Trumphobia: what both sides fear (2020) - full transcript

I am officially running

For President of
the United States.

And we are going to
make our country great again.

I want surveillance
of certain mosques.

I will build a great,
great wall.

Block funding
for sanctuary cities.

I would repeal and
replace the big lie, Obamacare.

Suspend the
Syrian refugee program.

Our country is
in serious trouble.

Political correctness
is killing this country.

They're rapists and some,
I assume, are good people.



It's amazing the way I can
talk people into things, right?

I could stand in the
middle of Fifth Avenue

and shoot somebody and
I wouldn't lose any voters.

Nothing he says or
does can turn off voters.

His campaign
slogan might as well be,

Trump 2016,
you're stupid and ugly.

Which Republican candidate has

the best chance of
winning the general election?

Of the declared ones,
right now, Donald Trump.

It's fine,
he's not gonna win anything.

It's fine.

Oh, it's very good news

if you're in the
Hillary Clinton camp.

So right now,
we have Hillary's



about a 75% or an
80% favorite with...

That high?

Four polls that have Clinton

up by more than 10 points.

President Obama will go down

as perhaps the worst President

in the history
of the United States,

at least I will go
down as a President.

And we have our
first projections of the night,

take a look, Donald Trump
we project will win in Kentucky.

Donald Trump will take Ohio,
Indiana.

Donald Trump will win Alabama.

Huge news, Donald Trump has
won the State of Pennsylvania.

Donald Trump
will win the State of Utah.

Wins Florida, Arkansas, Georgia.

Louisiana.

Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota.

Montana,
where Fox News can project.

Oklahoma,
Tennessee, Mississippi.

North Dakota, Wyoming.

Texas, Idaho.

The State of Wisconsin,
North Carolina.

South Carolina.

In Kansas,
we can project a winner.

In Missouri, Michigan.

Donald Trump
will carry Iowa, West Virginia,

Arizona,
and the State of Alaska.

Donald Trump
is the President of the U.S.

Sorry to keep you waiting,
complicated business.

We created the
bias response team

to look into
incidents of discrimination

and harassment
that are occurring

because in the
post-election climate,

there's been an
increase in incidents

involving harassment,
intimidation, and violence

on the basis of people's
religion or perceived religion,

immigration status,
gender identity,

other areas of
protection under our law.

A spike in hate
crimes across the country

since Election Day.

Also in
the wake of the election,

hate crimes are rising.

From
swastikas at a baseball field

to Pennsylvania high school
students shouting hate messages

in the hallway and a throwback
to the days of segregation.

Donald Trump's supporters
have also been the victims.

You voted Trump,
you voted Trump?

Yeah!

Donald Trump, white people, boy.

The FBI defines a hate crime

as a criminal offense
against a person or property

motivated by an
offender's bias against a race,

religion,
disability, sexual orientation,

ethnicity,
gender, or gender identity.

Hate itself is not a crime,

and it's protected
by freedom of speech.

The FBI is in charge of
keeping records of hate crimes,

and it needs at least a year
to produce an accurate report.

The problem is that
there are several organizations

and police
departments across the country

that are not doing a good
job reporting these incidents.

Trump people are
feeling that they were aggrieved

by not just Obama's policies

but the way that
liberals treated them

and the way they
look down on them.

And now they've got their time

and they're
gonna do their thing.

And the liberals are going,
"You guys didn't win this right

and we're
gonna pay you back."

Everybody's so
mad at each other,

everybody's so engrossed
in trying to get the payback

back and forth,
that sometimes they lose track

of what they're fighting for,
and all they want to do

is win and get
those other guys back

and make those
other guys feel bad.

Okay,
what about all these people

being racist to me right now?

What about that?

Donald Trump doesn't
give a fuck about you guys.

That's the saddest part.

That's it.

Anybody with that much money

doesn't give a
fuck about you guys.

We are all Americans,
so get out of my face!

- You're fighting with-
- Get out of my face!

Right now!

Get out of my face!

So what's up?

What's up?

Who gonna do what to me?

I'll go out, I'll go out
before I do that, so what's up?

What we see
happening under Donald Trump

is very scary, but it continues

what was very much in
full order under the Democrats.

We're seeing these
people step out into the public

and spew their hateful rhetoric.

Sometimes it's
worse than rhetoric.

Sometimes it's
physical violence.

The date of the incident,
it was

November 17th,
which was a Thursday.

I ordered an Uber
early in the morning,

and Muhammad showed
up as being my driver.

We kind of,
halfway into the ride,

kind of became
buddy-buddy a little bit,

and that's when I
asked him how the post-election

or how the election
environment had treated him

because I had
seen things in the news.

And I have a lot of
friends who are Muslim-Americans

but are not necessarily
being discriminated against

every day, so I'm interested
to ask these questions.

And he responded to me,
"You know, it's better for me

to show you
rather than tell you."

Trump is President,
asshole, so you can kiss

your fucking visa goodbye,
scumbag.

They'll deport you soon, don't
worry, you fucking terrorist.

The video just blew me
away because I wasn't expecting

anything to contain so much
vitriol, hatred, intolerance,

and just plain ignorance,
really.

Fucking Arab motherfucker,
terrorist, fucking cocksucker.

I don't care, bro, video.

You're a loser!

You're not even from here,
you motherfucker.

So I said, that's a
video that needs to be seen

by more than just myself
in the backseat of your car.

This should be, if nothing else,

given to the media or
to the police or something,

and be
investigated as a hate crime.

Appears to be another
bias incident in New York City.

Several local
leaders say the incidents

have spiked after
the presidential election.

He told me,
"You have to respect me."

I turned to him
and I said to him,

"You have to respect the road,
and that's it."

Mohammed went around the man.

A block away, here at
the corner of 41st Avenue

and Crescent Street, the
other driver began his tirade.

Fuck you and your family,
you terrorist fuck.

Video all you want,
you're an Arab.

You're a fucking loser,
sand nigger.

