-Thousands of Trump supporters have descended on the capital
from across the country,
insisting that the vote has been stolen from Donald Trump.
There is no evidence of mass fraud.
Joe Biden is the president-elect
according to official vote tallies of legally passed votes.
But despite that,
America is living in two different realities,
and Trump supporters are worried about a future
without him in charge.
So, before all this happened,
I talked to people and asked them,
"Why are you so anxious?"
-You are a sheep. You are a sheep.
It's a plandemic.
It's a scam.
-But today what we're talking about is an election
that's about to be stolen.
-I pray that you would expose the truth
of what is going on, Lord,
and that the truth would prevail in justice.
In your name, amen. -Amen.
Amen.
-We were just praying about the election,
that whoever truthfully does win this election
would actually be inaugurated on January 20th.
And I feel like one of the first things that needs to be
addressed after this election is election integrity.
-Stop the steal!
-There is no evidence of mass voter fraud.
Both Republicans and Democratic poll observers
and international observers say there were no major problems.
-There have been forces at work in an attempt
to create this chaos
so that it will put somebody who doesn't necessarily deserve
to be president in power or create division and strife.
-So, help me understand how, when President Trump,
weeks before the election, when he says,
"Voter fraud, stealing the election --"
-The mail ballots are corrupt.
-How does that affect what people think is happening?
-There's legitimate argument to be made
that he's abrasive and his methods
are not necessarily the best for our body politic,
but like it or not, this is who he is.
He's not afraid to call it like he sees it.
-If Biden wins, what are you afraid of?
-I'm concerned about most of his agenda
and how it would affect my family.
We are Christian believers.
I believe science bears out that the unborn child is life
and that when, you know --
when we abort a child that that is murder
and that is a stain on our country.
-Are there areas where you feel like the Democrats
do not get it?
Do not get it?
-Well, I mean, I believe that they would look at me and --
and feel that I was a loony.
I think that those battle lines are so firmly entrenched,
oftentimes, it's hard to have a conversation about those things.
-What do you think is doing that?
-The coverage in the media. -Mm-hmm.
-Even as I'm saying these things to you, I'm thinking,
"Oh, my goodness, I'm allowing for so many different,
like, cuts of this interview to be taken out of context."
-I get Sarah's concerns.
I don't think that journalists often understand
the complexity of Trump voters.
But I also don't think people understand that checking facts
is not an attack on Trump.
Before I found Sarah and while the polls were still open,
it was a little hard
to find Trump supporters who would talk to me.
Hi. I'm with The Washington Post.
I wondered if you'd take a minute --
-No, I'm good.
-No? -Nah.
-Why not? -Thanks.
I guess because The Washington Post
lies about everything.
-But, eventually, I found Mark,
who didn't want to give his last name.
-Hi. How are you?
What are you afraid of?
-Getting attacked for my views.
I mean, I don't want to put stickers on my car
because I know it's gonna get keyed.
-Like, who is the other side?
Who is the "they" in this situation?
-Well, I think it's the people
who support Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
-What do we want? !
-Justice!
-When do we want it? !
-Now!
-And the group Black Lives Matter picked a ideal --
the name, phrase, "Black lives matter,"
so that encourages your emotion.
This thing started with Obama.
And he, instead of trying to wait until all the facts
come in, he just blurts it out.
-What did he blurt out? -So, the Trayvon Martin,
the kid who got shot and killed in Florida,
I think it was, right?
-Yeah. -And he said,
"If I had a son, he would look like him."
-You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.
-If he's gonna be the healer,
he shouldn't say anything until all the facts are in.
I'd like to go back to the old days when,
when I was in college, you could talk to your friends
and say things and would not lose your friends.
And these days, you can lose your friend, lose your job
because you support Trump.
-I think the criticism, and I'm sure you've heard this,
is that his language and some of his actions,
some people feel are racist or white supremacist.
-The reason a lot of the Trump supporters like Trump
is because he talks like the average Joe Schmoe.
So when Omar says something about it, and he said,
"Go back to where you came from --"
-If they're not happy here, they can leave.
They can leave. And you know what?
-But they're American citizens.
-I'm sure that there'll be many people that won't miss them.
-I was thinking that. I was thinking,
"If you don't like this country, why are you here?
Nobody's asking you to stay."
I don't want this country to fundamentally change.
I like the way it is. I came to this country.
I'm a legal immigrant.
I don't want to be linked with illegal immigrants.
-Representative Ilhan Omar is a US citizen
who legally came here as a refugee.
Mark wants to go back to the days
when he could voice opinions and not lose friends,
and yet he wants Ilhan Omar to leave the country
when she voices hers.
You can't have it both ways.
Down the street from Mark, I met a high school
senior voting in his first presidential election,
and the political divides are stressing him out.
-There's a whole part of -- almost half of our country
that they support Trump.
You know, I don't know where you're from, but, like, McClean,
Virginia, 22101, they think of people as backwards,
and it's so incorrect.
It scares me, because there's so much more to a human being
than an agreement with a certain political candidate.
-What are you scared of? -How biases create tribalism
and how kind of immediate presumptions
or stereotypes create false assumptions of people.
-Have you changed your behavior or your attitude, like -- -Yeah.
Yeah.
Because people are so uptight about their political views,
and it's gonna immediately shape or change how they view you,
you just have to change -- change --
You can't be open. -Mm.
-Because people get that false stereotype.
-It's concerning that the political environment
is so hostile that people are afraid of reprisals
for expressing their opinions.
I mean, the one common
denominator between all these people
is that they're afraid of being scorned for who they are.
But then, we also have people who are not willing or able
to rationalize or normalize the racism that Trump supported.
And they don't feel like it's their job
to make Trump supporters feel more comfortable
after he used his office
to degrade minorities and women and the press.
Political sectarianism and misinformation
are chipping away at our democracy,
and a change in the presidency isn't gonna solve that.
So we have work to do.
In our next video, I talk to a neuroscientist
and social psychologist
about why our misperceptions are driving political tribalism
and what we can do about it.