WEST PALM BEACH, Florida—Donald John Trump, the 45th U.S. president, will soon become the 47th president, after he was projected to win not just the 270 Electoral College votes needed to return to the White House but also the national popular vote. His humiliation of the political elite is now complete. The conservative Fox News channel was first to call the race for Trump while The Associated Press and the legacy television networks held off early Wednesday morning. After Pennsylvania turned red, however, even liberal MSNBC News conceded that the Republican’s lead over Vice President Kamala Harris had become mathematically insurmountable. The AP finally called the race at 5:45 a.m. Trump is on track to become the first Republican to win a majority of the vote since George W. Bush in 2004, and he will become the first president to serve two nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1892. His triumph represents a wholesale repudiation of the establishment. Big business, Hollywood, the media, and both major political parties treated him as an unwelcome interloper. He delivered his rebuttal on Election Day. A celebrity known for his starring role on a reality television show, a career in New York real estate, and a knack for showing up in the tabloids, Trump wasn’t even a “citizen politician” when he arrived on the political scene in 2015. He wasn’t a politician at all and had never run for office or been involved in party politics. Dismissed by the commentariat as unserious, he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, and was impeached (but not convicted) for his troubles. Four years later, he was again declared politically unviable after he refused to accept the results of his loss to Joe Biden and his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell condemned him as “practically and morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 riot, but efforts by an increasingly obsolete cohort of GOP were singularly unsuccessful in sidelining the man. Trump declared his candidacy immediately after the 2022 midterms, marched almost effortlessly through a crowded field of primary challengers, and secured a third consecutive presidential nomination. He did not regain his grasp on the GOP so much as he tightened his grip on that party. “I think that we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America,” Trump running mate JD Vance said after Tuesday’s election returns rolled in. There was no exaggeration in his words. The first time Trump won the White House, he did so as the leader of a white working-class coalition, promising those he would call in his inaugural address “the forgotten men and women” to reverse the “American carnage” brought on by deindustrialization, globalization, and unchecked immigration. The former, and now future, president did not moderate. Opponents condemned his calls for mass deportations as “racist” and his vow to root out the ill-defined “enemy within” as “fascist.” Those denunciations ultimately had little effect. Not only did Trump maintain his support with the white working class, but he also made significant gains with both Hispanic and black voters according to early exit polls. A multiclass, multiethnic coalition returned him to power. One demographic at the center of that electorate: young men. Tuesday’s results amount to a repudiation, not only of Harris and Biden, but also the old breed of Republicans who made common cause with corporations and harbored a neoconservative foreign policy. The most visible among them, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, threw her support behind the Democrat. Trump’s second victory heralds a shifting political landscape that will continue sorting itself out during the presidential transition and in the four-year term to follow. Reflecting on the breadth of his support, Trump told a crowded victory party that his winning coalition was drawn “from all quarters—union, non-union, African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Arab American.” Surrounded by his family and campaign staff on stage, he added, “We had everybody, and it was beautiful.” “It was,” Trump added, “a historic realignment.” The Harris campaign had already headed to bed at that point. “Let’s finish up what we have in front of us tonight, get some sleep,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote to her team in an email obtained by RealClearPolitics, “and get ready to close out strong tomorrow.” The vice president had yet to concede by mid-morning Wednesday. Famous for chiding Republican men when they talked over her—“I’m speaking”—Harris sent her campaign chairman, Cedric Richmond, on stage to tell her supporters at Howard University late Tuesday that they would not hear from her. Many left in tears. Trump World was just beginning to party. A crowd noticeably younger than the ones Trump attracted in his two previous elections had packed into the Palm Beach Convention Center hours earlier. As their champion monitored data from nearby Mar-a-Lago, they pulled up to any of the six cash bars in the main hall. The most popular beer for the thirsty “America first” voter: Modelo, a lager from Mexico. The MAGA faithful were prepared for a long night. News networks warned that the results might not be known on Election Day or even the morning after, a message amplified by Democrats. And there was good reason to believe the race might come down to the wire: Trump and Harris were locked in a dead heat for much of the contest as a divided nation evaluated its options. But just as he used social media to sidestep gatekeepers eight years ago, Trump targeted new, younger voters, with a new medium: the Bro Podcast. He talked about everything from aliens to artificial intelligence with Joe Rogan, host of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” He chopped it up on the Barstool Sports podcast “Bussin’ With the Boys,” hosted by former NFL football players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. He asked Theo Von if he still uses cocaine (the comedian told the teetotaling president that the white powder “will turn you into a damn owl, homie”). The conversations did not resemble anything like Frost v. Nixon. Podcasts are certainly much cheaper and less serious. They were instrumental, all the same, in turning out young men who are famously low-propensity voters. Harris sought to make the race a referendum on Trump. She described him as a threat to democracy generally and an opponent of abortion rights specifically. For his part, he called illegal immigration “the biggest issue” and an inflation-addled economy “the second.” A senior Trump adviser told RealClearPolitics it was “more like ‘Issue 1A and 1B,’ but immigration is one of them.” Either way, the economic frustrations and security fears were enough to deliver Trump a majority despite the criminal indictments and felony convictions that Democrats had hoped would throttle his candidacy. Those legal challenges made Trump the symbol of conservative martyrdom. It became visceral at the fairground in Butler, Pennsylvania, this summer when an assassin’s bullet clipped his ear. The photo of the bloody Republican pumping his fist in defiance instantly became an image for the ages. “This is what happens when the machine comes after you,” bellowed Ultimate Fight Championship President Dana White from the main stage here Tuesday night. “He keeps going forward. He doesn’t quit. He’s the most resilient, hardworking man that I’ve ever met in my life.” Referring