Michael Beschloss: Trump Could Be a Dictator ‘for the Rest of Our Lifetimes’

MENENDEZ: “Given that this is all going to play out in this year’s presidential race, I thought this ad, this pro-Biden group called Faith Forward, was particularly entrusting. Take a look.”

[Clip starts]
NARRATOR: “God said, ‘I need someone willing to give their whole life in service.’ So President Biden answered the call. God made us all. Together, we make our democracy strong. Thank God we chose a faithful president who doesn’t worship himself nor undermine the Constitution he swore to uphold. For such a time as this, we pray to God what is true in our hearts: four more years.”
[Clip ends]

MENENDEZ: “‘A faithful president who doesn’t worship himself.’ My goodness. Those words are doing a lot of work.”
BESCHLOSS: “Right. You know, we all know, all four of us know that term, ‘servant leadership.’ The president is supposed to be a servant leader, serving us. You hear about Trump saying he will be a dictator for a day, which is not gonna be for a day if it happens, could be for the rest of our lifetimes and our children’s and more. But if that happens, that’s totally against American history. The highest rank in the United States is not president, it is citizen, as Harry Truman said. And I would just say one thing. Remember, in the United States, we do not work for the president. The president works for us.”
Sanders-TOWNSEND: “This is why Michael Bender’s piece in The New York Times that published last week is very indicative, I think — and something that we should keep in our minds going forward. He writes, ‘Few evangelicals explicitly compare Trump to Jesus. Instead the Trumpian flock is more likely to describe him as the modern version of Old Testament heroes like Cyrus or David, morally flawed figures handpicked by God to lead profound missions aimed at achieving the overdue justice or resisting existential evil.’ I mean, you have — David Corn wrote about this in Mother Jones — you have that understanding, maybe that Project 2025 where there is literally a plan to inject Christian nationalism into every facet of the United States government, like literally, changing the Department of Health to the Department of Life. How, Michael Beschloss, do we combat this cult-like thinking. If people really believe that Donald Trump was handpicked by god on this Sunday morning, that’s blasphemous, okay? I grew up baptist and I went to Catholic church my whole life. This just does not seem to compute.”
BESCHLOSS: “Yeah. I would say three words: Read the Constitution. the Constitution says, there is no religion that will be established above others. We could be Christians, Jewish, Muslim, have no religion at all — that’s the beauty and the glory of America. How many people came here for religious freedom? But it’s not only historical tradition, it’s in the Constitution. And no matter how many judges are more loyal to Donald Trump than they are perhaps to the Constitution, let us hope that our judicial system will make sure that the separation between church and state, which is one of the strongest parts of our country, is maintained.”
Sanders-TOWNSEND: “Michael Beschloss, thank you.”
BESCHLOSS: “Thank you. Love being together, always.”