November 8, 2024 • 39 mins
Many people are feeling heartbroken and terrified right now, and the biggest question in the air is, what went wrong?
The View co-host, political strategist, and commentator Ana Navarro joins Sophia to try to make sense of the election outcome, the Latino vote, the role misogyny, racism, and misinformation played during the election, the importance of supporting organizations that help our most vulnerable, and how we move forward.
Ana also discusses the importance of Democrats finding strong candidates to run for office in 2026, choosing hope vs hate, the importance of self-care at a time like this, and a reminder - you are not alone!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to work in progress. Hey friends,
Oh boy it is it's a hard week over here.
(00:21):
I'm not gonna lie. I needed a little bit of
I don't know something. I took the day of the
election and the day after the election too, you know,
sit at home and realize I wasn't really in my
body and hug people that I love, and kiss some
(00:42):
babies and cry. And then I woke up today really
wanting just to ask someone who I think has great
perspective that is often different from mine, but who I
respect so much, some questions about how this happened. So
I called Anna Navarro. She is an incredible political strategist
(01:08):
and commentator who I'm sure you know from all the
TV programs that she appears on all the time. Anna
describes herself as a centrist. She has worked on multiple
Republican campaigns and identified as a Republican for a long time,
and then in twenty sixteen came out publicly against Donald
Trump's rhetoric and policy. She has really stood up for
(01:32):
issues that shouldn't be partisan, which I really appreciate. She's
spoken out in supportive abortion rights. She's talked about her
family stories in really personal ways, and through this whole election,
she's been out campaigning with me and so many of
you for Kamala Harris, and I don't know, I just
(01:54):
wanted to talk to somebody like her about how this happened.
What I think hit me so hard is that she said,
you know, the tragedy of this is that hate won.
You know, we didn't have Republicans versus Democrats. We didn't
have fiscal conservatives versus folks who believe in social support.
We literally had one candidate promising hate and the abuse
(02:18):
of at risk people and one candidate saying America's for everyone,
and people voted for hate. And that's really hard, guys.
But today I'm going to ask her some questions about
why she thinks that message worked, how the supply chain
(02:39):
demands and slow downs after the pandemic contributed to this race,
even though logically they probably shouldn't have since that was
a global problem. And more, I'm going to ask her
about what she thinks we can do to continue to resist,
to continue to hold the line. And I'm also just
(03:00):
going to ask her how she's taking care of herself
right now, because I could certainly use some advice, and
I bet you all could too. I do not want
to be all dooming gloom, though I do want to
call out a couple of really wonderful things that have
happened in this election. We did build some great political power.
For the first time ever, there will be two black
(03:20):
women in the Senate after winning their respective elections, Maryland's
Angela also Brooks and Delawares Lisa Rochester. They'll be representing
their states in the US Senate, marking the first time,
like I said, that two black women will have ever
simultaneously served in the congressional chamber. In New Jersey, folks
voted for the first Korean American senator, Democrat Andy Kim,
(03:44):
who I supported in his congressional races, and I am
so excited to see him step up and take a
seat in the Senate. He got fifty three percent of
the vote, and he is another first. In addition, Sarah
McBride became the first trans gender person elected to Congress.
She has been an incredible representative. I was also honored
(04:06):
to support her campaign. She is such a good human
who's done incredible things for Delaware. I mean, from job
creation to the expansion of healthcare She's an unbelievable advocate
for working class folks, and she she's a legend. So
I'm trying to celebrate the wins that we have and
(04:29):
let's see what else we can do with our friend,
Anna Navar and I thank you so much for coming today.
Things are stressful and confusing and heartbreaking and all of
(04:52):
the things. And I'm so excited that you're taking time
out of your day, in particular because you've got such
an expertise as a political strategist, as a commentators, as
someone who has identified as a Republican and yet fought
back against Donald Trump. Can you share what you think
happened here? You know what went wrong? How do we
(05:14):
make sense of Trump's win? Because every single policy that
we know matters to the American people, no matter race, gender, origin, identity,
is not a Trump policy. So how do you think
this happened?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I can't explain it. I myself. I'm having a really
hard time wrapping my arms around it. And I think
it's okay. I think that, but you know, I don't
know for you, but for me, it feels different than
twenty sixteen. There was a shock value, I guess to
twenty sixteen that. I don't know if I've been numbed
(05:55):
or what. But I'm perplexed. I'm sad. But and I
don't see it. You know, I'm here in New York working.
I don't see it in the streets of New York
like you would see it in twenty sixteen. I think, Look,
I can't explain it, Sophia, because in twenty sixteen, I
(06:20):
had a lot of friends who told me they were
voting for Trump, Republican friends who told me they were
voting for Trump because they were confident the office would
change him, the gravitas of the position would change him. Instead,
he changed the presidency, he changed the Republican Party, and
he changed the country. And today, in twenty twenty four,
(06:41):
people voted for him knowing everything, knowing that he's not
going to change. If he didn't change back then, he's
certainly not going to change at seventy eight. And it's
even worse than that because he's now coming into the
office knowing how to wield the power of the presidency.
He's coming into the office seeking people around him that
(07:02):
are one hundred percent loyal and will not push back
because all of the former adults in the room the
John Kelly's and General madis Is they're no longer going
to be there. And he's coming in with a Supreme
Court that gave him immunity and a House and a
Senate that are going to be Republican. So at least
for the next two years, he's going to be completely
(07:26):
unchecked and able to do whatever he wants. And you know,
sometimes I think, well, be careful what you wish for,
because you just may get it. And I think the
American people who voted for him are going to get
what they voted.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Mh. I'm honestly kind of blown away by it again
because we seem to have lost rational connection to fact.
We know that prices matter to people, and we know
that since the same inflation that happened globally with the
(08:03):
pandemic and you know, supply chain shutdown and all of
these things, we know that President Biden and Vice President
Harris were able to pull inflation down under two percent. Yes,
it took three and a half years, but that's actually
a success story. They did so well that they they
pulled inflation down around the globe. They have fought back
against price gouging. They stopped the Kroger and Albertson's merger
(08:26):
because of the expense of groceries. They they have, by
the way, much to the dismay of folks who care
about the environment like me, made the United States a
country that is producing more oil in its own borders
than ever before in history. So right wingers should love
that so that we can be completely energy independent. They
(08:47):
have managed to negotiate lower prices on drugs. They're fighting
big pharma. They are working to regulate what's in our food.
You know, we passed a ban in California last year
on i've really toxic chemicals in our food system, like
all of these things. You know, they're supporting women and
ensuring you know, promising to ensure a reinstating of Roe v.
(09:11):
Wade so women stop dying in emergency rooms. And we
know people care about this stuff. And we know that
Trump is promising to launch these border roundups. We know
he created twenty five percent of the entire United States debt,
a country that has been around for over two hundred years,
twenty five percent of its debt was created under one
man in four years. And they're saying he's a genius
(09:34):
with the economy, Like on every single subject. This doesn't
feel like it makes any sense. So how do you
explain what appealed to the voters? Is it that strong
man culture of if I can unite people around fear,
they'll vote for me. If even if it isn't rational.