The America that I
was raised to believe in

is very much an America
where no matter who you are,

as long as you
work hard and play

by the rules, we're all equal.

And these types of behaviors
and xenophobic overreactions,

especially to people
who are American citizens,

are more
detrimental to the country

than they are beneficial.

Because if you
want to radicalize

anybody who's a Muslim,
make them feel unwanted,

make them feel hated and
that they don't belong here.

That's how you're gonna recruit

somebody who's
gonna become ISIS.

If you want them to not do that,

you just treat
them like you're equal.

Look, I used to be a liberal.

I used to be a liberal like you.

I'm not brainwashed anymore,
homie.

Hey, I'm a Latino
and I voted for Trump.

There's a lot of Trump
supporters that are in the closet

or are not very
outspoken and are very silent.

Why?

It is because we saw the
violence that was happening

to Trump
supporters from the beginning.

- Then what?
- That's good.

- That's a good start.
- Then what?

Yeah, it's a good fucking start.

It is a good start.

You don't like Trump, why?

I'm just asking, why?

- I am.
- Okay, I got it.

All right, that's it.

There's a lot of
hate on the opposition side

coming from the
liberals and the Democrats.

They do attack us.

I personally
have been assaulted.

Got it.

Whoa!

What the fuck?

I see
some damage on your left cheek.

What happened?

He hit me with a skateboard.
- Okay, shh!

I need it quiet
so I can hear him, go!

- He hit me with a skateboard.
- Okay, what did he look like?

Shoot,
I didn't even see who hit me.

Somebody came right on the side.

It's
unfortunate that these people

have to resort to violence,
but I believe

that they resort to violence
because that's all they have.

They have no discussion,
they have no argument,

they have no debate because
they are very misinformed.

Now,
if there is or has been a case

where there has been a Trump
supporter that has committed

violence against the opposition,
I'm totally against it

because that's not
what we're all about.

That is not right.

We have the right
to express ourselves

just like as well as they do.

It was about a week and a half

after the election
and I found the graffiti.

We saw swastikas.

We saw Trump's name.

We knew that this
needed to be taken care of

by more than just
reporting it to the park.

So I called Senator
Daniel Squadron's office.

He's one of our
state senators locally,

and they got right on it.

They got the parks
department involved.

They had people over right away,

removing the graffiti
as quickly as possible.

They also
organized a rally in response,

and they created
a reaction of love.

Thousands today
rallied here to send the message

that hate will not be tolerated,

and they got some
help from a music legend.

Keep your eyes open,
stand up for each other,

don't be afraid to step
in or enlist the help of others

because this is
homegrown terrorism, for real.

Beastie Boys' Adam Horovitz,

better known as Ad-Rock,
leading a rally

in Brooklyn's Adam Yauch Park.

I feel that this election

has given a
voice to hateful people.

It's one thing to be
conservative in your politics,

but when it devolves
into truly hateful speech,

calling people names,
telling people to go home,

that's not the United States

that I ever
imagined we lived in.

People are feeling threatened.

They no longer feel that
this a democratic safe space.

There's a disconnect in
decency in this country now.

I guess it was maybe
a week after the election,

and it was a swastika graffiti

on the window
down at the fur place.

- Some racist graffiti
referencing President-elect Trump

has been removed from a
South Philadelphia storefront.

The graffiti,
which included swastikas

and offensive language,
comes on the 78th anniversary

of Kristallnacht,
when Jews were attacked.

People on the
block and around the area

wrote on the sidewalk, "Accept
and protect your neighbors"

ultimately with chalk, trying
to turn it into a positive.

As far as this election,
I think we all thought

people had those thoughts.

They were all there.

Their ignorance
has always been there,

and I think the scariest
thing is that now we have to,

as a society, accept
that hatred people want to spew.

On June 2nd, 2016,
I went to a Trump rally

in San Jose, California,
and at the Trump rally,

I had gotten attacked,

me and several other
dozens of Trump supporters.

There were violent
clashes between protesters

and supporters of Donald Trump

outside an
appearance by the candidate.

Trump supporters leaving

the San Jose Convention
Center were surrounded, taunted,

and attacked by
anti-Trump protesters.

Some punched,
some chased down and beaten.

Others had
bottles thrown at them.

That's not how you
get your message across,

is by being so
forceful and aggressive.

You have to work with people
in order to get anything done.

Our next guest is
a Latino Trump supporter

who actually
attended Thursday night's rally

and who went home with a
broken nose, a mild concussion,

and his clothing
looking like this.

Look at this,
just for supporting

his presidential candidate
of choice, Donald Trump.

I'm trying to stay
up as they're hitting us,

and you can just
feel the blows coming

on every single side of
you and I could feel scratches.

And, finally, at some point,
I knew, my survival mode,

I had to get up and
I had to do something.

So I turned around and
I struck and I hit one guy,

and I could see that fist coming

and it clocked
me right in the nose.

And the blood just
started pouring like that.

And people stood back,
I think they were in shock,

and so I grabbed my
friend and we started running,

running over here
to the parking garage.

So after we're running in here,

thinking that we now
got away from the protesters,

as we're walking in,
we could see

a whole 'nother mob
down there of people.

There was about three
cars that were waiting in line

to come out, but as you can see,

there's a gate and so
people were just stopped there.

And now, at this point,
now the protesters see us.

The protesters shaking cars,

breaking tail lights.

Protesters
attacked Trump supporters' cars

in the parking garage
as they tried to leave.

They were like animals,
like monkeys on these cars.

And I'm thinking,
just go, just go through it.

The police
aren't doing anything.

When we standing there,
my friend was driving

because I couldn't drive.

I was lightheaded at this point

'cause so much blood was coming.

I told him, push your pedal, go.

Just push the cars
and they will go out.

You have just desperation
because am I gonna die or not?

It's not okay and
this can't set a precedence

that this is gonna
continue the next time,

no matter who you vote for,
Hillary or Bernie or Trump.

It doesn't
matter who you vote for.

This isn't supposed to happen.

