Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.340 --> 00:00:03.730
Democracies fall or slide towards autocracy all the time.
00:00:03.730 --> 00:00:08.271
It is our job as citizens to protect our democracy if we want to keep it.
00:00:08.271 --> 00:00:21.140
Welcome back to the United she Stands podcast, the show that brings kindness and women into politics.
00:00:21.521 --> 00:00:31.948
I'm Ashley and I'm Sarah and we're two women from Ohio who are here to become more educated about American politics and build a community so we can all get involved and make an impact together.
00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:34.801
We hope we'll inspire and empower you along the way.
00:00:34.801 --> 00:00:52.491
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the United she Stands podcast.
00:00:52.491 --> 00:01:11.962
We are going to dive into a topic that is so, so important and maybe it seems obvious, and that is why a second Trump term is a threat to our democracy, and we are recording this on July 17th, that is, four days after the attempted assassination on Donald Trump, but we did have this episode planned for this date well before this most recent event.
00:01:11.962 --> 00:01:24.225
However, with the recent events, we obviously had to add to this episode, and we have to start this episode now by saying that our hearts truly go out to the families and all those in Butler County that were impacted by this act of violence.
00:01:24.225 --> 00:01:26.890
Violence has no place in politics.
00:01:26.890 --> 00:01:29.635
It has no place in our schools or our communities either.
00:01:29.635 --> 00:01:38.257
Yet, unfortunately, as Americans, we see it all the time and we are going to talk more about this later, but the point here is that we absolutely denounce all forms of violence.
00:01:38.257 --> 00:01:40.283
As you know, all Americans really should.
00:01:40.283 --> 00:01:45.173
So, with all that said, it does not change our plan to record or release this episode.
00:01:45.579 --> 00:01:50.281
Explaining the ways that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy does not equate to calling for violence.
00:01:50.281 --> 00:01:57.893
The things he does and says have to be addressed, and they can and should be addressed in a way that shares information and truth without inciting violence.
00:01:57.893 --> 00:02:01.022
I would argue that this is what most folks have been doing.
00:02:01.022 --> 00:02:04.367
Trump and team are, of course, going to try to spin this and act like.
00:02:04.367 --> 00:02:13.451
The majority of hateful and extremely divisive, violent inciting rhetoric comes from his opponents or those who speak out against him, but the reality is that it's just not true.
00:02:13.451 --> 00:02:16.752
We have receipts, honestly, on all the different ways.
00:02:16.752 --> 00:02:24.092
Donald Trump is one of the main people and one of the major driving forces to the rhetoric in this country that does and has incited violence.
00:02:24.092 --> 00:02:34.912
He is trying to rewrite this narrative now where, if you say he is threatening democracy or if you share the parallels to how other fascist leaders rise to power with what he's doing, then you're the one inciting violence.
00:02:34.912 --> 00:02:42.385
Ultimately, this is just a ploy to silence folks like us and everyone else out there from calling him on the things he has done, said and plans to do.
00:02:43.268 --> 00:02:54.067
So, all that said, we can denounce violence and we absolutely do and we can talk about how mega extremists have helped put us in this position as a nation that is backsliding when it comes to our democracy.
00:02:54.067 --> 00:03:02.343
We can talk about the plans they have that are undemocratic, and we can, and we must still call Trump and team on the awful things they say, do and are planning to do.
00:03:02.343 --> 00:03:13.606
So back to the topic we had planned, which is still just as relevant, if not more relevant, and that is the threat Donald Trump does impose on our democracy as a candidate, and especially if he gets a second term.
00:03:13.606 --> 00:03:27.110
Like I said, maybe it's obvious to us, maybe it's obvious to you, but I personally know that I can't have trouble articulating just how bad things will be if he gets into office, when talking among friends and family, and especially if that conversation gets passionate.
00:03:27.110 --> 00:03:34.082
So we took the time to lay it out in an organized fashion, with some facts, data and examples, so we could better speak on it in the upcoming months.
00:03:34.605 --> 00:03:45.986
We're hoping sharing it with you today in a thoughtful way will help you better articulate all the reasons this man is so incredibly unfit to be our president and how significantly altered or diminished we may see our democracy if he gets back into office.
00:03:45.986 --> 00:03:47.829
Ready, sarah?
00:03:47.829 --> 00:03:50.112
I don't know, man.
00:03:50.112 --> 00:03:52.001
I know we haven't even started yet.