to Trump’s victory in the face of the challenges, White said, “This is karma.” Whatever cosmic forces were at play, victory was not guaranteed. While Trump seemed poised to handle Biden, Harris promised to be a tougher challenge after she delivered a shot of adrenaline straight into progressive hearts. She brought in more fundraising dollars, campaigned alongside celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé Knowles, and turned the race into the definition of a dead heat. Doubt crept into Republican hearts in the final days, especially after The Atlantic magazine reported that morale inside the Republican campaign was cratering. A senior Trump aide texted RealClearPolitics to say the opposite: “Morale is decidedly very high at this current moment.” According to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, Democrats have only themselves to blame for what happened in this election. “If you want to make somebody iconic, try to throw them in jail, try to bankrupt them,” said the infamous political operative. “If you want to make somebody iconic, cook up a fake hoax to justify their removal from the presidency,” he added in reference to once-en-vogue allegations that Trump was a Russian asset. “And if you really want to make somebody iconic, try to kill them.” Stone was not alone in viewing the political attacks—and the attempts on Trump’s life, which Democrats condemned—in the same category: “All those things failed,” he said. “They just made him bigger and more powerful.” Trump has now dispensed with three Democratic Party opponents—Clinton in 2016 and both Biden and Harris in 2024. Each opponent had the money advantage and what was billed as a much more sophisticated political apparatus. He was able to do this, some Republicans like to say, because he was on a mission from the Almighty. But despite the personal invectives against enemies and frequent calls for retribution that defined his campaign, in his victory speech the president-elect made little mention of his opponent. He was philosophical the morning of his win. “Many people have told me God spared my life for a reason,” Trump said, “and that reason was to save our country, and to restore America to greatness, and now we are going to fulfill that mission together.” Congressional majorities are a handy thing to have in that kind of endeavor. The GOP picked up three Senate seats to secure the upper chamber, while control of the House of Representatives was still too close to call but within reach. The highest-ranking Republican currently in office, House Speaker Mike Johnson, joined Trump on stage. Perhaps signaling that he didn’t have patience for more intramural infighting, he thanked Johnson by name and told the crowd, “I think he’s doing a terrific job.” More work will follow. Trump has already remade the Republican Party in his own image, greatly diminishing the interventionist and libertarian wings of the GOP in the process. He now promises sweeping tariffs, a strategic retreat from global conflicts such as the land war in Ukraine, and an incessant focus on domestic challenges—the southern border chief among them. “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” he insisted. The country only needs to follow his prescription to achieve “a golden age.” Running against him in a third election, Democrats felt they finally knew what to make of Trump. Clinton made light of his many flaws the first time. Biden defeated him during the second election by painting him as a threat to democracy. For her part, Harris attempted to split the difference. “In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she told her fellow Democrats at their Chicago convention to hearty laughter. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious,” added the vice president—who is slated to soon preside over the certification of his election. Some of the Republicans who came out to cheer Trump early Wednesday morning saw things similarly, especially the younger ones. They laughed at his unserious moments and listened earnestly to his serious warnings. One example was Caden Caouette, a Florida State University freshman who repurposed a Trump-Pence shirt by covering the name of the former vice president with a piece of masking tape with Vance written in Sharpie letters. “These last couple of years really speak to it,” he said. “The economy has been bad, and then everybody crossing the border. A lot of work needs to get done, and Trump’s the man to do it.” A first-time voter, Caouette stood outside the convention center just hours before his morning classes for a chance to cheer on the champion who had once again upended American politics. The podcasts, particularly the one with Rogan last month, he said, served as “a reminder” to vote because it was “not just something I could skip.” A now certain return to the Oval Office, even for a larger-than-life figure like Trump, once seemed a stretch. In the end, it wasn’t. This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire The post Trump Win Signals ‘Historic Realignment’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

With unaddressed allegations of fraud dominating the months following the 2020 presidential election, Republicans made election integrity a major focus on Tuesday night. The Republican National Committee and its team of lawyers were quick to respond to potential hijinks Tuesday night, while voters followed up with a resounding push for ballot integrity in nine states.  When election officials in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announced that they had to “retabulate” an estimated 30,000 ballots, RNC Co-chair Lara Trump told the American public that “the counting took place in unsecured conditions and the city now has to start over, wildly extending the counting timeline.” She explained, “This is an unacceptable example of incompetent election administration in a key swing state. Voters deserve better, and we are unambiguously calling on Milwaukee’s officials to DO THEIR JOBS and count ballots quickly and effectively. Anything less undermines voter confidence.” ??? Throughout the day we have been monitoring slow ballot counting in Milwaukee. Now, our legal team has learned that the counting took place in unsecured conditions and the city now has to start over, wildly extending the counting timeline. This is an unacceptable…— Lara Trump (@LaraLeaTrump) November 5, 2024 Throughout the night, the RNC ensured that American voters’ election integrity concerns were addressed succinctly. When officials in Centre County in the swing state of Pennsylvania planned to stop counting ballots before 10 p.m., in violation of state election rules, the RNC threatened a lawsuit. Officials immediately backed down and agreed to continue the count. A legal victory in Pennsylvania:Centre County officials were planning to stop counting ballots throughout the night in violation of state law.We threatened to sue — and that was enough. Officials agreed to continue the count as required.Our attorneys will continue fighting…— Michael Whatley (@ChairmanWhatley) November 6, 2024 When precincts in Luzerne County, also in Pennsylvania, were running low on ballot papers, the RNC preemptively refreshed their supply. When malfunctions in voting machines impacted Pennsylvania’s Cambria County, the RNC secured a court order to extend the voting deadline. When Republican poll watchers in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were being “turned away,” the RNC took legal action to ensure that Republicans shared oversight of the vote-counting process. Good news on Cambria County!We successfully secured a court order extending voting hours until 10 PM to make up for long lines.STAY IN LINE! VOTE! ???? https://t.co/MxorrZxBDS— Lara Trump (@LaraLeaTrump) November 5, 2024 PENNSYLVANIA ELECTION INTEGRITY:Early this morning we learned that Republican poll watchers in Philadelphia, York, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Lehigh, Cambria, Wyoming, and Lackawanna Counties were being turned away.We deployed our roving attorneys, engaged with local officials,…— Michael Whatley (@ChairmanWhatley) November 5, 2024 Ken Blackwell, senior adviser for election integrity at Family Research Council Action and the former secretary of state for Ohio, explained how instrumental the on-the-ground work of election integrity organizations has been. “We have a highly decentralized system, over 3,100 counties, tens of thousands of precincts, and that’s where elections on Election Day take place,” he said. Noting nationwide efforts to bolster chain-of-custody rules around ballot-handling and to add mandatory verification processes, Blackwell said, “We’ve been working to recruit citizens at the precinct level, [and] train them to be observers and poll workers. And we believe that that’s the way you heighten transparency. But this election process is a human-intensive process, and it only works when human beings and citizens are engaged.” Nine states voted Tuesday night to pass constitutional amendments dictating that only U.S. citizens can vote in elections—all of them by 62% or more of the vote. Iowa (at 77% support), Idaho (65%), Kentucky (62.5%), Missouri (68.5%), North Carolina (77.5%), Oklahoma (80.7%), South Carolina (85.8%), and Wisconsin (66.2%) all passed such measures, as did Nevada (at over 73% support), with an added photo ID requirement for voting. “That says that people want to know that we’re a nation. We should be a nation with borders. And we shouldn’t be looking for voters without borders,” Blackwell stated. He added, “I would hope that folks would understand that the only way that you can guarantee transparency about security is through citizen involvement.” In the weeks and days leading up to the election, the RNC, along with numerous Republican-led state governments, made efforts to ensure that noncitizens were barred from voting in U.S. elections. In one contentious case, Virginia elevated a lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court, earning a court order allowing the state to remove an estimated 1,600 noncitizens from its voter rolls. Other states—including Alabama, Florida, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and others—also made serious efforts to clear voter rolls of noncitizens illegally registered to vote. Prior to the election being called for former President Donald Trump, former Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann said that, if Republicans were to take the White House and both chambers of Congress, “There is a very strong chance that we will see real reform in our country on voting. We can’t go through this every four years. We can’t have this horrible cheating every two years or the threat of cheating.” She added: “I think what Donald Trump suggested—which is, voter ID, proof of citizenship, vote one day with paper ballots—I do think that that may become a reality, and we may never have to go through this again.” Bachmann also warned, “Again, we only have two years until the next midterm. So, we’ve got to solve our voting issues right away.” Originally published at WashingtonStand.com The post How Republicans Kept the Voting Secure, Swept 9 Ballot Integrity Measures appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Donald Trump seems likely not just to win the Electoral College but also the popular vote to return to the White House, delivering a massive rebuke to Vice President Kamala Harris and the Left more generally. Trump’s genius—in raising his fist amid an assassination attempt, donning the apron of a McDonald’s fry cook, and riding shotgun in a trash truck—carried the day. However, the Left’s slings and arrows against the former president also helped propel him to victory by exposing how cynical and conniving his opponents were. The Left committed at least six massive political miscalculations that also amount to transgressions against America’s political order. These moves helped Trump win, but they also exposed the forces he will face in a second term. 1. The Lawfare Left-leaning prosecutors brought multiple civil and criminal cases against Trump, most of which revved into high gear last year after he announced in November 2022 that he would run for president again in 2024. New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, campaigned on the prospect of prosecuting Trump, and her office began investigating the Trump Organization in early 2019. She sued in September 2022, alleging that Trump had violated the law by exaggerating his net worth, though none of his business partners claimed to be victimized by this alleged exaggeration. Presiding Judge Arthur Engoron demanded Trump and his companies fork over more than $350 million to the state in February. Engoron initially ordered Trump to post $454 million bond, but an appeals court agreed to lower the amount to $175 million. In March 2023, a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to pay pornography star Stephanie Clifford, known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, “hush money” after the 2016 election. Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney at the time, gave Clifford $130,000 in October 2016, and Trump reimbursed Cohen in a series of payments after Trump entered the Oval Office in January 2017. On May 30, a jury convicted Trump on all 34 felony counts. His sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 26, though the former president has appealed the verdict in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, argued that Trump had interfered in the 2016 election by altering business records after the election. Improperly appointed special counsel Jack Smith led an investigation into Trump for alleged lawbreaking regarding his challenging the 2020 presidential election results and inspiring the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. In August 2023, a grand jury approved an indictment against Trump. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan scheduled a trial to begin March 4, but Trump appealed to the Supreme Court. The high court ruled July 1 that the president has “absolute” immunity from charges stemming from “core constitutional powers” and “presumptive immunity” for all other official acts. Smith launched another case against Trump regarding his alleged improper retention of classified documents after his presidency ended Jan. 20, 2021. Smith, whom President Joe Biden appointed in November 2022, charged Trump with 40 felonies in the case. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in July, ruling that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. Smith is reportedly wrapping up both prosecutions in the wake of Trump’s election victory. Biden later confessed that he had improperly retained classified documents from his years as vice president and U.S. senator, yet he faced no charges. Special counsel Robert Hur investigated Biden and interviewed him, ultimately declining to bring charges in part because a jury would find Biden sympathetic as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and because his “diminished faculties” made it less likely he intentionally violated the law. Republicans demanded that the Justice Department release the audio of Biden’s interview with Hur, since the special counsel’s report cast grave doubts on the president’s ability to carry out his duties. Each of these legal cases arguably represented a political attack on Trump through the legal system, often on trumped-up charges. Trump became the first former president convicted of a felony, yet the partisan nature of these attacks led Americans to suspect that the Left was abusing the system to prosecute its top enemy. The lawfare almost certainly backfired, as well it should have. 2. The Ballot Challenges In a similarly egregious political attack, activists and Democratic officials moved to strike Trump from state ballots on the claim that he had incited an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. The Supreme Court definitively (and unanimously) ended this argument in March, ruling that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution does not disqualify Trump from appearing on ballots. (Trump had never been charged with insurrection, much less convicted of it.) At a time when Democrats were running as the “party of democracy” and warning that Trump would end democracy, they also sought to disqualify the former president at the outset. This effort also backfired. 3. The Nazi Comparisons Throughout this election cycle, Biden, Harris, and others on the left have suggested that Trump represented a threat to democracy. They condemned him as racist and authoritarian. They continued to do so even after he faced multiple assassination attempts. Yet the most absurd moment arguably came toward the end of the campaign, when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, noted that Trump would hold a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. On the day of that rally, Walz said, “Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden. There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square garden.” Walz was straining to connect Trump’s rally to an American Nazi Party rally in February 1939. Not only was there a gap of more than 80 years between the two rallies, but Madison Square Garden’s location physically moved in both 1926 and 1968. The Madison Square Garden that hosted the pro-Nazi rally is not even the same building that hosted Trump. Furthermore, Madison Square Garden hosted multiple Democratic Party events, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s last 1936 campaign speech to the Democratic National Convention in 1976, 1980, and 1992. The idea that Trump echoed Nazis simply by choosing a venue—which had been twice rebuilt since the 1939 event—is ludicrous on its face. ?IT'S REAL: MSNBC did indeed include the chyron "TRUMP'S MSG RALLY COMES 85 YEARS AFTER PRO-NAZI RALLY AT FAMED ARENA." This echoes Tim Walz's attack on Trump, citing the rally. Yes, pro-Nazi Americans rallied at Madison Square Garden in February 1939. Does this taint… pic.twitter.com/rg2hIvWRQn— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) October 28, 2024 4. Hiding Biden’s Decline The fact that Biden was no spring chicken—even in 2019 and 2020—should not be lost on anyone, but for most of the 2024 presidential election, the White House, the legacy media, and the Democratic establishment brushed off concerns about the sitting president’s declining mental acuity. None other than Kamala Harris repeatedly insisted that Biden was A-OK. “Our president is in good shape, in good health, and is ready to lead in our second term,” Harris said in February. She praised him as “vibrant.” WATCH: Over 6 minutes of Kamala Harris covering up Joe Biden's cognitive decline.For years, she said Biden is "very bold and vibrant" and is "tireless in terms of working." Kamala claimed Biden "is gonna be fine," and said he "is in good shape, in good health."Kamala LIED. pic.twitter.com/d2domPIUOA— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 7, 2024 Despite his disastrous performance in the June 27 debate with Trump, Biden repeatedly insisted he would remain in the race. Only after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama leaked that they had met with Biden, pressuring him to withdraw, did the president finally announce he would leave the race and back his vice president. Early Wednesday morning, CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper tried to bring up any counties where Harris was “outperforming Biden in 2020,” but not one county showed the vice president winning 3% or more votes than Biden did four years before. ?NOT. ONE. COUNTY.Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper bring up CNN's interactive map showing if there was any county in the country where Kamala Harris outperformed Joe Biden by 3% or more. Were the Democrats smart to swap out Biden at the last moment for Kamala Harris?? pic.twitter.com/kJYm0gEQZp— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) November 6, 2024 5. The Kamala Switcheroo Speaking of Kamala Harris, who, exactly, is she? That’s not a rhetorical question. There’s tough-on-crime prosecutor Kamala, whom she sometimes plays on TV. There’s radical-Left activist Kamala, who briefly got a voting record score to the left of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Then there’s cackling Kamala trying to be bubbly, as she briefly was for the “joy” and “vibes” election the legacy media tried to foist on Americans when the Democratic elites propped Harris up as the savior early in her brief campaign. Finally, there was angry, scolding, Trump-is-a-fascist Kamala, who also wiggled out of taking any policy position that would differentiate her from the sitting president while she was running a “change” election. Is it any wonder Kamala Harris never won a primary in the 2020 Democratic contest? That’s right—the last-minute switcheroo that was going to “save democracy” from Donald Trump involved someone who didn’t win a single Democratic primary in 2020 or 2024. It involved someone who claimed she wasn’t Joe Biden but never created any daylight between her policies and those of Joe Biden. Worse, it involved a candidate who branded her opponent a fascist when she herself had the record of trying to prosecute pro-life journalists, demanding donor information from conservative nonprofits, and demonizing fellow Americans for disagreeing with her radical stance on abortion. Democrats chose a nominee who had been tasked with solving the crisis over illegal immigration, even though it got worse on her watch. They chose a nominee whose answer to every question was “I grew up in a middle-class family.” They chose the garden goddess of word salads, whose grand achievement was explaining that Ukraine is a country in Europe. ????KAMALA: “Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country.” Glad we cleared that up.Source: Morning Hustle pic.twitter.com/IEXrjUJkgj— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 24, 2024 What does Harris’ duplicity have to do with her awkwardness and her lack of primary victories? Just this: Americans knew she was being foisted upon them under false pretenses, and Tuesday’s election results suggest that they really didn’t like that. The Biden-Harris switcheroo suggested that the real power behind the administrative state wasn’t the man sitting behind the Resolute Desk but a shadowy network of elites pulling the strings behind the scenes. Perhaps someone should write a book about that. (My book on this exact subject, “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government,” is available for pre-order now and releases on Jan. 21, 2024.) 