Is it the Fox News is of the world that
(09:55):
operate like propaganda machines and deny being news agencies when
they get sued in court? Is it Joe Rogan? Like,
what is it?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I think it's all of the above. I think it's
so many different things, right, I think I think despite
all the things that you just listed, it hasn't trickled
down to the way Americans feel. And Americans there's a
malaise right now, and Americans are hurting. When they go
to the grocery store, they feel that they buy a
lot less than they did four years ago. So you know,
(10:25):
that's one thing, Listen. I think the fact that Kamala
Harris was a woman, I think, and a black woman
at that, a black South Asian woman. I think that's
a lot for some people to process. I mean, folks
want to say, you're calling us racist, you know. And
I spoke to Kamala Harris about this, and she said
(10:47):
something to me that I had not thought of, and
that made sense. She said, Look, folks aren't used to
seeing somebody like me in these positions, right, and so
they don't because people kept saying, oh, but I don't
know her, Oh I can't vote for her because I
don't know enough about her. I don't know where she stands,
(11:07):
which was incredibly frustrating because I would say to them, all,
but you know Trump, don't you, and just google the
things she has done. She's got a lifetime of experience.
But people kept saying that about her, And what she
said to me is, Anna, they've never seen a black
South Asian woman, child of immigrants running for president, so
they're having a hard time kind of accepting that as
(11:31):
a norm. So I think there was some racism. I
think there was some misogyny. I think there was people
feeling bad about the economy and people feeling the hurt.
I think people didn't buy that she would be different
than Joe Biden. He doesn't. Joe Biden doesn't get the
credit he should for all of the accomplishments that you
(11:52):
just listed. You know, Look, I think it is the
strong man thing for some Latinos. A lot of folks
come from Latin America, where there's been dictatorships and strong
men and authoritarians, is what we grew up with. I
think that they see Trump as tough in some ways
(12:15):
when he's actually not, and they couldn't for some reason,
see Kamala Harris as strong and tough. I don't understand it.
I you know, So if you ask me to come
on here to explain the man, I want to explain
to me because I don't understand how Latinos could have
(12:35):
voted for a man that's promising massive deportations. It means
some of them are walpos. Some of their grandparents are
going to get deported. Certainly, some of our friends and
colleagues are going to get deported people. You know, everybody
in America, in some way or another knows or benefits
from immigrants, some of them here illegally. If you're telling
(12:58):
me you're hurting going to the supermarket, now, wait till
there's massive deportations and the price of a tomato goes up,
and the price of dairy goes up, and the price
of poultry goes up. Because if you've ever been to
a poultry farm, if you've ever been to a dairy farm,
and I have in places like Jerome, Idaho. You will
see who the people working there, doing the tough, backbreaking
(13:19):
work is okay. Slaving away, working away in dairy farms
that stink. You can smell those cows miles and miles away.
You can smell those chickens and the poultry farms miles
and miles away. And so you think it's bad at
the grocery store, now just wait if he doesn't. You
(13:42):
think the cost of things are bad, now, just wait
until he imposes the terrors. Those women, those white women
in particular, that voted for Trump are people. There are
women in this country dying or almost having to die
in order to get medical help, reproductive health treatment, you know,
(14:05):
but they voted for him. You know, African Americans, they
know he's racist. They've heard him, they've heard him for decades,
they've seen the things he's done, but they voted against him.
So I've gotta think that people know who he is
and don't care. They don't care. They don't care that
he's a racist. They don't care that he's going to
(14:26):
depoor people. They don't care that he attacks immigrants, they
don't care that he's a misogynist. They don't care that
he's sexually assaulted women. They don't care that he's appointed
three Supreme Court justices that took the rights of women away.
They simply don't care. And so if you've got people
who don't care and vote for what I think is
their best interest, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe it you know,
(14:49):
maybe I'm wrong, then I got nothing for you. It's
a explanation. I got nothing for you.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And now a word from our sponsors. I've been thinking
about this a lot, and the speed with which harm
can be done seems to go so much faster than
(15:18):
the speed with which we fix things. So, for example,
Obama came in in Bush's absolute economic disaster in two
thousand and eight, and over his eight years of a
presidency built an incredibly robust American economy. But recovery always
takes longer than the free fall. You know, to build
a house takes longer than a wrecking ball knocking it
down in an hour. And Trump got into office and
(15:40):
took credit for it. And I've spoken to a lot
of voters traveling the country and canvassing on the economy
who would say, like, yeah, but I had so much
more money in twenty seventeen than I have now, And
I had to look at people and say, right, but
in twenty seventeen, we were still on the tail of
Barack Obama's economy. And do you know that at the
end of twenty seventeen or the top of twenty eighteen,
(16:01):
whenever it falls in the calendar, when Trump's tax plan
went in to effect and you started to hurt economically,
which got worse during the pandemic because of the supply
chain issues. Right now, you're saying you're paying higher taxes.
You know that even though Biden and Harris are in
the White House, you know we're under Trump's tax plan
still it's in effect till twenty twenty five. And the
(16:24):
shock on people's faces.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, okay, So, Sophia, you and I are talking, both
of us are talking like we're still campaign absolutely Okay,
Well we're past that, right, Oh.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I know.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's now president elect with absolutely no safeguards, going in
with what he thinks is a mandate winning the popular vote,
winning with demographic groups. The Republicans don't. So the question
is the question we have to ask ourselves is what
the hell do we do now? Exactly how I don't know,
(16:57):
how do we move forward?
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Well, well, I think part of it for me, part
of the major aha moment through this whole year of
the campaign has been Wow, I know our messaging for
some reason doesn't travel as far as their messaging. I
didn't know our messaging wasn't getting anywhere. I didn't know
the facts about the economy weren't getting anywhere. I didn't
(17:20):
know that you could see a report of a nineteen
year old girl dying in an er the day of
her baby shower, and be like, that's not really happening.
That's not because of the laws. Yes it is. So
I'm curious for you because I know you've traveled the unit.
You traveled all over the US, and you met with
so many Latino populations and groups and geographies around the country.
You know people so well. I think the first thing
(17:43):
we got to figure out is what we're going to
do about our messaging. How do you think we actually
communicate with people in ways where the facts matter more
than the lies the other side is telling.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Well, first of all, we have to figure out our
outlets and platforms and just how to navigate that because
Republicans are doing that much better. I've always noticed that
when Republicans, Republicans are all in sync. So like, let's
say they decide, Okay, today we're going to talk about
Hunter's laptop. Every Republican outlet, every right wing outlet from
(18:20):
Fox News down to the blog that gets read by
three people will be talking that day about Hunter's laptop.
Tomorrow we're going to talk about this. You know, Anna
Navarro said, she you know, hey, it's white men on
the view. Everybody from the Fox News down to the
blog read by three people will be talking about that.
