Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's Deadline: White House on MSNBC to react to President Donald Trump's strong showing in the election, contributor Jason Johnson declared he was "disturbed" by the number of Americans who voted for Trump, and urged Joe Biden, if he becomes President, to treat Republicans as "the enemies of democracy."
Host Nicolle Wallace set up his rant by asking about President Trump committing 'atrocities" and showing "disdain" for various people, and how that ties to the election. Johnson responded by complaining about President Trump threatening to appeal the election results to the U.S. Supreme Court, proclaiming that it "shows his disdain for all people, and went on a rant as he added:
We have to be clear, Donald Trump doesn't seem to like anybody. He may have a particular disdain for black people, he may have a particular disdain for children at the border, but, remember, this is a guy who left his own supporters out in the middle of a tarmac and hopped on a plane. There is nobody who Donald Trump likes. I don't even think he likes his kids. So the contrast that we're seeing here is that America by the slightest of disturbing margins decided they wanted to pick someone who doesn't actively dislike the people who gave him the job.
He then fretted:
I am disturbed by the fact not enough Americans made that decision. I'm disturbed by the fact that you have large numbers of people who are like, "Yeah, a guy who leaves people out in the cold, quarter of a million people die of COVID, harasses women and everything else like that, I want a little bit more than that, and I don't know if I really wanted the other guy." So this election actually shows me a lot of really disturbing things about this country racially, very disturbing things about this country from a gender standpoint.
Johnson then pushed Biden to treat various Republicans as enemies, and, in spite of all the leftists who have committed violence while protests in recent months, even through in Kyle Rittenhouse who was arguably acting in self-defense:
You cannot come into this White House with the idea these people aren't the enemy. They are. The people chasing the Biden-Harris truck out of Texas, they are the enemies of democracy. The people right now attacking vote counters in Detroit, they are the enemy. Kyle Rittenhouse is the enemy. Mitch McConnell is the enemy. And if there's thing Democrats finally should have figured out in this campaign, you cannot treat the Republican party with kid gloves because they won't treat you that way.
Earlier in the day on Morning Joe, Johnson had snarked about white Floridians who were wiling to vote for President Trump again:
This is about white folks. This is about white people who saw a President who was corrupt and sexist and violent and mismanaged an entire pandemic that's killed over 230,000 people by the election, and they said, "I want some more of that." So even if every single black person and every single Latino person had said, "Hey, we're going to come out and support Joe Biden," it wouldn't have been enough to overcome the number of white people with Trump and his mini version of Trumpism, which is (Governor Ron) DeSantis, who is also responsible for some of the voter suppression in the state which kept black and Latino voters from getting to the polls.
This episode of MSNBC's Deadline: White House was sponsored in part by Principle. Their contact information is linked.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Wednesday, November 4, Deadline: White House on MSNBC. Click "expand" to read more.
Deadline: White House
11/7/2020
4:20 p.m. Eastern
NICOLLE WALLACE: Jason, I want to come to you on what this election says to you about the conversation we have had day after day after day about the vastness of this President's sort of atrocities in terms of his disdain for the office he holds and the way he has treated people who he views as not his people, and often they are people, voiceless people, migrants that come here, asylum seekers that come here, African-American men and women calling for racial reckoning. I mean, what does the election results say to you about the country's disposition around all of those issues?
JASON JOHNSON, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it says a couple of things. I mean, one, Trump's reaction in saying that he's going to run to the Supreme Court, which is essentially the equivalent of "I'm going to call the manager because I didn't get what I wanted," shows his disdain for all people, right? I mean, because we have to be clear, Donald Trump doesn't seem to like anybody. He may have a particular disdain for black people, he may have a particular disdain for children at the border, but, remember, this is a guy who left his own supporters out in the middle of a tarmac and hopped on a plane. There is nobody who Donald Trump likes. I don't even think he likes his kids. So the contrast that we're seeing here is that America by the slightest of disturbing margins decided they wanted to pick someone who doesn't actively dislike the people who gave him the job.
I am disturbed by the fact not enough Americans made that decision. I'm disturbed by the fact that you have large numbers of people who are like, "Yeah, a guy who leaves people out in the cold, quarter of a million people die of COVID, harasses women and everything else like that, I want a little bit more than that, and I don't know if I really wanted the other guy." So this election actually shows me a lot of really disturbing things about this country racially, very disturbing things about this country from a gender standpoint.
And I have to say this because, if Joe Biden becomes President of the United States -- and I hope that he does because he's not a dictator in the making, and he seems to be a decent guy -- I will immediately turn around my hat and be excruciatingly critical of him because you cannot come into this White House with the idea these people aren't the enemy. They are. The people chasing the Biden-Harris truck out of Texas, they are the enemies of democracy. The people right now attacking vote counters in Detroit, they are the enemy. Kyle Rittenhouse is the enemy. Mitch McConnell is the enemy.
And if there's thing Democrats finally should have figured out in this campaign, you cannot treat the Republican party with kid gloves because they won't treat you that way. I hope Joe Biden just gave this speech to sound nice because everything isn't locked down yet -- maybe Senator Harris will have this idea should she become VP-- but they have to go into this realizing they're in a war. The war for the soul of America will not end once he's inaugurated, and I hope he remembers that.
