FAREED ZAKARIA (HOST): Here's my take. Over the course of this campaign, I have heard from many people who have cheered my opposition to Donald Trump. But there are others who have objected, arguing I was being biased, that Hillary Clinton had many flaws as well. So let me try to explain one last time why Donald Trump is worth special attention. I'm not a highly partisan person. I have views that are left of center, but others that are conservative. I came to this country when Ronald Reagan was president, and I admired him. I think well of many Republican politicians, including the last two GOP presidential nominees, John McCain and Mitt Romney, both of whom are honorable men and would have been good presidents. Donald Trump is different. Not just because he is obnoxious, tacky, and vulgar, or that his business dealings show him to be a scam artist. He's different because of what he believes. The simplest way to understand Trump's core beliefs is to look at his words and actions, not just today, but well before. You see, politicians pander to voters and Trump's views on, say, Social Security and Medicare -- which he promises not to touch -- or taxes, which he promises to cut, seem pretty insincere. They're reflections of what he thinks his supporters want to hear. But he does have deeper beliefs, values, and instincts.

The first one that stands out is race. Donald Trump has consistently expressed himself -- in word and deed -- in ways that can only be described as racist. In his earliest years as a developer, he was sued by the Justice Department for allegedly denying housing to qualified black people. In the case of the Central Park Five, Trump jumped into the public arena, taking out full-page ads assailing the accused black teenagers and demanding the return of the death penalty. Most strikingly, he refused to back down when DNA evidence had clearly exonerated the five men, and New York City was forced to pay $41 million in damages for wrongfully imprisoning them for up to 13 years. Trump seems to believe deeply in ethnic stereotypes. He boasts of his own blood line and compares it to breeding racehorses. In a 1991 book, one of his associates described him as horrified to see African-Americans in his accounting depart at two of his hotels, saying, quote, “black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kinds of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” Trump acknowledged the veracity of these comment in a later Playboy interview before walking it back years later in a 1999 NBC interview, calling it all nonsense.

[…]

ZAKARIA: If there is one view that Trump has expressed consistently, openly, and with relish, it is that women exist fundamentally as objects for men's pleasure. He has said and done dozens of things over 30 years that confirm this demeaning view of women. In interviews with Howard Stern, during his ownership of the Miss Universe pageant, when describing working women, and when debating female candidates like Carly Fiorina and Hillary Clinton. “Women,” he once said to New York magazine, “you have to treat them like shit.”

[…]

ZAKARIA: These then are the core views of Donald Trump. Expressed over decades and confirmed by many of his actions. Racism, sexism, protectionism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism. His views on taxes and regulations are irrelevant. Your view of Hillary Clinton is irrelevant. Donald Trump is not a normal candidate. He is a cancer on American democracy. And that is why I will vote against him next Tuesday.

Previously:

CNN's Fareed Zakaria: “I Am Appalled By Donald Trump's Bigotry and Demagoguery”

CNN's Fareed Zakaria: Donald Trump Is “A Bullshit Artist”  

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Explains That Trump’s “Mode Of Operation Is Really A B.S. Artist”