Recorded on 1/13/21, Steve Adubato sits down with John J. Farmer, Jr., Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, to discuss his thoughts on the aftermath of Trump’s presidency and the 2020 election, the significance of the January 6th Capitol riots, and the impact of social media platforms in removing Trump from their platforms.

Farmer says January 6th was shocking for those who witnessed it and it represents the polarization that we are experiencing in present day America. He says, “it’s the culmination of events and trends that have been brewing for decades, and not simply an aberration.” He hopes the long term effect of the Trump presidency has shocked Americans into realizing that the polarization among us cannot continue. “I’m hoping that those events were sufficiently shocking, and make everybody take a pause and say, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve gotta do something about this.’”

Farmer believes the response of the government and law enforcement for the crimes crimes committed on January 6th needs to be severe. “The people who stormed the capitol committed federal crimes, it needs to be investigated thoroughly, they need to be prosecuted. It needs to be made clear to people that our institutions must be respected, regardless of the rhetoric coming even from the President of the United States.”

He says the fact that social media companies have the ability to censor the President of the United States is outrageous, but on the other hand, violence is never appropriate. The social media companies viewed President Trump as advocating violence so he understands their decisions. Farmer says, “One of the things that has to come out of this is a long look at how these social media companies are structured, how their algorithms that are designed, really for commercial purposes, and have had the affect of, basically, driving people apart to the point where they can’t even talk to each other anymore.”