00:03:52.001 --> 00:03:53.264
I feel like I already have to take a breath.
00:03:53.264 --> 00:03:59.850
So, before officially diving in, what are we drinking today, sarah, and maybe tell me it's something strong to get us through it?
00:04:00.241 --> 00:04:02.585
Oh, I am absolutely telling you it's something strong.
00:04:02.585 --> 00:04:06.834
I have a nice seafoam from the one and only Jackie O's.
00:04:06.834 --> 00:04:09.429
It's a 7%, so it's quite up there.
00:04:09.429 --> 00:04:16.011
Honestly, I was looking through the beer in my fridge and this is the lowest percentage beer that I have left.
00:04:16.011 --> 00:04:19.591
So, honestly, it fits very well for today's topic.
00:04:19.591 --> 00:04:22.490
We're going to need a little extra something to get us through.
00:04:22.490 --> 00:04:25.009
Maybe go to beer number two, just depends.
00:04:25.009 --> 00:04:26.826
We'll see how it flows.
00:04:26.826 --> 00:04:27.983
Ash, what?
00:04:28.002 --> 00:04:28.605
are you drinking?
00:04:28.605 --> 00:04:33.692
Well, I said, make it strong, and I'm drinking a non-alcoholic beer, so I did the opposite.
00:04:33.692 --> 00:04:41.449
But I was on vacation last week Well, not really, I was traveling, I should say better and I drank a lot, so I just need a minute of a break.
00:04:41.449 --> 00:04:50.807
But we did get some really cool beer that we brought back from Wisconsin, so this is one of those.
00:04:50.807 --> 00:04:53.418
It's from entitled untitled art, which they do like really good fruited sours, and Nick got a couple packs of their non-alcoholic.
00:04:53.418 --> 00:04:58.509
So I'm drinking their mango dragon fruit and a fruited sour, so nice.
00:04:58.949 --> 00:05:00.874
It'll be like the placebo effect You'll like.
00:05:00.874 --> 00:05:03.384
It's like you know, it tastes like beer.
00:05:03.384 --> 00:05:07.432
You're going to need that to get through and, yeah, it'll be fine.
00:05:07.432 --> 00:05:09.536
Yeah, exactly, okay.
00:05:09.536 --> 00:05:26.142
So before we do anything today, we want to touch on who we will be supporting in the 2024 presidential election, and maybe you've guessed based on the episode topic today or the introduction Ash gave or our many social media posts, but we want to lay it out super clearly for everyone.
00:05:26.142 --> 00:05:32.545
Our goal is to be a place where people can come to learn and not a place where we tell you how to vote or who to vote for.
00:05:32.545 --> 00:05:35.713
But we just can't do that in this election.
00:05:35.713 --> 00:05:41.072
We will be advocating for a specific candidate and we will be advocating with all we have for them.
00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:46.122
The Republican Party, as folks used to know it before Donald Trump, is just no more.
00:05:46.122 --> 00:05:49.293
It hasn't been for years and we must accept that.
00:05:49.293 --> 00:06:02.803
We're not saying all Republican elected officials are MAGA Republicans, but the political party itself, meaning the folks that run the show and therefore a lot of the elected officials in prominent positions, are now MAGA Donald Trump Republicans.
00:06:02.803 --> 00:06:05.130
The days of Reagan and Bush are over.
00:06:05.130 --> 00:06:10.307
The rhetoric, the divisiveness, the hatred, the blatant threat to democracy.
00:06:10.307 --> 00:06:12.346
We cannot stand for any of it.
00:06:12.346 --> 00:06:28.432
Donald Trump and the current GOP leadership is a very serious threat to our democracy and, to be clear, when we say threat, we mean a threat that we have to deal with by sharing information about it and helping folks understand what they are doing and their agenda so we can defeat them at the ballot in November.
00:06:28.432 --> 00:06:39.552
But we will not soften that message, we will not partake in hate speech or dehumanize Trump or his supporters, but we will call the situation for exactly what it is, with examples and data.
00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:52.156
There are so many parallels to the messaging and actions him and MAGA Republicans have taken in the past decade, especially the past five years, to Hitler, mussolini and other fascists that rose to power.
00:06:52.156 --> 00:07:08.369
Just some fun little examples here include undermining our democratic processes, like our elections, with false accusations of fraud, dehumanizing and demonizing fellow Americans who do not support him by calling them rodents, infestations, etc.
