that was 10 years ago tonight, november 4, 2008, that barack obama was elected the 44th president of the united states, making history as the first african-american to hold that office. back with me now, my political dream team. i m not going to name all of you. can we get shirts? i was in grant park. we thought, you know, it was going to change, especially when it comes to racism. not that racism would be cured but at least the country would be on a trajectory towards trying to become a better country, especially when it comes to all people and a continuation of our conversation that we re having plus this. what do you think? i think folks that thought it was going to change with barack obama, president barack obama, ignored the fact that we have yet to have had a real conversation about race in this country. and to bakari s point, one of the very few things that donald trump has done is force us to have that conversation. like i do not remember in my short 28 years on this worl
video. if i got a dollar for every time they played this video, i would be a rich man right now. what morris believes is that the kind of fraud trump claims will be going on here would be nearly impossible to pull off. in the context of this general election, this was very much a rarity. this is not the kind of thing you would see everyday. this is not the kind of thing i don t think anyone else has seen in america since then. what happened on november 4, 2008, in philadelphia was a bizarre incident. but it wasn t a part of any widespread voter intimidation. still to come, your best and worst tweets, tweeting me at smerconish. here is one more. let s look together. plain and simple, any person politician and/or citizen who refuses to accept the winner of this contest are un-american. hey, i ll buy into that.
election day, concerns about voter intimidation continue to percolate often in reference to my hometown of philadelphia, but many of the reports of past intimidation can be traced back to a viral video of an incident in the 2008 election that has been widely misrepresented. i went back to the site to file this report. this is 1221 fair mount avenue. this is a housing development known as guild house west. if it looks familiar, no doubt that s because of an incident that took place on election day john mccain against barack obama. there s a guy with a billy club right here. video recorded here bay poll watcher went viral and has since been associated with voter intimidation. but that s not the full story. and he was not a police officer. he was not proper security. he was a member of the new black panther party. that was november 4, 2008, to
pull off. in the context of this general election, very much a rarity. not the kind of thing you see every day or i don t think anyone has seen in america since then. what happened on november 4, 2008, in philadelphia was a bizarre incident but it wasn t a part of any widespread voter intimidation. my point is a couple of knuckle heads here wanted their 15 minutes of fame and got it but if they wanted to intimidate them, they would have gone to my neighborhood and not that polling place. be careful of things that go viral on tuesday. and, you know, we all have to be careful about that because that will occur. i mean, we know that. as sure as we re sitting here, people are on the lookout for this and people should be on the lookout for voter intimidation and any kind of voter suppression at all but you can t overread things that aren t happening and it s very easy for something to be on twitter or
it s been widely misrepresented so i went back to the site and filed this report. this is 1221 feairmount in the city of philadelphia known as gild house west and if it looks familiar, that s because of an incident that took place right here on election day 2008. john mccain against barack obama. the philly club right here. video recorded here by a poll watcher went viral and since been associated with voter intimidation. but that s not the full story. and he was not a police officer. he was not proper security. he was a member of the new black panther party. that was november 4, 2008, to be exact. stephen morris, then a university of pennsylvania student, was vert ifcertified a republican poll watcher and taped the peaceful.