbook of gaslighting and bravado that let him buy his way into American politics. They trace the whole arc: the COVID-era fury, the move to Texas, the Twitter takeover, DOGE, the Epstein-files blowup, and the quick patch-up with Trump. Gibney even built an uncanny AI of  Elon Musk from his own recorded words to interrogate him in a way no real interview ever could. They close on the legal threats, the rejected ad buys, and just how dangerous Musk is now that he controls a megaphone AND the future of AI.•••••Alex Gibney is on X @alexgibneyfilm and on Bluesky @alexgibneyfilm.bsky.social. His new film ‘MUSK’ is out now in select theaters, and nationwide on October 16th. Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.

Democrats are winning, and RICK WILSON says they have NO IDEA why. It isn't because the party's brand got better. It's because voters, including a LOT of Republicans, are done with TRUMP over tariffs, the Iran war, and corruption. Rick's warning: don't let the consultants talk you into a "big optimistic vision." Stay on affordability. Stay on corruption. Keep PUNCHING, the way Ossoff and El-Sayed are. Then he lays out the day-one agenda: unwind the tariffs, BAN congressional stock trading, and hold Trump officials accountable instead of repeating the "move on" mistake after January 6th. He also breaks down why data centers are the new symbol of voter anxiety about AI and jobs, and closes with a hard warning on election interference: VOTE EARLY, vote by mail, and show up in force.•••••Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#EITR #RickWilson #LincolnProject #Midterms2026 #Ossoff #ElSayed #BanStockTrading #VoteEarly #DataCenters #Democrats

Rick sits down with TIMOTHY SNYDER, the historian who literally wrote the book on tyranny, two of them, in fact: ON TYRANNY and ON FREEDOM. Snyder says that Trump isn't a real strongman. Compared to actual dictators like Putin, he's WEAK — and  the right response isn't fear, it's MOCKERY, organizing, and showing up in overwhelming numbers this November. They dig into what Snyder calls a "crisis of dignity" inside the GOP — grown men abasing themselves in front of Trump — and trace that same rot straight to the posthuman, AI-worshipping ideology now sitting inside the White House, courtesy of thinkers like Curtis Yarvin and Steve Bannon pushing America toward a post-democratic future. This is a historian's warning AND a battle plan.•••••Timothy Snyder is on X @TimothyDSnyder & on YouTube @proftimothysnyder. Check out his Substack, at snyder.substack.com/Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#TimothySnyder #OnTyranny #OnFreedom #RickWilson #LincolnProject #CurtisYarvin #SteveBannon #Ukraine #Authoritarianism #VoteEarly

Rick is calling this the WORST WEEK the GOP has had in years, and the proof is in the polling. The map is getting uglier for Republicans by the day. Texas and Ohio are tightening, and David Jolly's got the edge on a flailing Byron Donalds in Florida. Meanwhile, Republicans just can’t stop making it worse for themselves. MAGA Senator Eric Schmitt tried to trap Jack Smith in a perjury gotcha and it BLEW UP in real time, live on camera. Trump sat down with TIME and came out swinging, unhinged as ever, while his own White House keeps running TAXPAYER-FUNDED campaign ads that are drawing serious legal scrutiny. Add in embarrassingly small crowds and a “superintelligence” summit that's turning AI into a symbol of everything voters are scared about economically. MAGA is in real trouble. Democrats, PLEASE stay on message, and everyone else… VOTE EARLY!••••Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#EITR #RickWilson #LincolnProject #EricSchmitt #JackSmith #Talarico #DavidJolly #HatchAct #Midterms2026 #VoteEarly

Rick sits down with JACOB WEISBERG, author of PROFILES IN COWARDICE, the book that exposes the men whose lack of courage enabled Trump 2.0. Jacob and Rick go through the receipts: enfeebled Senator Mitch McConnell, who called out Trump on the Senate floor after January 6th and then folded right back into line. Blackstone CEO and billionaire Steve Schwarzman, who was SKEPTICAL of a second term and then caved anyway out of vanity. Chief Justice John Roberts, whose court just handed massive executive power to an authoritarian regime. And George W. Bush, who stayed silent while his family was attacked and his legacy was dismantled by DOGE and Elon Musk. This is a masterclass in how democracies actually die — not with a bang, but with a bunch of powerful men deciding it's easier to fall into line than to stand up for what is right. ••••Jacob Weisberg is on X @jacobwe. His new book, Profiles in Cowardice: A Study of Collaboration in the Trump Era, is out NOW, wherever fine books are sold.Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#JacobWeisberg #ProfilesInCowardice #MitchMcConnell #JohnRoberts #SteveSchwarzman #GeorgeWBush #RickWilson #LincolnProject #Politics2026

The Elephant in the Room: Trump's Numbers Just CrateredThe polls are in, and they're a bloodbath. Trump's approval just hit a historic low, and the GOP — the party that welded itself to him — is going down with the ship and calling it strategy. This week, Rick convenes the brain trust: Senior Advisor Matthew Dowd, Executive Director Tessa Gould, Political Director Andrew Wilson, and special guest pollster Cornell Belcher, who brings the receipts straight from the crosstabs. They dig into why Republicans can't distance themselves from a man dragging them underwater, why voters are finally, gloriously fed up, and why swing voters are breaking for Democrats and not looking back. The elephant in the room isn't hiding anymore — it's flatlining on live TV. Pull up a chair.

The Data Center Grift (with WIRED's Molly Taft)The richest companies in human history have a new hustle, and you're the mark. They're bulldozing warehouses the size of malls into towns too small to fight back, draining the reservoir dry, and torching the power grid — all to run an AI that still can't tell you how many R's are in "strawberry." The best part? They took the tax breaks, promised jobs that never showed, and mailed you the power bill. This week Rick sits down with WIRED senior reporter Molly Taft, who followed the water and the money and found the same thing at the end of both: a con. They get into who's cashing in, who's going dark, and why "the cloud" is the most expensive lie in America right now. Bring your own bottle of water — the robots are thirsty.

Rick sits down with RABIA CHAUDRY, the attorney who helped make SERIAL a phenomenon and now runs UNDISCLOSED, the podcast that's helped get WRONGFULLY CONVICTED people OUT of prison. Rabia breaks down the patterns behind these convictions — junk forensics, coerced confessions, prosecutors with a "hero complex" who'd rather double down than admit they got it wrong — and lays out real fixes to fix a system stacked against defendants. Then it gets personal: as an American Muslim who entered law school around 9/11, Rabia connects the dots between the counterterrorism machine built after that day and TODAY'S aggressive ICE enforcement — people getting arrested at their OWN SCHEDULED immigration hearings, and TPS terminations blowing holes in Florida's economy. This is a masterclass in how broken systems actually work, from someone who's spent her career fixing them.•••••You can find Rabia Chaudry on Instagram @rabiasquared2, and on her podcast, ‘Undisclosed: Towards Justice.’Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#RabiaChaudry #Undisclosed #Serial #WrongfulConviction #CriminalJusticeReform #Immigration #TPS #RickWilson #LincolnProject #Politics2026