Easily win if you count the illegal the us they can try to steal. The election from us if you count the votes that came in late were looking at them very strongly but a lot of votes came in late ive already decisively won many critical stage yes democratic president ial candidate joe biden is edging people to be patient as the final votes from cheese days election continue to be counted hes closing the gap on donald trump in pennsylvania and georgia and says he is confident of becoming the next president. Each ballot must be counted and thats what were going to see going through now and thats how it should be democracy sometimes messy it sometimes requires a little patience as well but that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years but its just not government governance and i spend the envy of the world. We continue to feel you know we continue to feel very good about where things stand we have no doubt that when the count is fully senator harrison i will be declared the winner so i ask everyone to stay calm all the people stay calm the process is working. The u. S. Has seen a record jump in new corona virus infections a day after the president ial election more than 100000 cases were confirmed on wednesday exceeding the record set last friday and a new nationwide lockdown has come into effect in england as it struggles to a 2nd wave of corona virus infections Prime MinisterBoris Johnson says it will be lifted automatically in the next 4 weeks those are the headlines news continues here on out as there often side stories stay with us. But this United States of america as the president ial election result hangs in the balance supporters of donald trump and joe biden are growing impatient regardless of who it is can americans feel that divided nation this isnt just. A welcome to the program im wrong on the u. S. President ial race is tightening democratic challenger joe biden is inching towards removing dont trump from the white house the results depend on just a few states where only thousands of votes separate the 2 candidates widens confident hell emerge the winner Trumps Campaign is seeking legal action for a recount in wisconsin and his team is suing to stop the count in some states alleging the election is being stolen the dispute has triggered extraordinary scenes in a country that often calls itself the greatest democracy on earth. From coast to coast people rallied to demand every vote be counted the large number of main imbalances complicating the process demonstrators also highlighted issues that flared up during trumps presidency such as racism and police brutality. But from supporters in some states account to stop in Arizona Police had to block the entrance to a counting center when protesters carrying guns gathered outside a survey for us media found the election has widened social divisions people largely voted along the same political lines as 2016. It really does seem like people live in 2 different realities given that the news they consume and who they surround themselves with so i i not surprised that a lot of people decided to vote again for a president whos brought us to where we are and you want everyone to have the mike and communities and we see that in america that biden and harry are both running together. When. We still have people. Black. Because theyre scared of them because of the color before theyre scared of them because of what they have i think we should have an answer by now i dont understand why its taking. It theres going to be trouble im going to be happy about it theyre going to want their. Lets bring in our guests joe take a e. D. Is a political strategist and former Senior Advisor to the National Association for the advancement of colored people she joins us from washington d. C. Joining us from reston virginia is conservative political strategist rena shaw and also in washington d. C. Elizabeth anka associate professor of american studies and Political Science at George Washington university a welcome to each of you i want to begin in washington d. C. With joe take it easy lets talk about the divide within the u. S. Now its not a daily political divide anymore it seems you much more ideological than that and it seems to be rooted in Police Violence and racism seems to be rooted in the economy and the handling of the krona various crisis would you suggest that this is the most divisive that youve seen American Society. Well as a student Political Science and history i do believe that there isnt imes in our country when weve been more divided but i do believe were this moment in our in our nation that we are deeply divided and that many people on wednesday morning despite the fact that there has not been any answer on what will lead our country although i think many believe that Vice President biden is in a very strong position that many people were disappointed that there is this deep divide that more then you know nearly half of america decided to vote for a candidate that has been deeply aligned with racism and sexism and homophobia in a phobia and that there was a big decision in this country by many people to side with that type of idea and i believe that theres a lot of work for us to do in this country to reconcile theres still a lot of work to do to truly get to a place of acutely and i think also that is deeply disheartening when you think about the massive amount of out. Protests and conversation in the aftermath of the murder of george floyd and Brianna Taylor that we still find ourselves in a place where americans will still side with someone who believes that there are good people on both sides a white supremacist rabble. In reston virginia or a conservative political stresses europe great pains to actually tell us that you dont support the trump but you do support the Republican Party now thats another divide that well get into in just a 2nd but what i