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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Protests Against Police Brutality and Systemic Racism Push Trump and the G.O.P. to a Breaking Point

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

President, Wickenden, Washington, Lizza, Obama, Wnyc, News, Barack, Politics

4.33.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2020

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

During Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, mainstream Republicans expressed disgust with his divisive rhetoric, but once he became President, they fell in line behind him. The protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd have created a moment of reckoning for the Republican Party. In recent weeks, several senators and former members of the Trump Administration have spoken out against the President, including his onetime Defense Secretary, James Mattis, who accused him  of making “a mockery of our Constitution.” Susan B. Glasser, a New Yorker staff writer, joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss how Trump’s response to the demonstrations is changing the dynamics of the 2020 campaign.

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Transcript

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This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and guests about politics. It's Thursday,

0:55.9

June 11th. I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of The New Yorker. He's a race-baiting,

1:02.3

xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn't represent my party. He doesn't represent the values

1:08.7

that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting

1:11.5

for. I've been in the Air Force for 33 years. Five years ago, when Donald Trump announced his

1:15.9

presidential campaign, he was met with derision by his Republican opponents, including Senator

1:21.7

Lindsey Graham, heard there talking to CNN in 2015. Throughout the primaries, Trump was ridiculed for his lack of

1:29.8

experience and excoriated for his inflammatory racial remarks. Trump's success in the primaries

1:36.5

caused a rift in the party and the birth of the never Trump movement, which sought to prevent

1:41.8

him from securing the Republican nomination.

1:51.2

But once Trump became president, even his most strident Republican critics became sycophantic supporters.

1:55.6

Here's Lindsey Graham speaking at a Trump rally earlier this year.

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