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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... SEPTEMBER 21st 2024 The Upcoming Great Debate \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse How low will Trump go? \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZyRJWOHcrg Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
How low will Trump go? \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich 817K subscribers Premiered 94 minutes ago The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Friends, As the 2024 election moves into its final stretch with Kamala Harris gaining a slim lead, Trump is losing it. His statements are even less coherent than before; his accusations, wilder; his lies, even more dangerous. He is starting to resemble a cornered animal. Today, Heather and I assess where Trump is and what he might do. We examine what Trump loyalists are doing in the key states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, with an eye on delaying and casting doubt on the results of the upcoming election. We look at the chances of more chicanery after November 5 in Congress, particularly if Republicans remain in control of the House. And we look at incitements to violence. Overall, though, we’re cautiously (Bob says “nauseously”) optimistic, and we hope you are, too. Please pull up a seat, grab a cuppa and join us. Transcript 0:00 and it is the Saturday coffee clch with Heather LOF house and yours truly Robert Rush Heather what do we have in store today good morning Bob and all we have what's the election outlook kamla on Oprah more political scandals like Mark Robinson and more political violence but let's get through it together let's do it together and let's be upbeat I feel I'm feeling you know my usual optimistic U nauseous optimism about this whole thing I really do I think uh I think we're on the right track uh you know Comm is on the right track America's on the right track the economy is on the right track uh but I'm na I'm nauseously optimistic it's scary and let's get into it there are polls but so voting started this week early voting 44 days out what have you been paying attention to uh well obviously I'm looking at the states and the swing States especially uh and uh the polls are not absolutely clear uh KLA is is moving a little bit ahead uh 1:05 in fact in several this Wing stage she's about four or five even six points ahead in Georgia it's a deadlock uh in uh Nevada it's a deadlock uh and uh I don't you know what worries me honestly is that the polling as a science is still so far from what it should be and as we've talked about before a lot of people who are for Trump don't tell pollsters they for Trump so again I think it's looking good Heather uh but now that Trump now they're voting is starting we still don't know very much right well the polling is far from what it should be and humans are far from where they should be it feels like also um Pennsylvania the fact that this election could come down to 10,000 pennsylvanians which sounds like a song waiting to happen floors me I mean 10,000 Pennsylvania 2:00 I sing there is a song but it's not just 10,000 it's about it's about 40,000 people in could be three or four or five of the Swing States including Pennsylvania but what worries me about Pennsylvania is you know they they refuse the Republican Senate in Pennsylvania in Pennsylvania uh refuses to allow any of the mailin votes to be counted until election day which means in Pennsylvania you're going to have a lot of late news a lot of late counts uh the the later it is after election day the more Mischief uh the more Trump can can say well there is all sorts of Nefarious things going on that's it and just let's just the word for this is the red Mirage right and he is this is what he does and we count we count the rural smaller places sooner and they tend to be more red and then he says and then we count the urban centers and it shifts to being more blue and he claims that's where the you know rigging and the stealing is happening when it's just how 3:04 numbers work exactly uh Georgia is another similar problem because in Georgia you know the election board is now taken over 3 to2 by right-wingers and they are they've already said that at the county level if you have any concerns at all don't certify you can't certify if there's a reasonable whatever that means uh cause for for for being concerned about the regul about whether things are going right well it gives the county boards particularly the trumpers more opportunity for delay more opportunity to hold things up and I just want to remind Heather you everybody that this ultimately is going to be played out in Congress in terms of the certification we went through this already uh obviously in 2020 now the person who is going to be vice president who is going to be sitting there and determining the certification process 4:05 for certifying is going to be somebody named kamla Harris which will be used against her right be used against her but the Republicans what I'm really worried about I mean the question is do the Republicans stay in control of the house or do Democrats get control of the house by and what's your answer well I don't I don't know I think I think that the the look it's looking better this is why down ballot voting is so important you know everybody's focing on focusing on the swing States in terms of the Electoral College that's completely understandable but it's also very very important for everybody even if you are in California and New York and and states that you don't think well are going to make much difference it will make a big difference in terms of the House of Representatives and maybe this certification issue uh and uh so just 5:00 vote and take it very seriously good advice also eyes on Texas we cannot stop looking at Texas all red is up right now over Ted Cruz KLA still