want to also you is this has total trump just opened up the fish as though already in American Society hes just laid them back for all to say no shoulder. Theres no doubt that so much of what we see now on the surface this these these angry calls for my guy or the other guy you know this this divide really has been brewing for quite some time we know these fissures have been there isnt sad but this was this was a time when trumps election i think it brought it all to the surface in such a manner that maybe so many of us whove been inside the beltway for many years and witnessed bipartisanship i started my career on capitol hill in the house of representatives working for 2 very far right members of congress and i ultimately left there because my views did not align with theirs and i made a decision that i wanted to work for members that i could really get behind and and i left for the campaign trail because i also had that bob but what i witnessed on capitol hill and wiring it out is because bipartisanship was at the heart of everything we did you couldnt get things done in Congress Unless you reach across the aisle and so like i said for so many of us who have been part of this this ruling classes as the outsiders call it the establishment it was not a bad thing to be here and be part of the Great American experiment in fact it was a beautiful thing to witness but where we pump to is is a moment that i think we did not expect to come far quicker than we expected the divide why did it deep in far at faster rate and for deeper again that we thought so this is this is a moment of fundamental sadness i think for Many Americans who really believe in our system we do see our electoral process at work and it is healthy and its alive its working but that the sadness really comes from seeing other parts break down due to the president s rhetoric these past 4 years hes handling of things has led to i distrusted arent sufficient disinformation being promulgated from the highest levels of our government that is something that i. No the average republican in their heart of hearts no matter how they voted on election day or prior i know that again it creates deep sadness because this is just not who we are as americans elizabeth anchor more things and say youre going to sell says the republicans on to blame and saying the ice in the hall theyre actually good people but they did support them and trump they did put him into. A we all 4 years later with a very divisive nation what are your thoughts on how this has happened well you know a lot of these divides are land longstanding but one of the things that we have seen in recent years and especially in the rhetoric of trump which has you know catalyzed a large part of the Republican Party though not all of it. Is the way in which political opposition has turned into a kind of. Enemy you know enemy rhetoric at the highest levels of kind of turning political you know just political antagonism into a kind of existential antagonism a life or death language and i think thats part of the reason that we see people unable to bridge some of these bi partisan divides anymore because people who were previously seen as working on the other side with differences of opinion are now seen as enemies to be eradicated we see this in a lot of trumps language he has never speaking about unity he is always speaking about division and violence and trying to recreate a we the people that is a primarily white we im a very masculinized we at that as well and so i think even though these divide have been longstanding we need to see that trump has galvanized them and he has galvanized a large part of the Republican Party along side of him something that weve seen in these polls where people expected a lot more people to side with joe biden and were just not seeing that kind of reading of donald trump like we might have expected. Just take a let me bring you in here we were never going to see a route saying of donald trump because of the way the Electoral College system is set up in the way american americans vote but what we were a lot of democrats were hoping for that there was going to be a repudiation of what donald trump stood for that hasnt happened now when of the democrats go from here like how do they unite this ideologically not just politically ideologically divided nation. I think that we have to focus on just what is at the center of our country which is our values and as the other panelists have shared is that we had for the last 4 years a president that has just over and over again use hateful rhetoric is so rhetoric some places across the country a lot of these communities are in dire need of attention and these are people i believe that theres a lot of fear there is a lot of hurt and where you use that type of rhetoric you begin to see hate where there is fear or misunderstanding and i believe that is what donald trump is consistently done and i believe that where the democrats and where Vice President biden will have to go is really where this campaign it has been centered its really at the soul of america and fundamentally putting at the center of everything is a healing of america bringing america together bokeh saying on fixing so much of that is broken in this country focusing on economy focusing on our Health Care System focusing on fixing this Global Pandemic because where there is pain in our country that is where people can use that pain and seep in hatred and fear and that is what donald trump has done and i believe that the democrats have an opportunity and will focus on healing in bringing people together because joe biden recognizes that as a president of the United States that hes the president of all of america that is something that you know donald trump has not done he has not focused on being a president that all of america he both its our being a president of part of america and