Today's a historic moment in our nation's history as students are rising up right now in North Carolina after local election boards denied them the right to have polling sites on their college campuses. Students walked more than 40 minutes in the heat through poison ivy, broken sidewalks to make their voices heard. They refused to be silenced, and it comes on the day that the president of the United States is being labeled a traitor as Russia celebrates what they call a quote historic moment in US-Russia relations.
The president of the United States, late last night while most Americans slept, waived critical sanctions on the Russian government, sanctions that were championed by the late Lindsey Graham. And it all is coming as elections are just two weeks away in the United States of America, and the president is threatening to jail election workers in California. An important day in American history, spread the word, people need to hear about this. If you want to support this work, please consider subscribing today.
We talk a lot about Russia, we talk a lot about Ukraine. I spoke to family in Ukraine, they're okay thankfully, but what they described the night that Starlink and Starshield were disrupted was one of the scariest in the four years of the war. They heard missiles and drones outside of their apartment. They couldn't tell where they were going. Thankfully, they're okay, but other Ukrainians are not, and it's only about to get worse. So, make sure if you can, subscribe, support this work, and let's get going.
I want to start in Greensboro, North Carolina because this is a moment that everyone needs to see. North Carolina A&T is the largest historically black university in the country with more than 15,000 students. In 2024, students could vote right on campus. UNC Greensboro had a site, too. This year, Republicans on the elections board took them both away. It happened twice. The Guilford County Board of Elections rejected the campus sites and then the State Board of Elections rejected them again in August, voting along party lines three to two.
One A&T organizer and student, Shea Rogear, got up at 4:00 a.m. and skipped class to go to that meeting. She sat in the front row holding a sign showing how far campus is from the nearest polling place, more than a mile. A Democratic board member, Carolyn Bunker, said she watched the board chairman threaten students with removal and arrest them multiple times just simply for asking for a voting site. It felt, quote, humiliating, they said.
So, what did these students do? They didn't give up. On the first day of early voting, more than 100 students from A&T and UNC Greensboro rallied on their campuses, marched to the polls together. Students from Bennett College joined them. Watch this historic moment.
That's students at North Carolina A&T. This is a video of students at UNC Greensboro.
Hundreds of students took to the streets to make their voices heard even as Republicans, local elected officials, didn't want them to. And it wasn't an easy walk. It was a 45-minute walk in 85-degree heat. Parts of the sidewalk were missing or blocked by branches. Students had to walk in the street. There was poison ivy along the path. The route crossed train tracks and a dirt path. Most students don't have cars, so when they got there, some waited 3 hours in line. A local organizer says staff ran out of registration forms at one point. Some students had to leave the line to go back to class or work.
They carried signs, quote, they close polling sites, we keep showing up anyway. They chanted, this is what democracy looks like. And for many of these students, it was the first time they ever voted. One student said, quote, this is my first time voting, so I want to make sure my voice is getting heard. And it's part of a bigger pattern in North Carolina.
Right now, this year, only 17 counties will have Sunday voting, down from 40 in 2022. That directly hurts the Souls to the Polls tradition at many black churches. One county board member actually argued against Sunday voting partly because Chick-fil-A isn't open that day.
There are also new ballot rules, mail-in ballot rules requiring voters to seal an envelope, an inner envelope, and they're already getting votes thrown out. In Wake County, 2 and 1/2% of absentee ballots were rejected 3 weeks in a row. Mail ballot requests are down 33% from 2022. And on top of that, the state has been sending voters confusing letters questioning their eligibility after striking a deal with the Trump Justice Department. And it's not just in North Carolina, the attacks on our elections are escalating nationwide.
Because overnight, while you were asleep, Donald Trump's Department of Justice sent a letter to election officials in Los Angeles threatening them with prosecution. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter wrote, quote, if persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agents as non-citizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime. Trump posted about it on Truth Social claiming, quote, they will all go to jail for a long period of time.
It's the president of the United States threatening to jail the people who count our votes just 2 weeks before an election. And it came 1 day after the DOJ sued California to stop it from counting mail ballots from 20,000 people they call likely non-citizens, despite California Secretary of State saying there's no evidence of that.
Look at the track record. The administration claimed Nevada had 1,500 non-citizens on its voter rolls. When the names actually were checked, the number was zero. The DOJ charged 50 people with voting as non-citizens out of more than 227 million registered voters. Why are they doing it? Because they want to threaten you into submission not to vote.
And today, the Russian government is celebrating. They are celebrating. They called today a historic day. Why? Last month, Congress passed the Lindsey Graham Act with strong bipartisan support. It targeted Russia's energy and defense sectors, Putin himself and the shadow fleet of tankers he uses to dodge sanctions. Trump signed it. Last night, just minutes before those sanctions were set to take effect, Trump waived them saying it's in the national interest of the United States.
Putin's envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, called it, quote, an important and truly historic moment. President Zelenskyy blasted it. Senators on the right, on the left, calling it irresponsible. Today, Donald Trump is being labeled a traitor. Thom Tillis said, quote, this is beyond irresponsible. What part of enforcing a law passed 86 to 11 by the Senate does the president and his advisers not understand? It's unconscionable that the administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every day.
If the president wants to actually bring down energy prices, he can do it by solving the Iran problem, not by doing a solid for Vladimir Putin. And he continues to do a solid for Vladimir Putin because, Brett, President Zelenskyy confirms that Starlink systems remain restricted. Interceptor drones can't function. Logistics and operations are hobbled. The maximum speed is right now struggling.
And as a result, Ukrainians are dying. I literally spoke to family on the ground who said it was the scariest night of their lives hearing drones, hearing missiles fly by their apartments in downtown Kyiv, all because, and they didn't know where those were going, as the president of the United States and Elon Musk disrupted Starlink.
That's the latest right now, and today is No King's Day. I'll be bringing you live coverage from on the ground, so if you can, make sure to subscribe, support this work, like, comment, share. If you want news like this every single day from someone who doesn't answer to a billionaire or to a corporation or political party, please subscribe, spread the word, and I'll see you soon.