00:07:08.369 --> 00:07:19.166
Attacking the objective truth and creating his own version of reality, attacking and undermining the media, embracing extreme nationalism and, honestly, the list goes on.
00:07:19.166 --> 00:07:22.290
I think the point has been made.
00:07:22.290 --> 00:07:26.370
We tell you all this to say we don't care who the Democratic nominee is.
00:07:26.370 --> 00:07:30.271
That is who we're going to be supporting and urging everyone to support this election.
00:07:30.271 --> 00:07:34.028
Not third party because you think Biden isn't great or too old.
00:07:34.028 --> 00:07:39.288
Not holding back a vote for Biden because we don't like the way he's handled Gaza or some of the things he's done.
00:07:39.288 --> 00:07:46.634
We must vote Democratic, whether it's Biden or not, if we want our country to still be a place of Democratic values in 2025.
00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:56.086
We must think long term and not be short-sighted for just the next four years there is a clear difference between these two parties at this point, and I will just say I'm not a party girl.
00:07:56.086 --> 00:07:58.202
Come on, that's funny.
00:07:58.202 --> 00:08:00.069
But seriously, I beg to differ.
00:08:00.069 --> 00:08:04.081
But seriously, you know, I don't like the two-party system.
00:08:04.081 --> 00:08:05.242
But seriously, you know, I don't like the two-party system.
00:08:05.242 --> 00:08:11.267
The thing is, none of that matters right now or, honestly, matters until Donald Trump and this entire mega movement is no longer at the helm.
00:08:11.267 --> 00:08:23.817
One of these parties believes and upholds our institutions and democratic processes, and one idolizes and thinks a man who lies, bribes his way into office and undermines democratic institutions this country is built on is basically their savior.
00:08:23.817 --> 00:08:34.657
Maybe folks think this stance is too dramatic or we're being alarmist, but we don't think that, and many other nonpartisan organizations and experts in the field of democracy don't either.
00:08:34.657 --> 00:08:40.322
You're seeing political scientists explain how dangerous our current predicament is and how Trump could take us to a point of no return.
00:08:40.322 --> 00:08:46.975
We have no desire to be part of the theatrics you see in the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, and we're not out here trying to scare folks.
00:08:46.975 --> 00:08:48.619
But we are paying attention.
00:08:48.619 --> 00:08:53.892
We are reading from a variety of sources, we are looking at studies and analysis and it's not good guys.
00:08:53.892 --> 00:09:04.229
That's the gist here, and it's so, so important that folks understand that this is not an election between two candidates where we are debating the best policies on the economy or how best to handle international relations.
00:09:04.649 --> 00:09:22.364
This election, we are deciding if we find it acceptable to let the most powerful man in the world do whatever he wants Lie, cheat, incite an insurrection, spew and spread hatred, commit fraud, bribe porn stars to influence the outcome of elections, embolden extremists to act, tip our country into violence, et cetera, et cetera.
00:09:22.364 --> 00:09:23.044
I think you get the point.
00:09:23.044 --> 00:09:33.784
Or if we think that no one, and definitely not the most powerful man in the world, should be allowed to do these things or be above the law.
00:09:33.784 --> 00:09:35.610
We would absolutely not allow his behavior in our homes or our workplaces or our schools.
00:09:35.610 --> 00:09:36.936
Why would we allow it to lead our country?
00:09:37.780 --> 00:09:48.748
In this election, we're deciding if we'll be a country that will uphold those democratic institutions and practices, if we'll uphold our freedoms and our rights outlined in the Constitution, if we'll be a country that continues to separate religion from state.
00:09:48.748 --> 00:09:55.794
We're deciding if we'll be a country where Americans, no matter their religion, race, skin color or gender, do not have to be afraid.
00:09:55.794 --> 00:09:57.537
That's what's on the line this election.
00:09:57.537 --> 00:10:06.182
Content of the day.
00:10:06.182 --> 00:10:18.711
We will be blatant and obvious this election season that Donald Trump is so unbelievably beyond unfit to be the president of the United States, and we will be doing everything in our power to make sure that a man who does nothing but lies and has plans to consolidate power under him in the executive branch is defeated at the ballot box this November.
00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:19.841
Drops mic.
00:10:19.841 --> 00:10:23.591
If it didn't cause so much noise in the background, we would drop mic.
