Around the witching hour, when Trump’s victory wasn’t quite official but definitely a reality, the normally more buttoned-up crew covering the election for PBS let its fear and anger fly.
Before signing off from Donald Trump’s victory party at 2:58 a.m., reporter William Brangham went on the petulant rant he’d apparently been holding in for several hours of coverage.
William Brangham: The people here, honestly, I think are still in a little bit of sense of shock that they came here expecting a long night. Not really thinking that the race would be virtually decided by this evening. All arrows, as we've been reporting, pointing in that direction. And for those people who are celebrating, many of them are still dancing on the floor behind me, this message about dealing with the economy and dealing with immigration resonated enormously to them, obviously.
I can only also imagine, though, that for the other half of the country, who is watching this, the people who are aghast at the idea that we are on the cusp of electing someone who waged a violent riot against our democratic process, who calls climate change a hoax, who spread racist lies about immigrants throughout this campaign, who has emulated dictators and says he would like to perhaps be one. I imagine those people watching this have to be equally in shock as the supporters of Donald Trump are shocked at how things turned out for them this evening here in Florida.
Not to be outdone, PBS anchor Amna Nawaz followed up three minutes later with this hysterical description of Trump’s immigration proposals.
Amna Nawaz (to David Brooks): On immigration, though, I think it's worth remembering in his first term, [Trump] implemented and oversaw what has to be one of the darkest chapters in modern American history, and that was separating children from their parents forcibly for the purpose of separation, as a deterrence. So I'm curious where you think a deterrence or a check would come into play, especially if Republicans control the senate as well. And as we've heard, he will probably fill a cabinet with loyalists and people who won't say no to him.
The Democrats' "kids in cages" argument has some holes that PBS will never address.
Two minutes later, perpetually pained Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart claimed he would be under threat in a second Trump administration for being black and gay.
Jonathan Capehart: ….for a lot of people, this will be 2016 all over again. And for me, it's not because, I lived through the first, the four years of Trump's administration. I remember what that was like. And I just have to say that this is a sobering moment for me as an African American, because things that he said on the campaign trail about giving power to police to do all sorts of things that would loop me in, potentially, to being, have an encounter with the police that I didn't ask for. As a gay American, I'm concerned because that's super--the conservative supermajority on the court, particularly Justice Thomas in his concurrence with the Dobbs decision, said, we should go after Obergefell. So my, which legalized same sex marriage, so my marriage is on the line….
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