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- [00:05]
Harry Dunn
Okay.
- [00:15]
Joy Reid
Well, all right, everybody. Tgif. Happy Friday. It is the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and welcome to the Joy Reid Show. Big ups to the chats, everybody that's watching on YouTube, all the lemon heads who saw me on with Don Lemon earlier today. I see some of you are back here again. Y' all are hanging out with us again. You like hanging out with me because, yes, it was so fun being on with Don Lemon earlier. Also, those who are in the native la Native land pod family, I was great being on with Angie and Andrew Gillum earlier today on their mini pod. Talking about something that we're going to talk about Tonight, this set, 1776 fund, which is reparations for insurrectionists and Donald Trump's friends. We're going to talk about that very soon. We have a stacked show tonight. We're going to be talking about whether or not young black students should boycott or athletes should boycott the SEC schools. We've got the head of the NAACP to talk about that. We've got Representative Adam Smith coming on to talk about some Memorial Day related stuff regarding what's happening with our military. We've got that coming up. Robbie Jones, we have switched the date of our Fighting White Christian Nationalism series. We're going to do it today so that he can get on with the things that he's got to. He's also got a new book out. We got a lot going on. Everybody. I want to, before we get to the content, I'm sorry, can I just
- [01:32]
Jason
jump in and say good evening everybody, before you go. You got a crazy show today. So good evening, everybody.
- [01:36]
Joy Reid
Got a lot going on. Hey, Jason. And Jason is here in the house on the Wheels of Steel. And we always appreciate Jason keeping the trains running on time. He's a trains running on time enthusiast. And so that is what he is doing back there in the Wheels of Steel. You got him. He's in his. He's cooking in his kitchen. And so yes, we got a lot going on and big ups to everybody. I can see a high Jason from FAT News Daily. Jason, FAT News Daily on the stack says, hey, Jason, what's up? So as does Renee. You're getting some love on the substack side. Hello to all the twitchies. We are over 500 twitchies right now. The Twitch army is growing. We're going to be at a thousand twitchies very soon. And at that point they're going to be incorrigible. You're not going be able to deal with them. It's going to be very difficult to deal with the Twitchies. When they get to a thousand, they're going to be like a little mob. I'm excited about it, but they're. They're chill mobs. We're excited about it. Facebook friends. Hello, if you're listening on an audio podcast. Hello to you as well. Hello to everyone who's watching, wherever you're watching. I do want to just make a quick note, a couple of housekeeping notes before we get to the show in chief. We will not have a show on Monday. Okay? No show on Monday. We're going to give everybody Memorial Day off. It is a holiday, so we figure everyone's going to be chilling. We got to ochre over there from Karen Stooks. We're going to be off on Monday. Let everybody have a day off so everybody can chill, barbecue, whatever it is you love to do on Memorial Day. And we'll see you back bright and early on Wednesday. Well, not early, but at 6pm on Wednesday. So that's one piece of note. Those of you who ordered Tiffany Cross's book Love Me, for which I just did a recent tour stop, and her tours are selling out all over the country. Everyone loves this book. They love it so much that it's sold out. Like we ordered the maximum that we could order for the Joy Reid shop, and they sold out immediately and they are on backorder. So if you ordered your Tiffany Cross book, that is why you have not gotten it yet. Our wonderful wholesaler, who works very diligently to do the finishing on the books, make sure that you get them in your hot little hand. They are on such back order. And we're not the only shop that orders from this wholesaler, which is one of only two. So it's a small world of book wholesalers. But her book is so popular, it's is almost impossible for any shop to to keep their stocks up. So that is why your books are taking a long time. People are saying, love the shirt. Thank you very much. So roars Love the shirt. Let me just show it to you Guys can see it on the thumbnail, but I'm gonna stand up and let you see it. That is it. That's Jason's new idea. We're going to show y' all preview the look in the thumbnail from now on. So that's going to be another little innovation.
- [03:56]
Jason
Did I miss something? Did we tell tell everybody about the notifications?
- [03:59]
Joy Reid
Oh, I'm about to do that. Oh, that's what I was doing next. Oh, no, that's where I'M going at. So. So I wanted to let you guys know something. This is again, quick housekeeping thing. So we, Jason and I both follow a guy named David Pakman. He's got like 5 million followers, very, very popular on YouTube. We both follow him and he did a post the other day that I thought was very interesting and something that you all should really think about. Okay, so David Pakman, again, very popular YouTuber. We follow him and he has been noticing on his own channel and other YouTube channels that lean left, like progressive and liberal YouTube channels that they seem to be seeing a softening in. Not in engagement. Lots of engagement, lots of click through, but in just the overall numbers of people that are on each individual program. Now we can't say one way or another. We have a very loyal base. We love you guys.
- [04:47]
Adam Smith
Come.
- [04:47]
Joy Reid
But there is like the number of views seem to be depressed on not just this channel, but on lots of different liberal leaning channels and it is not seeming to happen to right wing promaga channels. Now I live through this happening on Facebook, Instagram, because of course meta is pro Trump and they really sort of game the system for Trump because they thought they were making up for maybe harming, I don't know, whatever it is they thought they were doing. They were really leaning and obviously Twitter leans way toward Trump and you could see your content start to get flogged. Definitely happened on TikTok. My TikTok account suddenly was constantly being dinged as we went as the lead up to that last election was happening and then it just magically stopped after the election. We're in another very critical election season and people are seeing this softening. We don't know if that's happening here. We have a wonderful relationship with the folks at YouTube. So I don't know that there's anything really happening. But here's the way to make sure because we. I have had people say, hey, you're not showing up in my algorithm. Like I want to watch your show, but it's not popping up in my natural algorithm to say that you're going to be on. Here's a way to make sure that doesn't happen. And if you do that right now, we'd really appreciate it. First of all, you should be hitting like and subscribe like. That's first of all just minimal. If you don't hit like and subscribe, there's no way we can get into your algorithm anytime that you're talking back with us, talking in the comments, being an engaged listener, that helps the algorithm too. But the only way to ensure that YouTube's algorithm, its little robot man, will serve you the joy read show is to hit that notification button. The little notification button is the little bell thing on YouTube. You hit that notification button. That's step one. You hit the notification button and when the pop up comes up, you have to hit all. So notification and all that's going to make sure that anytime we go live, you will see that we've gone live. And you can then select to click and watch. And if you do that, that is how you're training the robot to know that you want to watch the show. Because what's happening is there are people with millions and millions of followers who are getting like 30,000 views on a post, which doesn't make mathematical sense. So there's no reason we don't really know why that's happening. You can manually curate your experience.
- [06:53]
Jason
Well, that's the thing, because since everything AI now and everybody has convenience of AI helping you select the stuff, if you notice if you're on YouTube and you watch say five of the same videos in a row, next thing you know your algorithm has all of those videos.
- [07:09]
Joy Reid
Right.
- [07:09]
Jason
So it's very cool sometimes to basically delete your history on YouTube. So it gives you, it kind of confuses the algorithm. So you basically can curate your own, you know, YouTube experience. YouTube has a thing where they, they do it for you. Let's not be lazy. Just make sure if you want to see a particular channel that you subscribe to that channel, you hit notification on that channel. So YouTube your curating your own show, you're not waiting on YouTube to do a few. You just select the stuff that you want to see and just see that and then they will fill it in with other stuff. But everything that you Curate for yourself, YouTube will basically show it to you. If not the stupid computers. Roy said we'll do it for you.
- [07:49]
Joy Reid
Yeah, because it's just a robot. It doesn't have a brain. It just, it's just a robot. And so let's do that now. If you are a YouTube subscriber, please hit that notification. Notification button. Takes a one second. It's not going to spam you. It's just that whenever we're on, you'll know that we're on. And we're now trying to be really more proactive about letting our friends on Tick Tock and Instagram know when we're on as well. It's a lot of laborious kind of work to make sure. But not everybody knows we even have A show like, believe it or not, I still run into people who go, oh my God, I miss you so much on msnbc, if they're still watching, or they say, I don't watch it anymore. I don't watch the news at all. And then we have to tell them this show exists. That's one of the challenges of being in new media. You have to create self discovery. So that's one thing. You can do another thing. And thank you for those who are complimenting the shirt. It's a. It is a cool shirt. The other thing that I really suggest you do is we, you know, we, we, we. This is our, our YouTube. This is our business. And part of it is here on YouTube. But substack is where we actually own our list, where we actually have access to the list. So if anything goes kurplui at this or any other, any of our other outlets, you know, Twitch or Facebook or all these other places, we would lose track of you all and have to find you again. And so in order to not do that, one quick way to do that is to subscribe to the substack. The substack is this show, but plus. And this show, plus a lot of written material. My sister June Carroll writes a great newsletter on the substack at Joy's house that is called Almost Famous. And she does some amazing, you know, political rants and, you know, she can talk about inside Hollywood. That's where she is. She's an actress, so she's got a great thing. We're also launching a new newsletter that's going to be about mental health that's coming up soon. So it's just a good thing to do. It's free. You can be a premium subscriber if you want to get in on some of the extra little premium extras. But you could also just be a free subscriber. So we just ask you to just do those things. You know, it's not even just for our ego. It's because this is the way new media, because we don't have a big corporate overlord that, that can sort of amass and keep track of who's with us. We have to do that ourselves. So that is what we ask you to do. Subscribe to the substack, it is free. Subscribe to the YouTube, it is also free. But if you upgrade and want to be premium, there's some goodies that were, as a matter of fact, be on the lookout. If you're a premium subscriber, we're sending y' all some goodies like literally today.
