Trump's new interviews and appearances show that a storm is brewing
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Brian Stelter (MSN)
"Our country will not survive this."
I watched Donald Trump's entire "interview" with One America News propagandist Dan Ball, and that's the quote that stood out the most.
Trump was in the middle of a fact-free rant about "vicious" Democrats cheating on elections when he said "they're destroying our country. Our country will not survive this. Our country will not survive." Then he sniffed and shifted to immigration, saying "look at where they're coming from," clearly mimicking the "great replacement theory" talking points that Tucker Carlson has been mainlining into homes across the country.
These are all signs of the gathering storm. Trump's incessant lies about the last election (Biden "didn't get 81 million votes, there's no way," he told OAN) pose obvious threats to future elections. The so-called "Stop the Steal" movement is "racing forward," ignoring the Arizona audit "humiliation," the NYT pointed out over the weekend.
Most of us can feel the instability in the air the same way a weather forecaster can feel a storm coming on. News outlets need to be providing storm warnings -- but some are ignoring the threat. That's what my opening essay on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" telecast was about. Anti-democratic talking points are being paraded across networks like Newsmax, and averting one's eyes doesn't make the parade go away...
"Cowardly"
The "right-wing media, with a few honorable exceptions, is one giant safe space for the Big Lie," historian and "On Tyranny" author Timothy Snyder told me. So the reality-based press needs to make "democracy the story," he said, because elements of the GOP are actively working to subvert future elections through laws, regulations and propaganda efforts. Snyder quite realistically described how a presidential loser could be cast as the winner in 2024. "That is what's happening right before our eyes right now," he said, "and we're just too cowardly to look at it."
He meant "we" in the broad political sense, of course, and the people and platforms who are staring this threat square in the face deserve credit. CNN's coverage has been unwavering. At Politico, one of the most-read articles over the weekend was titled "What If 2020 Was Just a Rehearsal?" Over at the Washington Post, Robert Kagan's powerful essay about the looming struggle is still the most-popular link on the entire website, three full days after it was published.
Chuck Todd invoked Kagan on Sunday's "Meet the Press" and asked, "What are close elections going to look like on November of '22?" Well, that's the thing, panelist Leigh Ann Caldwell said: "It's not about the past election anymore. They're still talking about the past election, but they're trying to delegitimize future elections." Todd responded, "I think that's the concern we all have... I used to love a close election. Now I fear the impact of what unpacking that would be." That's why we need to talk about it. Why we need to forecast the possibilities...
Liz Cheney says many lawmakers privately agree with her
In Sunday's "60 Minutes" profile of Liz Cheney, Lesley Stahl asked, "Have members of Congress, Republicans, come up to you privately and whispered in your ear, 'Way to go Liz,' and encouraged you, but won't come forward and say that publicly?"
"Yes," Cheney said. "A lot?" "Yes," Cheney said. "Both in the House and the Senate."
The exchange reminded me of the word Snyder used earlier in the day -- cowardly.
The "60" profile ended with a warning by Cheney. "Silence enables the liar," she said. "And silence helps it to spread. So the first thing you have to do is say, 'No. I'm not going to accept that we're going to live in a post-truth world.' It's a toxin, Lesley, in, in our political bloodstream. Because when we allow that to continue to go on in the face of rulings of the courts, in the face of recounts, in the face of everything that's gone on to demonstrate that there was not fraud that would have changed the outcome, then we all -- if we do that, we are contributing to the undermining of our system. And it's a really serious and dangerous moment because of that."
Democracy "is in the midst of a grave recession"
Here's a sign of a compelling cable news segment: You grab the remote halfway through, rewind to the beginning, and pay attention to every word. That's what I did when Pamela Brown interviewed Rick Hasen and Ian Bassin on Saturday. Hasen said widespread acceptance of the Big Lie has greatly increased the chances that "we could see a stolen election in 2024." And Bassin added a global POV, pointing out that "if you look around the world, democracy is actually in the midst of a grave recession."
Look to countries like Hungary, Poland and Venezuela, he said: "They're no longer really democratic, although they still purportedly hold elections. And now three of the four largest democracies in the world -- India, Brazil, United States -- have been governed by autocrats in recent years." He said "the thing that is going to stop us from falling down that path is if we recognize that we are not immune to this global trend. It's only by thinking that it can't happen here that it could."
It's only by thinking that it can't happen here that it could...
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Is America ever going to wake the fuck up?
Yes. The coming midterms will destroy the duplicitous Dem demons and devils
"look at where they're coming from," is blatant and INTENTIONAL racism
So anyone who believes in American sovereignty is a racist?
And everyone coming over that border is non-white?
New Americans do not cause America to lose sovereignty.
I think we do need to lessen immigration for a while, but it needs to be done in a comprehensive way that keeps the opportunity there for those who need asylum or to be reunited with their families.
is a blatant racist appeal. If you dont see that then you are missing the point.
"New Americans?" We are talking about people entering the country illegally and entering en masse.
I think we do need to lessen immigration for a while,
I agree and illegal immigration needs to be prevented entirely. It will take Republicans giving up on using the border crisis for political purposes and democrats giving up on their new found love affair with the fruits of open borders.