down obviously but not by much and this change over time has been fascinating and if Texas goes blue what electoral college I mean and I'm not saying it will I mean that would be incredible but I there is a movement over time which is part of you were always talking about this Bob the The Long View and you've seen over time and I think we have to remember that there you know there's going to be 2028 if I mean if Kamala one in November and then is running again in 2028 and could win Texas it would be a fascinating turn of events as it relates absolutely absolutely if Texas I mean the mere fact that we're talking about the possibility of Texas turning blue uh is just warms my heart and and and we you know we can't get overly confident and complacent but I think that that there 6:01 are places around the country she's running uh a campaign that is obviously appropriately focused on the swing States but she is also going everywhere and uh which is fabulous yes and she was on Oprah yesterday so you and I have both said let's get her out we'd like to see her on more news shows you know people claiming they need to know more about her please so she went on Oprah millions of people watched and then Millions more watched all the clips and there was that heartbreak story of Amber Thurman's mom of course that was the woman who died a preventable death Rec uh related to the overturning of row related to abortion care in Georgia in 2022 and the mom shared and the sisters shared their experience and that they were trepidacious about coming forward but they thought that was selfish and all the people crying in the background the cameras were blurred right on the background but so many you saw tissues going to you know the corners of people's eyes and it was very emotional 7:00 well never underestimate the power of stories of personal stories uh even in an election where you know it seems that everybody's caught up in numbers no it's the powerful personal stories and who is the champion of telling powerful personal stories that is Oprah Winfrey uh so for KLA to be on Oprah Winfrey show on Thursday is was an amazing coup and uh uh particularly with regard to the issue of abortion now here's where we really do have to drill down a little bit uh women in this election are going to be absolutely critical I have not seen as large a gender gap particularly among the young uh as I have with regard to this election uh and women vote you know more than men vote 3 million more women are registered to vote than men uh so women of America we're counting on you that's it and so later I'm going to do a little foreshadowing but later we're going to torture you with another 8:03 clip I can't wait from when you were this is the Bob was psychic and this year was 1996 so we'll play it later but you're talking about the white male vote and Democrats this is back in 96 and it is interesting to watch um how who is picking up on the kamla Harris campaign now obviously Oprah's audience was very focused on women yesterday and it was a women's um story that they were showing in that particular segment but what are your thoughts on that well I think that the the the white Christian male working class uh really has been the story of America since the 80s and 90s you remember Pat Buchanan he ran for president three times people didn't pay a great deal of attention because his chances were very low but that white male working class uh particularly the Christian workingclass white uh that has been an undercurrent and it's grown and 9:03 grown and grown as Democrats have sort of focused on the suburban swing voters the college educated voters uh and basically created a political void uh into which obviously Donald Trump jumped uh and changed the Republican party uh now if Donald Trump loses uh the big interesting question is what's going to happen to all of those working class white uh Evangelical voters rural non-oled voters are they going to go back to the old Republican party is the new is the is the Trump Republican party going to live on in and if so who's going to head it yes and uh we're going to be living with this uh Heather I mean I I I've said before uh the election is obviously critical important critically important but if Harris wins as I hope she will uh 10:01 trumpism Trump and trumpism is not over it's still there as an undercurrent a major undercurrent in America as unfortunately is political violence that's it but Trump is still very much a presence I mean d Vance is just horrendous we watched him all week being nefarious and saying that he's going to be creating lies as he needs to create stories you know basically lying to the American people as needed he's he's worse than I even thought he was I mean I you know I watched him become Senator uh you know the hillbilly elegy which I thought was very self-serving uh and Peter teal bankrolling him Peter T you know the billionaire bankrolling his senatorial campaign uh but basically I watched him from to you know be be a chameleon say whatever is necessary whatever the current Father Figure whatever he has embraced wants him to say and he's I mean it's it's it's not only unprincipled uh he really is a 11:00 dangerous character I thought that was a great line from Jamie Raskin at the DNC where he called him Trump's pet chameleon was good and that's saying something it really is but so okay and how about so Trump this week I mean first of all we have not talked about the second assassination attempt and all this political violence that's happening and being stoked that was how many days ago now we haven't seen each other for coffee well well that was last last Sunday but it does seem like old old story I I think the interesting thing is that Trump almost immediately started blaming the Democrats for inciting violence this is Trump's old technique you know whenever he's cornered and and it's clear that