Texas Tribune Festival: More panels and events

Sarah Longwell and David Simis: Who the Voters Really Are

Sarah Longwell & David Simas — **Sarah Longwel**l and **David Simas** discuss who the voters really are at a Tribfest panel. David Simas is Managing Director, Research, Emerson Collective; Former White House Director of Political Affairs Sara Longwell is the executive director of Republican Voters Against Trump, a nationwide campaign showcasing former Trump voters who no longer support him. She is also the publisher of The Bulwark news site and hosts “The Focus Group” podcast. Texas Tribune Festival, Austin Texas. (photo by Clair LaVaye) #tribfest24

Sarah Longwell, Bulwark pubisher. tells #Tribfest24 who are currently the big influencers pushing Trump with 2024 voters: “Fox News? C’mon! Fox News is doing Gods Work compared to these online rightwing influencers!” Her remark was said to make a comparison to the damage being caused by so-called “independent” media outlets and influencers, including the Russia-funded fake U.S. websites and podcasts hosted by people like Tim Pool. #Russia #UsefulIdiots #Tucker #TimPool #TenetMedia

Keynote speaker Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Gretchen Whitmer’s keynote speech at Tribfest24

Laura Barrón-López & Alejandro Mayorkas

National Security and the role of U.S. Homeland Security

Alejandro Mayorkas lists challenges facing United States national security: home grown terrorists and extremists, radicalized by internal and external forces. These are low-educated citizens, influenced by radical media, carrying real and perceived grievances and grudges against authority. Some have mental health issues. Some have a history of domestic violence.

Security information: The U.S. national security agency curates data gathered by other agencies and disseminate relevant information to local agencies who can act on it to prevent violence, to warn of potential cyber-attacks and prevent attacks. The goal is to stay aware of the disinformation disseminated.

Misinformation versus disinformation. Mayorkas favors the word disinformation, which are lies that seek to do deliberate harm.

Security threats, domestic and foreign: The security threats are real and our threat landscape is more worrisome both domestically and globally. With foreign adversaries, Russia is the most active in targeting our elections with interference and spreading narratives to try to influence the electorate and to foment discord. Also, the agency is seeing an enhanced ISIS global network of concern. They are aware of increased propagation of antisemitism and Islamophobia, post October 7^th.

The Border: Mayorkas discusses deployment of the National Guard at the Texas border, says that border politics has wreaked havoc. Mayorkas points out that at this time, the “only way to reach the border is through traffickers.” He adds that that the U.S. has multiple threats it must handle, including disaster response, but that policy and politics are separate things. Despite bipartisan agreements, and knowing the system is broken, and desperate needs to be addressed, nothing has been accomplished. #BorderCrisis