No, anyone who believes in American sovereignty over "shithole countries", is a racist.
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Only because that's how YOU want to label it
Another open ended Trump quote? Where did most of the Haitians come from? Was it Haiti or other parts of South America?
"For starters, a majority of the Haitians who illegally crossed into the United States to seek asylum did not come directly from Haiti. Due to Haiti's long-standing problems and natural disasters, many Haitians have left the country and settled in other countries in Central and South America, particularly Chile and Brazil."
While speaking with the immigrants at the makeshift camp under the international bridge in Del Rio, we noticed they could speak Spanish. Most Haitians who live in Haiti speak Haitian Creole or French. One man said he had been living in Chile the past few years before recently making his way up towards the United States, another said he was living in Brazil. The evidence the majority of Haitians not coming directly from Haiti is due to discarded identification documents having been found on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.
the reason Haitian migrants discard their Chilean and Brazilian ID cards over here on the Mex side is to obscure from asylum reviewers that they were already safely and prosperously situated for years and years before coming for the American upgrade.
Illegal immigrants do.
No one has a problem with legal immigration; they follow US laws. What those crossing the southern border are doing violate US laws. Biden's failure to enforce our borders and immigration laws is sickening.
Democrats in Congress are so upset they will not get their 8 million VISA's in their reconciliation porkulus bill. Now they will have to actually negotiate immigration reform. Like that will ever happen.
Most of the right don't care about racism, they are proud to have it in open display.
Of course, that is what it is all about.
That's how they keep their base voters.
The progressives clearly wish to replace the white citizens of the US
Trump is appealing to race war in order to reinstall himself to power.
Republicans created this monster when they failed to address Bush and all the lying about WMD, etc. Then Republicans got behind the fake "tea party" to change the subject from the economic crash and the failures of the Bush administration.
This was always, always going to be dumbed down to the lowest point because Republicans were never about the people or policies that actually solve anything. Why solve it when it can be milked for fake outrage to the base.
All Republicans want is for Corporations to donate to Republican candidates, and then reward them after an economic crash by designating Corporations as "people" using backwards speak and calling it "Citizens United".
Republicans never wanted the Roe v Wade issue settled because without it they can't milk the base for fake outrage.
Republicans don't want immigration solved because if they really wanted it they would have solved it with Bush as governor of Texas and with Bush as President, with Rick Perry as governor of Texas and with Jeb Bush as governor of Florida, Reagan as governor of California and as President.
Republicans play with their base knowing they will go along with anything as long as they can be easily distracted from their failures by stoking outrage on social issues or lying about policies. They lie about WMD, invading the wrong countries, they lie about immigration, lie about anything under the sun if they think the base will get riled up and re-elect them to "own the libs".
The reckoning has arrived and if Republicans don't start stepping up to save America and all of us by denouncing the extremism that has gone to far we really are in trouble. They created this mess but I truly don't think could see what was coming.
Trump flat out tried to steal the election and the Republicans remained almost totally silent. They are not going to do anything and America is in trouble like we havent seen since the Civil War. Meanwhile much of the population remains essentially apathetic.
What was the deal for amnesty in 1986?
The deal known as the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 granted amnesty immediately in return for trusting Congress to deliver on border security later.
That's how we got here!
Vic, you support someone who tried to steal the election and undermine American democracy. He has to be bum rushed out of American politics before he causes a catastrophe in our society.
That's what I regard as a loaded question.
Do I think that Donald Trump is wrong to keep claiming the election was stolen, when he can't prove it? Of course he is wrong!
Do I think Trump was wrong to try and get Republican officials, including his own VP to stop certification? Of course he was wrong!
That being said, I am very much in favor in the policies he put forward as President and I am totally against that ideology now in control of the democratic party. Therefore, despite my objections to his conduct, I would gladly vote for him again.
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I honestly don't think it's Vic John. Seriously
Donald Trump is eligible to be criminally indicted for trying to steal the election in Georgia.
Donald Trump approved a plan to try and steal the election through manipulating state electors.
Donald Trump says he won Arizona in a landslide even though a right wing audit of the votes showed Biden won, and Trump knows it.
Seriously.
Gee, this is like those Sundays when I used to watch Firing Line. You'll have everyone here reaching for a dictionary!
We have seen and lived under the dystopian reality for 8 months now. The polls show it.
Your view of America is completely upside down.
At some point, around the time of Derrick Bell's teachings, liberals wound up on the wrong side of history.
If racism had ended with the end of slavery things would be different today. Instead formal racism continued for another 100 years, and formed the basis for what we have now.
Now there has to be a national reckoning. It could be peaceful of course, but the white grievance crowd would rather go down fighting. Now they wish to be the victims. It is beyond absurd.
What kind of democracy allows rampant migration, disminished citizenship, devaluation of it's own monetary system, rampant crime and indoctrination of it's young?
Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.
The left swapped equality for equity & Marxism.
Yes, the good fight will be fought.
The right is bizarrely obsessed with Marxism. Rather than admit up to four centuries of racism and white supremacy and put the issue behind us they are obsessed with proving that POC color are fostering communism. Its ridiculous.
Remove class and insert race and you have CRT as created by Derrick Bell.
BLM isn't afraid to tell us who they are.