(18:41):
Democrats are all over the place, or like chickens without
a head. There's like so the and and also Republicans
stick with a subject matter, right, so the right wing
media outlets stick with a subject matter. How long did
we hear about Hunter's laptop? How long did we hear
(19:01):
about Hillary's emails? How long did we hear about you know,
all of these different things. And then if you think
about how democrats do things, it's usually like, you know,
you've got the attention span of an act. You know,
you're moving from one thing to the other, and not
everybody's singing out of the same hymnal. So I think
(19:23):
there's got to be some I think people need to
be more organized, more consistent. But look, we also, you
know there's in politics people always say you've got to
meet voters where they are. And people didn't care about
the things Kamala Harris was saying, right, I mean, I
(19:44):
met a man. I met a Latino in Hurupa Valley, California,
Mexican American. He had crossed the border illegally at the
age of fourteen. I had to conduct the interview and
in Spanish because he didn't speak English. He was voting
for the first time, and he was voting for Trump
because he wanted change, and he wanted somebody that controlled
(20:06):
the board. So that requires a level of psycho analysis
on a voter who you know. And I saw this
this I saw this. I think it was in the
New York Times. I saw this poll where it said
that something like sixty two percent of Latinos thought that
(20:27):
when Trump made racist comments, it didn't apply to them.
I honestly thought that was wrong. Like I was like, Okay,
this can't be right. Who the hell do they think
he's talking about, you know, Norwegians. But but I guess
it's true. I guess it's true because there's Puerto Ricans
(20:47):
in Pennsylvania who voted for him knowing that he's treated
them like garbage and that people around him call them garbage.
There's you know, there's black men who voted against him,
knowing that he asked for the death penalty on the
exonerated five and never ever acknowledged that he was wrong,
never has apologized. I mean, so knowing that he has
(21:10):
said things about Haitians who are black, you know he's
not saying that about Canadians. He's not for some reason,
Canadians aren't eating the pets, aren't eating the dogs, eating
the cats. But you know, the poor black Haitians fleeing
the political strife in Haiti, let's do it to them.
So I think it requires a level of psycho analysis
(21:34):
that I'm incapable of doing to understand how you can
be a Latino who thinks that when he's talking about
whole countries and Latinos as poisoning the blood of America
and being invaders, that doesn't apply to you.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
But apparently right that's true. Do you think that that's
at all? Because we've had, despite political discourse and differences
for so long there has been this general willingness to
uphold some level of decora, which leads everybody to say, well,
(22:12):
he doesn't mean me. He doesn't really mean that. You know,
he's he's he speaks off the cuff, but he's not
being serious, even though we all know he's being very serious.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
You know, people voted for him. People are going to
have to live with him. Unfortunately, those of us who
didn't vote for him are going to have to live
with him too. And unlike Trump and his people, we
are sitting here acknowledging that he won, that there was
no fraud, that he won fair and swear, and that
(22:49):
he's going to end that he is the president elect
and we're going to have to live under him for
the next four years. A grace and a you know,
a a level of politeness they were incapable of giving
Joe Biden. They still don't make that Joe Biden has won.
(23:10):
I mean today Joe Biden gave a speech in the
from the Rose Garden talking about how he culled Trump.
He offered to cooperate. They're going to help with the transition,
you know, doing what we do in a democracy. Four
years ago, they were preparing for an insurrection.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, they tried to hang the vice president.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And it didn't matter. It didn't matter. You know. The
Republicans who all said on January seventh that they were
done with him were again in his in his pocket,
were again supporting him and campaigning for him. The Republicans
who said and the people who said, you know, with
some very few exceptions, right like that, we should think
(23:51):
about and thank people like Liz Cheney, they've they've they
didn't care. I mean, so I think that's you see,
that's that I think. But I think that's the challenging
part that you and I who do care have to
accept that they are. There are Americans who don't, who
don't care, and it's I mean, it's it's hard. It's
(24:17):
hard to accept that and to reconcile with that, and
and to know that our friends and our family and
I have family members who are very much Trumpers and
are very happy about this, and and you know, yeah,
they don't care. And I just have to figure out
how I'm gonna sit up next to them Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
We'll be back in just a minute after a few
words from our favorite sponsors. I wonder, because clearly the
the messaging of his campaign has been very intoxicating for
a lot of people, and we got to be frank.
You know, he's been running for almost ten years now,
(25:03):
he to your point, never gave it up after twenty
twenty and Kamala Harris had one hundred and nine days
to run a campaign. I know a lot of people
are talking about the fact that if she'd had longer,
maybe more voters would have felt like they knew her.
Do you think it would be smart for the Democrats
to begin running our next campaign now or at the
(25:25):
top of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I don't know what Democrats are going to do. I'll
tell you what I don't like that they're doing. I
don't like and I'm not a Democrat, so I'm not
in a place to, like, you know, tell Democrats what
they should do. But this her circular firing squad of
Oh it's so stupid. Its fault because he should have
never run. Oh it's Kamala's fault because there should have
been primary Oh it's Biden's advisor's fault because they covered
(25:51):
up that he was old. Oh it's Kamala's staff fault
because they focused on the wrong things. None of that
is going to help get somebody elected in four years.
So I think they've got to figure out how they
(26:13):
attract how you know, how they consolidate the Obama coalition again, right, blacks,
working class, Latinos, gays, women, How they do that again
in an optimistic but effective way. But listen, America had
a very stark choice. You know, sometimes we go to
the polls and the Democrat and the Republican kind of
(26:38):
like look alike and sound alike, and they're just kind
of you've got to you know the difference between Mario
Bush and Clinton or you know, the but here it
was black and white, it was light and dark. It
was hope or hate. Yeah, people chose the darkness. People
(27:02):
chose the hate and the division. That's the part that's
hard to accept.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
It's really hard tone.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
That's the part that I think that's why we're having
such a hard time with it. Okay, if it had
been Mitt Romney would want or if it had been
John McCain would won. Yeah, Democrats would be upset. Democrats.
I worked for John McCain in two thousand and eight.
I remember how I felt the night that John McCain
(27:32):
lost and Barack Obama won. I felt very sad for
John McCain, who I thought would be would have made
a great president, and who I believed was a mentor
and a hero for me. But I didn't feel scared
for the future of America. I didn't feel scared for
young girls, or for immigrants, or for minorities, or for
(27:55):
the standing of America and the world. I knew he
would have policies I would disagree with, but I you know,
I don't think it would be It would be devastating, right, Okay,
America knows what they chose for. And that is why
people like you and me are having a really hard
time processing this, yes, because you.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Know, yeah, well that's it. It's hard to know that
hate won. Yeah, And I've been looking at you know,
sometimes looking at history helps me process what gives me anxiety.
Here is, you know, the historians talk about these hundred
year cycles, and one hundred years ago in Germany, Hitler
(28:44):
lost power, tried to stage a coup, and then he
got elected. And I'm like, if that's where we're going,
we're in real big trouble. Like we see Trump copying
the speeches that horrible MSG rally. He's announcing plans for
camps to round people up and put them in It
strikes a fear in my core because it is so.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
You are like in campaign.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I get it, but we're done, I know. But that's
my question is yesterday on the View you said we're
not going to stop fighting, and I I agree, And
I wonder, like, what are the actions you think we
can take? How how do we fight this level of announced.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Evil?