00:10:23.591 --> 00:10:26.727
But honestly I feel like I was just on a high horse there.
00:10:26.779 --> 00:10:28.062
Okay, stepping down.
00:10:28.062 --> 00:10:29.908
We're going to talk about the data and the facts.
00:10:29.908 --> 00:10:30.909
Guys, let's do it.
00:10:31.431 --> 00:10:31.952
It was lovely.
00:10:31.952 --> 00:10:38.812
I appreciated everything you just said, but, yes, data and facts, because you know, ash and I are huge data girls, if you know, you know.
00:10:38.812 --> 00:10:42.083
So we have to start with the state of violence in our country.
00:10:42.083 --> 00:10:49.254
First and foremost, donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are the problem when it comes to rhetoric that incites violence in this country.
00:10:49.254 --> 00:10:56.423
Let's just take a look at a few examples here.
00:10:56.443 --> 00:10:59.636
In 2016, and even more in 2020, trump supporters brought weapons to intimidate opponents and vote counters.
00:10:59.636 --> 00:11:06.802
After authorities apprehended a right-wearing extremist plot to abduct Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, trump belittled the threat at a rally.
00:11:06.802 --> 00:11:09.788
He disparaged Whitmer as a political enemy.
00:11:09.788 --> 00:11:12.062
His supporters chanted lock her up.
00:11:12.062 --> 00:11:14.971
And Trump laughed and replied lock them all up.
00:11:14.971 --> 00:11:26.642
At an event in California back in October of 2023, shortly after Nancy Pelosi's husband was a victim of political violence, aka was attacked with a hammer.
00:11:26.642 --> 00:11:42.871
Trump says in a speech together we will take on the ultra left-wing liars, losers, creepers, perverts and freaks who are devouring the future of this state like a swarm of locusts his biggest supporters in government are no better, and he endorses these people and he emboldens them.
00:11:43.400 --> 00:11:48.293
Let's just look at one example here, and we're going to go with GOP representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
00:11:48.293 --> 00:11:54.990
She repeatedly expressed support for assassinating powerful Democrats In 2018 on Facebook.
00:11:54.990 --> 00:11:58.985
A supporter wrote on one of her posts in quotes here now do we get to hang them?
00:11:58.985 --> 00:12:04.047
Question mark question mark meaning H and O question mark question mark question question mark.
00:12:04.047 --> 00:12:08.388
That person was referring to obama and former secretary of state hillary clinton for h and o.
00:12:08.388 --> 00:12:16.280
Just to make sense of this, marjorie taylor green responded with in quotes here the stage is being set, players are being put in place.
00:12:16.280 --> 00:12:17.403
We must be patient.
00:12:17.403 --> 00:12:20.888
This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.
00:12:21.629 --> 00:12:32.408
End quote I mean, like I just that is someone who is in one of the highest elected federal congress.
00:12:32.828 --> 00:12:35.416
Yeah, yes, and then in 2019.
00:12:35.416 --> 00:12:37.924
Let's just, let's keep the ball rolling in 2019.
00:12:37.924 --> 00:12:43.464
She liked a facebook comment suggesting nancy pelosi get a, in quote pure bullet to the head.
00:12:44.164 --> 00:12:45.729
So lovely, isn't?
00:12:45.788 --> 00:12:47.974
it't it what those GOP people say.
00:12:49.020 --> 00:12:51.927
I can't even go on because my jaw won't stop dropping.
00:12:51.927 --> 00:12:59.172
And this doesn't even scratch the surface of things MAGA leaders are out there saying, or the impact that it actually has.
00:12:59.172 --> 00:13:09.371
Abc published a finding in 2020 where they could directly tie 54 cases of violence, threats or assault back to the thenresident, trump being the motivator behind them.
00:13:09.371 --> 00:13:20.495
Reviewing police reports and court records, abc News found that in at least 12 cases, perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst of immediate aftermath of physically assaulting innocent victims.
00:13:20.495 --> 00:13:33.465
In another 18 cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others, and in another 10 cases, trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain defendants' violent or threatening behavior.
00:13:34.527 --> 00:13:39.625
And this report was from 2020, so it doesn't even touch anything that has happened since then.
00:13:40.265 --> 00:13:43.980
And let me just be clear, a lot has happened since then.
00:13:44.923 --> 00:13:49.192
Trump and MAGA Republicans are the problem here when it comes to rhetoric that incites violence.