My name is
Chuck Redding, I'm 75 years old,

and right now, it's a
good time of the year for me

to wrap Christmas
presents for people,

but the circumstances
being now that it's

a little bit rougher for
me to do it with only one hand.

Chuck Redding
says he was followed home

by someone after
dropping off a friend,

and he believes that
person was targeting him

all because of the
stickers on the back of his car.

I saw him get out of
his car in my rearview mirror

and come up and he
started beatin' on the window.

And he said,
"Our new President says

that we can kill
all you faggots now."

Excuse me?

It was probably
about 6:30 and I was coming

down the main street,

and I noticed that
this car was behind me.

And I thought, I don't know
what this dude's problem is.

So I stopped in the middle
of the street, windows were up.

Unfortunately, the car door
was not locked, and he says,

"You get what you deserve..."
or something to that effect.

Yanked the door open,
pulled me out.

He had ripped my
shirt and everything,

and I was on the ground,
and I started to get up,

and I jumped up and
I started to chase him,

and while I was chasing him,
I realized that his back window

on the passenger side was open.

And I was trying to
grab it and he flew backwards

maybe 40 miles an hour,
squealing,

and when he turned his
car to go around that curve,

he caught me on
the side of the leg

and knocked me off balance.

He didn't hurt me then but I
went down and I went down hard.

And this hand,
it's been over a month now,

and it's still
not healing correctly.

The people who
voted for Trump have

no mind of their own,
I'm sorry to say that.

I don't understand.

The only thing
that I would ask him is,

what did I do to you?

Who are you?

I don't know you,
but I must have done something

to you for you
to hate me like this.

They have a
group called Antifa, okay?

The Antifa's those ones
that wear all the black, okay?

Those are the
people that are the problem.

They are going out
attacking Trump supporters.

I've had to hold
my composure out there

in these protests,
several times.

I've been kicked.

An old lady
kicked me and spit on me.

You shouldn't put
your hands on nobody

because of their
own personal opinion.

Everybody is
different in the world.

Everybody is not gonna
agree on the same thing.

I might like green beans,
you might not like green beans,

but if I'm gonna beat you up

because you don't
like green beans, no.

You do not attack somebody

because of their
own personal preference.

It doesn't
matter if other people

believe
different things than we do.

We're all part of
the same community here.

And anytime anyone
hears some intolerance

or is aware of
some hateful behavior

or bigoted behavior,
we should denounce it.

If it's a crime, we
should report it to the police.

We should contact
the elected officials.

In that way,
if we organize the community,

I think there's a better
chance that people realize

that this is
unacceptable behavior.

It is very
challenging to identify

the number of discriminatory
harassment incidents

that have
occurred since the election,

but it's important
information for us to have

because we wanna
know what's happening

and where it's happening,
so that we can again be

out in communities,
talking to people,

seeing what the needs are
and also collecting the data.

If these things go unreported,
we'll never have

a true sense of what's going on.

According to
the Southern Poverty Law Center,

in the 10 days after
the November 8th election,

867 cases of
intimidation and harassment

were reported
across the country,

and the highest
number of incidents happened

the day after the election,
mostly in public spaces

and educational environments,
towards immigrants,

black people,
and the LGBT community.

Even though this data
goes along with publications

from hundreds of
people on social media,

police reports, and news clips,

there are still several
concerns about this research.

The Southern
Poverty Law Center explains

that they couldn't
verify all these incidents,

yet news companies like
The Washington Post, USA Today,

and other major media
immediately quoted this data

to highlight a
spike in hate crimes.

But most of these
incidents are not even crimes.

They are hateful
messages but not legal crimes.

Later in time, it was found
that several of these cases

were not related
to Trump's election,

and many were
made up completely.

What's more concerning
is that in February 2017,

ThinkProgress released
another study that reported

261 hate
incidents across the country

since November 9th,
and out of those,

42% were directly
related to Trump's victory.

Even though
ThinkProgress and SPLC have

some differences
in their criteria,

these numbers are
significantly different.

All of this
information was published

months before the FBI released

their official data from 2016,

which confirmed a spike
in hate crimes since 2015.

But they didn't find a link

between Trump's
election and the increase.

There is no doubt that
there were legitimate reports

of hate crimes
and hateful incidents

against different people,
especially minorities,

and even one is too many,
but hyping the data

and suppressing
inconvenient information

gives a bias and
misleading perspective

of the post-election conflict.

This mix of
information works as fuel

for potential
violence in a divided America.

And on top of this,
Trump has not addressed

this issue well enough,
and he has been criticized

for not taking
responsibility for his rhetoric.

If it helps, I will say this,

and I'll say it right
to the camera, stop it!

I think it's
correct for Donald Trump

to say things the
way he says things.

I think that he's
misunderstood in the way

that he says certain things,
and I get it.

I feel like I get Donald Trump.

I've worked with
men like Donald Trump.

Yes, his words are brutal,

but at least he's
honest and he's real.

I believe
that we need somebody

in office that's gonna be tough,

that's gonna be speaking
the truth, even if it hurts.

More than anything, I believe
that he's just being assertive

and he's standing
up for our country.

I believe that the leadership
does have a responsibility

to unify, especially the
President of the United States

has a responsibility
to unify the United States.

I don't think that
they are responsible

or should be held accountable
to the people's behavior

because we all have a
choice in how we want to act.

If I thought Trump
was a bigot or a racist,

I would not be supporting him,
but I don't see that.

I see him saying certain things

and then having
people exaggerating it.

I'm sure everybody
has let somethin' slip

out of they mouth that
they shouldn't let slip,

a couple of times in they life.

So stop bein'
harsh on the man, okay?

He has to show
a strength of power

because if not,
those other international people

gonna think we
have a weak President,

a weak, passive President, okay?

But we need a man that's strong

and speaks his mind,
and that's what he's doing.

I think the
majority of the rhetoric

out there right now
is coming from the media.

I'm very angry at the media

because they manipulate
and they deceive people,

and it makes us
make irrational decisions.