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Like, what do we what do we as a constituency
do together?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
First, I think we've got to admit and accept that
we're going through the stages of grief, right, Uh, you know,
anger denial. I mean I don't think we're in denial,
but I do think I'm somewhere. I'm still in anger.
I'm still in the anger face. I don't know how
many more faces. Which number is anger? Whatever a number,
that's that's the one. I'm there. Yeah, Look, we're gonna
(30:02):
do the same thing we did in twenty sixteen. Right
where when there was a Muslim band, we denounced it.
There were people who showed up at the airport to
try to help the help the folks. There was you know,
lawyers who showed up pro bono. We're going to do
the same thing we did twenty sixteen when there was
a women's march of millions and millions of people saying,
(30:24):
here we are. So at some point, after we get
through the anger, after we get through the sadness, after
we get through the shock, after we process all of this,
when you know, we've got what six weeks or something
two months before he's sworn in, we're going to have
to get our resoluteness back as Americans and be ready
(30:47):
and willing to stand up and denounce the things he's
going to do that he's told us he's going to do.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, are there organizations that you think are going to
be important to support as we move toward this next administration?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I think the most well, I think, you know, I
think the legal organizations, the you know, I think the
immigrant organizations. Certainly. I think the most important thing to do,
starting now and starting January twentieth, is figuring out how
to put some safeguards around him when we can, which
is two years later, you know, in twenty twenty two,
(31:30):
we need to have He's basically that no checks and
balances right now, he's the Supreme Court is, you know,
not a check and balance. On him with this makeup
and the what we can We can't affect that, but
we can affect the Senate and the House. And so
(31:51):
I think, I think, I think, you know, Democrats have
to start fielding some good candidates, and I think they've
got to start figuring out how to organize and how
to because it's the only check and balance that we
can put on him, and it's going to take at
least two years. What I'm thinking is in these next
two years, if he does the things he's promising to do,
(32:13):
there's going to the pendulum will swim and people will
be horrified at the unfettered power. And you know, if
people start seeing uh, you know, women continuing to die,
immigrants who we know and love and are part of
our community getting getting deported, if we start hearing the
(32:35):
racial slurs again, if we start seeing the mass shootings
from from from white supremacist who you know, you know,
drive to a Walmart in l Pass or it will
hunt down Latinos because they like like Latino immigrants, then
you know, then then maybe maybe people will think twice
(32:56):
when they vote. Maybe not yeah, but for an I listen,
I think that for where we are right now, two
days after the election. I think we got to give ourselves,
you know, those of us who are incredibly disappointed by
this result. I think we've got to give ourselves a
little a little grace. Those of us who were highly
(33:20):
invested in Kamala's campaign, who worked really hard, we gotta
we gotta, we gotta heal a little bit right before
we put on our marching shoes again. I think it's
I think it is tough. I mean tough. But today
I took the day off. The only thing I'm doing
is talking to you because.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
I my my my brain hurts from trying to you know,
from seeing all the statistics, from seeing all the polls,
from from from seeing the results, from lack of sleep,
from worry, from anger, from.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
All of that. So I would say to people, for
you know, at least give yourself a little bit of grace,
a little bit of self care, because we're going to
have to fight back. We're going to have to fight back,
and to do that, you know, we can't be demoralized
and tired. But this that just happened is the moorizing
(34:14):
and exhausting emotionally and physically. Don't you feel it like that?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah? I am having a very hard time feeling in
my body. Yeah, and so similarly, by the way, I've
had to do a few things today. But when I
heard you you were going to make yourself available, I
was like, Okay, here we go, We're doing it. I love,
I love, and I can't wait a doctor. And yesterday
(34:40):
I just I just canceled everything.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
But what you just said is so interesting to me
because that's how I described it to somebody yesterday. I was,
you know, yesterday I did the View and then I
had CNN at night. I was, you know, and all
these people talking and calling and texting and all this thing,
and I felt like I was having and out of
body experience. It's like, really seeing this, is this really happening? Right?
(35:07):
But it is so Sophia. We got to give ourselves
a little time to heal. We've got to give ourselves
a little grace. We got to focus on how to
strengthen ourselves internally and externally, and then we be ready
to fight. Because anybody who thinks this guy's going to
change has got to be smoking something I wish they'd
(35:27):
share with me.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Well, aside from whatever that might be. How how are
you going to try to take care of yourself for
the next couple of days.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Well, I've got a five pump poodle that helps. I have,
you know, I there's only so much I think news
that I think we should be consuming at this point,
right at least for now. I mean, what are we
(35:59):
gonna hear between now and January twentieth, who his awful
cabinet is, by how much Republicans won the House, by
how much Republicans won the Senate. They won the Senate,
They're going to win the House. I don't think we
have to be like, you know, invested in and doing
(36:20):
twenty four hours news watching every house race that's still
yet to be called in California and in Alaska. It's done, folks,
it's done. And so you know, I'm going to do
other things, and I'm going to be ready to keep
denouncing things and to keep you know, I did it.
I thought it was over. I really did. And I
(36:42):
and I think part of why this happened is because
we've had four years of normalcy. So I remember hearing
the term Trump amniesia yes when this began, and I
think it's a real thing. I think, you know, but
people are about it's about to come back. It's about
to be cured, you know, be ready, So I you know,
(37:06):
And it was how exhausting was twenty sixteen to twenty twenty.
Every day there was a scandal, every day there was
a Well, we're about to to experience that all over again.
So we've got to get ourselves ready. Now we now
we know, yeah before in a way that we didn't
in uh, you know, in twenty sixteen. It is what
(37:29):
it is.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Well, I think that's kind of all we can do,
right is be gentle with ourselves and then be ready
to make some noise.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, because we listen, we're not leaving. Nope, we're not
quitting America. We're not in this country. We're not quitting activism,
We're not quitting our voice. So we got to We
got two more months of normalcy, enjoy, have Thanksgiving, put
up a facking Christmas tree as early as you can,
(37:59):
you know, fa, la la la la, and then we're
gonna get ready to fight.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, well here we go. I'm thrilled to stand with you.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Shall we talk again after January twentieth?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I see how, yes, I think we should.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
I'm even really like I've already just started I'm not
even gonna watch that being swearing and absolutely, but I'll
see the clips there you go.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Yeah, they'll be online. I Uh, I think I've I've
had enough of him, and I know what's to come,
so I'll protect my peace while i can. Yep, thank
you for taking the time today.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Take up knitting because we're gonna we're gonna need to
We're gonna need to have some balance.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, we're gonna need to have some hobbies.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
And I'm having a hard time understanding this. I'm having
a hard time reconciling that America did this. But I
and I said this yesterday. I'm at peace because I
did everything I possibly could. Yep, Donald Trump from being
precedent again, and so everything that's about to happen, Mama,
(39:04):
that's not on me, not on us, honey, that's on them,
on those you know. And so I'm gonna hold them accountable.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, so I like that plan. That is the plan. Okay, Okay,
we're gonna talk again after January.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
I can't wait, and I'm always around. I'll send you
a d M next week and see how are you feeling.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Will you?