he has done something he starts blaming the other side uh and the irony here is that you and I have said you know that Trump is a fascist and Trump has to be we have to fight trumpism and we have to but those words you know that he is is dangerous he's a threat to America that those are not incitements to violence uh I have said 12:05 you have said repeatedly no we've got to do this legally we've got to do it carefully uh we've got to do it under the you know the rubric of the rule of law and the Constitution but Trump himself is the one who has been for the last eight years inciting all kinds of violence he is Mr violence the use of the word hate is is probably comes out of his mouth that word hate more than almost any other word he says I what did he say uh right after Taylor Swift endorsed Kam Harris I hate bold letters I hate Taylor Swift um and uh during the debate he said KLA Harris you know Biden hates you and KLA Harris hates Israel and K har hates the Arabs he's he's so filled with hatefulness he doesn't even know what to where to where it end it's so horrendous and then of 13:05 course Elon Musk richest man about to be a trillionaire perhaps comes out and says he's stoking the violence online talk to us about that and why the heck I'm getting I'm being classy here why is the news and the corporate media obviously not talking more about Trump and what he's doing around I mean excuse me musk also Trump in this election uh musk is is also a very dangerous figure uh in the sense that obviously not only is he the richest person in the world but he also now owns what used to be Twitter uh X the platform uh he has 1902 200 million followers uh he people follow what he says uh the Press follows what he says so when he puts up uh an a a tweet that says why isn't anybody talking 14:02 about assassinating Biden or Harris uh he took it down he said it was a joke but no millions of people saw that and millions of people understand uh that that that musk is himself I mean look at he took away all moderation from X he fired all of the people who are moderating hate speech on X X himself itself has become a vehicle for the worst kinds of hate uh look what happened in in Great Britain uh just a few weeks ago in terms of the the race riots uh because of what was put on X he himself musk has endorsed and encouraged much of this incendiary Li these lies uh and why aren't we doing more about musk uh you know I've I posted something a couple weeks ago say listing six things that we should be doing the United 15:00 States other countries uh we we should be taking action we should I know and he was not happy about you posting that and then he does online bullying with this huge platform he's changed all the algorithms I mean it's not Twitter is not what it once was Heather sticks and stones may break my bones yes but Elon musk's name calling is fine I think that's how it almost rhymed um okay what else is on the list so or how worried are we about postelection certification you mentioned Georgia I mean I when are uh I'm I'm scared about this I mean November 5th first of all are we going to be texting each other on November 5th we're not doing a live coffee clutch we can't well wherever and whenever and however you want to meet and everybody out there whatever you you want us to give you some reassurance we will do it uh look uh the the there is likely be some trouble after uh election day uh who can 16:03 indicate who who knows what kind of trouble I mean Trump has even use the term bloodbath if he's not elected um I um I think that he has seed County election uh structures around the country with his own people I think there will be uh as we go move towards certification uh there will be a lot of allegations of improprieties uh coming from Trump if he loses uh but Heather uh the good news is not only is C Harris uh in charge of certification as the vice president um but also there have been enacted by Congress in light of what happened last time on uh January 6 2021 uh some improvements in the process so for example a state uh cannot uh refuse to certify unless 20% of his Congressional Delegation goes along with it well uh maybe not a huge Safeguard 17:05 but still something of a safeguard what about NE Nebraska and Maine they've been in the news a lot this week in terms of their winner take all systems do you think something will be will change in those states in the next 44 days well interestingly most Americans probably didn't realize that those are the two states that don't have win or take-all systems for the Electoral College that is they're proportional uh if Donald Trump gets 80% of the votes in Nebraska and the 20% go to k Harris she still gets some electoral votes out of Nebraska and Maine is the same way it's proportional in terms of electoral votes every state should be that way but you have two now what the Trump people want to do in Nebraska is move toward a winner take all system so he can scoop up the electoral votes that uh because it's the state is probably going to go for Trump it's very incredibly Red State 18:01 uh and they you know they don't want her to get any extra votes uh well look there's going to be these kinds of things these kinds of shenanigans going on all over right and the and the scuttlebutt is that Nebraska they waited this long these strategists waited this long because in Maine there's a 90-day window that's important in terms of a law being enacted so we'll have to see more will be revealed so many so in other words let me just make it clear in Maine which is going to go for probably going going go for KLA Harris uh that proportional allocation of electoral votes Works to Trump's favor and therefore if in Maine the law is you can't change the Electoral uh allocation within 90 days and that 90 days have already passed so they do it in Nebraska and people in Maine say well we are going to do that