I personally do
think that the media

has also cherry-picked
things that he's said.

And if you listen to,
for instance,

the entirety of a certain speech

and you listen to the
context of what he said before

and the context
of what he said after,

when he says certain things,
then you get

why this one sentence that they
play over and over and over,

on ABC News or whatever,
sounds so bad,

but when you listen
before and after, you get it.

Donald Trump and animals.

For the last two days, the
President of the United States

has been trying to rewrite
some people into animals.

We're taking
people out of the country.

You wouldn't believe
how bad these people are.

These aren't people,
these are animals.

It's no surprise
that the left-wing media

hates President Trump,
but this next story might be

one of the most grotesquely
irresponsible examples yet.

During yesterday's
Sanctuary State Roundtable,

the President was asked
about the dangerous MS-13 gang.

The mainstream press,
including The New York Times,

USA Today,
Washington Post and many others,

took Trump out of context,
suggesting he called

all illegal immigrants animals,
not just MS-13.

What did the
President mean when he said

some immigrants are not people,
they're animals?

The President was
very clearly referring

to MS-13 gang members
who enter the country illegally

and whose deportations
are hamstrung by our laws.

Yep, we have people
coming into the country

or trying to come in,
we're stopping a lot of 'em,

but we're taking
people out of the country.

You wouldn't believe
how bad these people are.

These aren't people,
these are animals.

We have this bifurcated
media where people can go

and listen and read
information that supports

just what they want to believe.

So liberals can go to
MSNBC and The New York Times,

and conservatives
can go to Fox News

and The Wall Street Journal
and never really encounter

the other side of the aisle.

Conflict is a
great business model.

Nobody watches a television
show where everybody gets along.

They want people to fight.

And you can make money that way.

But it's just
terrible for the country.

It's terrible if
we're trying to establish

a consensual view of what the
basic facts on the ground are.

- Racist trash!
- Breitbart is racist trash!

Selling fear.

Stay back.

You're brainwashed.

Can you give me one
minute to just say something?

- Yes, please.
- Yes!

Can you give me one minute?

I am not against anybody.

Listen to me.

You guys have the right
to protest just as they do.

I would hope
you keep it peaceful,

so I don't have to call a
whole squad of cops out here.

- If you have to call-
- Hang on a second.

No.

I would rather they
patrol and do their jobs

than to stand out here
and monitor a peaceful protest!

- We're here peacefully.
- But it can only be peaceful

if you guys keep it peaceful!

Okay?

That's all I'm asking!

Thank you,
sir, thank you, sir.

All right, thank you.

The media has
played an enormous role

not only in
Trump's rise to power

but in his maintenance of power.

And this was said very clearly
by the president of CBS News

during the election campaign,
when CBS

was criticized by
having Trump on all the time,

constantly
putting Trump's image on,

therefore giving him more power,
activating his views

and his
thoughts and his language

in the brains
of people watching.

And what the
president of CBS news said was,

"This may be bad for the
country, but it's very, very good

"for the profits of
CBS," and this is true.

It turns out that when
Trump does something outrageous

and then the press
debates it for days,

it turns out it
gets higher ratings.

People watch those debates
and it's Trump all day long.

He knows how to
control the media.

According to MediaQuant,

in a 12-month period
until Election Day in 2012,

Obama received above
$1 billion in media value.

In 2016, Hillary received 3.24
billion but fell behind Trump

who had a total free
media value of $4.96 billion.

Shut up,
I was not talking to you!

That's a Democrat
liberal acting like a fool.

At least I
didn't grab anybody's pussy.

You don't want to debate.

You're so full of
yourself and shove people down.

I was listening but
you didn't let me finish.

No, the thing is
they would not let me finish.

Every few seconds,
just like Donald Trump

did to Hillary
Clinton at the debate,

you wanted to say,
wrong this, that, the other.

And guess what?

He's President now.

- It worked.
- She lost!

Thank you very much,
now here's the deal.

I don't care if you are a...

If you went out around
the world and you asked people,

who's more biased,
liberals or conservatives?

It would really depend
on who you asked, right?

Liberals would say
conservatives are more biased,

and conservatives would say
that liberals are more biased,

and that's kind of the state
of the world that we're in.

So we did a study
that's called a meta-analysis

where you take the
results of lots of studies

that have been done
and you statistically combine

the results to try
and get a better sense

of what the
body of research says.

We found that both
sides are biased significantly

to sort of a moderate extent.

They're more willing to accept

a piece of information
as true if it supports

their political
views than if it doesn't.

And both liberals and
conservatives are biased,

and they're biased to
almost the identical degrees.

Donald Trump was
actually not elected

by the American
people because the majority

of the American people
elected Hillary Clinton.

It was actually-
That's not true.

You're right,
you're right, you know what?

You are right, but guess...

The popular
vote is not important.

The electoral
votes are important.

That's why she lost.

Donald Trump won because
he got 307 and she got 230.

She wasn't even
close to winning.

She had to win to 270,
so the popular vote,

she got the popular
vote because of California

'cause California's
full of minorities, that's why.

But the bottom line, the
Americans voted for Donald Trump.

That's why he won.

People think they
think like scientists

when they really
think like lawyers.

Scientists will
think from the ground up.

You take sets of
facts and you follow

those facts
wherever they lead you.

Attorneys, on the other hand,
have some conclusion

that they want to reach
and then they harness facts

to try to
support that conclusion.

We think about
ourselves as rational creatures

when we're really
much more emotional,

and those feelings change
the way we make judgments.

Our moral evaluations
change our factual beliefs.

And when
somebody believes something

very different
from what you believe,

there's two sort
of common reactions.

You must be either
stupid or you're lying

or are deluded somehow.

Neither of those
things are good ways

to make friends
and influence people.

And that's what I think creates
a lot of conflict as well.

Not only does it
impede progress toward policy,

but it makes
people dislike each other

because of these kind of,
you know,

I can't understand
why you believe that.

