'I'm afraid if Trump wins. And I'm afraid if Trump loses,' Harkin says

A Substack artificial intelligence rendering of how violence could unfold during the election cycle.

"Pockets of violence" are brewing and could erupt in the United States as presidential election results are reported, regardless of the winner, such is the near-boiling-point political atmosphere in the nation, former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a one-time White House candidate himself, said Thursday night.

"Right now, I kind of fear two things: I'm afraid if Trump wins. And I'm afraid if Trump loses," Harkin said. "There might be violence. If he loses narrowly, is he going to accept the results of the election?"

Is America headed for a civil war either way, whether the president-elect Nov. 5 is former President Donald Trump, a Republican, or Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat?

"That could be," Harkin said in an interview with The Iowa Mercury in Council Bluffs. "There could be pockets of violence and pockets of people that won't accept the outcome of the election if he loses. If he wins, what will Trump do as dictator as he said on Day 1. What will he do?"

Harkin, a Democratic candidate the presidency in 1992 who served in the U.S. Senate and House for 40 years, said he is troubled by the prospects of Trump's actions in a potential second term in the White House in the wake of a July U.S. Supreme Court decision that provides presidents with broad immunity from criminal charges.

"He has said things about retribution. And the people that he would put in would not have any independent voice," Harkin added. "He would run everything. We would not have an independent Justice Department or anything else. It would all be whatever he wants. And if he wants to go after someone with the power of the federal government, he would do it."

Harkin said there is no doubt Harris will win the popular vote overwhelmingly. But a "handful" of people in swing states, a relatively few counties, actually, will determine the election, he said.

"That's kind of scary stuff," Harkin said.

Harkin said his hopes are the Harris-Walz campaign continues on its path.

"I'm thinking, maybe this is just my wishing thinking, that people are burned out by Trump — 'I've had enough of it, I've had enough of this. We need to calm things down. We need someone who practices the politics of joy and not anger,'" Harkin said.

Trump's consistently negative descriptions of the United States are wearing thin with many Americans, Harkin said.

"My God, every day Trump is telling us how bad America is," Harkin said. "Yeah, we've got a few dents and scratches, as I say, in our car, but we're still the best country in the world, and I think people are recognizing that and saying, 'wait a minute, I've had enough of Trump. I've had enough of him bad mouthing us and tearing people down.'"

What should the closing argument be for Harris?

"I would say, 'Look, if you want an economy that's going to be good for your kids and your grandkids, and they're going to have a better future, we need your vote, because we are going to make the economy grow for everyone, not just a few people at the top'— like Mr. Trump,’" Harkin said. "He wants an economy for his friends."

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers' Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )