ABC News declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential race late Saturday morning, and spent the next couple hours praising the return to “decency” and “normalcy” that a Biden-Harris administration would supposedly bring. At the same time, their journalists and analysts agreed that Biden would have to model Abraham Lincoln in uniting a divided country. Yet ABC’s own lofty message of unity and calm was frequently contradicted by these same journalists and Democratic guests attacking the President and the nearly 70 million people who voted for him as racist and violent bigots.
Some of the hateful rhetoric started when anchor George Stephanopoulos asked former Democrat Senator from North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp how Biden could speak to “MAGA” America. In response, the Democrat warned about violence from “militant” Trump supporters [click expand]:
....[B]iden winning is the worst kept secret in America. We've been there for a long time. The danger that we have right now is what's going to happen with the more militant portion of the MAGA movement and how is Biden going to speak to the non-militant side of this? And how do we curtail and control this? You give this two days to fester, they already don't believe what the media says because they've been told for four years this is fake news....And so there's people out there who believe this -- that you guys are wrong. He won the election. There's going to be an opportunity, and so I say that Biden needs to divide and conquer. He needs to speak to the portion of those folks and encourage calm, but I'm very, very concerned about what's going to happen in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Later on, speaking of pro-Trump protesters in Pennsylvania she blasted the peaceful protesters as "the most radical, and quite honestly the most dangerous [of Trump supporters] that you see there."
Stephanopoulos also marveled at New York Times' columnist Tom Friedman's "impassioned" "mission" to get Trump out of office, inviting him to share his hateful thoughts about Trump (here's a small portion, rest in transcript):
[I]f we had gone for four more years of this man, every norm we have, every value we cherish, every institution that we've elevated throughout our history would be corrupted by this man... this guy, this terrible, terrible man, he turned America into a country whose model was ‘show me the money’ and ‘get the hell off my lawn.'
A little while later, Stephanopoulos asked ABC Republican analyst Chris Christie what Biden could say to reach Trump supporters. Christie in turn blasted ABC and Friedman for their left-wing hate towards the president and half the country:
Well, the first thing you can do is not listen to Tom Friedman. I thought that was just an awful, awful diatribe by Tom, and it shows why the people who supported the president feel as if the elites in the media on both coasts don't listen to them, don't respect them, and don't think they should have a voice. And this is the problem, George.
He added that Biden needed to edge out the more hateful voices in his party to reach any Trump supporters as he criticized the network for having no outrage to Friedman's comments:
[Y]ou know, to me, that's part of the problem, and we have no reaction to that, no outrage to the language that was used there... I'm not a bad person. I'm not a dumb person, and I voted for Donald Trump, and there's a lot of other people out there who did as well. And were thoroughly insulted by that diatribe, and it is indicative of what some people who have supported Vice President Biden think of those 70 million people who voted for Donald Trump.
Still, Christie’s scolding didn’t stop the name-calling. White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega picked up her hateful rant from yesterday to declare that Latinos were glad to be rid of Trump because the past four years have been the worst they have faced in her lifetime [click expand]:
[T]he last four years this is a community that has been demonized. It has been beaten. It has been kicked. It has been deported. It has been ostracized, and it has been alienated like I've never seen in my generation before…. But I think in terms of Latinos feeling like second class citizens in this country, many of them have felt that way for a long time. I think back to my young nephew who at the very beginning when we were seeing child separations, turned to my sister-in-law and asked, 'are mom and dad, are grandparent going to be deported?' Those are the messages that children in this country have felt and faced for the last four years so I think there will be a little bit of a breather today.
There were no advertisers during this ABC News Live segment but you can contact ABC's advertisers at the Conservatives Fight Back page.
Read partial transcripts below:
ABC News Live Coverage
11/7/2020
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We are seeing people start to gather in Times Square. Heidi Heitkamp, tat's a long way from North Dakota, the state that you represented in the United States Senate a state that became deep Trump country. How does Joe Biden speak to MAGA America?
HEITKAMP: You know, I think we all need to step back right now, George, and understand what's going on on the other side, and on the other side today there's going to be a rally at the state capitol in support of the president. Our entire congressional delegation is going to be there to speak. This is a long way from being over, and it's a long way from the country being able to heal, and you know, I know this as a moment. I think as I said last night, it was Biden winning is the worst kept secret in America. We've been there for a long time. The danger that we have right now is what's going to happen with the more militant portion of the MAGA movement and how is Biden going to speak to the non-militant side of this? And how do we curtail and control this? You give this two days to fester, they already don't believe what the media says because they've been told for four years this is fake news. Today we've underreported the fact that they lost a case in Michigan, the judge saying there's no bearing there. We need to be talking about all the failure of raising these issues in this election and how those efforts are failing because when we get that news out there, people start seeing the narrative that this isn't going to change.