00:13:49.192 --> 00:13:57.293
We can't let the media or anyone spin this narrative now that it's both sides just because Trump was impacted by the same violence he regularly incites.
00:13:57.293 --> 00:13:59.004
Both sides are not the same.
00:13:59.004 --> 00:14:06.068
Let's just compare the responses to the political violence events of Nancy Pelosi's husband and to the assassination attempt on Trump.
00:14:06.068 --> 00:14:20.030
Just to kind of prove our point way more here, when a crazy man with a hammer almost killed the husband of then House Speaker, nancy Pelosi, donald Trump jeered and mocked in a speech where supporters in the crowd laughed and we do have video of this.
00:14:20.030 --> 00:14:24.279
I unfortunately watched it prepping for this episode and it is just as appalling as it sounds.
00:14:24.279 --> 00:14:26.542
I unfortunately watched it prepping for this episode and it is just as appalling as it sounds.
00:14:26.542 --> 00:14:27.943
Link is in the show notes if you really want to see it.
00:14:27.943 --> 00:14:30.405
Then on Truth Social he also wrote this.
00:14:30.947 --> 00:14:43.022
I purposely didn't comment on Nancy Pelosi's very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me with glee that was really quite vicious and he has it in quotes here of what she said.
00:14:43.022 --> 00:14:49.293
And he said I saw a scared puppy, she said as she watched me on television, like millions of others that didn't see that I wasn't scared.
00:14:49.293 --> 00:14:51.547
Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say.
00:14:51.547 --> 00:14:55.831
She is a wicked witch whose husband's journey from hell starts and finishes with her.
00:14:55.831 --> 00:14:59.650
She is sick and a demented psycho who will someday live in hell.
00:14:59.650 --> 00:15:06.443
This is after this man was brutally beaten with a hammer in the head and almost killed Then on top of that.
00:15:06.443 --> 00:15:07.628
So that's Donald Trump's response.
00:15:07.628 --> 00:15:23.028
Donald Jr, his son, retweeted a photo of a Paul Pelosi Halloween costume in quotes here, showing a picture of underwear and a hammer, because, for those that don't know, he was in his underwear when he was attacked so very sensitive humans.
00:15:23.067 --> 00:15:23.791
here we have right.
00:15:23.791 --> 00:15:37.796
Someone was brutally attacked, and this is the response and several GOP members, instead of reaching out or offering condolences, like everyone has done since the attempted assassination of former President Trump, these are the kinds of things they're saying, and GOP members started conspiracy theories around the attack.
00:15:38.801 --> 00:15:39.884
Real impasse here.
00:15:39.884 --> 00:15:41.830
Yeah, yeah, yes.
00:15:41.830 --> 00:16:11.724
No-transcript president's rally today are unharmed.
00:16:11.724 --> 00:16:13.107
That was Nancy.
00:16:13.107 --> 00:16:17.846
Now President Biden wrote in quotes I'm grateful to hear that he's safe and doing well.
00:16:17.846 --> 00:16:21.283
I'm praying for him and his family and for all of those who are at the rally.
00:16:21.283 --> 00:16:26.953
As we await further information, jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety.
00:16:26.953 --> 00:16:29.567
There's no place for this kind of violence in America.
00:16:29.567 --> 00:16:31.788
We must unite as one nation to condemn it.
00:16:31.788 --> 00:16:43.312
He then also addressed the nation the next day from the Oval Office and he said in that address again quotes here Our politics must never be a literal battlefield and, god forbid, a killing field.
00:16:43.312 --> 00:16:51.076
We stand for an America not of extremismism and fury, but of decency and grace I mean, can we see the difference?
00:16:51.177 --> 00:16:54.705
I hope it's very obvious, but, um, I don't know.
00:16:54.705 --> 00:17:05.828
Yeah, so just to drive the point home here, and apparently I really had marjorie taylor green at the top of my mind when I was looking for people who said bad things, but I know she does, so I probably did.
00:17:05.828 --> 00:17:07.872
It's not hard to find.
00:17:07.872 --> 00:17:09.615
Yeah, here is her response.
00:17:09.615 --> 00:17:18.309
And this is the response to after Donald Trump's assassination attempt, where most people are calling for unity and lessening rhetoric and all that kind of good stuff.
00:17:18.309 --> 00:17:19.839
Here is what she wrote in quotes.