still gay. And violence in much of our country which is very very dangerous really so let me bring you in here so theres this thing point that is being made that joe biden will try inhale the nation whether he succeeds or not be in power. But. There is a significant chunk of the Republican Party who are going to take a look at what donald trump did of last 4 years and go you know what it works were only losing this election at the moment by hundreds of thousands of votes that all people buy into his philosophy as a republican strategist that must particular one who doesnt like donald trump tickly that must skate yes you know like i said earlier i had my career at a time where the party was very different these past 4 years have been in 3 may difficult for me because i was the 1st ever Republican NationalConvention Delegate to speak out against the now president and i suffered the consequences back in 2016 far before a great many people were really if figured out who donald trump was and how he would operate along with his people and how they operate i thought it was very mafia like unamerican they were trying to silence dissidents those of us who didnt agree with this president nomination and so in seeing that back then and seeing whats come forth from the party since then i remain in a place of profound confusion of how we got here so fast that is really probably at the core of everything im thinking it in this is weekends because these Election Results while i expected them to be quite close i and i knew that the party has been remade in the president s image i didnt expect for it to go this way i expected for a repudiation of trump because of what hes actually done but really let me let me just put let me just put this to you just said that the party has been remade in the president s image unmaking that given its so close given he has half the nation is going to be next to impossible surely. Surely it will be because the never truck crowd like i thought i belonged to you know i really when i stepped out to do what i did i believe that ok this might take a while but surely people will wake up and especially a year like this year where we see the failings of the president where we see over 230000 of our fellow americans dead critter 1000000 americans dead and the lack of empathy the lack of leadership the lack of a plan i think that is where there is a real confusion among those of us who believe that our Republican Party members were perhaps better than this that they would reject him at the polls when they see that it was a it was a Strong Economy he inherited from obama he was gifted the economy he didnt do it himself these were obama era policies the facts have really should should speak for themselves but they have not and we are at the point where i tell you in the year 2021 the way the election day went the Republican Party is going to have more members of q. And not on the Conspiracy Theory folks and pete beads are going to be members of the house of representatives theyre going to more members of cuba not that theyre going to have africanamericans that tells you everything you need to know right there theres not been an acceptance of what has gone wrong theres been nothing but him praise of what i would call a dear leader and thats dangerous its unamerican and what we also witnessed from the president on that in the Early Morning hours after election day wednesday morning he gets up and gives this incredible nonsense incredibly nonsensical illogical laden with falsities speech saying things that are absolutely untrue it was so unamerican well it and then Elizabeth Blair listen i want to bring in elizabeth i think ahead elizabeth the day lida strategies it is something that is extraordinary to watch when you are not american like i am and to think well this is happening in the United States but its working and that republicans who are going to continue donald trump stress you whether hes in power or not because its working its getting votes do you think that 7 changed. One of the things that we have seen as you know a pretty high correlation are people who support donald trump to people who are also quite comfortable with authoritarianism and people who are threatened by real forms of democracy which means all people across you know racial gender religious spectrum exercising power and so given how strong the correlations are between trump and authoritarianism and even the way in which he he galvanizes that kind of authoritarianism among people right as we see a lot of his supporters say theyre not even interested in term limits theyre happy to have him be president for life they kind of worship everything that he threatens i do think thats what is leading this incredibly kind of dangerous moment in u. S. Politics because its not only support for one leader and demonization of members of the american polity but its also this sense that democracy is unvalued pull all together and one of the things were going to see right now especially that weve seen since 28 and i think with this new congress as well is we are seeing a rise of women of people of color who are exercising power you know and the power that is rightfully theirs and power that has often been denied them under the american political system so for people who are invested in trumps authoritarianism just seeing this kind of democratic exercise of power by other members of the polity that they believe should not have that power and up seamy threatening and even feeling to them like a form of oppression and i think that this dynamic is something that we need to pay careful attention to because of this kind of authoritarianism and antidemocratic sentiment and doesnt get toned down by republicans within the party i think thats something that can lead to some dangers ahead even when trumpets out of office well its interesting you mention the idea that there are