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Did Trump Election Change Everything? Asks Steve Kornacki, Groton Native & MSNBC Political Analyst

[Ed Note: Thanks to Nancy M. Cicco of UMass Lowell, media contact, for providing this report]

 

   NBC News and MSNBC National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki, Groton native and GDRHS graduate class of 1997, returned to UMass Lowell Nov. 17 to speak on “The Trump Election One Year On: Did it Change Everything?” Last November, Kornacki visited UMass Lowell immediately following the election for a talk titled “Election 2016: What the #&^! Happened?” In May, he spoke at the university’s commencement and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

   This time Kornacki looked back on the past year and ahead to the forthcoming congressional elections of 2018 and give an early look at the presidential election of 2020. “President Trump shattered many of the long-standing ‘rules’ of politics in 2016, and the question is whether it was a one-time thing, or if the rules have changed forever,” said Kornacki, who took two dual-enrollment classes at UMass Lowell as a high school senior.

    Here are a few of Steve Kornacki’s comments offered in the course of his talk last week.

    • On being a political scientist at this moment in American history: “It’s just a fascinating time. The thing about politics right now is that we’re not sure of what we know. To me, it’s been like living in a constant, real-time political experiment. We’re learning who we are as a country.”

    • On Donald Trump’s election as president: “It’s the most shocking event in American political history.”

    • On why Trump won the election: “Hillary Clinton has a polarizing nature and Trump was able to capitalize on it.”

   • On President Trump’s achievements a year since his election: “Republicans don’t have a single, major achievement. This is a presidency in major collapse. He peaked at a 46-percent approval rating his first week in office.”

    • On President Trump’s views about NFL players not standing for the national anthem: “What erupts from that is a fight that is much bigger than politics. This became a culture war conflagration. This is what we have seen so many times with Trump.”

    • On whether President Trump will run for reelection in 2020: “That’s a guy who has to run because he  knows it will be taken as a sign of weakness if he doesn’t.”

   • On who could be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020: “Joe Biden. Sometimes I think he’s the only guy who could beat Trump; sometimes I think he’s the only guy who could lose to Trump.”

   • On the Alabama Senate race between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones: “Doug Jones, Democrat, really, really could win this race. If a Democrat is ever going to win a race in Alabama, it’s going to be this one.”

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