- [09:59]
Jason
And just remember guys, everything, every time that you subscribe to us, it just helps us bring you these, you know, this news that you want to see. If you want to see joy on a regular basis coming in, we're trying to, we're thinking about going five days. We don't know yet. So we gotta raise more and stuff like that. But please guys, subscribe and tell five or ten friends that we're here because without you guys we're, we're not here, if you understand what I'm saying.
- [10:21]
Joy Reid
Indeed. And to that very point, we're going to be having a members only live stream tonight and ask me anything. We're going to spend an hour, I'm going to make a cocktail, I'm going to have my security and then we're just going to chit chat. That's going to be the after party will be tonight on substack and on YouTube for our premium subscribers. So jump on in. You still have time to join. I think you can, you can even join now and still make it in. So that's our, that is the church, the door. We know that's at church. We do church announcements. We've done all our announcements. Now let's go ahead and move on to the show in Chief. But before we do that, let me acknowledge one of our great sponsors this episode because this is the other thing you absolutely need in new media is wonderful sponsors and one of our favorites is our friends at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Planned Parenthood Health centers are the nation's leading provider of sexual and reproductive health care, including cancer screenings, wellness exams, STI testing and treatments, birth control, abortion and more. Today and every day, Planned Parenthood is committed to providing access to the care, information and resources that people need to make their own decisions about their bodies and futures. The Trump administration and Congress want to take that freedom away, enforce their personal beliefs on everyone, on all of us. As part of a years long strategy to ban abortion care and shut down the most trusted name in sexual and reproductive care, they have defunded Planned Parenthood Health Centers. It's a dangerous attempt to cut off affordable access for millions, especially those with low incomes who rely on Medicaid, women, black and Latino communities, LGBTQ people, and those in rural and medically underserved areas where Planned Parenthood Health centers are sometimes the only option for health care. People across the country are struggling right now trying to afford the high cost of basics like rent, groceries and utilities, while health care costs are skyrocketing, stripping people of Quality, affordable health care is yet another cruelty inflicted by this out of touch administration. Planned Parenthood has never and will never stop fighting for everybody's fundamental right to quality health care, regardless of who you are or where you live, no matter what. And they need supporters like you to stay in the fight. Donate to planned parenthood.org defend that's planned parenthood.org defend they are one of the good, good, good ones out there. All right, y'.
- [12:30]
Harry Dunn
All.
- [12:31]
Joy Reid
Stephen Colbert had his final show last night and it was pretty epic. It closed out with Colbert and his family joined on stage. As you throw it up there, there's no sound to it too. Sir. Paul McCartney and the late Show Band during a New Orleans style version of the Beatles. Goodbye, hello. You don't know why you say goodbye. I say hello. It's literally been in my head the rest of the day. Goodbye, hello, hello, goodbye. Love that song. And before that, Stephen and the gang, they, they did this incredible dig at Paramount where they played a copyrighted peanut song. You know the peanut song that Linus Linus theme on the piano that the, the, the Peanuts like people who own the copyright have been suing anyone who plays it. So they played it and Stephen Colbert was like, wow, I hope Paramount doesn't have to pay a big fine for this. Dun dun, dip your waiters. It was really the end of an era. At one point Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver and Jimmy Kimmel did a bit about what will the world do without middle aged white guys doing jokes. And it was, it was pretty spot on because you know, late night, very white. I personally had the pleasure of being on the Late show four times. Four different hairstyles. Look at this. I think we should vote Whitney on which hairstyle was best hairstyle clockwise 1, 2, 3 or 4? Number four was a pretty damn good wig, guys. It was a pretty damn good wig. I had the braids, I had the short hair. And Steven, his team could not have been kinder people. I have a full post about this with my thoughts on all of this at Joy's house, which is@joyandreid.com again subscribe While you're there if you could. But go on over there and you can read that on at your leisure. In other news, right wing losers are already lining up to get their reparations from the Trump slush fund. Yes, that's right. Here's some of them. Enrique Tarrio, the maybe fed definitely black, but really not clear that he is former FBI informant who was the head of the Proud boys The pillow guy, Mike Lindell, who claims that his brand and company suffered approximately $400 million in damages due to federal investigations and defamation lawsuits stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He was a big election lie guy, Mike McCloskey, remember him? He was the guy with his wife who pulled guns on Black Lives Matter. Peaceful marchers. Congressional scammer George Santos, who also sort of sidelined, maybe as a drag queen. Fabulous. And Tina Peters, the insurrectionist election denier from Colorado, who just got clemency for her state crimes trying to steal the election by the maga. Democratic Governor Jared Polis, who weirdly enough is turning out to be the John Fetterman of Democratic governors. And if you think congressional Republicans would never vote to release the funds to pay reparations to the people who violently attacked police on January 6, 2021, well, you don't know Republicans. People who assaulted police. Look, January 6th is an issue that was made up in the first place. That was a, that was a staged thing from day one. What about it was when you had, when you had police officers let people in the building, when you had people. That's not being prosecuted, Ray.
- [15:41]
Lev Parnas
Forget his name.
- [15:42]
Joy Reid
There's no excuse. Your colleagues, though, your Republican colleagues ran for their life and barricaded themselves in their chamber. Do you think they were acting? No, there was a riot there, but it was self made. Right, but members who hate Trump, that was made up, in my opinion. You will note that those four posts that you saw were tweets from that exact same guy, Ralph Norman of the north of South Carolina, on January 6th, when he was tweeting his outrage at the insurrection and the attacks on law enforcement officers. So all of a sudden now he has to repeat the lie that all of them have to repeat. They all have to go in like little robots and pretend that there was no January six. It didn't happen. It was all made up. Was all made up. Dude, you were hiding under your desk while the police officers were getting their asses kicked out there and getting hit with bear spray. And you were complaining about it at the time, saying that this was an outrage. And also you're like, no, no big deal. If they, if it's up to Republicans, they're going to give them the money. That's number one. Number two, notice exactly the specific amount of money that Todd Blanche has authorized to be handed out to January Sixers. It is $1,776,000. 1776. Oh, they're playing in our faces now. They have made this fund and hinged it to the birthday of the United States, as if the January 6th insurrection is akin to and equal to the revolution to create the United States. Now, caveat, of course, being the revolution to create the United States was a bunch of slaveholders who didn't want to pay taxes to the king, but still wanted the slaves. But are these things the same? Is Donald Trump arguing that by sitting in the Capitol, beating up police officers and trying to overthrow the government, the January Sixers were patriots, akin to the Founding Fathers, and that they should not just be celebrated, which he does, but that they should also get reparations that you, the taxpayer, while you're struggling to pay your rent, while you're struggling to pay for food, while you can barely afford gas because it's $5 a gallon, while you are struggling economically, maybe got laid off because you got doged, not for any other reason than you were a black woman or an LGBTQ or not a Trumper, while you're having religious nationalism shoved down your throat. At the same time, they won't even pray for you unless you're one of them. While all of that is happening, they're saying that you still have the money to pay for a ballroom for Trump, an arc to Trump that very much resembles the Hitler arch that he wanted to build in Germany that also has a bunker underneath it with hospitals and research facilities. And you're going to pay for that, and you're going to pay reparations to the people who are kicking police officers asses on January 6th. Does that make sense to you? It sure doesn't make sense to me. Joining me now, right on time for this moment, are two of the heroes of January 6, two former police officers, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and former Capitol Police officer turned metropolitan police officer Michael Fanon, who are both. Both very actively in the mix when it comes to fighting for our actual freedom. Michael Fanone has a fantastic substack, which you should all be following. And we're going to talk about that later. And our friend Harry Dunn is running for Congress. Gentlemen, I'm going to start with you, Harry Dunn, because you are one of the officers who are the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit about this bullshit. Talk about the lawsuit. Yes, you are now. Are now suing yourself and Daniel Hodges are the lead plaintiffs in this. Talk about your lawsuit.
- [19:44]
Harry Dunn
Yeah. Hey, Joy. Happy Friday. What's up, Mike? I see Mike's in the tattoo shop. He's probably going to get a Trump tattoo coming.
