Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday that “fear and anger won” with former President Trump clinching the White House again in an appearance on MSNBC”s “Morning Joe.”
“He played to fear and anger, and that prevailed,” Johnson said. “I once heard Jon Meacham say that George Wallace’s 19 percent in 1968 has now become the majority in this — in this country.”
Trump secured another term in the White House on Wednesday, rattling Democrats who went into Tuesday night cautiously optimistic about Vice President Harris’s chances at victory.
In the homestretch, the Harris camapign sought to spotlight the former president’s threats against his enemies, violent rhetoric and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“On a very personal level, I’m trying to figure out the words of encouragement that I give to my daughter this morning, who, just 24 hours ago, allowed herself to believe that a woman of color could be elected president. I don’t know quite what to tell her,” Johnson said in his MSNBC appearance.
If Harris had succeeded in her bid for the White House, she would have been the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to be president.
Trump faced backlash for racist comments made by a comedian at his rally at Madison Square Garden in New York last month about Puerto Rico, comparing it to “a floating island of garbage.”
Democrats had hoped the comments would turn away Latino voters from casting their ballots for the former president, but Latino men swung heavily in the direction of Trump.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