And so there's people out there who believe this -- that you guys are wrong. He won the election. There's going to be an opportunity, and so I say that Biden needs to divide and conquer. He needs to speak to the portion of those folks and encourage calm, but I'm very, very concerned about what's going to happen in the next 24 to 48 hours.STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks for that note of caution. David Muir, perhaps one of the tools that he can draw and one of the things that Joe Biden can draw on as he tries to speak to part of the MAGA movement are his working class roots.
DAVID MUIR: No question about that, George...
....
12:26:20 -12:28:11 PM EST
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to bring in Tom Freidman, I've been reading you for about 40 years, and I've never seen you so impassioned as you have been over the last year or so as this campaign heated up. It seemed you were on a mission to make sure that you did everything you could to see that America elected Joe Biden, defeated Donald Trump.
TOM FRIEDMAN: Well, you know, George, thanks for saying that because I really thought America was on the ballot. I thought America was on the line. Everything we stood for as a country, everything we promoted in the world was at stake, that we could, like any country can choose a bad leader for a short period of time and get over it, but if we had gone for four more years of this man, every norm we have, every value we cherish, every institution that we've elevated throughout our history would be corrupted by this man, and that's why I'm getting phone calls and text messages, George, from all over the world right now. From friends in India, Israel, they're just so happy. They're relieved because they know what Donald Trump did to America and how important America is for the world. American optimism makes the world go round. American optimism and the sense that there's somewhere over the rainbow where justice can be upheld, where institutions actually work, where I don't have to bribe someone, and this guy, this terrible, terrible man, he turned America into a country whose model was show me the money and get the hell off my lawn. And I am so happy he has been defeated. We have so much work to do, but we have been saved. I have a senior military officer who just wrote me, just sent me a message that just said "whew" because so many people knew how badly things would have gone had this guy been reelected.....
12:34:38PM- 12:37:13PM EST
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: How does Joe Biden reach out to the Trump supporters who actually have ears to hear what he has to say?
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Well, the first thing you can do is not listen to Tom Friedman. I thought that was just an awful, awful diatribe by Tom, and it shows why the people who supported the president feel as if the elites in the media on both coasts don't listen to them, don't respect them, and don't think they should have a voice. And this is the problem, George. The problem that Joe Biden is going to find is that there's a large part of his party, and he said I am the democratic party in one of the debates, but he's going to have to deal with folks like that who um, really use adjectives and words and phrases and emotion that they accuse the president of using because let me tell you something, if you had turned that diatribe around and made it anti-liberal rather than anti-Trump, he would have accused the president of saying things like that. I think we need to be more respectful with each other's views, and there are 70 million people in this country who voted for Donald Trump on election day and in the weeks before, and so I think what Joe Biden needs to do is to close out the voices of those folks, or at least minimize them and speak from his heart about being the American president. And I think if he does that, then he has a real chance to have those people listen and to have those people make judgments on his policies in a way that's fair and appropriate. But you know, that's -- you know, to me, that's part of the problem, and we have no reaction to that, no outrage to the language that was used there. I'm making my way into New York City now to come and join you in the studio and listening to that, you know, just made my blood boil, George. I'm not a bad person. I'm not a dumb person, and I voted for Donald Trump, and there's a lot of other people out there who did as well. And were thoroughly insulted by that diatribe, and it is indicative of what some people who have supported Vice President Biden think of those 70 million people who voted for Donald Trump.12:52:39 PM-12:54:43PM EST
CECILIA VEGA: I also think, George, it's worth pausing right now as we see these crowds out there celebrating. I think for the Latino community in this country, it is a moment of much of the Latino community in our country right now today and seeing the results of this election brings a little bit of a sigh of relief because the last four years this is a community that has been demonized. It has been beaten. It has been kicked. It has been deported. It has been ostracized, and it has been alienated like I've never seen in my generation before, from day one from the president coming down that escalator at Trump Tower saying Mexicans are not sending their best people, there sending, some of them are rapists to those pictures of children in cages and children being separated from their families at the border to people in the highest echelons of this administration like Stephen Miller who are fervent believers of a very anti-immigration rhetoric that the president very much carried out. Words matter, 61 million la tee in this country. Someone went to a Walmart in El Paso in 2018 and opened fire with the explicit intention of killing Mexicans and that's what happens when you have words like this that are ugly in this country. I think today as we look ahead and try to move on from some of this pain that I think so many Latinos are feeling, there will be questions for Joe Biden on how much he can accomplish in terms of immigration. He has said that he will provide protections for DACA on day one. He has said he will stop building that wall going forward, but he's got big hurdles in front of him if he really wants to do those things. As we've been saying, he's got a very mixed -- he's got a mixed Congress, and it will be a big question how much he can actually accomplish. But I think in terms of Latinos feeling like second class citizens in this country, many of them have felt that way for a long time. I think back to my young nephew who at the very beginning when we were seeing child separations, turned to my sister-in-law and asked, 'are mom and dad, are grandparent going to be deported?' Those are the messages that children in this country have felt and faced for the last four years so I think there will be a little bit of a breather today.