- Go away.
- Tell me, tell me right here.

Okay, okay, she just said
to me that I don't belong here.

I'm a citizen.

How dare you talk to me?

- She's a racist.
- You're a racist.

Last night, we were
at Santa Monica Promenade

where we were
gonna have an event

where we can
engage other people.

We actually had two microphones,

and we were allowing
the liberals or the Democrats

or the
opposition to have a voice,

and in order that we can
debate and bring up issues.

We are not out there to
make anybody believe anything,

but what we found,
for the most part,

is getting assaulted,
getting cursed out

by the opposition,
and that's very unfortunate.

I was very scared that
Hillary would be President

because she wanted to bring
more illegal immigrants here.

She also wanted to
bring Muslim refugees here.

We know and I know
what's been happening in Europe,

and after Donald J.
Trump became President,

I felt a lot safer
because I knew his agenda

was to protect
the American people

from illegal immigrants
and from Muslim refugees.

So I very much felt
very comforted and very safe

and till this day
that our President,

Donald J. Trump,
is gonna keep us Americans safe.

So that's why I
feel so much necessary

to go out there
and continue to protest,

continue to rally,
and continue to promote him,

so it could be easier for
him to be reelected with facts

and with my life experiences
and exposing the truth.

I think
Republicans need to be better

at the narrative,
explaining why.

Oftentimes, I feel like
the values are being attacked

from the other side, and
therefore, you have to speak up.

When you speak up,
you need to do it

in the right way or
else you're gonna be seen

as the hater,
which is so untrue.

People think Republicans
are such bad, awful people.

We've been ridiculed,
we've been demonized.

It's a strategy.

We know better,
we know who we are.

Trump needs to be very careful.

I think that whenever you're
putting anything out there,

you're taking a risk
that it can be misunderstood.

But we know how Trump is.

We know he's
gonna be unorthodox.

He's out there,
this is who he is.

Basically, I think it's
the spirit of the Tea Party,

whether you call
yourself Tea Party or not.

It's that spirit of the
Tea Party that got Trump elected

because we saw what
was happening on the left,

and it was very,
very scary, and it still is.

I, myself,
living here in West Hollywood,

which is a very left-wing city,

especially because I'm a
public safety commissioner,

I'm an appointed official,
I've been pretty quiet.

I don't express my views here.

And the times that I have, I get

a lot of pushback,
and people's tempers flare.

I think the worst comes out
in people when they feel scared.

I'm not personally afraid, no,

but I'm also not going
around wearing the red hat

or the shirt or
anything like that.

I know where I live.

If I did that and I
showed up at a protest march

or something that
was against Donald Trump

and I showed up with my red hat,

yeah, I'd probably
feel a little nervous.

Where I live,
here in the Bay Area,

you can't go around walking,
telling people

that you're a Republican,
let alone a Trump supporter,

and it shouldn't be that way

because the other
side can say who they were.

When I came out when I was gay,
I told some friends,

then I told my parents, and
then I told some family members.

You kind of tell
people like that, you know?

You don't come out
with this party, hi, I'm gay.

You tell people and
so it eases in to it.

Coming out as a Republican is

by far worse
than coming out as gay,

and especially
because it happened at one time

that it was just this
influx of hate that I got.

It was exactly what I
thought was gonna happen.

That's why I was an in-the-closet
Republican Trump supporter

because I feared what
happened and what is happening.

When people go to the polls,
they should be able to vote

for what it is we want, but
instead we've been conditioned

to vote against
what we're most afraid of.

What does that
say about our democracy

that the main
question in our mind is,

who do we hate the most?

And you go and you
vote against that person.

That does not move us forward.

Democracy needs a moral compass.

It needs a positive agenda.

That's what we
need to restore by having

a real democracy
that's working for us.

People are
absolutely right to be cynical

about the
government that's been inflicted

on everyday people,
but the solution to that

is not to descend into darkness
and militarism and violence.

The solution to that is
to take back our democracy

and restore our human values

on which all of
our lives depend.

When Newt Gingrich
became Speaker of the House

in the early 1990s,
he sort of came in

on this wave of
Republican revolution

and shrank the congressional
work week to three days,

so people stopped
living in Washington, D.C.

And so it used to be
the case that congressist

people, they were neighbors.

Their kids
played soccer together.

They had barbecues together.

They went out and
drank beer together.

It's harder to demonize
somebody if you know them,

but if I've never met you,
I've barely had any contact

with you,
that's when it's much easier

to demonize
somebody who you don't know.

And so those kind
of simple ideas about,

well, maybe we
should expand the work week,

maybe we should get people
living back in Washington,

well, maybe
something like that would work.

I think the real
problem in American politics

is the lack of self-awareness.

9/11 had an effect where it
kind of brought people together,

maybe temporarily,
but it did have

that effect of
bringing people together.

So an external
attack on the United States,

historically, the sort of
thing that changes the game.

It takes two
sides that are fighting

against each other as
enemies and say, well, gee,

now we have to join together
to fight a common enemy.

Those things sort of stop

a political polarization
that we're experiencing.

I'm not sure that
would happen today,

that the polarization is
so bad that's it's not clear

that an attack on the United
States wouldn't get sucked

into that vortex
again and get polarized,

where the right
views it in one way

and the left views it another,

and people start blaming
each other for what's happening.

And that's what
worries me the most,

is that we're past some
point at which external events

can easily bring us back
together and unite the two sides.

The first thing to understand
about contemporary politics

or any politics at all
is that politics is moral.

It's about morality.

It's about right and wrong.

So if anybody who's running
for office or is in politics

says, "Here's my proposals,
do what I say",

then the assumption
is it's right, not wrong.

They never say,
"Do what I say because it's evil

or it's awful or
it doesn't matter."

The assumption is they think
it's right and that's important

because politics has to
do with your moral worldview,

but mostly your moral
worldview is unconscious.

You're not always
aware of how you understand

the world from a
moral perspective.

