When seeking to explain why Donald Trump won on Tuesday, it would make sense to have a more diverse set of guests than a left-wing “antiracist” author and a Republican for Harris. However, MSNBC’s Wednesday morning election coverage was determined to stay in their bubble as co-host Ana Cabreara asked author W. Kamau Bell why Americans accepted Trump’s “mean” campaign of “racism, misogyny, [and] xenophobia.”

Cabrera began, “Meanwhile, there are some questions about how Trump was able to win this second term in office and the rhetoric he used as part of his campaign, as part of his pitch to the American people.”

 

 

After introducing Bell and Olivia Troye, Cabrera proceeded to ask Bell, “Donald Trump has been impeached twice, he was indicted four times, convicted on 34 felony counts, he's been found liable of sexual abuse. His campaign spewed a lot of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, but voters seem to overlook all of that. I mean, just on the last part, the kind of language we heard. It was mean. Why has that seemingly become acceptable in America?”

Bell replied, “Respectfully I don't think voters overlooked it. I think voters ran towards it. I think voters loved it. I think we have found out after much want for the contrary, we live in a right-wing country. This is what it is. He's going to win the popular vote, it looks like, if I'm correct in understanding that.”

The Democratic autopsy should be rather short. It should urge Democrats to get out of their bubbles and stop insulting the kind of voters they need to win, but Bell was determined to keep banging his head against the wall, “This is the country we live in. People at this point want a strong man who’s a bully, and they got a strong man who is a bully, and we, if you have any understanding of history, you're going to find out that doesn't work well, and also immigrants who you claim want to come to this country, don't go to countries with strongman bullies. They are going to find places to go, all the immigrants you claim you want and the ones you don’t want. They will find other places to go where they don’t have strongman bullies in charge.”

As Cabrera said, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts and voters still viewed him as the normal one, so what does that say about Democrats? A party that can’t deliver on economics and runs candidates who support taxpayer-funded sex changes for illegal immigrant prisoners is going to be looked at as, to use Tim Walz’s favorite word, weird, and calling people racists for the umpteenth time isn’t going to endear you to them.

Here is a transcript for the November 6 show:

MSNBC Reports: Decision 2024

11/6/2024

11:42 AM ET

ANA CABRERA: Meanwhile, there are some questions about how Trump was able to win this second term in office and the rhetoric he used as part of his campaign, as part of his pitch to the American people and with us now is W. Kamau Bell, TV host and author of Do the Work, an antiracist activity book, and Olivia Troye, former adviser to Mike Pence, she was a member of Republicans for Harris. Kamau, Donald Trump has been impeached twice, he was indicted four times, convicted on 34 felony counts, he's been found liable of sexual abuse. His campaign spewed a lot of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, but voters seem to overlook all of that. I mean, just on the last part, the kind of language we heard. It was mean. Why has that seemingly become acceptable in America?

W. KAMAU BELL: Respectfully I don't think voters overlooked it. I think voters ran towards it. I think voters loved it. I think we have found out after much want for the contrary, we live in a right-wing country. This is what it is. He's going to win the popular vote, it looks like, if I'm correct in understanding that. 

This is the country we live in. People at this point want a strongman who’s a bully and they got a strongman who is a bully and we, if you have any understanding of history, you're going to find out that doesn't work well and also immigrants who you claim want to come to this country, don't go to countries with strongman bullies. They are going to find places to go, all the immigrants you claim you want and the ones you don’t want. They will find other places to go where they don’t have strongman bullies in charge.