Five Questions for Brian Tyler Cohen

Brian Tyler Cohen has become one of the defining political voices of the post-cable-news era: a commentator, podcaster, and digital force whose independent platform reaches millions by turning the daily blur of outrage, legal drama, and democratic peril into something legible. Ahead of his July 15 conversation with Don Lemon, and with his new book The Day After arriving at a particularly combustible moment, we asked Cohen what comes next: for Democrats, for power, and for a country still living through Trump’s long shadow.

1. Your new book is called The Day After, and it argues that winning power is only the beginning. Looking at this exact political moment, with Trump testing the limits of the presidency, the courts, Congress, and the media, what is the first thing Democrats and progressives have to be ready to do if they win power again?

No progress is durable so long as the 6-3 rightwing Supreme Court can take a hatchet to any and all progressive reforms. We have seen the extent to which SCOTUS will act in blind deference to the Republican Party, either by creating provisions out of whole cloth (presidential immunity for criminal acts) or outright ignoring the plain text of the Constitution (allowing Trump to run again despite engaging in insurrection). Until and unless there is court reform, there will never be any real, sustained progress. As I write in the book: “If any subsequent reforms are to stand a chance at surviving, we cannot leave in place a rogue branch of government with the power to strike down anything that doesn’t comport with its far-right ideology.” I make the argument that court expansion isn't just necessary, but consistent with historical precedent: “The first Supreme Court had six justices, reflecting the six federal court circuits. The Court grew to seven justices in 1807, after a seventh circuit was added. It grew again to nine after two new circuits were added in 1837. Today there are thirteen federal court circuits but only nine Supreme Court justices. The Court should reflect the size of the country and the scope of its legal challenges, as it did more than a century ago.”

2. You’ve built a huge audience by taking complicated, chaotic political stories and making the stakes clear. What do you think Americans most need to understand about this moment that’s getting lost in the noise?

I think “the noise” is the point; Trump and Republicans are masters at bombarding the public with scandals as an intentional strategy to divide our attention in a dozen different directions. But what's important in this moment is recognizing that, even with full control of government, Republicans are not only failing to fix the problems they campaigned on, but exacerbating them. There are no Democrats to blame; this is what unbridled conservative governance looks like: heaping favors onto the rich at the expense of the working class. Trump is $4 billion richer, Elon Musk is a trillionaire, and meanwhile, Americans writ large are sicker, poorer, and hungrier than before Republicans took control of government. That doesn't happen in a vacuum; it is a deliberate policy choice.

3. Voting rights are once again at the center of the national fight, from the SAVE America Act to investigations and litigation around registration, mail ballots, and election administration. When Republicans frame these battles as “election integrity,” what is the clearest way for Democrats to explain what is really at stake?

Framing the suppression of voting rights as “election integrity” is riddled in bad faith. My pushback is simple: there is zero evidence of widespread voter fraud. But there is abundant, even constant, evidence of voter suppression. And until Republicans can prove widespread voter fraud exists, then I will continue to fight to expand voting rights, not shrink them.

4. You spend a lot of time confronting misinformation head-on. How do you reach people when facts alone don’t seem to break through anymore?

Fact-checks aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea, so I have to be creative and try to iterate. I do a comedy show every day called “Another Day,” which is my take on late-night. For those viewers, humor helps make the toxicity of politics a little more palatable. I also do short form content for viewers with a shorter attention span. I do deep dives into legal news for those who are interested in that world. And I try to amplify different creators who have their own unique take on things. Informing the public is a group effort, so it's going to take a lot of different people doing different things for different audiences in service of our one shared goal.

5. One of the most urgent questions for Democrats is whether they can offer a form of economic populism that actually reaches people who feel exhausted, squeezed, and cynical. After tax cuts, Medicaid fights, food assistance cuts, inflation, tariffs, and the cost-of-living debate, what would a Democratic economic message sound like if it were built to win, not just be correct?

I think Democrats have a tendency to miss the forest for the trees and use language that isn't always necessary accessible for regular Americans. So with that in mind, my message would be, quite simply, that Democrats can (and must) be in government to make your life easier and more affordable. Trump has shown us that the processes of government are not quite as sacrosanct as we once believed; the difference is that while he overcame them for his own personal benefit, Democrats must overcome them to help people. To expand healthcare and make it more affordable. To lower housing costs. To reduce produce, meat, and grocery prices. Trump fought for Trump; Democrats can, must, and will fight for the people.

You can hear more from Brian Tyler Cohen and his new book, The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World, at his 92NY event with Don Lemon on Wed, Jul 15. This event is part of the Newmark Civic Life series of Recanati-Kaplan Talks.