You just have a
sense of right and wrong,

even though it's being carried
out by your neural circuitry.

The way it works is this,

morality comes
out of family models,

nurturant-parent
family for progressives

and a strict-father
family for conservatives.

A progressive family,
you have a mother and a father

who are both equally responsible

for the household
and raising the child.

They have to be empathetic
toward their children.

And this is something that
Barack Obama said very clearly,

that it's the duty of
parents and particularly fathers

to make sure that they
empathize with their children

and they teach their children
to empathize with others

because otherwise you'll
get a generation of people

who don't care
about anybody else.

And that's a
very progressive view.

Now, the conservative worldview,

that arises from a strict-father
family, and it says,

father knows best,
he knows right from wrong.

And because he knows best,
his word is law.

What he says is
taken as being true.

And he has the authority
and the power within the family

to say what's right and
wrong and to reward and punish.

If you believe in a
strict-father morality,

what that says is
that those who are right,

who are most
powerful in the world,

are powerful because
they have the right morality.

All of that comes
out of moral worldviews,

and we see that in the
split in the country today.

What's particularly
interesting about this

is that a lot of people are
not strictly one or the other.

There are people
who are called moderates.

A moderate is
someone who is mostly one

but partly the other,
mostly say progressive

but with some
conservative views or other.

But there's no
worldview of the moderate

that all moderates agree on.

There's no center.

Now, how can you have
contradictory moral worldviews

in a single brain?

And the answer is very simple.

Each worldview, when turned on,
turns the other one off.

Language activates a
given moral worldview,

and the more you hear it,
the stronger it gets.

What that means is that
if you are constantly exposed

to conservative discourse,
if you start out as a Democrat,

you'll be moving
more and more to the right.

What is Trump about?

He obviously has strict-father
values and he wants to be

the most powerful
strict father in the world.

It means that he believes

that the world
should be run his way.

In order for that to happen,

he has to maintain his
income and being popular.

And it doesn't matter what
his connections to Russia are.

It doesn't matter whether
he tells the truth or not.

All those things
are secondary to the idea

that America is going to be run

the way you morally
think it should be run.

That is what
Trump supporters believe.

Under Obama,
those folks lived in a country

where the President
was against their world views

and, therefore, their identity.

And similarly, progressives,
when Trump was elected

and given what he's done,
feel oppressed as well.

There is a resistance out there.

There is a large
movement to change this.

Why?

Because people
feel that they must do

something to change it.

They feel
oppressed to such a degree

that they feel democracy
is being taken away from them,

and everything they
value is being taken away,

and they have to do something.

Excuse my language,
but on three,

we gonna say, fuck Trump!

One, two, three!

Fuck Trump!

One, two, three!

Fuck Trump!

One, two, three!

Fuck Trump!

Following
Trump's election, large protests

were held in several major
cities across the United States

and in some
countries around the world.

Thousands of protesters
participated in each city

in the form of walkouts,
business closures, petitions,

rallies,
demonstrations, and marches.

You just pushed a woman!

Not my President!

Not my President,
not my President!

According
to Crowd Counting Consortium,

only in 2017,
it is estimated that between six

and nine million
people protested in the U.S.,

and 89% of these people were
protesting Trump or his agenda.

Since the Women's March in 2017,

which is considered the
biggest single-day protest

in the history of the U.S.,
until the end of that year,

over 8,700 protests were listed.

It is our duty to win.

It is our duty to win.

We must
support and love each other.

We must
support and love each other.

We have
nothing to lose but our chains.

We have
nothing to lose but our chains.

It is our
duty to fight for our freedom.

It is our
duty to fight for our freedom.

We are a state of mind.

We are the future!

Fists up, hearts open!

Fists up, hearts open,
fists up, hearts open!

Fists up, hearts open, fists up!

No ban,
no wall, sanctuary for all!

No ban,
no wall, we stand for all!

No ban,
no wall, we stand for all!

Say it loud, say it clear,
refugees are welcome here!

Say it loud, say it clear,
Mexicans are welcome here!

Say it loud, say it clear,
Mexicans are welcome here!

What I
learned at Standing Rock

is that when people are united,
not in anger, not in hatred,

but with love, there is no
challenge we cannot overcome!

We do not need to
resist because we are standing.

Raise your hand
if you're standing.

Raise your hand
if you're standing.

There are
fighters in these streets.

There are
warriors in our households.

We are here to fight!

Donald Trump doesn't give a damn

about whether or not you can
take your child to the doctor.

This is about money!

The $500 billion
that are supposed to be cut

out of the
spending for Obamacare

is $500 billion worth
of tax rebates that are going

back to the richest
corporations in this nation.

Do you believe that healthcare

is a fundamental human right?

Then we're here
today to save Obamacare,

and this is just the beginning.

We're just starting the fight.

Today's the kickoff.

Get ready,
we're gonna go to work!

The fact that
thousands of people,

with very little notice,
came out into the streets

of Los Angeles to demonstrate

in favor of the
Affordable Care Act

and against
Trumpcare is not insignificant,

and we're only
gonna build on that.

We are gonna continue to fight
for health as a human right.

I think since
Donald Trump's election,

there has been a
significant increase in fear

in the communities that
we serve in South Los Angeles.

St. John's Well
Child and Family Center

is the largest
provider of healthcare services

to undocumented
immigrants in the United States,

so obviously we feel like we're

at the epicenter
of all the anxiety

that's been created as
a result of the election.

Many of our patients
are becoming depressed.

They're worried.

Many, many people are
afraid that they're gonna be

separated from their families.

So we've been providing
a lot of behavior health

and mental health
counseling to our patients

as well as just general
education for them to know

their rights, so that we
can reduce that anxiety level.

We're not asking for
Trump voters to send us money.

There are plenty
of other folks who make

contributions to
St. John's as a charity

and support
providing healthcare to the poor

and to the undocumented
and to the immigrant.

We're gonna have to
keep building the resistance

to taking away
people's healthcare

and continue to
build a constituency

so that people
understand that healthcare is

an important right and
that people will fight for it.