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I will?
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Okay, let's talk again. Nice, will you, thank you, thank
you by
Hey everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to work in progress. Hey friends,
Oh boy it is it's a hard week over here.
(00:21):
I'm not gonna lie. I needed a little bit of
I don't know something. I took the day of the
election and the day after the election too, you know,
sit at home and realize I wasn't really in my
body and hug people that I love, and kiss some
(00:42):
babies and cry. And then I woke up today really
wanting just to ask someone who I think has great
perspective that is often different from mine, but who I
respect so much, some questions about how this happened. So
I called Anna Navarro. She is an incredible political strategist
(01:08):
and commentator who I'm sure you know from all the
TV programs that she appears on all the time. Anna
describes herself as a centrist. She has worked on multiple
Republican campaigns and identified as a Republican for a long time,
and then in twenty sixteen came out publicly against Donald
Trump's rhetoric and policy. She has really stood up for
(01:32):
issues that shouldn't be partisan, which I really appreciate. She's
spoken out in supportive abortion rights. She's talked about her
family stories in really personal ways, and through this whole election,
she's been out campaigning with me and so many of
you for Kamala Harris, and I don't know, I just
(01:54):
wanted to talk to somebody like her about how this happened.
What I think hit me so hard is that she said,
you know, the tragedy of this is that hate won.
You know, we didn't have Republicans versus Democrats. We didn't
have fiscal conservatives versus folks who believe in social support.
We literally had one candidate promising hate and the abuse
(02:18):
of at risk people and one candidate saying America's for everyone,
and people voted for hate. And that's really hard, guys.
But today I'm going to ask her some questions about
why she thinks that message worked, how the supply chain
(02:39):
demands and slow downs after the pandemic contributed to this race,
even though logically they probably shouldn't have since that was
a global problem. And more, I'm going to ask her
about what she thinks we can do to continue to resist,
to continue to hold the line. And I'm also just
(03:00):
going to ask her how she's taking care of herself
right now, because I could certainly use some advice, and
I bet you all could too. I do not want
to be all dooming gloom, though I do want to
call out a couple of really wonderful things that have
happened in this election. We did build some great political power.
For the first time ever, there will be two black
(03:20):
women in the Senate after winning their respective elections, Maryland's
Angela also Brooks and Delawares Lisa Rochester. They'll be representing
their states in the US Senate, marking the first time,
like I said, that two black women will have ever
simultaneously served in the congressional chamber. In New Jersey, folks
voted for the first Korean American senator, Democrat Andy Kim,
(03:44):
who I supported in his congressional races, and I am
so excited to see him step up and take a
seat in the Senate. He got fifty three percent of
the vote, and he is another first. In addition, Sarah
McBride became the first trans gender person elected to Congress.
She has been an incredible representative. I was also honored
(04:06):
to support her campaign. She is such a good human
who's done incredible things for Delaware. I mean, from job
creation to the expansion of healthcare She's an unbelievable advocate
for working class folks, and she she's a legend. So
I'm trying to celebrate the wins that we have and
(04:29):
let's see what else we can do with our friend,
Anna Navar and I thank you so much for coming today.
Things are stressful and confusing and heartbreaking and all of
(04:52):
the things. And I'm so excited that you're taking time
out of your day, in particular because you've got such
an expertise as a political strategist, as a commentators, as
someone who has identified as a Republican and yet fought
back against Donald Trump. Can you share what you think
happened here? You know what went wrong? How do we
(05:14):
make sense of Trump's win? Because every single policy that
we know matters to the American people, no matter race, gender, origin, identity,
is not a Trump policy. So how do you think
this happened?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I can't explain it. I myself. I'm having a really
hard time wrapping my arms around it. And I think
it's okay. I think that, but you know, I don't
know for you, but for me, it feels different than
twenty sixteen. There was a shock value, I guess to
twenty sixteen that. I don't know if I've been numbed
(05:55):
or what. But I'm perplexed. I'm sad. But and I
don't see it. You know, I'm here in New York working.
I don't see it in the streets of New York
like you would see it in twenty sixteen. I think, Look,
I can't explain it, Sophia, because in twenty sixteen, I
(06:20):
had a lot of friends who told me they were
voting for Trump, Republican friends who told me they were
voting for Trump because they were confident the office would
change him, the gravitas of the position would change him. Instead,
he changed the presidency, he changed the Republican Party, and
he changed the country. And today, in twenty twenty four,
(06:41):
people voted for him knowing everything, knowing that he's not
going to change. If he didn't change back then, he's
certainly not going to change at seventy eight. And it's
even worse than that because he's now coming into the
office knowing how to wield the power of the presidency.
He's coming into the office seeking people around him that
(07:02):
are one hundred percent loyal and will not push back
because all of the former adults in the room the
John Kelly's and General madis Is they're no longer going
to be there. And he's coming in with a Supreme
Court that gave him immunity and a House and a
Senate that are going to be Republican. So at least
for the next two years, he's going to be completely
(07:26):
unchecked and able to do whatever he wants. And you know,
sometimes I think, well, be careful what you wish for,
because you just may get it. And I think the
American people who voted for him are going to get
what they voted.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Mh. I'm honestly kind of blown away by it again
because we seem to have lost rational connection to fact.
We know that prices matter to people, and we know
that since the same inflation that happened globally with the
(08:03):
pandemic and you know, supply chain shutdown and all of
these things, we know that President Biden and Vice President
Harris were able to pull inflation down under two percent. Yes,
it took three and a half years, but that's actually
a success story. They did so well that they they
pulled inflation down around the globe. They have fought back
against price gouging. They stopped the Kroger and Albertson's merger
(08:26):
because of the expense of groceries. They they have, by
the way, much to the dismay of folks who care
about the environment like me, made the United States a
country that is producing more oil in its own borders
than ever before in history. So right wingers should love
that so that we can be completely energy independent. They
(08:47):
have managed to negotiate lower prices on drugs. They're fighting
big pharma. They are working to regulate what's in our food.
You know, we passed a ban in California last year
on i've really toxic chemicals in our food system, like
all of these things. You know, they're supporting women and
ensuring you know, promising to ensure a reinstating of Roe v.
(09:11):
Wade so women stop dying in emergency rooms. And we
know people care about this stuff. And we know that
Trump is promising to launch these border roundups. We know
he created twenty five percent of the entire United States debt,
a country that has been around for over two hundred years,
twenty five percent of its debt was created under one
man in four years. And they're saying he's a genius
(09:34):
with the economy, Like on every single subject. This doesn't
feel like it makes any sense. So how do you
explain what appealed to the voters? Is it that strong
man culture of if I can unite people around fear,
they'll vote for me. If even if it isn't rational.