- [19:52]
Joy Reid
Oh, my God. Now he doesn't give us some breaking News. Michael Vernon, how did I not look up and see you in a tattoo shop? We demand to know what the tattoo will be and yeah, we definitely want to know what it's going to be. Okay. When it's your turn, we need to know what it is. Go ahead, Harry. Done.
- [20:06]
Harry Dunn
Yeah. Nah, nah. This, this is crazy, right? This is crazy. I have to sue the president. I have to sue the president. And also on the, on we're suing is Todd Blanche and Scott Bessett too. Harry Dunn versus those three and Daniel Hodges versus those three. We one, we believe it's illegal, right? It's illegal. They're, they're distributed, distributing taxpayer money. Congress has the authority to do that. And we also believe there's some constitutional violations there with the 14th Amendment. And also, you know, the standing issue that gives us standing that paying these Vic, these what they call victims puts me and Danny and Mike and other people and harm. And because they are rewarding them, they're incentivizing them to continue the threats, the confrontations that we have to endure on a day to day basis. I mean, just go to your favorite right wing extremist Twitter feed and just look at the comments under, where they posted about us getting the, our lawsuit or look under Daniel Hodges's Twitter feed right now. And there are literally death threats in public comments there. They are more emboldened. The death threats have gone up over and over countlessly. You know, Michael knows about it, we know, I know about it. And it's just only going to continue to embolden them. So we are suing, not, we're, we're suing to stop this, to dissolve this illegal fund. And you know, we think we got a good shot at this. And above all, we are on the right side of this. Morally, morally. And taxpayers should not be fronting the. Listen, if they want to start a GoFundMe account or drop their cash app links, then fine, go ahead and do that. But taxpayers, under no circumstances should be on the hook to fund Donald Trump's private militia.
- [21:46]
Joy Reid
Taxpayers, you, all your taxpayers, they're literally saying, Michael Fadon, that you are going to pay the people who tried to kill you. You would have to, as a taxpayer be paying the people who tried to kill you. That is how crazy this is.
- [22:02]
Michael Fanon
Yeah, I mean, it's outrageous. It's insane. I do want to say something first though, Joy. I want to take a moment to thank Harry Dunn and to thank Danny Hodges for once again standing in the breach between this lawless, unconstitutional, insurrectionist government that we currently are forced to live under in this country. And I hope that the American people recognize that this lawsuit is not just on their behalf or on my behalf or on the officer's behalf. It's on the American people's behalf. They're protecting the American people from what, inevitably, with this payoff of these violent insurrectionists would result in more acts of political violence in the future, because that's what this is designed to do. Make no mistake about it. You know, Donald Trump pardoned the violent insurrectionists, and now he's paying the violent insurrectionists, knowing full well that this will inspire future violent insurrectionists to act on his behalf. And the timing of it couldn't be more significant in that it's in the lead up to the midterm elections. He knows his party knows that they cannot win, they cannot win on their policies because their policies are inhumane, their policies are unconstitutional, they're illegal. But he does know that he can scare people away from the ballot box. He can intimidate Americans, and he can also attempt to do pretty much anything that he wants to do unless somebody is willing to stand in the breach and stop them. So thank you, Harry. I know exactly what comes with this. Death threats and all of the other bullshit, taunts and keyboard warriors that jump out, even from our former colleagues in law enforcement. And so from me to you, thank you.
- [24:11]
Harry Dunn
You got it, brother. Absolutely.
- [24:13]
Joy Reid
Much appreciate that. And I think you've made the really salient point here, Mike, because they know that they're going to do poorly in this next election, and they would very much love to inspire a next group of people, or even maybe the same people to come back and do it again, knowing not only do you get a pardon, you actually get cash. Let me play. Let me play back to back, Jason. These two A seven. Is Donald Trump justifying this? And then Todd Blanche answering the question that he needed to answer that people who committed violence against Capitol Hill Police officers on January6 should be eligible for compensation from this DOJ fund. And are you or your family members going to be seeing seeking compensation from that fund? It'll all be dependent on a committee. A committee's being set up, a very talented people, very highly respected people. I think it's a committee of five. And again, I didn't do this deal. It was told to me yesterday. They said they're doing something. I do believe there has to be compensation for people that were destroyed. You have families, absolutely destroyed. And it's all going to be determined by a committee of four or five people. That are respected and very brilliant at what they do. You lying sack of crap law enforcement official. Right now, would you be okay with people who were convicted of hurting police getting taxpayer money?
- [25:30]
Todd Blanche
Just to be clear, people that hurt police get money all the time. Okay? There's a process where, where if you are, if you are, if you believe you have your rights violated, you can, you can apply for funds, you can, can sue, you can file a claim, you can go to court. In some of those cases, the state, the government, the federal government settles those cases. It's abhorrent to ever, ever touch a law enforcement officer, which is why anytime anybody does that, and it's a federal officer will prosecute them. But that's a completely different question with whether an individual is allowed to apply for a claim, whether they'll get a claim. Who depend. Depends. I, I can't. It's not. It would not, not be appropriate for me to talk about absolutes like, absolutely not. Under no circumstances. I mean, we can talk about hypotheticals till we're blue in the face, but that really wouldn't be fruitful.
- [26:20]
Michael Fanon
Michael Todd Blanche is a lying, treasonous piece of shit. This is Donald Trump's personal attorney who's cosplaying as the Acting Attorney General of the United States. I mean, his mere presence in that position is an affront to the Constitution. It's an affront to law enforcement in this country. It's an affront to the rule of law. I mean, he has made the rule of law meaningless in this country. We don't have a rule of law. What we have is people that support Donald Trump and then people who are in opposition to Donald Trump who suffer the consequences for merely standing in opposition to his fascist, racist policies. And so Todd Blanche can get in line for the many people that I have told to go fuck themselves, because he is an absolute, utter fucking disgrace to law enforcement. But he's also a disgrace to fucking humanity. I mean, what a scumbag.
- [27:31]
Joy Reid
Well said. I mean, Harry does. He also should have his bar license looked at. But go on, please, Harry.
- [27:36]
Harry Dunn
No, absolutely. And everything that Michael said a hundred times. But also, I want to go back to the first thing he said about people getting payments for assaulting police. Because let's be, let's be 100 clear. There are times in law enforcement makes mistakes and there are abused people, and they. People get settlements from wrongful arrest, battery, unjustified. For there are times where that absolutely happens. And we need to not conflate the two, those two issues, because what happened on January 6th and what he mentioned earlier, they are not even comparable. And then he goes on to later say in that same sentence that run on, since he goes later on to say that if you assault federal officers, you will be prosecuted and there's no excuse for it. The people that are being considered for payments right now are people who assaulted federal law enforcement. So how can he. And his, he's talking out his ass right now. Donald Trump is in control of that fund. And like Michael said, Todd Blanche is Donald Trump's personal attorney. These five individuals that are going to be appointed, they're going to be appointed by Todd Blanche to do what Blanche says, and Todd Blanche is going to do what Donald Trump says. So Donald Trump is in control of this fund and, you know, talking about going back to the lawsuit. We want Congress absolutely to pass laws and to stop this, Donald Trump would have to sign any law that Congress passed, and there's no way in hell that he's going to do it. So the best way to stop this is this lawsuit that we have going forward. And you know, we do believe we're going to win. We believe we have standing. And obviously it just, it sends a message, too. But we're not. We want to do more than just send a message or make this symbolic. We want to stop this illegal ass fund to fund his private militia. It's wrong. And Todd Blanche so full of shit like, go. I'll say go f yourself, man.
- [29:23]
Joy Reid
I mean, it's very clear and the 14th amendment is very clear. I'm not a constitutional scholar or constitutional lawyer, but it's very clear that insurrection in the, in Article 3 of the, of the 14th Amendment, it's very clear the federal government cannot pay insurrectionists. That is just not something that is constitutional at all. I know that that's part of your lawsuit, but, Jason, if you could put up a five again, because beyond the people that are, that assaulted police officers who apparently are eligible, it's a five year if you pull that. You're talking about about Donald Trump wanting to compensate anyone who was willing to lie about the election being stolen and anyone who acted against Black Lives matter violently. The McCloskeys who literally pulled AR15s on peaceful protesters, and Enrique Tarrio, who was not on president on January 6th because like Osama bin Laden, he let everybody else do the dirty work while he hung back. But he was someone who had already committed crimes in D.C. having a gun, taking down the Black Lives Matter banner. So, I mean, Michael, it's beyond just the people who did that. Donald Trump is trying to send a message that as long as he's willing to repeat the big lie, he's willing to pay you to do it. This is just an incentive to. I think you made a great point. In November, when they lose to Democrats in these House elections, they're paying people effectively to do the same thing again.
- [30:45]
Michael Fanon
Yes. And, you know, if that's what we're looking at in the future after these payouts, I also want to look to the not so distant past because I surmise that these sick fucks that sit around and come up with these insane policies that one of the things that they thought that was hilarious about this and the timing of it in the 1776 is that it comes in the immediate aftermath of the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. And so what this is, is it is reparations for angry white men in a time or at a time in which they have taken away the ability for equal representation for communities of color in this country. And in addition to that, it's rubbing it in the faces of so many people, you know, who have been demanding, rightfully so, reparations for slavery, the original sin of this country, which still in many forms continues to this day. And they're saying, ha, ha, ha, ha, we've got reparations, but it's for white motherfuckers, not for communities of color, not for fucking the descendants of slaves. We're going to give our reparations to angry white people.
- [32:00]
Joy Reid
And they're being very clear about that.
- [32:02]
Harry Dunn
Yeah. And also, real quick, no, sorry, sorry, Joy, but I wanted to, regarding that, that image that you just. That the image that you just had up regarding election deniers and everything like that. I'm sure Governor Polis is feeling really good now about Tina Peters now potentially being able to get a. With that pardon that he did. What the hell was he thinking? And people are talking about Democrats aren't fighting hard enough. We got governors out here that are pardoning criminals and election deniers saying, hey, we think that the system was too hard on her. Give me a break. She's the type of person that calls January 6th. Kari Lake is the type of people that calls Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell. All of these people with their election denial BS are the same people that caused this. This is their fault. It's just. It's insane. And that's why we talking about people going into a little campaign mode right now. It's not just about electing Democrats, because Democrats are. We can't get out of our own way of time. It's about electing the right Democrats who understand you can't play nice with these people.
- [33:02]
Adam Smith
Clear.
- [33:03]
Harry Dunn
We can't play nice with them. It's not about reach. Reach across the aisle to do what? To do what? It's a bunch of bs, Joy.
- [33:11]
Joy Reid
There's nothing across the aisle to reach out for. Go ahead, Michael.
- [33:14]
Michael Fanon
No, I completely agree with Harry. And you know, at a time like, I have so many conversations with people who are so afraid of the midterm elections, and they're just like, we need to put forward a candidate, a Democratic candidate who is going to get elected. I say absolutely not. Because look at John Fetterman, look at Jared Polis. I mean, look at Abigail Spamberger right now in Virginia. These people are absolute, utter disgraces. They have betrayed the people that fought so hard to get them elected. And so it's about getting the right candidate selected, somebody who's going to go and fight, not be another corporatist Democrat that just plays by the same old, same old rules and gets us nowhere. And we need people that are willing to put accountability at the forefront of their platform. Because if we've already seen how this movie plays out, we experienced it once, post Civil War, we had prohibited Confederate members from serving anybody who engaged in that insurrection, you know, who was guilty of treason. You know, we, we allowed them to keep their lives, but they weren't supposed to be serving in government. And then the great compromise, we allowed them back in. We ended up with what, Jim Crow. And then here we are. And then this movement, this MAGA movement is, is a direct descendant of that, of the Klan, of Jim Crow. I mean, we're seeing it play out now in real time. And so if we're not going to hold these people accountable, and we need to get creative with how we go about holding them accountable, at the very least, prohibiting them from ever serving in any office. I don't give a shit if it's the fucking eta. You shouldn't be able. You shouldn't be allowed. I think there's some people who have risen to the level of maybe losing their right to vote. You know, if. If we can't get the. If we can't get them to serve jail time, because Donald Trump is just gonna go willy nilly and pardon every motherfucker that's involved in his administration, at the very least, explore state charges or start taking away people's political voice, their ability to engage in politics in this country, because they don't deserve it.
- [35:30]
Joy Reid
I like the way you think Michael Fanon. And if you run for something, I'm definitely gonna vote for you. I might be your campaign manager.
- [35:35]
Michael Fanon
That's Harry's lane.
- [35:36]
Joy Reid
Dude, we go for both of you in office. Last question to you, Harry Dunn, you are running and I will note, and I did want to ask you this before I let you go. You're now running in a 18,000 person race where the governor and the United States senator, one of the United States senators and of course Sandy Hoyer have endorsed your opponent. And I'm not sure how well versed they are in how much. Adrian Boaffo is a creature of the same lobby that AIPAC represents. It's just a different name. He was very enthusiastically supported by an AIPAC clone which concerns a lot of folks when they look at the fact that he could go into Congress and vote for more money for bombs, no money for us. And I think a lot of people are about sick of doing wars for Israel. He seems like a war for Israel guy. We've invited him on the show and we'll see what he says about coming on. But what do you make of the fact that he was able to snare those endorsements and what did you make of his chances to now?
- [36:35]
Harry Dunn
Well, I attribute a lot of that to Steny Hoyer who's did 45 years of public service to Maryland. And you know what, let's be no, no, no. St. Hore has done a lot of great things also, but he spends 45 years in Congress. Times are a lot different than when he was. So I mean I can appreciate, I can understand people have to endorse who they want to do. You know, I have a lot of endorsements also, most recently the Working Families Party that is all about working families and people that can afford joy. I've raised a lot of money when over this race and my average contribution is about 17 bucks. And that just means a lot to me. With so many people can't afford gas, they can't afford groceries, they got to pick and choose. And people you hear this all the time, I got to pick and choose. Am I going to pay the light bill? It's a lot of stuff but it's real. It's real life out there. When people being able to say, hey Harry, I support you, hey, you're the type of fighter we need. This is I am respecting anybody. I don't think there's anybody more qualified maybe in the country that understands the gravity of where we are right now. I have shed blood for this country on the steps of The United States Capitol. You know, I. It is personal for me. I am struggling personally. Personally with all these finance. They got money for this illegal war. They got monies for ballrooms like you were talking about earlier in this dumbass bunker. They got money for this. Billions dollars for these terrorists. But we can't afford health care. We can't pay our veterans. We can't fund snap. No, we can afford it. They just don't want to because they don't give a damn about us. So all these corporations and these. Think about this real quick. I'm giving you. I know. I don't want to go too long, but think about real quick. Individuals. Individuals are limited to how much they can donate in a campaign season, which is $6,600. That's the most any individual can donate. Ask how much APAC can donate. Ask how much the NRA can donate. Ask how much Walmart can donate.
- [38:22]
Joy Reid
Ask.
- [38:23]
Harry Dunn
It's unlimited. Why in the world would you put a limit on people and no limit on corporations? Because when you start putting profits over people, then you get the damn mess that we're in right now. And it's a shame. And we should not be doing. How the hell can we live in a country where people can't even afford to get sick? Joy, it's absolute BS and those. These aren't extreme policies. It's common sense. Paying people wages that they can live in, the communities that they work in and love. Is that extreme? No, it's not extreme. It's common effing sense.
- [38:54]
Joy Reid
We appreciate you and we appreciate both of your service to this country. We are rooting for you, my friend Harry Dunn, who is of course running for Congress. We're going to put the website in the link. And of course, Michael Fanon, please subscribe to all of Michael's things because he is out there saying all the things that we need to hear from the history, the present. And let me tell you something. He read John Fetterman for filth. I'm gonna put a link to that underneath here because you need to read. You need to listen to that, too, because he let him have it. Thank you both. I appreciate. What's the tattoo going to be, Michael?
- [39:21]
Michael Fanon
I. To be totally honest with you, I
- [39:23]
Congressman Adam Smith
don't have a clue yet.
- [39:25]
Joy Reid
Let us know. Okay? Text me, let me know.
- [39:26]
Congressman Adam Smith
I want to know.
- [39:27]
Joy Reid
I really, genuinely want to know. All right, we're going to bring you back on and talk about the tat sometime. Thank you all. Have a wonderful Memorial Day. Appreciate both of you. We're going to put the links in the chat, make sure that everybody can see how to follow these two gentlemen. Let me move on to our next very, very appropriate for Memorial Day. Recently, Washington State Congressman Adam Smith took Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the woodshed for his disrespect of non white war heroes. And he singled out one American war hero whom I took particular note of. Take a listen, okay?
- [39:56]
Adam Smith
To tell the boss that he's wrong. We all have dumb ideas. It's good to have people around us who have the capability and the competency to say no, we're not going to do that. We are talking about pulling Medgar's endeavors name off of a ship. That's a man who served in the military, but also he stood, stood up to Jim Crow, white supremacy and racism in the South. And I know we're focused on the warrior ethos. If you don't think that it took a warrior ethos to do that in Mississippi in the 1950s and the 1960s, then you're just not paying attention. Why are we having this conversation? So we're at a situation now where the military is denigrating Medgar Evers who died standing up for the values that I think are central to our country. One of the things I love about the military is service above self.
- [40:35]
Congressman Adam Smith
Absolutely.
- [40:35]
Adam Smith
I mean it's such an important message. Everyone who serves this, no one I can think of personifies that more than Medgar Evers.
- [40:41]
Congressman Adam Smith
Instead, we're going to go back to
- [40:42]
Adam Smith
renaming the bases after the Confederates. Now I know apparently you spend a lot of time finding other names that apply to people who actually did serve this country honorably. But President Trump just was it yesterday, two days ago now down at Fort Bragg when he blatantly politicized the United States military, sort of, as they like to say, said the quiet part out loud that those bases are being renamed for the Confederates. So we honor white supremacists, slave owning insurrectionists who lost by the way, their losers instead of Medgar Evers. Can we please just stop? And now we've got the changes to the names and this changing the names
- [41:15]
Congressman Adam Smith
of ships going back to the original
- [41:16]
Adam Smith
names of the Confederacy for all of our military bases. Why are we doing that? We are banning books. We are pulling images down off of the website leading to some just sort of ridiculous things. There was a course, the instance when all reference to the Enola Gay disappeared for a few days. Now that's kind of funny because in that context gay means something different. But why do we care if the, the Word gay that means homosexual is printed somewhere. Why is that threatening to us? Why are we spending time on that instead of, I don't know, giving us a budget that. That might have been more productive? And then we're pulling books off the shelves. In one particular, you know, library within the Pentagon, you could not find a copy of the. Of Jackie Robinson's biography that had been pulled, but you could find two copies of mein Kampf. And Mr. Secretary, your summary of the problem where you said that basically the problem with DEI is there just aren't enough trannies from Brooklyn or lesbians from San Francisco who want to join the 82nd airport. Not only do the trannies and lesbians not join, but those very same ads turn off the young, patriotic Christian men who have traditionally filled our ranks. We can go after the extremes of DEI without denigrating and insulting people. And, by the way, leaving out the Jews, apparently. Why does an air traffic controller have to be a Trump supporter?
- [42:26]
Congressman Adam Smith
Can we please just get back to
- [42:29]
Adam Smith
the business of treating everybody equally and with respect? Because the thing is, we are a diverse nation. We need to be inclusive, and we need to not actively insult people who don't happen to fit our preconceived notion of what a member of the military should look like. Like, if you're focused on loyalty, you're not focused on competency, you're not focused on ability, and it is the wrong way to go.
- [42:51]
Joy Reid
Now, that was a read. And Senator Adam Smith joins me now. He serves as the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee. He also works across the subcommittees focused on military personnel, cybersecurity, intelligence, strategic forces, and military readiness. Congressman Smith, welcome.
- [43:09]
Congressman Adam Smith
Thank. Thank you, Joy. I appreciate the chance.
- [43:11]
Joy Reid
Of course. And what was his. I saw the smirk on Pete Hegseth's face, which was very unpleasant to view. What did he say when he finally got the mic?
- [43:21]
Congressman Adam Smith
Yeah, he ignored the whole thing. Look, I mean, Hagseth is arrogant and he sucks up to Trump. That's what he's got. He never addresses these issues in any meaningful or realistic way. And he's continued to fire people. He's continued just proportionately fire women and black people who serve in the military. And I think it's undermining the, you know, support in our military and undermining the credibility our military and the capability. You know, but the Medgar Evers thing in particular stuck out for me. My son's middle name is Evers. When I was a freshman in college, I read Merle Evers book. I took a class on African American history. And it just really struck me.
- [44:02]
Joy Reid
And.
- [44:02]
Congressman Adam Smith
And what struck me about it was how heroic, but at the same time, how average and everyday Medgar and Merle Evers were. Because it inspired me. Because, you know, I would think I would see some of the people who are heroes of her country, and they were, you know, big, loud, capable, you know, had huge followings, very. And I was like, can. Can I do that? But Medgar and Murley made it real for. For just average people standing up and doing the right thing. So, you know, it was really inspiring to me. And I had the opportunity to meet Marlee Evers. Gosh, was it now? Probably 20 years ago, for the first time. And it was just. It was an incredible experience for me, and it has been an inspiration in my public service, like I said, since the time I was a freshman in college.
- [44:47]
Joy Reid
You know, first of all, you had the exact same sort of response to the Everest story that I did when I was researching my book. Medgar and Murley is you get this sense that civil rights heroes are sort of super superheroes, right? They're from Krypton. They're not from America. They're not from Earth. There's no way they're normal. But they were just super normal. And the normal. The sort of normality of this couple and of these heroes, if you even read about Dr. King, you know, telling jokes and being just, you know, fun, you realize, oh, wait a minute. It isn't super people who do this. It's regular people. And in a way, that is super inspiring.
- [45:21]
Maddie J
Right.
- [45:22]
Joy Reid
To know that just an ordinary person can be great.
- [45:25]
Congressman Adam Smith
And what they wanted was normal. That's what they wanted. They weren't looking for some big revolution that was gonna bring peace and happiness to the entire globe. They just wanted the same opportunities that everybody else had in America, basically, to work hard, play by the rules, get ahead, raise your family, have a decent life. And I think that's something that everybody in this country can relate to.
- [45:49]
Joy Reid
And now we have a military that felt that, at least briefly, they took down Jackie Robinson's story from the official record of the United States. As you mentioned, they. They erased the Enola Gay because I guess they thought the Enola Gay meant gay, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. They just didn't know that. Apparently, they don't have Google.
- [46:09]
Congressman Adam Smith
I think it was an algorithm, by the way. I think they just put an algorithm. Purge all of these words and all of these images.
- [46:16]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [46:17]
Congressman Adam Smith
From everything that. And I said the Pentagon in those comments I was kind of rolling. So it wasn't actually the Pentagon Pentagon. It was a library of a military, I think somewhere in Colorado as a matter of fact. But yeah, they just put in this algorithm and purged all this history of gay people, black people, of women, indigenous people, code talkers.
- [46:35]
Joy Reid
I mean it's just. But you know, on the Medgar Evers thing, I noticed, noted it as well. He had just gotten the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Biden. I was at the little after party with the family after they were so proud that he'd finally gotten that he had a. The USNS Medgar Evers was named in his honor. The military wants to take that away. They erased his story from the Arlington Cemetery. Sort of heroic, you know, they have this sort of, you know, here are the heroes you can see in Arlington. Do you know the status of the USNS Medgar Evers? Does it still exist?
- [47:07]
Congressman Adam Smith
It does. You know, they, after a lot of us pushed back and also I know you and a lot of others really brought attention to this. They slowed down on that slightly. They certainly renamed all the military bases, which is just a complete front. And the thing that people don't, and I tried to explain this, people don't understand the history of that. Well, you know, we're just, we're just honoring, you know, our history. And but you know, it was the Civil War. These names were put on those military bases not before the Civil War or right after the Civil War. This was turn of the 20th century when the Klan and white supremacy made a comeback. We had Reconstruction. There was a legit effort to try to get to some kind of equality that collapsed for a whole bunch of different reasons. And then from 1876 until, gosh, the 1950s, white supremacy rose again. And part of the effort was to name these bases after slave owners and white supremacists and bigots. You know, it really, it wasn't just oh well okay, but they served in the military. No, they were named after this specifically to highlight how the horrible aspects of their history. So yes, we have all those bases now that are back named after, you know, white supremacist slave owning secessionists.
- [48:28]
Joy Reid
And the thing about it is is that they're white slave owning secessionists who fought for a different country. And I think we don't teach history well enough to understand the Confederate States of America was not the United States. These are not American war dead that just fought on another, on another plane. These were people who fought against American troops. They were killing Union troops. Ergo, it would be the same thing as naming a base. Hirohito. Base Hirohito. Or naming a base after, you know, Stalin's top generals. These are. No, Stalin was on our side. Sorry, Hitler's top general.
- [49:01]
Congressman Adam Smith
Once upon a time.
- [49:02]
Joy Reid
Yes, right, exactly. But, I mean, these were the enemy. Do you. Can you get to wrap your mind around how it is that the United States military embraces the enemy?
- [49:13]
Congressman Adam Smith
Yeah, well, that leads to another point. And I just. I think I can't. I think it was Meacham who wrote a biography, Abraham Lincoln. Somebody gave it to me. I get a lot of books in this job. And I was like, yeah, I don't know. I've read a bunch of Lincoln stuff. But it fell when I read it. I'm so glad I did, because it had an entirely different take on. Not different take, but it emphasized how much the Civil War and the secessionists were about white supremacy and slavery. And Meacham had a very interesting take on it. It's like when the revolution happened, there was sort of a general consensus. Slavery was going out of favor. Okay. And it was bad. It was a problem. They were like, we got to do a compromise, but eventually this is going to go away. We all know it's wrong. I think that was sort of the Thomas Jefferson in George Washington position. But then the problem was the Southern states understood that it was economically necessary for them. Sorry, necessary is the wrong word. They made a lot of money off.
- [50:08]
Joy Reid
Right.
- [50:08]
Congressman Adam Smith
They wanted to keep making a lot of money off of this. All right? So. And they realized that if our argument is, yeah, we know it's wrong, but, you know, we're just kind of doing it because we have to, that wasn't going to fly. So they fully embraced the idea of white supremacy. And if you want to know what the root cause causes of racism are in America, that's it. They had to convince themselves that black people were inferior. They had to make that case to justify the institution that was necessary for them to keep making money. And they justified it. And it became much more into the fabric of our society than even some other societies that had had slavery before. And at the time of the Civil War, they envisioned a slave empire. They envisioned Mexico, Latin America, you know, Cuba, Jamaica, the islands that they were going to break away and build. So the Civil War was about stopping that. But it also. The deep rooted racism that comes from that, you still have that in our culture to a degree that requires us to rip it out, not to just do what Pete Hegseth wants To do which, ah, this isn't a problem. It's not worth worrying about. It's not worth talking about.
- [51:19]
Harry Dunn
No.
- [51:19]
Congressman Adam Smith
Understand the root causes and the deep seated nature of this. That's the only way to eliminate it and get to the, the goal of this country, which is people being treated equally. Because we are equal.
- [51:31]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [51:31]
Congressman Adam Smith
You know. Yeah, we're equal in the most human sense of the word. Doesn't matter what color you are, what religion you are, whatever, we're going to give you the same shot. That's not going to determine it. Content of your character, not the color of your skin.
- [51:43]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [51:43]
Congressman Adam Smith
So it's, it's a real challenge. And Hegseth's taking us backwards.
- [51:47]
Joy Reid
Hegseth isn't alone. The Supreme Court is helping the, you know, evisceration of the Voting Rights Act. I know that your colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they feel like they can spike the football now. They're going to win in November. There's no evidence of that. They're still in trouble. Right. But how are they justifying that when they talk with colleagues like you?
- [52:06]
Congressman Adam Smith
Yeah, well, there's a lot to unpack in that. I mean, the main way they justify it, it is basically to say that racism is a thing of the past. It's not something that we need to worry about. We've moved by. That's certainly how the Supreme Court attempted to justify it. And I think they get some momentum. Look, and I've said this before, I don't agree with everything that we've done in the DEI world. I think some of it has been more divisive than necessary. Some of it has been wrong. And there has been a backlash against some of those extremes. But those extremes don't change the reality that you can't look at America today and say, we're done with racism. We don't need to worry about it, we don't need to think about it. And that was sort of the argument. The Voting Rights act was passed when we had a problem with racism. We don't have it anymore, so we don't need to do it. So they, they justify it that way. And that fundamentally misunderstands where we're at as a society now. I think the way to do this is, is to bring us all together, not to talk about how different we are, not to talk about white people in one big huge category or black people in one big huge category. How can we respect, learn our history and move forward. The other thing that I think is going to be really problematic going forward is we Democrats have to be able to compete in more places. Now, look, Trump is an utter disaster, and we'd have to do a whole nother segment to get into all that. And the country is finally waking up to that reality. Surprise, surprise, he's all about himself. He's not actually interested in helping us. He wants to use our government to advance his own personal egotistical agenda, but they're in real trouble. But long term, we Democrats, we got to get back to being able to compete in rural areas. What are the issues that are important in excerpts, in areas where we're not competitive anymore? I think there are issues we need to address. So I hope that we will do that and we will fight hard against this to get people elected who can stop the revisionist approach of so many Republicans these days.
- [54:05]
Joy Reid
Yeah, well, and they're going to have to learn to compete in places that they've given up. Right. The South, I mean, where there are a lot of really important races. I just spoke with Chris Jones, who was running in Arkansas. That's a race that DCCC is probably not thinking about, but they should. He's actually polling very well. He's polling even with his opponent. But Democrats tend to not if it's south of the Mason Dixon line. They just write it off and say they can't win.
- [54:26]
Congressman Adam Smith
And even if we. Even if we don't win, the fight is so important because we need people. And look, I represent a 70% Democratic district in Seattle, and they got an entirely different way of looking at the world than some of these other folks. Now, I've represented a swing district before redistricting, so I've got a little bit more experience in representing a diverse ideological constituency. But, you know, I think of people like Jared golden, who's leaving Congress. It was basically driven out to some degree by the Democratic Party. And I don't agree with everything that Jared Goldman voted for, but he knew how to connect and communicate with a lot of those voters that we were losing. All right, so we need to have a big enough tent to include people who can communicate in some of these more conservative areas. So, you know, we have to fight that fight. But also we're just going to have to, you know, not let the Republicans whitewash wash our history.
- [55:19]
Joy Reid
Really quick lightning round for you. 1776 slush fund. Congress going to stop that?
- [55:25]
Congressman Adam Smith
Yeah, I think, you know, it's funny and I, you know, is this finally the straw that broke the camel's back? Is this finally the thing? After all the corruption, after all the abuse of government power, the lawlessness. After all of this, this seems to have really turned, struck a nerve with some Republicans now. We'll see. I mean, the capacity of the Republicans to ignore what Trump is doing and just keep going forward seems to have no end. But, yes, it seems to have gotten people's attention and hopefully this will be a breaking point.
- [55:57]
Joy Reid
$1.5 trillion slush fund for Pete Hegseth, who can't even run his own office, let alone a giant agency like the Department of Defense. Is he going to get.
- [56:09]
Congressman Adam Smith
They're proposing a 60% increase in the defense budget while continuing to cut taxes for the wealthiest people in this country and cut Medicaid and food stamps. And look, I, you know, I've been on the defense committee for 30 years. I know we need defense. We need a national security, a 60% increase in this environment. If our national security strategy requires us to spend that much money, we need a new national security strategy. That is insane in this budget.
- [56:34]
Joy Reid
It is insane. Last question. There was a failure, but I won't play the clip, Jason. Just, we don't have time. But the Democrats stormed out of that war powers failed vote. It was pulled from the floor. Republicans apparently don't want to put a war powers resolution on the floor because they know it would pass. Is this war stoppable at this point?
- [56:51]
Congressman Adam Smith
I think it is. I think the pressure is building. Look, I've been amazed the public didn't support this war from the day it started at all. We're talking two thirds of the public. And the futility of it, the disaster of it, it, the global economy being destroyed, and Iran is actually more hard line and less movable now than they were when the war started and we devastated the global economy and devastated the Middle East. We've lost 14 service members, hundreds wounded, thousands of civilians killed. So, I mean, the people are against it. The question is, will the Republicans go with the people or will they keep going with Trump and we're going to
- [57:27]
Joy Reid
keep the pressure on them or expand the war to Cuba and maybe kidnap that, that leader of Cuba as well. I mean, it is stunning to me that I have lived long enough to see us go to war, to close the Strait of Hormuz in order to open the Strait of Hormuz and to remove Ayatollah Khamenei and replace him with Ayatollah Khamenei. What a time to be alive. That is Very well said, Congressman Adam Smith. I hope you don't mind. I would love to send you a copy of Medgar and Merlee. I think you would uniquely enjoy it and I would love to hear what you think if you get a chance to read it.
- [57:58]
Congressman Adam Smith
Please do. I would be on.
- [57:59]
Joy Reid
Thank you so much for being here. Much appreciated. Have a happy Memorial Day weekend. All right. Well, there you have it. One sensible Congress. It's nice to hear a sensible congressman from time to time because we sometimes forget that there are a few that are actually quite sensible. And Congressman Adam Smith is very sensible. And one thing that he and his moment with Hegseth reminds you is that the Democrats, they may not have the best political strategy, but they are damn good at some hearings. They are excellent in hearings. And what we need and what we want is for them to get a chance to get at not just Hegseth and, you know, Donald Trump's personal attorney from the minority, but to be able to subpoena them. Imagine Todd Blanche having to answer a subpoena instead of just being able to take those questions without a subpoena and being called by the majority. We need Democrats in the majority, even if they just get the House, because they need the subpoena power to make those losers come before them and answer questions. All right. Welcome to hour two of the Joy Reid Show. Let me let you know that this wonderful show is being brought to you by our friends at Biologica. Now, there is a version of you that sleeps through the night, really, that thinks clearly and actually feels like yourself again. That is real. You have not lost her. You just need support that is built for your body. That is exactly where I was when I found Biologica. Biologic is a drinkable daily supplement that goes well beyond a multivitamin. They have brought together a comprehensive vitamin and mineral foundation, probiotics, electrolytes, and clinically researched botanicals all in one drink. No more juggling a handful of pills to try to cover your bases. What makes it different is that it's not a one size fits all. 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And we also appreciate you doing that because it also, again, helps you train your own algorithm so it does what you want it to do rather than what it wants to do. It's just a robot. It doesn't know any better. And also, if you want to subscribe to the substack, you can go to Joann Reid.com okay, so do you guys remember this version of Tulsi Gabbard? Trump says that he doesn't want war with Iran, but that's exactly what he wants because that's exactly what Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu, Al Qaeda, Bolton, Haley and other neocons and neolibs want. That's what he puts first, not America. Yeah, she went from what Trump did. He conducted and committed an act of war without congressional authority, seriously escalating the situation with Iran. And so now we're at a point of it's not a matter of, well, are we going to have a war with Iran? We are in a war with Iran right now. So the real issue is, are we going to allow this war to continue to escalate and if so, for how long and to achieve what objective? Remember her? She was a Democrat, a backbench Democrat who ran for president in 2020 on an anti war, you know, gambit. She was all about anti war, not going to war with Iran, not going to war with Russia over Ukraine, all the things. She basically called Kamala Harris a warmonger, ran from Kamala's left, and then all of a sudden, she turned into a whole Trumper that loved Donald Trump and appreciated Donald Trump. Trump, Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. And now she's leaving Trump. She's out of here. She is resigning as the Director of National Intelligence. Now, the official explanation is that her husband has a rare form of bone cancer, and she is resigning in order to be with him as he fights that cancer. That's a completely legitimate reason to want to leave government service. It's a grueling job. She's in charge of all 18 security agencies, meaning she's in charge of the CIA, she's in charge of the NSA. All of these agencies report up to this former backbench congresswoman who has no experience in national security and might be like a little too pro Putin, maybe pro Bashar al Assad back in the day. So she's a little off and she scared a lot of people. She still got through because Republicans would put a pile of poop through. They weren't even sure what her loyalties are. She's been pro Trump, she's been anti Trump. Whatever it is, she's out of there now. And joining me now to try to get to the bottom of this is our friend with the T, the guy who knows the things. That's why we have tea with Lev. His name is Lev Parnas. He is of Lev remembers and also a candidate for the House in Florida. For the U.S. house in Florida. Well, hello, Lev.
- [63:56]
Lev Parnas
Hey, Joey. How are you? Always happy to be on with you. How are you doing?
- [64:00]
Joy Reid
I'm great. Whenever I get the Lev call, I'm like, oh, he knows something. Sometimes we just talk, but most of the time, Lev has got the tea. Whenever WeChat, it's because he knows what's happening. He wants to let his friend know. So, Lamb, spill it. What's going on?
- [64:15]
Lev Parnas
Tulsi Gabber. You know, we've been talking about Tulsi. I think last time I was on your show, about a few weeks ago, when we were talking about it was Tulsi Gabber. Yeah. A lot of people, you know, were talking about Iran talk about different things, but me and you kept mentioning Wash and all of us have saying, watch Tulsi Gabbard. Watch that space. You know, she's the DNA DNI director. But she's not in the meetings when it comes to Iran. She's not in the meetings when it comes to Venezuela. She's not in the meetings when it comes to Russia and Ukraine. But she is in Georgia when, you know election, FBI is raiding election. You know, she is in all of a sudden involved in uncovering a whistleblower in the 2016 election to be able to give what as we were talking about Donald Trump an opportunity to be able to federalize these elections. But then at the same time, as you showed on your clip earlier, the real Tulsi Gabber was pro Iran. She was against any war in Iran. She was against, you know, these policies that Donald Trump all of a sudden is playing in the Middle East. So there has been a break. And that's why first of all, I want to say to her husband and to her family are condoned. I mean this is something absolutely, you know, it's not, you know, nobody should be going through that. Cancer is a very incredibly devastating thing. But we've been talking about Tulsi Gabbard leaving for several months now. We've been talking about actually I recall I was I think either on wash a show or somewhere and I reported that she was going to be leaving that day and for some reason she didn't. Later on we spoke about it. It was because Roger Stone interfered. Roger Stone became matchmaker and tried to keep their relationship together. Their relationship broke. If you guys remember when Joe Kent, her, the, her assistant person underneath her all of a sudden left one day, went on Tucker Carlson and blew up that whole thing about how, you know, there was no imminent threat Trump would invaded Iran because of Bibi Netanyahu, that whole thing. And then that's when Tulsi, it was a setup for Tulsi to go, but because of her in, because of her involvement and also the elections rigging they had Roger son basically put together. So today Tulsi is out. And the interesting part is I'm hearing the list of candidates that are he that are and that is even scarier
- [66:45]
Joy Reid
Joy when I heard say Sebastian Gorka
- [66:48]
Lev Parnas
I'm gonna get up and no, if, if you, if I first of all, you know, I, I challenged Sebastian Gorka to a boxing match for charity.
- [66:55]
Joy Reid
He he rather you wouldn't knock him out in one punch. He's called own voice thing.
- [67:02]
Lev Parnas
I can't, I cannot stand that guy. He is like pure evil. Sebastian Gork. No, but, but some of the people that are on that list are pretty bad. First of all, Right now, acting, the guy Trump has acting is Aaron Lucas. So for people that just saw who Aaron Lucas is, Aaron Lucas is a ex CIA individual and he used to be the chief of staff to one ring, Rick Grinnell. Now, Rick Grinnell, why I bring up that name is because I know Rick Grinnell very well. Rick Grinnell was somebody that was involved in our in 2019 with me, Victoria Tunzing, when he was helped, when he was ambassador to Germany, helping out protect certain oligarchs that was giving, helping us give information to be able to go after the Bidens. So I know Rick very well. Rick also was involved with Venezuela stuff and Trump's second administration when Trump just took over, he helped put this whole Maduro plot, as you call it, that. So Rick Cornell has been very close, hardcore loyalist, somebody that's been in Trump's camp very much. And now this is his chief of staff that is going to be the intern acting. And with that said, I'm hearing that Rick Cornell is on the list of becoming possibly the next DNI director the other day.
- [68:24]
Joy Reid
Can I just pause you for just a moment? For those who are not, he's the guy who's sort of the. Ironically, he's sort of another like Peter Thiel, like a gay maga. Right. He was involved in the Kennedy Center. I think they had him partly running the Kennedy center for a while. But what he's mainly known for those of you who used to be on Twitter, is he's a troll. He loves to troll people on social media, and he's a vicious troll. And Trump loves that. Trump loves the performative nature of trolling. And so that's, I think, maybe what bonded him to Trump. I don't know if that's what bonded to Trump. I don't know. But anyway, keep going.
- [68:57]
Lev Parnas
Yeah. So the other couple of names that I've heard floated is Michael Ellis. Michael Ellis is working underneath Ratcliffe, CIA Director Ratcliffe. And the reason why Ellis would be a perfect fit is because Ratcliffe has been part of, you know, you haven't heard Ratcliffe's name too much because he's been part of Tulsi Gabbard's team of helping Trump with this election reform or whatever you want to call it. So Michael Ellis is another name. He's another guy connected to the CIA. He's right now Ratcliffe's part of his leadership team and somebody that Trump is looking into. But there's a bigger name that is floating that scares me more than anything. And you might remember MJ from Trump's first administration who is now happens to run his truth social media. Devin Nunoz.
- [69:49]
Joy Reid
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- [69:54]
Lev Parnas
You know, and you know, I don't, I can't even. Yes, I'm praying. No, but yes, yes, yes. Because what can I throw? I mean. Yeah, I mean that is just insane. And if he is, you know, I mean any of these names is insane. But Devin Nunoz, you remember he is, he is of course, completely. He's, he's, he's just sick.
- [70:16]
Joy Reid
Former congressman. He was the bag man for one of these schemes that he was, he was, I can't remember which one he was.
- [70:22]
Lev Parnas
I worked for him also. I was Cash Patel. Cash Patel was his, one of his right hand man.
- [70:27]
Joy Reid
Oh God.
- [70:28]
Lev Parnas
And Derek Harvey was as the other left hand man. And I was part of working with both of them on the Ukrainian stuff while. Remember he did the midnight run with the Mueller report.
- [70:39]
Joy Reid
That's it. It was the midnight runs for the mother.
- [70:41]
Lev Parnas
Exactly. I mean he is a. And to get. And the way Trump. And not only that, but remember he sued everybody.
- [70:49]
Maddie J
He.
- [70:49]
Lev Parnas
Part of his attack was that like Donald Trump, he sued me and CNN for $300 million. He said he went after a cow. He sued.
- [70:57]
Joy Reid
Oh, he's the one who's. Yeah, Devin Nunes, the cow.
- [71:00]
Lev Parnas
Remember the Twitter cow? He sued the cow.
- [71:02]
Joy Reid
Anyone? He sued another one called Denver News as his mom. Devin Nunes's mom and Devin Nunes cow were Twitter accounts that were making fun of Devin Nunes because he's ridiculous. He sued the cow. He sued them.
