If Kamala Harris wins the election on Tuesday, “a lot of us will breathe a sigh of relief,” Chris Hayes said Friday night: “A lot of people will be celebrating.” If not, he later added, Trump’s second term would be “100% more dangerous,” but “civil society doesn’t dissolve in an instant because someone wins an election, even if that person is a potential authoritarian.”
“Fundamentally, I don’t think the United States is a fascist state,” he continued. “I don’t think we want authoritarianism.”
If Trump wins, Hayes said it will almost certainly be thanks to the Electoral College and not the actual majority vote. “It will still be true that just under 50 percent of our citizens voted for a dangerous man who is unsuitable for the job,” he said.
This reality will require the rest of the country to “reconcile with these millions of Americans through democratic means, persuasion, organizing, civil society and discourse,” he said. In other words, democratic principles must prevail, whether Donald Trump likes it or not.
If Trump is elected to a second term, he can do so “fairly and equitably, because sometimes the majority collectively make really bad decisions.” Hayes added that while another term under Trump would undoubtedly mean that “he will certainly try to do a lot of terrible, cruel and dangerous things,” it is “not certain that he will succeed in those things.”
“Last time he failed to implement many of his bad ideas, and yes, as we’ve learned on this show over and over again, there will be fewer guardrails this time around. It will be 100% more dangerous than last time.
He continued: But that doesn’t mean that democracy in the United States faces an immediate and permanent end. There will still be ways to fight back, at least initially. Hayes said: “I must emphasize that the other democratic mechanisms that we have to protect ourselves and protect American democracy still exist.” “Civil society does not disintegrate in an instant because someone wins an election, not even a potential authoritarian.”
“Fundamentally, I don’t think the United States is a fascist state,” he continued. I don’t think we want authoritarianism.”
“I still believe that, regardless of the outcome, the vast majority of this country wants democratic self-government. “That majority that wants democratic self-government will continue to exist after Tuesday, after whoever the winner is,” he added. “If it’s Donald Trump, all of us in that pro-democratic majority will have to work together to thwart his worst impulses, because in the end, all we have in a democratic republic is each other.”
“Sometimes that can be very scary, even panic-inducing, but that’s what we have and it’s better than anything else.”
Trump’s increasingly fascist rhetoric was scrutinized by his former chief of staff, John Kelly, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, among others, in the weeks leading up to the election. Kelly told the New York Times in October: “The former president certainly belongs in the far-right zone, he’s certainly an authoritarian, he admires dictators; that’s what he said. “So he certainly falls under the general definition of fascism.
The next night, Anderson Cooper asked Harris: “You quoted General Milley calling Donald Trump a fascist, but you yourself have not used that word to describe him. Let me ask you tonight. Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?
She quickly answered: “Yes, I do.”
Harris added: “I also think you have to trust the people who know best on this issue.” “With one exception for Mike Pence, these were not politicians. “These are professional people who have held the highest positions in national security, who have served as generals in our military.”
You can watch Chris Hayes’ segment in the video above.