Everyone knows that Tuesday was a big primary election night in Michigan, with radical leftist and terrorism supporter Abdul el-Sayed barely eking out a victory over Haley Stevens. But if you tuned in to Lawrence O’Donnell’s The Last Word on Wednesday night, you might have heard about something more sinister happening behind the scenes. That something wasn’t the slow poisoning of the Democratic Party by socialism, but rather a covert operation carried out by plain-clothes agents hiding in broad daylight. Their names, faces, and mission remain unknown, but it’s safe to assume they were the eyes and ears of an evil fascist dictator intent on destroying the world and democracy.
If that sounded like the premise of a cheesy spy thriller novel, it was exactly what O’Donnell suggested was going on with the DOJ poll observers to monitor a couple voting places in Michigan. But, according to O’Donnell, “we know next to nothing about” these election monitors. “What were they really doing there? We don't know. What were they seen doing there?”
O’Donnell read a report from a Michigan city clerk’s office that had “seen several teams of DOJ election monitors in plain clothes, visiting about two thirds of the city's precincts. . . He says they were not able to identify who these monitors are, just that they were in regular clothes.”
“Plain clothes” just means they were wearing anything other than an officer’s uniform. And if they were government officials, they were probably wearing suits, which most people probably don’t wear to go vote. The DOJ’s statement, which O’Donnell also referenced, said that election monitoring would be carried out by “DOJ staff from the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section and Michigan’s U.S. Attorney’s Offices.”
Poll observers are not a new phenomenon. They were specifically authorized by the 1965 Voting Rights Act to monitor polling places and report back to the attorney general. Since then, their roles have not changed.
“Was it nothing?” O’Donnell asked. “Or was it some kind of scouting mission for November, some kind of rehearsal for some of the actions Donald Trump might order them to take in November on election night. . . Were they 'casing the joint,' as bank robbers used to say?”
What makes this opening monologue, labeled on the screen behind him as “The Michigan Mystery,” even more deliciously deluded was MS NOW’s four-hour-long election coverage the previous night, where the panel (including O’Donnell) discussed these election monitors. All the evidence they were given, including an interview with a Detroit election official, provided exactly zero proof of federal interference in the primaries. But O’Donnell refused to concede defeat on his conspiracy theory.
Furthermore, on that panel, O’Donnell bragged that “it's not something I've been able to really cover on my show because I find it so speculative, you know, this interference with the election.”And yet, 24 hours later, there he was, speculating about election interference, “The mystery might then be revealed as a key piece of Donald Trump's possible plan to steal the election in Michigan in November.”
All this fearmongering over DOJ election monitors is completely baseless, as O’Donnell himself knows, "There is a very strong chance that they were doing absolutely nothing. It's a very, very strong chance that the way they did nothing is an indication of the way they will do nothing in November."
Then, in the next breath, he destroyed all sense of his own rationality:
But there is at least as strong a chance that Donald Trump is plotting to do something criminal on election night in Michigan and elsewhere. There is at least as strong a chance that the mystery of what they were doing last night might finally make sense in the worst possible sudden way on election night in November.
The liberal media has a serious case of main-character syndrome, coupled with crippling TDS. And they’re refusing to accept that they are not the heroes of some dystopian, spy thriller novel.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MS NOW's The Last Word
8/5/26
10:01:35 p.m. EasternLAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Well, a mystery remains tonight after the votes were counted in Michigan's primary election. We know who won. We know who lost. We know who came close to winning. And we know who won the most votes ever cast in a primary election in the state of Michigan.
But something else happened in Michigan yesterday and last night. And it might be - it might turn out to be the most important thing that happened in yesterday's election in Michigan. And we know next to nothing about it.
That mystery could explode in our faces on election night in November. The mystery might then be revealed as a key piece of Donald Trump's possible plan to steal the election in Michigan in November, to prevent the Democrats from winning control of the United States Senate.
The mystery centers on people who were on the ground in Michigan yesterday visiting polling places. Their names remain secret. Their job titles remain secret. They were sent there by Donald Trump and Donald Trump's acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he will do anything, absolutely anything for Donald Trump.
In a written statement, the Todd Blanche Justice Department said that Trump federal officials were, quote, "monitoring polls." That's what they said, "monitoring polls" in four Michigan cities, including Detroit. The statement identified those people only as, quote, "DOJ staff from the Civil Rights Division's Voting Section and Michigan's U.S. Attorney's Offices."
What were they really doing there? We don't know. What were they seen doing there? MS NOW reports that the city clerk in Lansing, Michigan, said that "his office has seen several teams of DOJ election monitors in plain clothes, visiting about two thirds of the city's precincts. One team of two people, another team made up of three people." The clerk said that the federal officials, quote, "mostly stayed outside the precincts, watching from public areas. In a few cases, they have spoken to the chair of the precinct." The clerk "was not sure what they were looking for. He says they were not able to identify who these monitors are, just that they were in regular clothes."
Okay, so what were they doing? Was this Todd Blanche just placating Donald Trump and sending federal officials to polling places in Michigan so that Todd Blanche could tell Donald Trump that they did that, that he did something? Was it nothing?
Or was it some kind of scouting mission for November, some kind of rehearsal for some of the actions Donald Trump might order them to take in November on election night. If they were considering seizing ballots in Michigan on election night in November, wouldn't they want to get a look at the place where they'd be trying to seize those ballots? Were they "casing the joint," as bank robbers used to say?
There is a very strong chance that they were doing absolutely nothing. It's a very, very strong chance that the way they did nothing is an indication of the way they will do nothing in November.
But there is at least as strong a chance that Donald Trump is plotting to do something criminal on election night in Michigan and elsewhere. There is at least as strong a chance that the mystery of what they were doing last night might finally make sense in the worst possible sudden way on election night in November.