00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:24.005
Here we are in a battle between good and evil Good and evil in caps, by the way.
00:17:24.005 --> 00:17:30.892
The Democrats are the party of pedophiles murdering the innocent, unborn violence and bloody, meaningless, endless wars.
00:17:30.892 --> 00:17:35.936
They want to lock up their political opponents and terrorize innocent Americans who would tell the truth about it.
00:17:35.936 --> 00:17:40.621
The Democrat?
00:17:40.641 --> 00:17:42.185
Party is flat-out evil and yesterday they tried to murder President Trump.
00:17:42.185 --> 00:17:51.121
And just a side note here there is no evidence at all that any Democrat was involved or that even this man who attempted the assassination was moved or motivated by Democrats.
00:17:51.121 --> 00:17:55.132
The person who attempted the assassination was a registered Republican.
00:17:55.132 --> 00:18:05.556
There's also evidence that he donated $15 to ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising apparatus, on January 20th 2021, the date of President Joe Biden's inauguration.
00:18:05.556 --> 00:18:16.932
The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project, but this organization says that this was the only donation from him and he's been unsubscribed from their lists for over two years now.
00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:18.682
Good point, sarah, really good point.
00:18:18.682 --> 00:18:26.647
So back to our main point of this section here is that MAGA messaging Trump and those he endorses are the problem here.
00:18:26.647 --> 00:18:28.109
When it comes to inciting violence.
00:18:28.109 --> 00:18:33.509
In the current state we are in in our country, both sides are not the same and we have to stop pretending like they are.
00:18:33.921 --> 00:18:41.094
So the violence alone should honestly be enough, in our opinion, to end conversations about why Trump and MAGA Republicans are unfit.
00:18:41.094 --> 00:18:43.507
Like that's it, folks.
00:18:43.507 --> 00:18:49.326
He's a man who spews hatred and has incited the worst in so many over the past almost decade.
00:18:49.326 --> 00:18:49.867
Honestly.
00:18:49.867 --> 00:19:07.891
But if that's not enough and we know for some folks it isn't, somehow but we want to talk about one of the arguments we've either heard or seen out there from people, and that is it wasn't that bad the first time, meaning it wasn't that bad the first time president or former President Donald Trump was in office.
00:19:07.891 --> 00:19:12.570
First of all, we still don't fully understand the damage he did, as it's still playing out.
00:19:12.570 --> 00:19:21.722
But let's talk about the damage we do know about, and we're going to start with the entire fake news world we live in now, which is so dangerous, where there are some kindling here.
00:19:21.762 --> 00:19:28.038
Prior to Trump entering the scene, he added gasoline and then lit the match when he started his campaign back in 2015.
00:19:28.038 --> 00:19:41.291
Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute back in 2015, said there were a couple of forces at play for years before Trump entered politics that has enabled him to do this.
00:19:41.291 --> 00:19:51.169
Those forces were the fact that people were desensitized to inflammatory rhetoric, the assault on science and expertise and the increasing reliance on partisan media.
00:19:51.169 --> 00:19:58.749
Add the ability for conspiracy theories and disinformation to spread on social media and we have the lack for a better word here.
00:19:58.749 --> 00:20:00.365
The shit show we are in now.
00:20:00.846 --> 00:20:01.941
We do so.
00:20:01.941 --> 00:20:16.048
In 2016, oxford Dictionary selected the word post-truth as its word of the year and defined it as the state of affairs when, in quotes here, objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.
00:20:16.048 --> 00:20:18.323
And I think that kind of sums up the 2016 election.
00:20:18.323 --> 00:20:22.781
Anyway, this is exactly the world we started living in back then and continue to live in now.
00:20:22.781 --> 00:20:35.940
Politifact, which is a non-profit organization that credibly fact-checks politicians on both sides of the aisle, named Fake News their lie of 2016, and said in quotes here fake news is the boldest sign of a post-truth society.
00:20:35.940 --> 00:20:41.641
When we can't agree on basic facts, or even that there are such things as facts, how do we even talk to each other?
00:20:41.641 --> 00:20:47.452
And this quote exactly sums up the point we are trying to make here the objective truth seems to no longer matter.
00:20:47.452 --> 00:20:53.938
Let's just take a super basic example that really shouldn't have anything to do with politics, to be honest, and that's the weather.