all winner take all well we can't do it anymore that's it thank you for explaining as you do um so 19:04 all of these scandals I mean the I cannot keep track of the number of Republican scandals so we have Mark Robinson the gubernatorial candidate who already was illegitimate in many ways and had problems but now all this new stuff is coming out about how he's lived online and where he's been to nefarious sites and what he said about you know being a black Nazi and these just horrible phrases and anti- Martin Luther King and on and on and on and on so we have him how did how did he get as far as he got he's lieutenant governor of the state in North Carolina the law is every time the governor leaves the state the lieutenant governor becomes the acting Governor so you can't the the governor doesn't dare leave the state uh and this lieutenant governor who's next in line uh is kind of besing the entire state uh helping KLA Harris because I mean and hurting Trump I mean voters in North 20:04 Carolina when they see him on the ballot uh that is uh Mark Robinson I mean they're they're just going to recoil with everything that's been coming out I mean not enough of them though we recoil um but then I wanted to say a couple so Matt gets is back in the news again uh that's terrible and they're new more eyewitness testimony and then there was um the Eric Hy in Wisconsin who's running for the Senate he um his bank was sending money to Mexico and he of course did not go ahead yeah go ahead Heather I I don't mean to WR but I do want to pull together some of these people because they are all Republicans they're all Bottom Feeders they're kind of weird uh let's they're worse than weird Mark Robinson is much worse than weird uh but Donald Trump has said and talked about Mark Robinson for example as the as Martin Luther King on steroids that's what Trump said about Robinson 21:05 and a lot of these really strange bottom feeder types came out of the woodwork came out from under Stones uh because of trump they were attracted to Republican parties they they have been sort of they're they're they're absolutely out of their minds and that's part of the underlying problem we need a two-party system and the Republican party has turned into you know bonso Bango wacko I mean these people are are are are just beyond it I know and then you saw that there's all this crypto money trying to go against shered Brown and propping up um the Republican running against him it's so it's big money it's big creepy I mean it's big creepy big creepy taking over but here's my question for you Bob if Trump flails and fails and sails and 22:00 off he goes into the sunset into the sunset are all of these people I mean I would think that the Republican Party would have to rebuild itself I feel like because Trump is the top of this creepy pyramid these people cannot and this is the norm now which is so they are weird but they're also not seen as weird and you can show people clip after clip after clip of you inappropriate behavior and lying and they say yeah I know but but I'm still going to vote for them so what's going to happen if he's gone what does trumpism 2.0 look like with all of these people well that's a great question I I think unfortunately Trump will leave in his wake a kind of normalized creepiness uh and that creepiness includes lies I mean JD Vance is going to still be around he's still a young man uh you have all sorts of people like Robinson they may leave politics for a while they will probably drift back like gets uh so you have this 23:01 this underworld of uh of of creepy Republicans uh and unfortunately the Republican establishment which I call the bush Republicans the people who came out against Trump they are still wandering in the desert uh there it's it's not as if you have a Republican party at the Grassroots that is the the bush party no they are still you know uh kind of up in the clouds uh the Grassroots Republican party is still you know white workingclass Rural non-oled and unfortunately they have been uh made into this paranoid group many of them not all of them obviously but many of them are willing to take these conspiracy theories uh and these lies uh and uh and and accept them as normal how about Trump's lies this week about Jewish Americans uh uh where he said that uh if you are Jewish and you vote well he's 24:02 been saying this for quite some time if you're Jewish and you go vote for Democrats uh you are somehow uh what you're you're part of a cult or you're violating your your what what is what is what is what should be your your interest because he loves Israel so much that every single Jewish person should vote for him well it's a form of anti-Semitism I believe he in fact he said that at a at an event about anti-Semitism uh but when you stereotype Jews the way Trump does that is uh the essence of anti-Semitism uh and when Trump uh basically is angry I mean he looks at his his his polls particularly among Jews and he says no no no that's that has to can't be right but if it's right then I just I can't stand these Jews well again Heather uh this is this is uh what he does you know he stereotypes and you're either for him or against him and if you're against him 25:04 you are really uh the worst kind of person right and the teamsters of course this week so the head of the teamers Shan O'Brien has said he is they are not endorsing anyone and then of course Jim hafa the former president came out and said that's irresponsible that's a lack of leadership that's an error and we know which of these two individuals has been supportive of unions and Working Families their entire careers and it's kamla Harris what about that well kamla Harris has not only been part of an Administration that is the most pro-union and labor Administration in my history in my time that I can possibly remember uh but also K Harris herself uh has done