Let's give him this much credit: former Newsweek scribe Jonathan Alter's angst seems sincere. That contrasts with Joe Scarborough's seemingly contrived episodes of table-pounding anti-Trump scaremongering.
On today's CNN This Morning, Alter grew emotional as he described the supposed dangers of electing Trump.
Host Kasie Hunt wasn't content simply to tee up Alter. Citing statements in an Atlantic article in which former Trump aides condemned Trump as fascistic, Hunt made clear that she shared Alter's fearful view of a possible Trump win:
"In these final moments of the campaign, you can lose sight of what we're really grappling with here. But when the headline in The Atlantic is that Trump wants his generals to be more like, they want -- like Hitler's generals . . . it does collectively make a significant statement about where we are."
Alter compared Kamala Harris to....Abe Lincoln in 1864.
ALTER: Yes, we're at a moment of national truth. This is the most significant election since 1864 when, if Abraham Lincoln had lost, there would have been a separate peace with the South, as Trump said last week he favored. We would've had a confederacy, no abolition. So, this election is as big as that.
We now have the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, top military officer. They both used the "F"-word, "fascist." This is not a drill...People have to wake up and understand our whole system is at stake in this election.
But Alter never addressed the fact that Trump, the supposed neo-fascist, had already been in office for four years. And somehow, the catalog of horrors that Alter predicts never transpired. The republic survived. Biden is serving out his term. And the campaign has proceeded peacefully -- with the exception of two assassination attempts against Trump!
Kamala is Lincoln, and Trump is....Putin. Alter added: "So, America has to ask itself, do we want an American Putin? That's what's on offer in this election."
Alter's altered emotional state can be seen as a reflection of just how anxious Democrats have become over the reality that Trump has a very real chance of winning the election.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
10/23/24
6:05 am EDTKASIE HUNT: Jonathan, you've spent alot of time thinking about history. You've seen and covered a lot of that American history. Our media environment is so fragmented, everything flies by us so fast now, that it seems sometimes in these final moments of the campaign, you can lose sight of what we're really grappling with here.
But when the headline in The Atlantic is that Trump wants his generals to be more like, they want -- like Hitler's generals. And you have these comments on the record from Kelly, who's been very careful about how and when he decides to speak out, it does collectively make a significant statement about where we are.
JONATHAN ALTER: Yes, we're at a moment of national truth. This is the most significant election since 1864, when if Abraham Lincoln had lost, there would have been a separate peace with the South, as Trump said last week, he favored. We would've had a Confederacy, no abolition.
So this election is as big as that. We now have the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, top military officer. They both used the f-word, fascist. This is not a drill!
And when he talks about, you know, oh, enemies from within, he's not just talking about political rivals. He said the Pelosis, plural. This poor 82-year-old man, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, who had his skull fractured! Trump is joking about it when he's still in the hospital. Now he's saying that because of Paul Pelosi's connection to Nancy Pelosi, he's an enemy from within too. Anybody who was in any way connected to any of his rivals is subject to the full force of his government.
If he is returned to the Oval Office, this is dead serious, Kasie. People have to wake up and understand our whole system is at stake in this election.
. . .
So this is a man who has routinely violated his oath of office to uphold the Constitution, not his license for his personal power. He admires dictators. Vladimir Putin, is the only person in the whole world he's never saying anything critical about. And he wants to be a strong man.
So America has to ask itself: do we want an American Putin? That's what's on offer in this election. And, you know, Republicans can rationalize as much as they want. They don't want to face the truth here. They know the truth. They're trying to like, they think, I don't know, that somehow he would be restrained in a second term. Please! We know that that's not the case.
So this is a moment for conscience of every Republican, every independent. They really have to ask themselves, am I willing to take this risk after John Kelly, Mark Milley, Tom Esper --
HUNT: -- Mark.
ALTER: Mark. Mark Esper. All of these people who worked for him. This is a dangerous man!
Do you really want to go into the polls, pull the lever for a dangerous man? A threat to our republic? Really?
