>> I'm still assuming and I'm ready to be shown to be naive on this, that eventually
he will get out of that building. But this is a sitting president refusing to accept the results
of an election that was done free and fair and fully-observed. This, while it can be funny,
is horrifying because we don't know what comes after this.
When he tweets the radical left Democrats working with their partner, the fake news media are
trying to steal this election, we won't let them. There's a threat. What is behind that threat? What
will you do? Do not let them steal the election from you. And when he says, the most fraudulent
election in history, after saying a few days ago that it was the most secure election history.
Okay, so, he's making pretty clear that he is not going to accept the results of it. So,
what happens? What happens after that? I don't know,
I don't know. But there was one good tweet from Ken Klippenstein. He said, I remember leftists
years ago saying Trump might refuse to concede and being told they were being hysterical, exactly.
Because there's always those anti anti-lefters who are gonna be like,
how dare you be worried about Donald Trump, the damage he's doing, the damage he promises to do
in the future? Well, if you predicted that Donald Trump might not accept the results of an election,
I don't know what more he needs to do.
Aside from tanks in the streets, this is how you refuse to accept the results of an election.
>> Yeah. And I remember when he first won, everyone was making the same joke,
which was basically, the, basically Donald Trump's first and America's last election,
like this is the last American election, and it was like, that's such a joke.
But like, come on y'all, we knew there was a grain of truth to that, and everyone was
sort of thinking that. And we all saw this moment coming. Like I love Colbert, I am happy that he
that he did not normalize and nor should any of us normalize the fact that a sitting president is
denying the results of the democracy that we have.
But like, let's not be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about this, like we all knew
this was a very real possibility. >> Yeah.
>> Yo, just set up like two governments, just White House, build the White House in front
of the current White House. I'm like, how do you, again, this is my, my feeling is in case,
ala Simpsons movie, in case the White House in a bubble, it's a Petri dish anyway,
it should be sealed off from the rest of the world, and then just build a new White House.
>> Yeah. Yeah, give him the presidential equivalent of letting your little brother
go into the arcade an mash the buttons but he doesn't actually have any quarters.
>> Yes! >> That's basically what
was, yeah, and I agree, I'm glad that they haven't normalized it. Yesterday
is season finale of John Oliver cuz he's gonna be off for a few months
because for some reason they treated as if his show is the Game of Thrones rather than
a news show that hypothetically you could do year round, I don't get it.
But, anyway, he did it all about the refusal to accept the results. And I love Colbert too. I have
to give it to him, his reaction to Trump's two Thursdays ago, press conference was very heartfelt
and raw. I also have to give it to him for the undeniable fact that my Trump impersonation
is just an impersonation of Stephen Colbert in person of Donald Trump, let's be clear about that.
>> But, anyway, yeah, I hope that in two and a half months we look back couple weeks into
the Joe Biden presidency and say, good, we were being a little bit much about that. I hope that
we get to that. But until we get to that, I'm not going to just assume that we get to that.
And so we're gonna take these threats, which is what they are,
as seriously as we feel like we need to. >> Yeah, the problem is, John,
and I'm of two minds about this, is because we know what happens
whenever mainstream media starts to take Donald Trump really seriously, right?
They give him a lot of air time. They take every word he says as verbatim,
which was mostly lies. And then he kind of, he is able to do whatever he wants. I mean I feel
like this is how we got Donald Trump in the first place, is that we, sure you have to treat what he
says somewhat seriously but we took his entire presidential campaign as if it were real, right?
And people just kept on running a rubber neck all the ridiculous things he said. So it's like
I am of this mind of keep treating him like a sad little clown and he will go away. And also,
my God, he could actually try to not leave,
look at the shakeups in the Department of Defense, all of this.
Time will tell and I have absolutely every ounce of faith that the American people will
take the streets nonviolently en masse. I am not so certain that the proud boys in
Trump's camp are going to do the same. >> Yeah, yeah, and I'm glad that you
mentioned that about the shakeups, too.
Because, look, I feel like, and again, maybe naively, maybe fatally naively, that the military
is not going to prop up a Trump dictatorship. But If that was what you were trying to do,
what would you do? You would clear out the top management of the Department of Defense and
replace it with people who are known for only one thing, personal loyalty to Donald Trump.
What has he done? Cleared out the top level of management of the Department of Defense and
replace with people who are only known because of their personal loyalty to Trump. He has done that.
That is what they did in other countries, and in some of those countries it worked.
For a few decades they were able to keep a guy in power
because they control the military. I'm not saying that that's what's going to happen,
I feel like that's not possible, that there's too many levels and the generals he hasn't fired
yet would stop it. But all of this does sound like the sort of thing scholars find someday.
Look how placid they were in the face of this encroaching authoritarianism.
>> Yeah. >> And I'm just saying,
all of this looks exactly like it would look if it ended with a dictator, that's all I'm saying.
>> Absolutely, and I think the other thing is that all mainstream outlets and most scholars
are like, well, in the end, democracy will prevail cuz it's so strong.
I mean, the American democracy is super strong. What? Have you been living in
the same country we have for four years? It's pretty weak, actually. It's like a,
it's a poorly put together IKEA table, it just sways and rocks and it will fall very soon. Like
we've all been living in this democracy, it's not that good.
So, yes, you're absolutely right, that like the idea that were not a tin-pot dictatorship. Like,
we very easily could become that. >> Yeah, I love that analogy. And
over time you start to think, wait, did I not tighten these bolts enough? But no,
you did! It's not you, it's the bolts, it's the table.
>> It was set up to fail. Anyway, yeah, I agree.