MSNBC contributor Anand Giridharadas pushed back on calls for "unity" with Republicans, who are busily working to undo the results of an election loss to Joe Biden.
The author and columnist told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP officials are indulging the president's conspiracy theories at the expense of U.S. democratic institutions, and he's not willing to tolerate that behavior.
"I think we have to realize how serious it is what Mitch McConnell is doing," he said. "I think O.J. [Simpson] has a right to look for the real killers and people on Reddit have a right to find out what really happened with the moon landing, and Donald Trump has a right to find the real election results. But that doesn't make it right and, actually, when you are president of the United States, being a conspiracy theorizer is not a personal preference, it has institutional consequences."
Trump pushed out Defense Secretary Mike Esper, who had reportedly considered resigning, as the Department of Justice takes up his fraud claims along with the Senate majority leader, and both Giridharadas and retired admiral James Stavridis were alarmed by the situation.
"When Mitch McConnell then gets up and refuses to acknowledge reality, the reality that [MSNBC contributor ] was pointing out, the military is already recognizing, it's actually incredibly, incredibly dangerous moment in this country's life," Giridharadas said. "We are going to have to get through that."
Biden has talked about restoring normalcy and bipartisan cooperation, but Giridharadas doesn't see how that's possible.
"Biden has talked about the restoration of normalcy, working across the aisle, but you don't pursue unity with your abuser," he said. "You don't pursue unity with people trying to sabotage your democracy live right now. You don't reach out your hand to people whose hands are themselves busy rigging democracy to throw out all of the votes of the entire state of Pennsylvania, [in] a court filing from yesterday."
"In terms of the future, we are going to get through this, we are going to get a Biden presidency in January," Giridharadas added. "I think the important opportunity in this moment is for Joe Biden to reflect on whether the kind of normal that we had in 2016, the kind of normal that got Donald Trump elected, is any kind of place to go back to, and there are already indications among the Democrats I talk to, including, most prominently, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader who wants to be the majority leader in January, that the old ways of the old Democratic Party, the caution, the institutionalism, the reticence to make bold, big change is dangerous. As Chuck Schumer told me, that kind of approach that Democrats have pursued for the last 20 years, under his tenure, partly, is going to get us another Donald Trump in the future and maybe this time a Donald Trump who can read and write and get things done."