things for the teamsters and the pension fund and and gone out of her way to uh to help these uh these workingclass people who are part of the 26:01 labor movement in the teamsters Teamsters is a very big Union um and uh a lot of the locals are just saying well forget forget it we're we're going to endorse KLA Harris anyway uh there's a political struggle inside the union It's Not Unusual but uh remember uh the the head of the Union was asked by Trump to speak at the Republican convention he did so so uh he took a lot of criticism from the rank and file members by doing so and I wouldn't be surprised if Shan O'Brien that's his name uh was uh deposed as the leader of the teamsters after all of this so now I want to move into a segment that we could you could call I told you so but you're too polite you're too polite to do that I Told You So Heather I Told You So Bob told you so so this week the FED I mean we haven't even talked about the the economy yet the FED 27:00 d d dun lowered interest rates you had said they'll they might try to do 25 basis points they should do 50 and they did 50 talk about a soft Landing well I talked I talked to drum po all the time every day he calls what should I do next I said 50 basis points half a percentage point no I don't but it was the smart thing to do interestingly and predictably Trump said well they're just playing politics fed is playing politics they are not this was a a consensus view among many economists uh that you know the Trump basically the FED has controlled inflation it's brought inflation down from double digits to just above 2% uh and the Fed was justifiably is justifiably worried about increasing unemployment if they continued on the path they were so that they were up the prime rate was up to 5.3% they're starting to bring it down that's good for the economy it's good for low wage Americans because lower 28:06 wage Americans were paying through the nose for mortgage and for uh rent indirectly through high mortgage rates and auto loans and and credit card fees so this is all good and for Trump to say this is a bad political thing I mean reveals reveals who he is again he doesn't care about the working class no he cares about his own you know political future and then the Dow in the S&P 500 record highs yesterday related right to it all well that's that's right because obviously when interest rates start coming down a lot of people who have money they say well I can do better in the stock market so they move their money into the stock market which pushes stocks up uh and everybody knew that that was likely to happen the question is how much would the FED cut the FED cut uh I think appropriately and the stock market has done Gang Busters I'm 29:02 surprised Trump didn't try to take credit for that on Truth social but remember remember as I've said before only the richest 1% of Americans own more than half of all of the shares of stock owned by Americans the richest 10% own 93% of all the shares of stock owned by Americans so it's not that you're really having any effect on workingclass Americans the stock market is not the econom it is not it's getting less and less to be the economy right so back in 1996 you went on CNN and you talked about what is basically the authoritarian Playbook you said we have to be so careful about extremist politicians and you said on the left or right taking people's fears and their downtrodden economic existence and taking the power away from them and using it against them can we watch watch this clip and then discuss it please 30:01 sure the way to avoid demagogy on the right or the left about affirmative action about welfare about immigrants about any of these issues is to revive incomes because as long as incomes are stuck in the mud there's going to be a lot of resentment a lot of anger and that rage is going to be channeled to all kinds of lightning rods and irresponsible politicians of the right or left are going to use that rage to channel they're going to say no Imports America First they're going to say uh let's blame welfare mothers let's blame immigrants there you said it I wish Heather I had not so been so preent uh but um even it was it was clear even in '96 uh 1996 uh that as long as you had this whole class of Americans most of them white men without college degrees uh you're going to have uh kind of a group that is ripe for the picking in terms of a demagogue I obviously was not thinking of Donald Trump but somebody coming along and uh and using hate to 31:06 stir them up but I mean down to the phrases America First immigration I mean it's incredible to hear that and see it and now be living it it makes me uh it makes me sad I know uh because I I um I don't know every all of us uh maybe those of us who were in the political class I was Secretary of Labor you know we should have done more we could have done more I mean we came up short I know um well uh I think I still think kamla is going to win I think kamla is going to win so let's end note let's end on a positive note now I'm I'm I'm nauseously optimistic she will win uh how many days 44 days so everybody out there let me just say to you uh I I understand your fears your anxieties uh I 32:02 understand and sympathize with your worries uh and I'm sure Heather does as well uh but we have 44 days to make sure now she is doing kamla Harris is doing wonderfully well Tim walz is doing great but we have 44 days to make sure that they are in the White House after January 20th of next year and not Donald Trump and JD Vance so keep fighting keep working keep uh doing what you're doing uh but remember it's up to us thank you all and Heather thank you again for your extraordinariness in every way wow thank you we'll see you all in a week and then we'll see you for the vice presidential debate on October 1st have a good week [Music]

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