Mark Halperin

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.

Well.

So cataclysmic doesn't necessarily mean negative.

It just means a big change.

It means a shock to the system.

And I stand by what I said.

I took a ton of criticism, as I suggested earlier, for saying that this would be cataclysmic.

Some because people saw it as something negative.

I just knew from having traveled the country and seeing the reaction to Donald Trump, both positive and negative, that this would be cataclysmic, that his first term, didn't know at that point it would only be one consecutive term, would discombobulate so much of the country, would shake things up so fundamentally.

And I stand by what I said that night.

I think as horrible as 9-11 was, as much as it impacted the city where I live, as much as it impacted so much of the country, I really don't think it had as profound effect in society and how people think about America as the election of Donald Trump did in 2016.

So he serves his term and then loses.

People can debate all they want about the 2020 election circumstances, the role of COVID, the role of changes in election laws because of COVID, the roles of the social media platform, the roles of how the country saw Trump's first term.

There's all sorts of debates about that stuff.