Confronting the Danger Before Us

Once again, but with increasing hysteria and apocalyptic rhetoric, Donald Trump is showcasing his dark, demagogic desires. Kamala Harris must confront this to seal the deal and win the election

He’ll say anything to incite his followers. Donald Trump in Coachella, California, on Saturday. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

First in Aurora, Colorado, and then in Coachella, California, Trump’s demagoguery was on full display, showcasing what’s in store if he returns to the nation’s highest office.

“Kamala has imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons of the third world…and she has had them resettled beautifully into your community to prey upon innocent American citizens,” Trump lied on Friday in Colorado. He called Aurora “a war zone,” insisted “these criminals are the most violent on earth,” pledged the death penalty for any migrant criminal that kills an American citizen, and promised to launch “Operation Aurora” to target undocumented migrant gang members and employ the wartime authority of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in order to arrest and deport of members of an enemy nation without due process.

Never mind that the Republican mayor of Aurora, Mike Coffman, had asserted earlier in the week in a statement that “Aurora is a considerably safe city—not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs…The reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated. The incidents were limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents.”

Suffice to say, Trump did not take the mayor up on his offer to tour the city and meet the chief of police. He could not care less to know what’s really happening there. Facts be damned. His goal is to stoke fear, fuel hate, justify mass deportation without due process and convince voters that the country is on a dangerous precipice because of Vice President Harris.

In Coachella, his language became more incendiary, hysterical, apocalyptic—and untethered from reality. I think it’s important to pay attention to what he’s telling his followers. So permit me to share some of this in detail:

We are known all throughout the world now as an occupied country. We're like an occupied country. We got people taking over parts of Colorado. We have people taking over other states…it's no different really than if we lost a war.

But to everyone here in California and all across our nation I make this pledge to you: November 5th 2024 will be Liberation day…We’re going to liberate our country from criminals. How stupid are we, how stupid are these leaders? They’re stupid people. I will rescue California and every town across America that's been invaded and conquered and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of the country.

Then, to whip up the crowd, he detailed cases of rape, torture and murder, before blaming all this on his opponent:

My message to the American people is very simple: No person who has inflicted the violence and terror that border czar Harris has unleashed on our country can ever be allowed to become the president of the United States. They can't, you can't, let this happen. And anyone who would import criminal gangs to occupy America—we're not going to be occupied by anybody—cannot ask to be president of this country.

Anyone who orchestrated an invasion of America cannot lead America. Kamala Harris—her reign of terror ends the day I take office. She's finished. She's finished. She's finished.

But Trump wasn’t finished with his disgusting lies and hateful demagoguery. He turned up the rhetoric, attacking the “Communists, Marxists and fascists” and promised his excited crowd:

We will defend our territory. We will defend our families. We will defend our communities. We will defend our civilization. We will not be conquered. We will not be occupied. We will not be invaded. We will reclaim our sovereignty. We will reclaim our nation.

And then? What then? This heroic strongman would fulfill everyone’s dreams: “I will give back your freedom and give back your life. Everyone will prosper. Every family will thrive and every day will be filled with opportunity and hope.”

Just in case anyone doubted what it would take to get to that fantasy world, Trump responded to what appeared to be a heckler by imagining that “she gets the hell knocked out of her” later when “she goes back home Mommy…Her mother’s a big fan of ours, you know that, right?” Recall a similar episode in 2016, when he said about a heckler, “I’d like to punch him in the face.” And other when he urged his crowd “to knock the crap” out of anyone who opposes him.

This disgusting language, dark vision, violent incitements, fascist pledges and constant lies are what Kamala Harris is up against in these next three weeks until the ballot counting starts on Nov. 5. It is stunning to think the race is even close, let alone that this depraved felon could win. But that is in fact where we are right now, as I’ve detailed in recent days.

While Kamala Harris need not enter the cesspool of political rhetoric filled with Trump’s degrading and false bile, she must continue making a compelling case for her presidency. That includes articulating the existential danger facing America from a second Trump term—a message that will motivate uncertain Democrats, activate fence-sitting Independents and explicate the urgency to reluctant anti-Trump Republicans. Were he to succeed, we would witness a dark and violent chapter in our country in which the rule of law and democracy itself would be tossed aside: Americans pitted against Americans, millions of undocumented immigrants facing violence and deportation without due process, dissidents and other “undesirable” citizens threatened with prosecution and jail.

Kamala Harris has three weeks to make the case for her positive vision of America’s future, why she is the person to fulfill that vision, and what’s at stake if Americans don’t turn out for her in record numbers. Some, maybe most, will be inspired by her hopeful vision. But let’s not doubt that many others need to hear in no uncertain terms how and why America will not be America if Donald Trump returns to our White House.

That doesn’t mean joining Trump down in the muck; to date, she has successfully avoided his ugly game. But I believe to ensure a strong, even overwhelming victory, Harris must appeal to our fellow citizens' basic decency and morality, their belief in the Constitution and the rule of law, their desire to sustain a system of self-governance, their recognition that the nearly 250-year-old and endangered American democratic project can still be saved—and that America’s promise can still be achieved.

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