6. The Closing Argument After all this, Harris delivered a “closing argument” packed with lies and predicated on demonizing her opponent. Yet the legacy media seized on comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s remark at Trump’s Madison Square Garden event that Puerto Rico was an “island of garbage,” and Biden revealed his disdain for Trump’s supporters by responding: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.” By calling Americans who oppose his chosen successor “garbage,” the sitting president of the United States sent a clear and chilling message—even if Biden attempted to clarify it later. Trump, always the showman, defused the insult with his comedic charm. He donned the orange and yellow reflective vest of a garbageman and sat in the front of a garbage truck. He spoke about it at his rallies, remarking that the safety vest made him look thinner. On the one hand, Americans saw a Democratic puppet who couldn’t present a genuine personality, and on the other hand, they saw a man who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty (metaphorically, of course) by working at McDonald’s and getting into a garbage truck. The idea that this man—who faced unprecedented criminal charges, disgusting attempts to remove him from the ballot, and assassination attempts—represented the true threat to democracy just could not stand. Rather, the entire campaign revealed the exact opposite. Only one political party tried to disqualify its opponent from the very beginning of the race. Only one party fanned the flames of hatred despite assassination attempts against its target. Only one struggled desperately to change the playing field at the last minute after lying to the American people the whole time. Trump won this election, despite every norm the Left broke to try to take him down. Now, he has to make sure his victory sends the appropriate message: that the elites can’t force their way on the American people. That struggle has just begun. The post The Left’s 6 Enormous Transgressions That Helped Propel Trump to Victory appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Biden-Harris administration is now on its way out – but the damage that opponents say it has done to free speech continues to reverberate, including in difficult legal battles. The plaintiffs in one of those – Kennedy v. Biden – have suffered a setback, as the Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals on Monday decided against allowing the case to proceed to trial. Children’s Health Defense (CHD), Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Connie Sampognaro are seeking to sue the Biden White House for alleged censorship, including around topics related to the origin of Covid and vaccines. We obtained a copy of the ruling for you here. The censorship, the plaintiffs claim, played out as the government pressured social platforms to implement it – which would be an instance of unconstitutional activity. But the appellate court said the plaintiffs had no legal standing – i.e., had not provided sufficient reason for the judge to believe they suffered direct and concrete injuries, which can be rectified in a legal process. The decision was made despite CHD suffering, among other things, deplatforming as “punishment” for the position the non-profit took on various issues. This overturns the ruling announced in August by the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, which said those suing do have standing and should be allowed to pursue the case. The lawsuit was originally filed in March 2023 and accuses the government and its agencies of engaging in a pressure campaign aimed at major social networks and the companies behind them, to censor what is constitutionally protected speech. The filing refers to this campaign as “systematic.” CHD said it was now considering what next steps to take, while the organization’s general counsel, Kim Mack Rosenberg commented on the Fifth Circuit’s decision to express disappointment and note that the group believes the evidence the court had at its disposal “more than sufficiently established standing for Children’s Health Defense.” Rosenberg explained that this new evidence that amended the case during the appeals stage demonstrated “ongoing censorship activities by the government,” as well as that “the government has a significant and improper role in the social media platforms’ censorship of CHD.” Kennedy v. Biden shares discovery and evidence with Murthy v. Missouri, but is otherwise a separate case. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Biden Administration Dodges Another Free Speech Fight as Court Blocks Kennedy Suit appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

The Harris Meltdown

Nets may have been used to trap large numbers of fish during migrations.

We are used to the idea that imagery and language used in adverts can be used to shape gender norms, but what about music and sound?

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. 

During the overnight hours of Tuesday into Wednesday, CBS was in the midst of an epic, hours-long meltdown over what was then the impending reelection of Donald Trump to the presidency.  Over the course of eight hours, CBS journalists heaped scorn on Americans for refusing to accept “the facts” about the Biden-Harris economy, unfairly blamed Biden for “the cost of your rent,” claimed voters lack the wherewithal to believe the president “has nothing to do with” the price of basic necessities smeared voters for refusing to take January 6 as seriously as they do, and support scary mass deportations. Below is a Notable Quotables-style complication of the worst moments (with a few quotes replaced by tweets) from CBS between the 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Eastern hours, presented in chronological order. Whining Latinos Still Back Trump Despite His “Rhetoric” “[The Latino vote projection] sounds counterintuitive — right — given the rhetoric that we have heard from Donald Trump...One of the polls that has been the most illustrative for me from this entire campaign is the one that said that two thirds of Latinos who were surveyed, said that they believe that Donald Trump was not referring to people like them when he spoke about immigrants. And half of foreign-born Latinos said the same thing. Broadly speaking, Latinos are still overwhelmingly Democrat, but Donald Trump successfully started to get into this — this population. Many Latinos seem to find a sense of belonging in Trump’s other-ism because he talks to them the same way he talks to white supporters.” — 60 Minutes correspondent Cecilia Vega, 10:52 p.m. Eastern.   Melting Down Over Trump Winning Despite His “Vulgarity,” Arnold Palmer Comments Vega: “I’m thinking about some of the things that we have heard over the course of this campaign and you have to give me on some of these, but, from the former president, the vulgarity that we’ve heard, talking about Arnold Palmer — we all remember that comments and the locker and doing all the Joe Rogan podcasts, and the Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt at MSG and all of this —” CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell: “The gesticulating with the microphone.” Vega: “— the gesticulation at the microphone, that — that so much of America went, um — I’m sorry, what is happening? How is that possibly going to appeal to people? And what we’re seeing tonight that it actually is not a turnoff to many people, to many of the male supporters, particularly who sat at MSG and cheered it on and that was particularly a very bro-y feel, a very dark rally that we talked about in the wake of it. And the question, was is this going to help Trump expand his base? And what you just said right now, it actually, very well may be?” O’Donnell: “Right.” Dickerson: “He won bros in North Carolina by 21 points.” — Being hit with their sad reality, 11:52 p.m. Eastern.   