This is the first in a series of contributed articles by OC progressive veteran Kevin O’Leary, author of “Trump and he Roots of Rage.” O’Leary has a new group he’s working with called Courage By Saving Democracy. Learn more about them here: https://couragebysavingdemocracy.substack.com
DC Press Corps Failing the Public on Redistricting Ignoring the authoritarian playbook, journalists miss the story, by Kevin O’Leary
Pack journalism has always been a problem for the nation’s political reporters, especially those based in Washington, D.C. and on the campaign trail. Timothy Crouse’s The Boys on the Bus remains the classic study of the phenomenon. Under pressure to file now 24/7 reports, reporters often fit their stories and reporting into whatever has become the dominant narrative.
Across their careers, Washington journalists work assiduously to maintain a reputation for being “fair” to both sides. Journalists pride themselves on being dispassionate observers; it’s a crucial part of their profession’s ethic. Fearing the wrath of President Trump and the MAGA right, they want to protect their sources on both sides of the political aisle and maintain access to the White House.
Playing it safe, reporters are assured that editors and most readers will not criticize their reporting. But pack journalists often miss the real story – a new development or perspective that turns out to be absolutely essential to understand what is going on. Currently, Washington journalists are framing the story about the Texas plan to redraw congressional maps in order to give President Trump five extra congressional seats – and California’s decision to respond to respond in kind – as one about partisan gerrymandering.
On “Meet the Press” on Sunday, August 8, 2025, Host Kristen Welker opened the show with this teaser: “This Sunday: Texas hold ’em. With control of Congress on the line, lawmakers clash over Republicans’ plans to redraw the maps.” When it was time for the panel of journalists and experts, Welker turned to NBC News Washington Managing Editor Carol Lee and said, “Carol Lee, let me start with you. The flash-point right now in the midterms is this big battle over redistricting in Texas. What are you hearing? Where is this going to go?
Carol Lee responded: “Look, I think the thing to focus on is how much this is spreading across the country and the long-term implications for that. So, you have Democrats who are trying to overcome hurdles that they put in place to try to get more seats in Democratic states. You have the White House looking at states beyond Texas that are Republican to get additional seats. And President Trump’s just getting warmed up. He’s only going to intensify his focus on the midterms, on trying to keep Democrats from taking control of the House and dominating the rest of his term with investigations.”
Lee continued: “And so, the question is, you know, in terms of implications for elections beyond 2026 is: Does this work for the party that’s most successful at this? Or is there a price to pay from voters who might look at this and say, “You know what? Like, that is just power grabbing. And I don’t like it.”
Welker replied: “Yes. I think it’s a great way to frame it.”
The problem with the reporting of Welker and Lee was that it is radically incomplete. If they were in a class at the highly respected Columbia School of Journalism, their professor would tell them: “Try again. There is something important you are leaving out.”
On Thursday, August 14, CNN Anchor and Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins interviewed former Rep. Katie Porter, currently running for California governor. Speaking to Porter about the redistricting battle between Texas and California, Collins asked Porter why Gov. Gavin Newsom would engage in partisan gerrymandering when California now has a non-partisan commission in charge of redistricting. The way Collins framed her questions, it could have been 2004 and George W. Bush was president.
Perplexed, Porter responded by explaining how this redistricting struggle goes far beyond the typical gerrymandering efforts of the past. “But Kaitlan, we are so far in America today from living in the best possible situation … in fact, our democracy has never been under worse attacks, these tariffs, the deployment of the military in peaceful cities, the immigration raids that we’re seeing, the attack on the rule of law, Trump’s self-dealing … throughout history, we have made changes to our democracy to try to let it address what is going on in our country, what challenges we are facing, and what dangers we are facing.”
President Trump in 2025 is not President Trump in 2017. In 2025, the aides who restrained him previously are gone. Trump’s top aides in his second term are as disloyal to American democracy and the U.S. Constitution as is the president. In such a situation, it’s journalistic malpractice to cover the redistricting battle that President Trump has unleashed as if it is simply a story about gerrymandering and the typical search for political advantage in Washington and the nation’s state capitols.
What Welker, Lee, and Collins ignored is how President Trump’s actions follow the authoritarian playbook developed by the enemies of democracy. Trump and his acolytes are amassing power and weakening their political opponents in ways chillingly similar to the actions taken by Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin, and Viktor Orbán before they seized dictatorial power. At the same time that Mr. Trump proceeds with the expected actions of a president, he is working feverishly to destroy constitutional democracy.
Instead of a normal president, the United States now has an elected authoritarian; journalists covering the president and national politics cannot turn a blind eye to this core fact. There could be honest debate about President Trump and his motives during his first term. That is no longer the case. In 2021, Trump intended to remain in office, but failed in an attempted coup. In 2025, the president has made it crystal clear he intends to govern unconstrained by the rules of constitutional democracy.
President Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Trump advisor Stephen Bannon are pursuing unbound power in pursuit of a far-right authoritarian agenda deeply unpopular with the American public. This is politics of the highest stakes, analogous to what Abraham Lincoln faced confronting the slave South in the 1850s and the early years of the Civil War. We too are in deadly serious times, akin to the famous scene in the Ingmar Bergman film, The Seventh Seal, where a knight is playing chess with death.
In August 2025, we are living in a United States where traditional democratic governance has broken down. In a seminal Foreign Affairs article (March/April 2025), “American Authoritarianism: What Comes After Democratic Breakdown,”political scientists Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way argue that the American political system has already been transformed into something new and dangerous: competitive authoritarianism.
Competitive authoritarianism bears the outward trappings of competitive democracy, but the reality is more sinister. Having taken power in a legitimate election, the leader and his party seek to corrupt all levers of national government and consolidate power in the executive branch. Weaponize the once independent Department of Justice and the FBI. Check. Start deploying the military against domestic targets. Check. Single out political opponents for attack and possible prosecution. Check. Use the power of the federal government to attack and intimidate centers of power and prestige in civic society (i.e. law firms, corporations, universities, non-profits, etc.). Check. Seek to corrupt the electoral system by rigging future elections in favor of the current governing party…
At the heart of the gerrymandering story, an elected authoritarian (in our case, Donald Trump) and his party (the Republicans) are doing everything in their power (which is considerable in today’s Washington, D.C.) to disadvantage the political opposition (the Democratic Party) and marginalize it. It’s all part of what leading experts and pro-democracy groups such as Protect Democracy call the “authoritarian playbook.”
President Trump’s attempt to tilt congressional maps in Red states across the country in favor of Republicans would severely disadvantage Democrats in the approaching 2026 midterms and beyond. The goal: make the Democrats a permanent minority in the House of Representatives. In fighting back against Trump and Abbott, Gov. Newsom is taking a serious political risk. But knowing what is at stake, Newsom is betting that he can rally the nation against President Trump and convince the people of California to follow his lead.
The struggle between today’s Republicans and the Democrats goes beyond traditional partisanship. Like a boa constrictor, President Trump and the Republicans are slowly strangling American democracy. When the Washington press corps ignores this part of the story, they join in the charade and fail at their most essential duty: telling the public the truth.
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