Nicolle Wallace: ‘Donald Trump will give authoritarianism a are trying if re-elected’ 

Welcome to the end of democracy we're here to overthrow it completely we didn't get all the way there on January 6th but we will we we will endeavor to to get rid of it obvious point to make about Donald Trump is take him literally and seriously he means what he says now he is telling us what He intends to do and.

People who try to wish it away brush it away are living in a alternative uh reality he will do everything he can to become an absolute authoritarian leader if given the opportunity to do so hi there everyone you've been warned it's 5:00 in New York we may finally have landed on this one thing but everyone can agree on that the disgrace.

Twice impeached four times indicted ex-president is not at all interested in continuing the American experiment and continuing this democracy thing we've been trying to perfect for the last last 247 years from former Senator and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton making those very pointed comments that were basically echoed by that guy Jack.

Something talking about actually ending democracy those are his words finishing the job they started on January 6 people on both sides of the spectrum if you will are saying the same thing gotten the message loud and clear Donald Trump will give authoritarianism a try if re-elected it's not hyperbole it's not Trump Arrangement syndrome and Donald.

Trump keeps hinting it an outright telling us it is on his demented bucket list you are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody except for day one he says you're not going to be a dictator are you I said no no no other than day one when somebody's the president of the United States The.

Authority is is total and that's the way it's got to be toal your auor is total it's total it's total a great leader in Europe Victor Orban he's the he's the prime minister of Hungary he's a very great leader very strong man some people don't like him because he's too strong it's nice to have a strong man running your.

Country and you might think you say those things that rhetoric is going to stop voters in their tracks it'll never happen here that it would be political Kryptonite to run like that in America not necessarily these were voters in South Carolina from Saturday I believe that sometimes history calls for strong men to be.

Strong leaders at Key times in our history and I think he would be perfect for the job amen that was real America needs a strong man and she was saying amen so let's have that conversation right let's do it right here what kind of damage could an American president who is autocracy curious autocracy committed do.

To our way of life to every facet of Civic Life as we know it what would happen to let's say women's rights what's left of them or civil rights or the Judiciary or the military or your money right money in bank accounts if our democracy started to look and be shaped more like an autocracy or a dictatorship that's something we're.

Going to dig into and explore on this program in a new series we're calling American autocracy it could happen here and as if on Q to Aid us just security launched their very own American autocracy threat tracker I'm kidding they did it on their own not to Aid us at all but it's amazing and we'll highlight it and brag about it and and.

Pull pieces out for you it's a comprehensive and chilling catalog of the threats Donald Trump has already made to move America toward an autocracy politica was also out with some brand new reporting on this they report this quote former top officials from Donald Trump's Administration are warning he's likely to use a second term to overhaul.

The nation's spy agencies in a way that could lead to an unprecedented level of politization of intelligence and push even harder to replace people perceived as hostile to his political agenda with inexperienced loyalists that could empower the former president's top subordinates to Shield him from information that doesn't conform with.

His politics and even change the wording of Assessments with which he disagrees sounds like a dictator's dream and a national and international nightmare it's where we start this hour with some of our favorite experts and Friends our top notch panel is Ruth bot professor of history at NYU author of strong men musolini to the present plus professor.

In American Social thought and chair of the Department of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania MSNBC columnist and Thea Butler is here and endowed chair chair in civil rights at Howard University charlyn Eiffel is here it's an honor to have all of you here I want to start with you Ruth I've been watching you and reading you and.

Amplifying everything you've tweeted and said and I and I wonder if you have a theory on why everyone isn't having this conversation well one of the things that my research shows uh is from the Germans in the 19 early 1930s to the Chileans in the early 1970s who said we're not going to have a coup as all the countries around them had a.

Cwp uh people are always in denial they're always unprepared and very often they think that it can't happen here and nowadays this is a much more um this is much more difficult to comprehend because today's autocrats tell you what they're going to do Donald Trump he was president and he's saying very openly that he admires dictators Putin Xi.

Jinping even the leader of North Korea and authoritarianism is a system where government is arranged so that the leader has total control and can commit crimes and not pay any consequences and that's what he's saying that he wants for the US and it's been a struggle to wake people up why do you think why why do you think people C and I guess I.

Asked that because it feels like in 15 and 16 he benefited from I won't say seeming being very ignorant of world history and world affairs but he ran the country for four years and his ignorance has now been detailed by three or four former secret former Chiefs of Staff a um General Kelly said he was the most damaged person he'd ever seen up close.

Mattis resigned for cause I think every head of the intelligence agency's left and um seemed to have been traumatized by everything they witnessed from the person who was the country's commander-in-chief there's a lot of reporting and accounting from inside the tank where they try to educate him and.

Brief him chairman Millie had to literally walk the line I mean US National Security was on a um knife's Edge for four years it happened already how are we contemplating doing it again because Donald Trump far from being a clown or lazy he's been Relentless at at propagandizing and at being an.

Authoritarian personality one of these um traits and unfortunately for us he fits the personality profile of every leader in my book the outcomes are different if you have an old-fashioned dictatorship but the damaged personality the destructive personality where all he cares about is loyalty and making money uh for his private you know businesses.

And his family from office is exactly the same same so these types of leaders don't they're not interested in governing they're interested in getting power and making money and they don't recognize any difference between public and private everything is theirs for the taking and that's how we've ended up with highly classified sensitive.

National Security documents in the bathroom of his private residents that's how they roll so he's he is uh he is an aberration of heads of state in America but everything about him is typical of authoritarians and it can't happen without I won't even say complicity but enthusiasm right those were two of his supporters no one no one dug around or.

Or or had to you know punt them out those are his supporters actively saying out loud that they want a strong man how do you fix the sickness in a culture that wants to be something other than a democracy where every vote counts it's very difficult to Nicole I think part of what hap what's happening now is is that people see him as a kind of a father.

Figure but also a personality that could take care of them okay and so for that woman who was in the clip that said amen that's also the religious piece of this because basically they think of him as kind of a demigod if you remember back during the campaign in 2016 and then what happened afterwards people called him King Cyrus they likened him to the.

Bible all of this iconography with Jesus behind him on his shoulders he's not just a figure of of popularity like you'd follow a movie star or something he's much more than that to them and so they are willing to follow him and they are willing to give their lives over to him because they know that somehow with him being in office it's going to make.

Their lives important too but what is that I mean the other piece and Tim Alberto has done some great reporting on on sort of the the the the erosion if you will in inside the Evangelical movement and their support and the trade-offs make I mean he is someone who hasn't displayed any morality or character in the public space and yet.

All of these socalled moral institutions are all in how does that happen well it happens because they want power and I will refer you to last Thursday when he was at National Religious broadcasters and he said I've come to give you back power and when you say that you understand that they don't need him to be a moral person they don't need him to.

Be upstanding they need him to give them power and in that way if they're empowered they can do all the rest of the things that they think they believe in morally and I think that's the important part I talk a lot about this in my book White Evangelical racism I try to explain to people that morality is a shield for them it is a protection.

Because it makes it look like you're religious when what you really want is power and you will use your religion to get power and I think that's something in the American context is a little bit difficult for people to understand but it's very important to understand when we're facing autoc s.

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