CNN Scott Jennings on Donald Trump winning 2024 Election (This is a mandate from regular hard-working Americans - video and transcript)

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Posted on 11/06/2024 5:48:00 AM PST by RoosterRedux

Transcript from ChatGPT:

Q: What do you expect the next couple of months to be like once he's in?

A: Well, look, he has an opportunity here to try to unite the country after a huge victory. This is a mandate. He's won the national popular vote for the first time for a Republican since 2004. This is a big deal. He isn’t just backing into office; this is a mandate to do what he said he would do: get the economy working again for regular working-class Americans, fix immigration, try to get crime under control, and reduce chaos in the world. This is a mandate from the American people to do that.

I'm interpreting the results tonight as the revenge of the regular, old, working-class American—the anonymous American who has been crushed, insulted, and condescended to. They’re not garbage, they’re not Nazis; they’re just regular people who get up and go to work every day, trying to make a better life for their kids. They feel like they’ve been told to just shut up whenever they complain about what’s hurting them in their own lives.

I also feel like this election, as we sit here and pour over this tonight, is something of an indictment of the political information complex. For weeks now, we’ve been hearing stories that just weren't true. We were told things like Puerto Rico would change the election, or that Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley, or women voters lying to their husbands would be decisive factors. Before that, it was Tim Walls and the camo hats. Night after night, we heard these gimmicks would somehow push Harris over the line. We were ignoring the fundamentals: inflation, and people feeling like they were barely able to tread water at best. Those were the fundamentals of the election.

Both parties should always look at election results to figure out what went right and what went wrong. But for those of us who cover elections and talk about them daily, we need to figure out how to understand, talk to, and listen to the half of the country that rose up tonight and said, “We’ve had enough.” I think we need to listen to everybody, actually.

The polls, too, didn’t get it right. Some of these battleground states had larger spreads than expected—not as close as we thought they’d be. While it hasn’t been called yet, the likelihood that he gets to 270 is high. The people who voted for Harris are struggling, too. They feel ignored as well. A Republican’s pain is no greater or less than a Democrat’s pain.

We now have a moment. I’m not saying you’re doing this, but we can point fingers and say, “Haha, you lost, I told you so,” or we can do what Trump said—although I’m skeptical—that he wants to unify the country. Actions speak louder than words.

For Van, for you, and for Axe, I’ve been on the losing side of tough nights like this in my professional life. It’s not easy to lose a race like this. One of my most crushing nights was in 2012, while it was one of your best. So, I understand. I do think that the new president has a responsibility to make the whole country feel they can be part of a more optimistic future.

This campaign was run as though Democrats thought there were enough people who hated Trump or were willing to fear him to win the race. It turns out there’s more to being president than simply not being Donald Trump in the eyes of the American people. I’m a little worried about how Democrats will react. They’ve been told Trump is a modern-day Hitler or, at least, a fascist. Now, Kamala Harris may have to wake up in the morning, concede to him, and then go to the Senate to certify the election, which she’ll do.

I’m concerned about the consequences of conditioning half the country to believe that the person who just won the popular vote is going to be a dictator. We need to reckon with the aftermath of that argument. The people who said Trump was a Hitler-like figure weren't Democrats; they were Republicans. Those who said he was a fascist weren’t Democrats either; they were Republicans who worked for him.

It’s not just elite Democrats poisoning the well. There was a broad consensus—from Chomsky to the Cheneys—that was very, very concerned and remains so. It’s not just up to us to stop calling names; it’s up to him to show, with deeds, that he won’t be listening only to elites.

Q: Are you just dismissing all criticism of Trump as elitism?

A: No, I’m not dismissing it. But looking at these results, you have to conclude that the non-elite portion of this country basically said, “We’ve had enough”—whether that’s on the economy, immigration, how we were treated during COVID, or other issues. That’s always been Trump’s appeal: the sense that elites, experts, and institutions are misleading everyone else. He’s never going to get along with the elites, and he didn’t in this election either.

1 posted on 11/06/2024 5:48:00 AM PST by RoosterRedux

To: RoosterRedux

2 posted on 11/06/2024 5:52:41 AM PST by blackdog ((Z28.310) Be careful what you say. Your refrigerator may be listening & reporting you.)

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