One of the things that began
to come out of the rhetoric

during the campaign
were some of the young people

were going to school
and they asked the teachers

the question, "Does that
mean I got to leave my home?"

And even some of the kids, what
they heard around the table,

they would come to school
and they would talk about it.

We have to educate our children.

We got to let
them know there are

hateful words that people use

and they don't even
understand the meaning of 'em.

They repeat them because
their parents spoke them.

Parents must become held
accountable for what they say.

We got to stop allowing
hatred to be resuscitated.

We gotta
continue to speak peace,

and so it is
about participation,

collaboration,
and having that conversation

and become engaged in
the politics around you.

I think I speak on
behalf of a lot of caring

and thinking people in North
Carolina and around the country

when we say we're very
fearful of a Trump presidency.

I'm not embarrassed to
say that I cried my eyes out

at three o'clock in the morning
after the election result.

So though I work for a
nonpartisan organization,

we don't endorse candidates,
I have

very strong feelings personally
about our country's future

and deep-seated fears about
what a Trump presidency means.

It's a remarkable
position for a politician

to find him or herself in,
and frightening,

I suppose, in some
respects for the rest of us

that people are so seemingly
intensely loyal to this man

that they're willing to
cheer him when he says one thing

and then when he says the
opposite, to cheer him as well.

But I don't think it
should surprise any of us.

The man has been a
charlatan and a salesman

his whole life, and has
made it sort of a faith for him

that he says whatever it
takes to get whatever he wants.

When you're
talking about the KKK

and other racist hate groups,

North Carolina has a long,
troubled history.

It's depressing and of
concern that groups like that

would feel at all empowered,
but the rise of Donald Trump

has given at least
some of those people

a feeling that they
are now free to come forth

and spew vitriol and
hate towards other people.

Virginia's governor
declared a state of emergency

in Charlottesville
today as white nationalists

clashed in the streets
with counter-protesters.

Groups, including the
Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis,

came from across
the country to rally

against plans to remove a
Confederate statue from a park.

The violence
included an apparent attack

with a car on a crowd
of peaceful protesters.

At least one person was killed.

This all took
place a short distance

from the University of Virginia.

Incidents today were predated

by three other
major rallies there.

Last night, torch-wielding
white supremacists

marched through the
University of Virginia campus.

In July, 50 members of a
North-Carolina-based KKK group

traveled to
Charlottesville for a rally,

where they were met by
hundreds of counter-protesters.

And in May,
prominent white nationalist

Richard Spencer
protested there as well.

We condemn in the
strongest possible terms

this egregious
display of hatred, bigotry,

and violence on many sides,
on many sides.

Are you putting
what you're calling the alt-left

and white supremacists
on the same moral plane?

I'm not putting
anybody on a moral plane.

What I'm saying is this,
you had a group on one side

and you had a
group on the other,

and they came at
each other with clubs

and it was vicious and
it was horrible and it was

a horrible thing to watch,
but there is another side.

There was a group on this side,
you can call them the left,

you've just
called them the left,

that came violently
attacking the other group.

So you can say what you want,
but that's the way it is.

In some respects,
when you talk about hate groups

like the Klan and
other racist outfits,

they've always sort of
been there under the surface,

so an optimist might say,
well, at least Trump

has helped force them out
into the open so they're there.

We're gonna combat them.

We're gonna not
pretend they don't exist.

We're gonna have
to engage and explain

and expose these people as
being wrongheaded and ignorant.

And I suppose that's
my hope that will happen,

that by forcing
them out into the open,

we'll be able to
shine a light on this cancer

and see that it
ultimately dies off.

But it's gonna take a while,
so these are challenging times.

No Trump,
no KKK, no fascist USA!

No Trump,
no KKK, no fascist USA!

No Trump,
no KKK, no fascist USA!

No Trump, no KKK!

No fascist USA!

No Trump!

People are experiencing
a big wake-up moment right now,

and we see millions of
people out in the streets

like we haven't
seen in generations.

I think people feel
like they have been thrown

under the bus,
and this is when people become

very susceptible to
demagogues and to fascism.

This is how
fascism has always risen,

when people are
very economically stressed

and they've lost faith
in our social institutions

and our
institutions of government.

Then you get big
manipulators like Donald Trump,

who can connect
with people emotionally,

so in many ways, it is
the policies of the Democrats

that have actually given rise
to this right-wing extremism

that we see now
under Donald Trump.

Hey, hey,
it's not okay to fight!

Call the cops!

I need to wipe it,
I need to wipe it!

I was trying to save
somebody who was being attacked

by the Trump
people and on the ground,

and as I ran towards it,
I hit a cloud of pepper spray.

And some
comrades dragged me away,

gave me first aid,
and now here I am.

They're throwing bombs at us.

They're throwing
glass candles at us.

Right,
they're throwing bombs at us.

They were grabbing
some of our guys, the scuffle...

Fuck!

I came today prepared
for violence from either side.

I came with medical bandages,
gauze,

milk to neutralize pepper spray.

I've bandaged both Antifa
and Liberty Patriots today.

You're allowing
the violence to escalate.

It's on you guys
for not doing anything

except sitting
here like cowards.

We're the Empathy Tent.

We offer empathic
listening to people.

We're trying to get
people to have dialogue,

first to listen to them,
then to bring them into dialogue

because, really,
the only way forward

is listening,
empathy, and dialogue.

And then,
like we say here, it's the basis

for people getting
together and really addressing

what their needs are
and really solving problems.

All the people screaming
and yelling at each other,

they're actually saying,
"Listen to me, listen to me!"

And the other side's saying,
"No, listen to me!"

"I wanna be heard!"

So they're both
really asking for listening,

so there's a deep down,
just biological need

that we all have
to be heard and seen,

and so we're trying to kind
of address that for everyone,

and also give people the
tools of how they can listen

to each other because
if you just start dialoguing,

sometimes that can break down.

