By putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of Trump, the US liberal media is actually "in denial of social and economic undercurrents", said Kishore Mahbubani, distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, to CGTN host Tian Wei.

Mahbubani, speaking after the Capitol riots on January 6, said the root of the division in the US is not Trump himself, but the fact that "the US is a plutocracy that only takes care of the top one percent of its population".

Mahbubani believes that after Biden takes office, he may decide to pursue Trump's legal liability after weighing the pros and cons. But that, too, is bound to provoke a huge backlash and resentment from Trump's supporters and his cohorts, and the US will be just as unpredictable.

The interview came as the US House of Representatives moved to impeach Trump. Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, also recently voiced her support for Trump's impeachment, but added the underlying problem that led to last week's riots in the Capitol is the existence of "white supremacy".