Is it the Fox News is of the world that
(09:55):
operate like propaganda machines and deny being news agencies when
they get sued in court? Is it Joe Rogan? Like,
what is it?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I think it's all of the above. I think it's
so many different things, right, I think I think despite
all the things that you just listed, it hasn't trickled
down to the way Americans feel. And Americans there's a
malaise right now, and Americans are hurting. When they go
to the grocery store, they feel that they buy a
lot less than they did four years ago. So you know,
(10:25):
that's one thing, Listen. I think the fact that Kamala
Harris was a woman, I think, and a black woman
at that, a black South Asian woman. I think that's
a lot for some people to process. I mean, folks
want to say, you're calling us racist, you know. And
I spoke to Kamala Harris about this, and she said
(10:47):
something to me that I had not thought of, and
that made sense. She said, Look, folks aren't used to
seeing somebody like me in these positions, right, and so
they don't because people kept saying, oh, but I don't
know her, Oh I can't vote for her because I
don't know enough about her. I don't know where she stands,
(11:07):
which was incredibly frustrating because I would say to them, all,
but you know Trump, don't you, and just google the
things she has done. She's got a lifetime of experience.
But people kept saying that about her, And what she
said to me is, Anna, they've never seen a black
South Asian woman, child of immigrants running for president, so
they're having a hard time kind of accepting that as
(11:31):
a norm. So I think there was some racism. I
think there was some misogyny. I think there was people
feeling bad about the economy and people feeling the hurt.
I think people didn't buy that she would be different
than Joe Biden. He doesn't. Joe Biden doesn't get the
credit he should for all of the accomplishments that you
(11:52):
just listed. You know, Look, I think it is the
strong man thing for some Latinos. A lot of folks
come from Latin America, where there's been dictatorships and strong
men and authoritarians, is what we grew up with. I
think that they see Trump as tough in some ways
(12:15):
when he's actually not, and they couldn't for some reason,
see Kamala Harris as strong and tough. I don't understand it.
I you know, So if you ask me to come
on here to explain the man, I want to explain
to me because I don't understand how Latinos could have
(12:35):
voted for a man that's promising massive deportations. It means
some of them are walpos. Some of their grandparents are
going to get deported. Certainly, some of our friends and
colleagues are going to get deported people. You know, everybody
in America, in some way or another knows or benefits
from immigrants, some of them here illegally. If you're telling
(12:58):
me you're hurting going to the supermarket, now, wait till
there's massive deportations and the price of a tomato goes up,
and the price of dairy goes up, and the price
of poultry goes up. Because if you've ever been to
a poultry farm, if you've ever been to a dairy farm,
and I have in places like Jerome, Idaho. You will
see who the people working there, doing the tough, backbreaking
(13:19):
work is okay. Slaving away, working away in dairy farms
that stink. You can smell those cows miles and miles away.
You can smell those chickens and the poultry farms miles
and miles away. And so you think it's bad at
the grocery store, now just wait if he doesn't. You
(13:42):
think the cost of things are bad, now, just wait
until he imposes the terrors. Those women, those white women
in particular, that voted for Trump are people. There are
women in this country dying or almost having to die
in order to get medical help, reproductive health treatment, you know,
(14:05):
but they voted for him. You know, African Americans, they
know he's racist. They've heard him, they've heard him for decades,
they've seen the things he's done, but they voted against him.
So I've gotta think that people know who he is
and don't care. They don't care. They don't care that
he's a racist. They don't care that he's going to
(14:26):
depoor people. They don't care that he attacks immigrants, they
don't care that he's a misogynist. They don't care that
he's sexually assaulted women. They don't care that he's appointed
three Supreme Court justices that took the rights of women away.
They simply don't care. And so if you've got people
who don't care and vote for what I think is
their best interest, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe it you know,
(14:49):
maybe I'm wrong, then I got nothing for you. It's
a explanation. I got nothing for you.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And now a word from our sponsors. I've been thinking
about this a lot, and the speed with which harm
can be done seems to go so much faster than
(15:18):
the speed with which we fix things. So, for example,
Obama came in in Bush's absolute economic disaster in two
thousand and eight, and over his eight years of a
presidency built an incredibly robust American economy. But recovery always
takes longer than the free fall. You know, to build
a house takes longer than a wrecking ball knocking it
down in an hour. And Trump got into office and
(15:40):
took credit for it. And I've spoken to a lot
of voters traveling the country and canvassing on the economy
who would say, like, yeah, but I had so much
more money in twenty seventeen than I have now, And
I had to look at people and say, right, but
in twenty seventeen, we were still on the tail of
Barack Obama's economy. And do you know that at the
end of twenty seventeen or the top of twenty eighteen,
(16:01):
whenever it falls in the calendar, when Trump's tax plan
went in to effect and you started to hurt economically,
which got worse during the pandemic because of the supply
chain issues. Right now, you're saying you're paying higher taxes.
You know that even though Biden and Harris are in
the White House, you know we're under Trump's tax plan
still it's in effect till twenty twenty five. And the
(16:24):
shock on people's faces.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, okay, So, Sophia, you and I are talking, both
of us are talking like we're still campaign absolutely Okay,
Well we're past that, right, Oh.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I know.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's now president elect with absolutely no safeguards, going in
with what he thinks is a mandate winning the popular vote,
winning with demographic groups. The Republicans don't. So the question
is the question we have to ask ourselves is what
the hell do we do now? Exactly how I don't know,
(16:57):
how do we move forward?
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Well, well, I think part of it for me, part
of the major aha moment through this whole year of
the campaign has been Wow, I know our messaging for
some reason doesn't travel as far as their messaging. I
didn't know our messaging wasn't getting anywhere. I didn't know
the facts about the economy weren't getting anywhere. I didn't
(17:20):
know that you could see a report of a nineteen
year old girl dying in an er the day of
her baby shower, and be like, that's not really happening.
That's not because of the laws. Yes it is. So
I'm curious for you because I know you've traveled the unit.
You traveled all over the US, and you met with
so many Latino populations and groups and geographies around the country.
You know people so well. I think the first thing
(17:43):
we got to figure out is what we're going to
do about our messaging. How do you think we actually
communicate with people in ways where the facts matter more
than the lies the other side is telling.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Well, first of all, we have to figure out our
outlets and platforms and just how to navigate that because
Republicans are doing that much better. I've always noticed that
when Republicans, Republicans are all in sync. So like, let's
say they decide, Okay, today we're going to talk about
Hunter's laptop. Every Republican outlet, every right wing outlet from
(18:20):
Fox News down to the blog that gets read by
three people will be talking that day about Hunter's laptop.
Tomorrow we're going to talk about this. You know, Anna
Navarro said, she you know, hey, it's white men on
the view. Everybody from the Fox News down to the
blog read by three people will be talking about that.