But if you have some rules,
some processes, some tools,

a facilitator,
it can kinda help that process.

People can then learn it,
they internalize it,

and then they can
become better listeners

in their families,
in their communities, so we feel

that there needs to be a
voice out to stand for that.

Do we need to disperse?

Build the wall!

No Trump,
no KKK, no fascist USA!

Go back to Europe!

We see division and conflict

everywhere around the country,

between the Trump side
and the progressive side,

so after what we saw
and experienced in Berkeley,

we decided we needed
to take the Empathy Tent

to as many political
confrontations as possible.

So the next big event we went to

was the Impeachment
March in Los Angeles.

We went and actually
set up an Empathy Tent

at this rally to
offer listening to two sides

that were there
and have them dialogue

with each other and really share

how they were feeling
about the impeachment issue

as well as some
other issues as well.

So I was really taken
that people were really grateful

to have this
opportunity to dialogue.

We need more
dialogue right now

'cause we're, in some ways,
on the edge of a civil war.

It could escalate very easily.

Somebody could get injured

and they becomes
martyr to either side.

I feel what
you're doing here today

and what we all can do,
what you're doing speaking

to the other side,
I think that's wonderful.

There's
definitely a need for that.

Would you like to
share what you heard?

Again, I wish we had
more opportunities to speak,

and the young man
I was speaking to said

that the police
wouldn't let them

cross the street to come to us,
approach us,

and I was like,
oh, well, that's sad.

I can
understand during the march,

but once we're at the location,
you should be able

to come over and
kinda dialogue and talk

because emotions without
thought are dangerous, you know?

I guess my greatest fear
is that there's a large division

within the nation of
fundamental differences

that people are
really not likely to agree on.

It's tough because
I have family members

that disagree with me.

And this country is
founded on certain principles,

and a portion of that population
believes it in one way

and another portion
believes it in another way.

Those sides don't look
like they're getting along,

and it's just
come to a boiling point,

and I think this has
been going on for a long time.

It's just the Trump presidency

has just been
the catalyst for it.

Yeah, I definitely agree
with him on also the division...

Oh, the division?

You're also concerned about
the division in the country?

It seems like our
only way of dealing with things

is finger-pointing
and just saying

that this
specific group of people

are problems,
and it's on both sides.

And it's not getting anywhere.

I agree with
plenty of liberal ideas,

but there are plenty
of more conservative ideas

that I find more reasonable
and I find more attractive.

For instance, if I say
I'm very pro Second Amendment,

then somebody will go,
oh, so then you're

like a right-wing gun nut,
and I'm like, well, hold up, no.

I'm very much in favor
of having more open borders,

of people being able
to come into this country

and work, legally, obviously.

So they go, oh,
well, then you're

like some kind of libertarian,

so you're never just a person.

People aren't
seeing you for who you are,

and that's like a concern,
to be seen.

So, okay
Yeah.

That's a really
good point you're making.

This is what I don't like.

What's wrong with
being a conservative?

What's wrong with
being a right-wing?

What is wrong with that?

But it's okay for people
to be accepted as being liberal,

as being a Democrat,
as being left.

See, this is what I think.

See, I could tell in your
body language and your voice

that you had to defend yourself.

Oh, no, no, I'm not right,
and see, that is wrong.

And so what if you are right?

Who cares?

You know what?

At the end, who cares?

I hope that we,
as a society and as a movement,

we can still keep speaking out

against the things he's
doing against our communities

and the people that are
getting hurt from his actions,

from the things he's saying,
and from the people motivated

by his agenda
and by his rhetoric.

So are you
saying there's really

deeper problems besides Trump?

There's like real
deeper issues and problems

- that need to be addressed.
- Exactly.

Much of my
impression of our opposition,

or however we would call it,
has been YouTube videos

of people throwing,
yelling out propaganda,

one-liners, and stuff like that.

It's not often that I've seen
someone speak out to a length

like he just did,
so that was pretty good.

I think my fundamental
concern with right now,

with the state of the
country with where it is,

is that there isn't this
type of dialogue happening,

is that we are
entering into a society

where people are
afraid to speak out.

I think that if people
are siloed, and people only talk

to people whom they agree
with and whom they already have

that same sort of
thought process with,

then we'll
never have improvement

to make this country
what it really could be.

I think what concerns
me the most about our country

is that I feel
that a large portion

of the population is making
their decisions based on fear,

and I feel that that's
motivating people's politics,

and I don't think it's
the strongest, healthiest,

or most peace-conducive
place to come from.

At this point,
to kinda end the conversation,

how was the empathic listening,

having the person
listen to you before you spoke?

Did that feel
satisfactory at all?

Was that helpful in terms
of feeling like you were heard?

Yeah, I feel that
Spencer is a good listener,

even though we totally
have different views on this.

I'm pretty sure we'll never
see eye to eye on this stuff,

but I still got to
appreciate his ability

and willingness
to sit and listen

to me and let me listen to him.

It was something I found,
when we set up at Berkeley too,

is going out and offering
to do not just listening

but feeling that warmth,

that human connection,
really calms people down.

And I hear a lot,
people say, empathy is

for your personal relationships,
your family, your friend,

but politics is really
about greed and selfishness,

and it doesn't really fit
in there, so don't even bother.

But I think the functioning
part of the democracy

that's working right
now is the empathic part.

People do talk to each other,
or it starts with empathy

as the gateway,
and then once you understand

the needs that people have,
the pain that they have,

the alienation, then you
can start using logic and reason

and find connection,
and from that connection,

they find
solutions to their problems.

Johan Galtung, he says
peace is resolving conflict

with empathy,
creativity, and nonviolence,

and it's a never-ending task.

It's like it never ends.

It's like we're
always having to do it,

so it's not
like we're gonna solve

the problem of this division.

It's an ongoing problem-solving
that we need to do.

In 2016,
more than 250 million people

were eligible to vote,
and only 55% voted.

Democracy will die
without participation

and an open dialogue.

Join the conversation
now before it's too late.