00:20:53.938 --> 00:20:57.490
Do we all remember Sharpiegate in 2019?
00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:04.672
Well, if you don't, don't worry, we'll remind you so we can walk through this example of how Trump and team refused to live in a land of reality.
00:21:04.672 --> 00:21:08.279
You, so we can walk through this example of how Trump and team refuse to live in a land of reality.
00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:14.527
Trump tweeted in 2019 that Alabama was one of the states at greater risk for Hurricane Dorian than had been initially forecasted.
00:21:14.527 --> 00:21:19.988
This hurricane was on track to hit the east coast of Florida, so not the Gulf where Alabama is located.
00:21:19.988 --> 00:21:27.731
The Federal Weather Office in Birmingham then tweeted that actually, alabama would be unaffected by the storm, unlike what the president had said.
00:21:27.731 --> 00:21:41.932
Trump, having to be right and unwilling to accept reality, then went on basically a campaign to assure folks that Alabama was at risk, and this effort included eventually showcasing a hurricane map that was crudely altered with a Sharpie.
00:21:41.932 --> 00:21:45.824
The Sharpie was used to include Alabama in the track of the hurricane.
00:21:46.404 --> 00:21:47.967
Just Google it, folks, if you want to see the drawing.
00:21:47.967 --> 00:21:48.928
It's pretty pathetic.
00:21:48.928 --> 00:21:53.239
Maybe you or someone you know would be like whatever everyone knows.
00:21:53.239 --> 00:21:53.820
That's not real.
00:21:53.820 --> 00:21:55.051
Well, here's the issue.
00:21:55.051 --> 00:21:56.635
First of all, folks don't.
00:21:56.635 --> 00:22:01.721
Some people think the media and everything about it is made up and they only believe what this man now says.
00:22:02.664 --> 00:22:11.640
Second, and maybe the bigger issue here is that behind the scenes, the White House jumped into action to try to pressure federal weather experts into saying Trump was right and they were wrong.
00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:13.625
And this is the dangerous part.
00:22:13.625 --> 00:22:15.791
He's not a lone man spewing his lies.
00:22:15.791 --> 00:22:25.892
He was surrounded then by a bunch of yes, people, an entire team of people in powerful positions who will do what they can to ensure his false narratives and lies are sold to as many people as possible.
00:22:25.892 --> 00:22:28.317
And if people didn't do that, he fired them.
00:22:28.317 --> 00:22:30.340
So back to the question.
00:22:30.340 --> 00:22:39.403
If we can't even agree on the path of a hurricane which experts came together and published no one else was disputing this hurricane path how do we talk to each other?
00:22:39.403 --> 00:22:43.141
How do we have meaningful conversations about real issues impacting America?
00:22:43.141 --> 00:22:46.579
We just can't, and Trump and team have created this situation for us.
00:22:47.590 --> 00:22:52.500
I do want to give props to whoever coined the term Sharpie, sharpie.
00:22:52.840 --> 00:22:53.903
I know so solid.
00:22:53.903 --> 00:23:00.855
I know I saw it in an article, it's in the sources somewhere, but yeah, I'm not sure where it first started, but it is pretty solid.
00:23:01.477 --> 00:23:04.482
Oh my gosh, that's incredible, oh man.
00:23:04.869 --> 00:23:14.311
Ok, so let's move on to the second thing we're going to talk about today in regards to the damage that he's already done and this is going to be the damage he has done to our democratic processes.
00:23:14.257 --> 00:23:24.682
The big news world that he has done to our democratic processes, the fake news world that he has created that we just talked about, has made it possible to also undermine democracy, primarily through false claims on election fraud Before the 2016 election.
00:23:24.682 --> 00:23:32.353
So almost a decade ago which is crazy to say he started making claims that widespread voter fraud is happening in the United States.
00:23:32.353 --> 00:23:36.079
This is completely untrue and we'll share the research on this later.
00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:42.436
To prove this point, and even at the time, both Democratic and Republican election officials were telling folks it was not true.
00:23:42.436 --> 00:23:49.016
Trump claimed this fraud during the 2016 election when he was down in the polls, and he said it even after he won, too.
00:23:49.016 --> 00:24:06.737
His ultimate goal Get folks to not believe election results, hence undermining one of our most critical components of our democracy, and we could not go without saying that this rhetoric he started back then set him up for the exact scenario we saw in 2020, where he would claim the election results were false and tried to stay in power.