(18:41):
Democrats are all over the place, or like chickens without
a head. There's like so the and and also Republicans
stick with a subject matter, right, so the right wing
media outlets stick with a subject matter. How long did
we hear about Hunter's laptop? How long did we hear
(19:01):
about Hillary's emails? How long did we hear about you know,
all of these different things. And then if you think
about how democrats do things, it's usually like, you know,
you've got the attention span of an act. You know,
you're moving from one thing to the other, and not
everybody's singing out of the same hymnal. So I think
(19:23):
there's got to be some I think people need to
be more organized, more consistent. But look, we also, you
know there's in politics people always say you've got to
meet voters where they are. And people didn't care about
the things Kamala Harris was saying, right, I mean, I
(19:44):
met a man. I met a Latino in Hurupa Valley, California,
Mexican American. He had crossed the border illegally at the
age of fourteen. I had to conduct the interview and
in Spanish because he didn't speak English. He was voting
for the first time, and he was voting for Trump
because he wanted change, and he wanted somebody that controlled
(20:06):
the board. So that requires a level of psycho analysis
on a voter who you know. And I saw this
this I saw this. I think it was in the
New York Times. I saw this poll where it said
that something like sixty two percent of Latinos thought that
(20:27):
when Trump made racist comments, it didn't apply to them.
I honestly thought that was wrong. Like I was like, Okay,
this can't be right. Who the hell do they think
he's talking about, you know, Norwegians. But but I guess
it's true. I guess it's true because there's Puerto Ricans
(20:47):
in Pennsylvania who voted for him knowing that he's treated
them like garbage and that people around him call them garbage.
There's you know, there's black men who voted against him,
knowing that he asked for the death penalty on the
exonerated five and never ever acknowledged that he was wrong,
never has apologized. I mean, so knowing that he has
(21:10):
said things about Haitians who are black, you know he's
not saying that about Canadians. He's not for some reason,
Canadians aren't eating the pets, aren't eating the dogs, eating
the cats. But you know, the poor black Haitians fleeing
the political strife in Haiti, let's do it to them.
So I think it requires a level of psycho analysis
(21:34):
that I'm incapable of doing to understand how you can
be a Latino who thinks that when he's talking about
whole countries and Latinos as poisoning the blood of America
and being invaders, that doesn't apply to you.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
But apparently right that's true. Do you think that that's
at all? Because we've had, despite political discourse and differences
for so long there has been this general willingness to
uphold some level of decora, which leads everybody to say, well,
(22:12):
he doesn't mean me. He doesn't really mean that. You know,
he's he's he speaks off the cuff, but he's not
being serious, even though we all know he's being very serious.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
You know, people voted for him. People are going to
have to live with him. Unfortunately, those of us who
didn't vote for him are going to have to live
with him too. And unlike Trump and his people, we
are sitting here acknowledging that he won, that there was
no fraud, that he won fair and swear, and that
(22:49):
he's going to end that he is the president elect
and we're going to have to live under him for
the next four years. A grace and a you know,
a a level of politeness they were incapable of giving
Joe Biden. They still don't make that Joe Biden has won.
(23:10):
I mean today Joe Biden gave a speech in the
from the Rose Garden talking about how he culled Trump.
He offered to cooperate. They're going to help with the transition,
you know, doing what we do in a democracy. Four
years ago, they were preparing for an insurrection.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, they tried to hang the vice president.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And it didn't matter. It didn't matter. You know. The
Republicans who all said on January seventh that they were
done with him were again in his in his pocket,
were again supporting him and campaigning for him. The Republicans
who said and the people who said, you know, with
some very few exceptions, right like that, we should think
(23:51):
about and thank people like Liz Cheney, they've they've they
didn't care. I mean, so I think that's you see,
that's that I think. But I think that's the challenging
part that you and I who do care have to
accept that they are. There are Americans who don't, who
don't care, and it's I mean, it's it's hard. It's
(24:17):
hard to accept that and to reconcile with that, and
and to know that our friends and our family and
I have family members who are very much Trumpers and
are very happy about this, and and you know, yeah,
they don't care. And I just have to figure out
how I'm gonna sit up next to them Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
We'll be back in just a minute after a few
words from our favorite sponsors. I wonder, because clearly the
the messaging of his campaign has been very intoxicating for
a lot of people, and we got to be frank.
You know, he's been running for almost ten years now,
(25:03):
he to your point, never gave it up after twenty
twenty and Kamala Harris had one hundred and nine days
to run a campaign. I know a lot of people
are talking about the fact that if she'd had longer,
maybe more voters would have felt like they knew her.
Do you think it would be smart for the Democrats
to begin running our next campaign now or at the
(25:25):
top of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I don't know what Democrats are going to do. I'll
tell you what I don't like that they're doing. I
don't like and I'm not a Democrat, so I'm not
in a place to, like, you know, tell Democrats what
they should do. But this her circular firing squad of
Oh it's so stupid. Its fault because he should have
never run. Oh it's Kamala's fault because there should have
been primary Oh it's Biden's advisor's fault because they covered
(25:51):
up that he was old. Oh it's Kamala's staff fault
because they focused on the wrong things. None of that
is going to help get somebody elected in four years.
So I think they've got to figure out how they
(26:13):
attract how you know, how they consolidate the Obama coalition again, right, blacks,
working class, Latinos, gays, women, How they do that again
in an optimistic but effective way. But listen, America had
a very stark choice. You know, sometimes we go to
the polls and the Democrat and the Republican kind of
(26:38):
like look alike and sound alike, and they're just kind
of you've got to you know the difference between Mario
Bush and Clinton or you know, the but here it
was black and white, it was light and dark. It
was hope or hate. Yeah, people chose the darkness. People
(27:02):
chose the hate and the division. That's the part that's
hard to accept.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
It's really hard tone.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
That's the part that I think that's why we're having
such a hard time with it. Okay, if it had
been Mitt Romney would want or if it had been
John McCain would won. Yeah, Democrats would be upset. Democrats.
I worked for John McCain in two thousand and eight.
I remember how I felt the night that John McCain
(27:32):
lost and Barack Obama won. I felt very sad for
John McCain, who I thought would be would have made
a great president, and who I believed was a mentor
and a hero for me. But I didn't feel scared
for the future of America. I didn't feel scared for
young girls, or for immigrants, or for minorities, or for
(27:55):
the standing of America and the world. I knew he
would have policies I would disagree with, but I you know,
I don't think it would be It would be devastating, right, Okay,
America knows what they chose for. And that is why
people like you and me are having a really hard
time processing this, yes, because you.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Know, yeah, well that's it. It's hard to know that
hate won. Yeah, And I've been looking at you know,
sometimes looking at history helps me process what gives me anxiety.
Here is, you know, the historians talk about these hundred
year cycles, and one hundred years ago in Germany, Hitler
(28:44):
lost power, tried to stage a coup, and then he
got elected. And I'm like, if that's where we're going,
we're in real big trouble. Like we see Trump copying
the speeches that horrible MSG rally. He's announcing plans for
camps to round people up and put them in It
strikes a fear in my core because it is so.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
You are like in campaign.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I get it, but we're done, I know. But that's
my question is yesterday on the View you said we're
not going to stop fighting, and I I agree, And
I wonder, like, what are the actions you think we
can take? How how do we fight this level of announced.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Evil?
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Like, what do we what do we as a constituency
do together?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
First, I think we've got to admit and accept that
we're going through the stages of grief, right, Uh, you know,
anger denial. I mean I don't think we're in denial,
but I do think I'm somewhere. I'm still in anger.
I'm still in the anger face. I don't know how
many more faces. Which number is anger? Whatever a number,
that's that's the one. I'm there. Yeah, Look, we're gonna
(30:02):
do the same thing we did in twenty sixteen. Right
where when there was a Muslim band, we denounced it.
There were people who showed up at the airport to
try to help the help the folks. There was you know,
lawyers who showed up pro bono. We're going to do
the same thing we did twenty sixteen when there was
a women's march of millions and millions of people saying,
(30:24):
here we are. So at some point, after we get
through the anger, after we get through the sadness, after
we get through the shock, after we process all of this,
when you know, we've got what six weeks or something
two months before he's sworn in, we're going to have
to get our resoluteness back as Americans and be ready
(30:47):
and willing to stand up and denounce the things he's
going to do that he's told us he's going to do.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, are there organizations that you think are going to
be important to support as we move toward this next administration?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I think the most well, I think, you know, I
think the legal organizations, the you know, I think the
immigrant organizations. Certainly. I think the most important thing to do,
starting now and starting January twentieth, is figuring out how
to put some safeguards around him when we can, which
is two years later, you know, in twenty twenty two,
(31:30):
we need to have He's basically that no checks and
balances right now, he's the Supreme Court is, you know,
not a check and balance. On him with this makeup
and the what we can We can't affect that, but
we can affect the Senate and the House. And so
(31:51):
I think, I think, I think, you know, Democrats have
to start fielding some good candidates, and I think they've
got to start figuring out how to organize and how
to because it's the only check and balance that we
can put on him, and it's going to take at
least two years. What I'm thinking is in these next
two years, if he does the things he's promising to do,
(32:13):
there's going to the pendulum will swim and people will
be horrified at the unfettered power. And you know, if
people start seeing uh, you know, women continuing to die,
immigrants who we know and love and are part of
our community getting getting deported, if we start hearing the
(32:35):
racial slurs again, if we start seeing the mass shootings
from from from white supremacist who you know, you know,
drive to a Walmart in l Pass or it will
hunt down Latinos because they like like Latino immigrants, then
you know, then then maybe maybe people will think twice
(32:56):
when they vote. Maybe not yeah, but for an I listen,
I think that for where we are right now, two
days after the election. I think we got to give ourselves,
you know, those of us who are incredibly disappointed by
this result. I think we've got to give ourselves a
little a little grace. Those of us who were highly
(33:20):
invested in Kamala's campaign, who worked really hard, we gotta
we gotta, we gotta heal a little bit right before
we put on our marching shoes again. I think it's
I think it is tough. I mean tough. But today
I took the day off. The only thing I'm doing
is talking to you because.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
I my my my brain hurts from trying to you know,
from seeing all the statistics, from seeing all the polls,
from from from seeing the results, from lack of sleep,
from worry, from anger, from.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
All of that. So I would say to people, for
you know, at least give yourself a little bit of grace,
a little bit of self care, because we're going to
have to fight back. We're going to have to fight back,
and to do that, you know, we can't be demoralized
and tired. But this that just happened is the moorizing
(34:14):
and exhausting emotionally and physically. Don't you feel it like that?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah? I am having a very hard time feeling in
my body. Yeah, and so similarly, by the way, I've
had to do a few things today. But when I
heard you you were going to make yourself available, I
was like, Okay, here we go, We're doing it. I love,
I love, and I can't wait a doctor. And yesterday
(34:40):
I just I just canceled everything.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
But what you just said is so interesting to me
because that's how I described it to somebody yesterday. I was,
you know, yesterday I did the View and then I
had CNN at night. I was, you know, and all
these people talking and calling and texting and all this thing,
and I felt like I was having and out of
body experience. It's like, really seeing this, is this really happening? Right?
(35:07):
But it is so Sophia. We got to give ourselves
a little time to heal. We've got to give ourselves
a little grace. We got to focus on how to
strengthen ourselves internally and externally, and then we be ready
to fight. Because anybody who thinks this guy's going to
change has got to be smoking something I wish they'd
(35:27):
share with me.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Well, aside from whatever that might be. How how are
you going to try to take care of yourself for
the next couple of days.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Well, I've got a five pump poodle that helps. I have,
you know, I there's only so much I think news
that I think we should be consuming at this point,
right at least for now. I mean, what are we
(35:59):
gonna hear between now and January twentieth, who his awful
cabinet is, by how much Republicans won the House, by
how much Republicans won the Senate. They won the Senate,
They're going to win the House. I don't think we
have to be like, you know, invested in and doing
(36:20):
twenty four hours news watching every house race that's still
yet to be called in California and in Alaska. It's done, folks,
it's done. And so you know, I'm going to do
other things, and I'm going to be ready to keep
denouncing things and to keep you know, I did it.
I thought it was over. I really did. And I
(36:42):
and I think part of why this happened is because
we've had four years of normalcy. So I remember hearing
the term Trump amniesia yes when this began, and I
think it's a real thing. I think, you know, but
people are about it's about to come back. It's about
to be cured, you know, be ready, So I you know,
(37:06):
And it was how exhausting was twenty sixteen to twenty twenty.
Every day there was a scandal, every day there was
a Well, we're about to to experience that all over again.
So we've got to get ourselves ready. Now we now
we know, yeah before in a way that we didn't
in uh, you know, in twenty sixteen. It is what
(37:29):
it is.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Well, I think that's kind of all we can do,
right is be gentle with ourselves and then be ready
to make some noise.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, because we listen, we're not leaving. Nope, we're not
quitting America. We're not in this country. We're not quitting activism,
We're not quitting our voice. So we got to We
got two more months of normalcy, enjoy, have Thanksgiving, put
up a facking Christmas tree as early as you can,
(37:59):
you know, fa, la la la la, and then we're
gonna get ready to fight.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, well here we go. I'm thrilled to stand with you.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Shall we talk again after January twentieth?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I see how, yes, I think we should.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
I'm even really like I've already just started I'm not
even gonna watch that being swearing and absolutely, but I'll
see the clips there you go.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Yeah, they'll be online. I Uh, I think I've I've
had enough of him, and I know what's to come,
so I'll protect my peace while i can. Yep, thank
you for taking the time today.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Take up knitting because we're gonna we're gonna need to
We're gonna need to have some balance.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, we're gonna need to have some hobbies.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
And I'm having a hard time understanding this. I'm having
a hard time reconciling that America did this. But I
and I said this yesterday. I'm at peace because I
did everything I possibly could. Yep, Donald Trump from being
precedent again, and so everything that's about to happen, Mama,
(39:04):
that's not on me, not on us, honey, that's on them,
on those you know. And so I'm gonna hold them accountable.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, so I like that plan. That is the plan. Okay, Okay,
we're gonna talk again after January.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
I can't wait, and I'm always around. I'll send you
a d M next week and see how are you feeling.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Will you?
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I will?
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Okay, let's talk again. Nice, will you, thank you, thank
you by
Host
Sophia Bush
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.