Kamala Donor Gayle King Laments What Trump Pick Says About America, Him Being a Babysitter CBS's Gayle King -- who donated to Kamala when she was back running in California -- argues at 12:05 a.m. that Trump appearing poised to win speaks volumes "about us as a country" and what we value and "your morals, your integrity, and your character." pic.twitter.com/enHOwMeSrU — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024   Seething Over America Going Dangerous, Sexist Route Opposing Kamala CBS's Margaret Brennan lets the mask slip, lashing out at American voters for falling behind the world in electing a female leader when "a third of the world" already has and lamenting "as a planet," we'll have to "figure out what's next" pic.twitter.com/gp28n8wWqH — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024 “There is a disorientation. There is, from the commander in chief question, you know, who is going to take office at the time when the world is watching this election tonight...to see who they will be dealing with when they are looking at the largest land war in Europe underway, when they are looking at the expansion of it, they’re looking at a Mid-East on fire. They’re looking at an aggressive China. And it — we are going to be digesting this as a planet when we wake up tomorrow morning to figure out what’s next. A third of the world has had a female leader. This country has not. And tonight, this was also a test of whether a woman could be a commander of chief of this country elected in a very short runway of an election against a — a man who has presented himself, despite what his national security advisers say, is about strength, as about he puts fear in other people, therefore you won’t see that realignment or that threat around the world come to these shores. That’s the package that he’s selling in the national security argument. And it’s — it’s just something to chew on tonight as we would wait to see who will get to 270. There are some major test that go, I think, beyond this moment when we talk about gender, when we talk about projections of power, and America’s role in the world.” — Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan, 12:05 a.m. Eastern.   Bonkers Discussion Dismissing Economic Pain as....Fake? A Mirage? Misplaced? King: “But it didn’t seem to matter how often you heard the economy is doing well, the job report is doing well. None of that seemed to matter. People would still say I’m paying too much for milk. I’m still paying too much for bread.” Brennan:“Well, I mean —” King: “If you can’t feel it at home, it doesn’t matter what you say.” Brennan: “— you look at this: Since Biden took office, rents in the battleground states are up 20 percent.” White House and election correspondent Ed O’Keefe: “Mmhmm.” Brennan: “That’s not because Joe Biden was elected. The cost of your rent is affected by a number of different factors, but people blame the boss. I mean, the grocery inflation, 22 percent. We were on the back end of the pandemic that completely upended the supply chains and global economy.” Dickerson: “And what the political science — what the political scientists will tell you is also voters don’t give you credit for the good things that are happening.” Brennan: “Right.” King: “Yes.” Dickerson: “The unemployment rate was lower in six of the seven battleground states under Joe Biden than under Donald Trump, leaving aside Covid. Pre-Covid, Trump unemployment was — was higher in every battleground state but Nevada. But voters don’t give you credit for things that happen. They are concerned about the plenty of things that they legitimate feel about their own economic position.” Vega: “Much to great frustration from the Biden White House. Almost from day one, they would complain to you behind the scenes that they never felt like they were never getting credit for the advancements in the economy that were happening. Even underneath him, they would scream from the rooftop. I mean, he would do press conferences or go to the battleground states, and talk about housing and they felt he never got the credit for it. There was nothing they could do to vocally challenge the microphone that Trump had on that platform.” — Conversation divorced from reality, 12:41 a.m. Eastern.   Huffing About Trump’s Plan to Secure the Border “You know, this mass deportation plan was perhaps Donald Trump’s biggest policy proposal throughout this campaign and I think a lot of folks were surprised over the course of the last few months to see how much support got among the American public and the overwhelming majority, according to a lot of polls, more than 50 percent supported this idea of mass deportation. For 60 Minutes, we sat down with the man who could end up being tasked with the carrying out of this plan, Tom Homan, who ran ICE under Donald Trump for the first year and a half. Look, there are very serious questions as we found out about whether they can actually pull this off. By some estimates, we are talking about $88 billion a year the American taxpayer would have to fund to deport him as Donald Trump has wanted to do, a million plus people a year. They say they want to start with criminals but, Norah, make no mistake, what we found in this investigation is this will end up involving people who have lived in this country for a very long time, people in the interior of the country, not just at the border.” — Vega, 1:23 a.m. Eastern.   What in the World? CBS Implies Elon Musk Is a Tool for China, Russia CBS's Margaret Brennan sounds off just after 1:30 a.m. insinuating @ElonMusk is a tool of China and Russia, adding calls to cut government regulations is "hot how our government is built" to act pic.twitter.com/3kwqIdEI6p — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024   Tiresome Trope: Did Kamala Lose Because of Racism and Sexism? “I even hate to ask this question and I am asking this as I’m clutching my pearls, could it be a women — woman issue? When, Barack Obama suggested it, people thought — some people were offended that he even raised that issue. But do we have to realistically think about that? We’ve Hillary Clinton now and maybe even Kamala Harris. Is it — do you feel this country isn’t ready for a woman president?” — King to CBS News political contributor/former Obama official Joel Payne, 2:03 a.m. Eastern. Projection, Much? Vega Frets Trump Being Tough on Border Has Left Many “Very Scared” CBS’s Cecilia Vega melts down over Trump’s immigration plans right before he took the stage: “A lot of people are very scared tonight. When you look at the proposals that Donald Trump has laid out for a second term when it comes to just immigration alone — I’ll do this really… pic.twitter.com/5fRPpANZr0 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024 — Vega, 2:24 a.m. Eastern. This Is How It Is: Robert Costa Doing Teaching on the Working Class In which CBS's election night crew finally admits at 336am Eastern