Mark Halperin

Just the level of division, which existed in America before Donald Trump.

It's part of how he got elected.

But I want to talk about where we are now, a state of the union with three years left in this presidency, with a very raucous midterm coming up with lots of conversation here and elsewhere about who will be next in the White House after Donald Trump.

I want to start with 2016 on election night when I had been the subject for several weeks of criticism by people in the media and elsewhere for saying Donald Trump might win.

We went into election night, the polls suggested he would not, but that it would be close.

And on election night, I did a bunch of stuff.

It really was a kind of a whirlwind.

I started at Hillary Clinton's headquarters here in New York City at the Javits Center.

I then left and went and eventually ended up at Hillary Clinton's hotel where she was staying two blocks from Trump Tower, which some considered to be a bit of a troll and hung out in the lobby there to try to do some reporting about what was going on inside her camp.

Then went a few blocks away to Sixth Avenue to the Hilton Hotel where Donald Trump was having his election night event.

And in between those stops, I went to the Ed Sullivan Theater and appeared on Stephen Colbert's show.

And by coincidence, he was doing like a live show throughout the evening.

And just by coincidence, I was there when enough states were projected for Donald Trump that he'd win.

I think Wisconsin was the one that was projected while I was literally on set with him.

And it was clear Trump was probably going to win at that point.

Not a sure thing, but it seemed like he was going to win.

And Stephen Colbert basically was asking me to put in context what a Trump victory would mean for the country, how people would react to a Trump victory.

This is what I said on election night, 2016, shortly after it became clear that Donald Trump was going to be the 45th president.

Outside of the Civil War, World War II.

And including 9-11, this may be the most cataclysmic event the country's ever seen.