that Republicans for Harris was not, in fact, a real thing. Bob @CostaReports also was given space to explain how voters in his native Bucks County, Pennsylvania think pic.twitter.com/vWLirWUUyq — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024 Chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa: “What’s so notable about this election is that former President Trump believes he has not taken a election but he affirmed a movement in this country that I think back — and the Democrats are going to have a moment for the next four years when they think about their future — I — I remember sitting over breakfast with Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator 10 years ago and he told me that the future in this country would come down to the issue of class. Class more than anything — how people feel economic pain and he said it’s either going to be the Democrats or Republicans who speak to the economic pain people feel in this country and he still believes, based on my reporting, that he would have been victorious against Trump in 2016, Biden believes he would have beat Trump in 2016 because they believe they speak to that economic pain. Biden wins in 2020 with a similar coalition, trying to speak to working people but the question now is can the Democrats get back some of these people. And as — it may not be appealing to the Liz Cheney Republicans, but appealing to those like Senator Bernie Sanders, who are — who are search — we encounter in our reporting, people in this country who are not seeing themselves as political but feel pain about the future of their well-being, their families, opportunity.” King: “But Kamala Harris always talked about the working class and middle class and what she wanted to do with them.” Costa: “But it was a compressed campaign.” King: “Okay.” Costa: “Just a few weeks.” King: “Did they not believe her?” Costa: “It’s not that they didn’t believe. So many voters I met feel like they did not fully know her in terms of speaking to her — their grievances. They respected her as a Vice President of the United States, but she was a relatively low vice president — low-profile with — working with President Biden[.]” — Costa explaining American politics to King, 3:19 a.m. Eastern.   Hilarious: Dickerson Lampoons “Republicans for Harris,” Costa Explains PA Politics Dickerson: “Can I just say one other thing — one other dog that didn’t bark? Republicans for Harris. Kamala Harris spent a lot of time — campaigned a lot with Liz Cheney, only five percent of Republicans in exit polls voted for Harris. It was six percent in 2020 for Biden. All of those Republicans that were going to come over to — to the Harris campaign.” O’Donnell: “Well, she brought — she brought them all to Pennsylvania and Bucks County, weren’t they?” King: “Yes.” O’Keefe: “Yeah.” O’Donnell: “They were all on stage with her.” Costa: “I was there. I was there.” O’Donnell: “Yeah, yeah, I remember that.” Costa: “I grew up in Buck County. Look, you got to understand about the traditional Republican and Bucks County. I grew watching these people — is that they vote with their wallet. They are economically driven. They have business jobs at suburban office parks in Princeton, New Jersey, they go to New York City on New Jersey Transit everyday or down to Philadelphia on SEPTA.” O’Donnell: “Bring bagels back on the weekend.” Costa: “Everything bagel, toasted with cheese, maybe a pork roll and cheese. These are people that care about the Eagles and care about their financial interests and they care about their communities, but they are Republicans and they are Republicans because they want to pay lower taxes and they moved to Bucks County, not to Philadelphia — the city, or to New York because they want to have a good standard of living and they want to pay lower taxes. They want to not have to spend a lot of money. And so —” King: “But, Bob, where was the secret women Republican vote we kept hearing about? That they’re going to say one thing to their friends and spouses, but they’re going to get in the booth and they’re going to make another decision.” Vega: “The Post-Its on the bathroom.” Costa: “I never saw it.” Vega: “Yeah.” Costa: “I never saw it.” — Intriguing back-and-forth, 3:36 a.m. Eastern.   One Guess of What Was Kamala’s Version of Hillary’s Wisconsin? North Carolina HBCUs CBS's @EdOKeefe: "[T]here are nine HBCUs in North Carolina. Do you know how many of them she visited? One. Imagine if she had spent time doing that instead of hanging out with Liz Cheney in the Midwest? It could be a different story tonight and there will be conversations about… pic.twitter.com/mofXHMCVtP — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024 — O’Keefe prognosticating, 3:38 a.m. Eastern.  Attempt to Admit Emphasizing January 6 Had Blow Back Goes Haywire CBS's Robert Costa admits the need for "some self-awarness here" that many voters of all persuasions view January 6 differently than he does along with journalists and the January 6 Committee. Gayle King's reaction: "How is that possible, Bob when you look at those pictures?" pic.twitter.com/po51lvqh2h — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024 Costa: “The democracy point, I’ll show some self-awareness here. I spent a year of my life digging into January 6. I believe based on my reporting it was a serious moment in American history. You had a president of the United States work to pressure his party and his Vice President to overturn the election. Working with Bob Woodward, we reported that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff believed President Trump was in serious mental decline and was in threat of misusing the military in the final days in a way that was somewhat comparable to Nixon in concerns of August ‘74 but worse in the eyes of Milley and others. January 6, for Congresswoman Cheney, for others who have studied, the January 6 committee was a explosion in American democracy but, as a reporter, I must acknowledge even if I found it to be serious, based on my reporting, when I was on the campaign trail in 2024 and in 2022 when I was talking to Republican voters, centrist, Democratic voters even though Democrats took a bit of a different view, many voters did not process January 6, 2021 as a grave moment in American democracy. And because of that, a lot of Republican voters are not turning on the character and conduct question.” King: “Yeah.” Dickerson: “But, of course, both can be true.” King: “How is that possible, Bob, when you look at those pictures? I think that’s what many people are grappling with. You look at January 6. He characterized it as a protest of love, he characterized it as patriots yet you’re — you’re right when you say that is not how people saw it. How is it possible?” Costa: “It is possible because there are many people who amplify Trump’s point of view.” King: “Yeah. Brennan: “They thread the needle between separating him —” King: “Him.” Brennan: “— Donald Trump, from the people that carried out the violence.” — Liberal media showing more disconnect from ordinary Americans, 3:39 a.m. Eastern.   Smearing Americans Concerned About Groceries, Insist Presidents Can’t Fix Them CBS's Margaret Brennan offers deep thoughts at 405am, almost shouting at the camera mocking the American people for believing Donald Trump and his team that a president can do anything to lower the price of basic necessities at the grocery store or gas pump She then went onto… pic.twitter.com/aQPdL5ORts — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024 Brennan: “[A]ny country I have ever covered, anywhere in the world, people vote on the three feet in front of them and the kitchen table they sit down at every day and the economic issues are just so fundamental, and the experience of that, and, you know, Norah, you said earlier, maybe we overly focused on grocery prices, it’s — I think you know, Donald Trump campaigned saying he’s going to lower the price of bacon, United States. The president of the United States has nothing to do with the price of bacon, but —” Dickerson: “Or eggs for that matter.” Brennan: “— or eggs or any of it, but it — it — it’s promising —” Dickerson: “Or gas.” Brennan: “— I get that you are comfortable —” Dickerson: “Yeah.” Brennan: “— even though the head of the Federal Reserve and those guys quite know what they are doing in Washington but they’re making your house more expensive, because they are hiking up mortgage — you know, you don’t get that, you don’t get the national number, where Joe Biden is telling you, look, inflation is moderating and coming down, but you understand your grocery cart or the gas tank and that personal experience just seems to be what, at least people are using to justify their vote for Donald Trump when they are citing the economy.” — Brennan flashing her liberal credentials, 4:05 a.m. Eastern.   Pitching Mini-Fit Over Americans Being Uneasy with Hundreds of Millions for Ukraine Brennan: “And Ukraine arguably almost became a proxy, I would — I would say, for some Republicans, as a way to argue that they were economically frustrated. Why are you spending money there? I need it here, which is — as if it were —” O’Keefe: “Which is the inverse of 20 years ago when it was as the left saying why are you spending all this money in Iraq, and holding it against George W. Bush.” Costa: “What was JD Vance’s famous word or infamous word on Steve Bannon radio show podcast? I don’t care about Ukraine. In terms of a political or foreign-policy project for the United States.” Brennan: “Whereas, we have Joe Biden and Kamala Harris arguing that this is, in many ways an existential threat to the entire western order, to democracy itself. Vladimir Putin is marching across.” Costa: “But even that phrase, western order.” Brennan: “I know.” Costa: “It’s maybe something maybe people in Washington continue to articulate is important to them, but I never hear it. The — the concept of the west, Europe, these things that galvanized American policies since World War II, you never hear it on the lips of voters.” — Back-and-forth defending Ukraine, 4:18 a.m. Eastern.   Wild Claims Americans Ignored “The Facts” on Economy to Elect Trump Here's five minutes in the 5am hour on CBS just before they finally called the election for Donald Trump in which Margaret Brennan, Norah O'Donnell, and John Dickerson smeared Americans for refusing to believe "the facts" about the economy and accepting inflation was "transitory" pic.twitter.com/OschhItcvn — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 6, 2024 — Insensitive idiocy, 5:10 a.m. Eastern.   Closing Thoughts: Linking Trump to Reagan, Fearing Fallout Among Young Girls Dickerson: “He’s a political giant, eclipsing Reagan in the Republican Party in terms of his influence. He has the — he is probably the greatest ego and sense of impulse of any president in the modern era and has fewer checks now on him when he’s in office.” O’Donnell: “Margaret Brennan?” Brennan: “The irony of it, we are talking about women's rights at the center of a campaign and we are now seeing the second woman to lose to Donald Trump in eight years and it’s something that I think will resonate with a lot of young girls and people around the world and we’re waiting to see if a female could be commander-in-chief of the most powerful country in the world.” — Final closing takes before signing off, 5:52 a.m. Eastern. To see the relevant CBS transcript from November 5 and 6 (including even more surprising and/or stupid moments), click here.

In their first broadcast since Donald Trump took back the White House overnight in a resounding victory over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the co-hosts of "The View" — some dressed in black as though they were attending a funeral — as expected harped and complained Wednesday morning about Trump's win.Whoopi Goldberg at one point acknowledged that Trump is "now the president" — however, she added a caveat: "I'm still not gonna say his name."'I'm profoundly disturbed that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution did not prevent someone who participated in an insurrection from becoming president of the United States.'Ana Navarro lamented that America failed to elect "the first black, Asian woman president. History slipped through our fingers again. I worked hard as hell for Donald Trump not to be president. But today, unlike Donald Trump and his followers, I acknowledge that he won."Sunny Hostin said, "I'm profoundly disturbed. I think if you look at the New York Times this morning, the headline was ‘America Makes a Perilous Choice.’ I think that in 2016 we didn’t know what we would get from a Trump administration. But we know now. And we know now he will have almost unfettered power. And so I worry — not about myself actually, I don’t worry about my station in life — I worry about the working class. I worry about my mother, a retired teacher. I worry about our elderly and their Social Security and their Medicare. I worry about my children’s future, especially my daughter who now has less rights than I have.”Hostin added: "I'm profoundly disturbed that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution did not prevent someone who participated in an insurrection from becoming president of the United States. I think that going forward that the convicted felon box on employment applications better be taken off because if you can be the president of the United States, then you should not be prevented from employment in this country."Hostin also wrung her hands about a health care system that's "now at risk" — and then she looked down and appeared to read from a screen and noted that economists say Trump will "increase the [national] debt by $7.75 trillion." She also noted concerns about "mass deportations and internment camps."“I'm surprised at the result, but I'm not surprised. As a woman of color, I was so hopeful that a mixed-race woman married to a Jewish guy could be elected president of this country,” Hostin concluded. “And I think that it had nothing to do with policy; I think this was a referendum of cultural resentment in this country.”Sara Haines and even Joy Behar — a dyed-in-the-wool Trump-hater — were more measured in their reactions. Alyssa Farah Griffin has been touted for a while as the lone Republican at the table — although she said she didn't vote for Trump — and seemed the most understanding of them all."We need to bring down the temperature, the name-calling, the demonizing," she said before adding that "it is a moment to listen to the voters. ... I didn't expect [Trump's win] to be this resounding, and I think there are some lessons from it. ... I think we forget about rural America. I think the working class feels left behind. They feel like the powerful, the elite only care about them and their power. And [Trump] spoke to them. We may not have liked his words, but they turned out for him."You can view a longer segment from Wednesday's episode of "The View" here.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!