- [71:14]
Lev Parnas
Yeah. And to make even more, I'm going to remind you, he was the head of the congressional committee on Donald Trump's first impeachment. He sat there, I'll remind you guys, this incredible story time with Lovejoy here. So he sat there in one of their impeachments and all of a sudden one of the congressmen, I don't even want to mention his name because he's also not good. But brought up said love part is reported to have been involved with you in Ukraine. Devin Nunez was the chair of the committee and he's sitting there and says left Parnas, he's an indicted criminal. I have no idea who he is. He should be prosecuted to the fullest and goes on this tirade. Now, I don't like Adam Schiff very well because I have my own issues with, with Adam Schiff, but this was one of the greatest moment when Adam Schiff all of a sudden gets up with phone records that they said and he Goes, excuse me, but I, I would like to put this in the record. Devin Nuno's. Your phone records. They subpoenaed Devin Nuno's phone records. And in those records, it shows that Devin Nunoz had a conversation with me one day for 10 minutes that right after speaking to me, he calls the White House. Right after speaking to the White House, the White House calls Rudy Giuliani. Rudy Giuliani calls me. I call back Devin Nunoz for another two minutes. We have this whole conversation. And when he's asked, what was that about, David Nudio's response was, I, I don't know what it was. It had to be. I don't know, some constituent called me. I never know. Love partners. So that is the Devin Nunoz. Yes.
- [72:50]
Joy Reid
And he is no longer. Let me just read that. And, and the funny thing about Devin Nunes, we used to laugh about this on amjoy back in the day. His name is Devin Nunes instead of Nunez, and you called him Nunez, which is going to enrage him because he
- [73:01]
Lev Parnas
doesn't like that purpose.
- [73:03]
Joy Reid
Right. Okay, you're doing it. I love the trolling. Because his name is Devin. What? It looks like Nunez to those of us who just look and see a name that seems like it's in Spanish. But he's like, no, it's Nunes. And we used to call him Devin Nunez. That's what I thought you were doing because I used to call him Devin Nunez all the time.
- [73:19]
Lev Parnas
I, I call it all the time. And now he's the, you know, CEO of Truth Social.
- [73:24]
Joy Reid
Well, he's out. So, so here, let's just. Yeah, that's right. That in April of this year, the Trump business behind Truth Social is replacing a former congressman and big supporter of the US President as the leader of the social media platform after a stock collapse that wiped out billions of dollars in investor wealth. He was a complete failure as the head of Trump Media and Technology. Those who invested in the company, they lost 67%. The stock dropped in by 67% after soaring in November of 2024, wiping out $6 billion in investor wealth. I bet you that the people who lost that money are going to be lining up to get something from the 1776 reparations fund, as should you. You got prosecuted, left. I think you should say you, the government was weaponized against you. You should, you should apply for the money.
- [74:16]
Lev Parnas
I'll tell you, I, I actually, actually, if I do do that, I'm going to donate that money to the survivors just to prove a point. If you know, just to show them that. I mean, it's just ridiculous. But we'll see what happens. First of all, it's fine. I don't think this. The senators are finally standing up to this thing. And, you know, they're. They're not allowing him to go. So we'll see how. What goes through. But I definitely. That's.
- [74:40]
Joy Reid
I'll tell you how you stop it. Is that every. I mean, I was speaking with Andrew Gillum on the native land pod today. He should apply for it. He was wrongfully prosecuted even though it was by the Biden during the Biden administration. It doesn't matter. Marilyn Mosby should apply for it. I think Michael Cohen should apply for it. Hell, everyone who was prosecuted in any way for anything that they feel was a mishandling of justice, they should apply for the money. I think Hunter Biden should apply for millions and millions of dollars.
- [75:09]
Congressman Adam Smith
Why not?
- [75:10]
Joy Reid
Like, at this point, if that's what they're doing, they're giving out reparations. And then make them explain why only people who sacked the Capitol and took a dump inside of the Capitol can get the money and beat up police officers and bear sprayed them and tried to kill the police. Tried to kill Capitol police. Why should they get it? But not you. So they. If they can explain that in a coherent way. And I think anybody black that's ever been prosecuted federally apply for it.
- [75:35]
Lev Parnas
All the marijuana. Absolutely. All the marijuana.
- [75:39]
Joy Reid
Everyone.
- [75:40]
Lev Parnas
You want me to give you some more, like, incredible joy breaking stuff? Stuff?
- [75:43]
Joy Reid
Sure.
- [75:44]
Lev Parnas
Because why. It would be. If I apply for it, it would be different than everybody else.
- [75:48]
Joy Reid
Tell me.
- [75:50]
Lev Parnas
Okay, so Todd Bl. So the way this is set up is Todd Blanche personally would have to be overlooking this. And the letters are meant to be written to Todd Blanche. Well, if I may remind everybody, Todd Blanch was part of my legal team. Todd Blanche represented my defense. So Todd Blanche would have to knows that I was illegally prosecuted. Tom Blanche knows I was prosecuted politically against Donald Trump. So. So he would either have to give me the money or it would be a show. My lawyers, I. When I spoke to my lawyers about it, they were like, love. You know, we. Let's. Let's think about. So we're thinking about it. I'm glad. I'm glad you're on board.
- [76:31]
Joy Reid
But yeah, definitely, I am not just on board. No, no, I can tell you guys. Let me take you guys inside. We've talked about. We have thought about. And I have secured the website runmemy slushmoney.com run me my slushmoney.com. i own the URL. And any moment now, we are going to launch runme my slushmoney.com. and I would very much like you, Lev Lev Pardos, my friend, to be the first item that we post on runme my slashmoney dot com. And we can. We need to compose the letter that we are going to have all of our friends write a letter to Todd Blanche. Dear Todd Blanche, run me my slush money. Oh, I love you.
- [77:10]
Lev Parnas
I'm gonna introduce you to my lawyer, Joe Bundy. And you guys could. I love it. Let's do it.
- [77:16]
Joy Reid
My slash money left partners, I'm wishing you a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And if you have any more tea, you know who to call.
- [77:23]
Lev Parnas
I call you first, always. God bless you, Joy. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend to everybody.
- [77:28]
Joy Reid
Thank you so much. I appreciate you, my friend. Lord have mercy. Yes, run me. My slushmoney.com is coming. Please wait for it. And those of you who are interested in also letting them run you your slush money. And we are going to. We are going to bombard. We are going to bombard Todd Blanch with requests for the slush money. And we think that everyone who has in any way, I think Don Lemon should. I told Don Lemon earlier this morning when I was on his podcast, he should be like, run me my money. Run me my slushmoney.com. we're going to get everyone to request the money. If you feel wrong, even if your spirit just feels wrong, if you felt your spirit was just wrong and nobody even did anything to you at the Justice Department, you, too should run. Pull a letter from rummymyslushmoney.com send that to Todd Blanche and let him sort through piles and piles of requests for we all want the slush money.
- [78:19]
Jason
You already know he's already picked out the people when they get money.
- [78:22]
Joy Reid
He's going to go through each of these requests, and we're going to demand. And if we don't get a process for each and every person that demands to have their slush money run to them, then we're going to have another lawsuit. Because if you don't run, if you don't at least go through and let everyone go through the process, then you are committing discrimination. And we're going to go right back to John Roberts, and we're going to make John Roberts explain why that's not discrimination. Everyone who was wronged by the federal government, I mean, every single Oklahoma. If you. If you have relatives that were in Black Wall street. The federal government did that run you your slush money? Everybody wants to run me.
- [78:54]
Jason
The URL that we have is when are we going to set.
- [78:57]
Joy Reid
We have it. We have. We own the URL. It's called run me my slush money.
- [79:00]
Jason
But we don't have anything on the landing pages.
- [79:02]
Joy Reid
We're getting, we're going to get to the landing page. It's all, it's all the process. I purchased runmeyslushmoney.com I'm getting some. Heck yes. Yes. We're gonna go ahead and get our money, y'. All. We're getting our reparations. We're getting our reparations. We're getting our reparations. We're getting our reparations. Now refer. It's going to be the 250th birthday of America and we're all getting a present. My ancestors called give me my money. Come on, Leanda. My ancestors called and said run me my money. Let us note that our show on tonight Rmoney.com is brought to you by our friends at Remy. Now look, I can tell you right now that having being a girly that's gotten these invisaligns. The teeth clenching is like a whole way of life that I was not prepared was going to be this clenchy and seriously grinding your teeth, clenching your teeth terrible for your job and trying to get through all of the sort of process of getting to the dentist, doing all the whole thing. It's always been a challenge. And in this business, you know, my smile is part of my job. You can hear the beeping around in the background. I don't know if that is. That is why I trust Remy to protect my teeth using their customers night guard. Along with 350,000 fellow Americans, Remy night guards are the only FDA cleared and clinically tested at home impression kit night guards on the market. Not only do they help prevent teeth damage from grinding, they also help reduce jaw tension and facial muscle strain. And they improve your sleep quality. You will get the same professional quality and comfort as a night guard from the dentist for over 80% less of the cost. By taking your own impression from the convenience of your home, Remy saves you, saves your impressions. And then you can enjoy the convenience and savings of Remy club where they just ship a new top and bottom night guard to you every six months. Here's how it works. After you purchase, your impression kit comes straight to your door. Follow Remy step by step instructions to get your perfect impression. Remy crafts and ships your custom fit night guard you get your night guard back and start protecting your teeth and voila. If you want to protect your teeth with Remy, just use Code Joy to get 50% off your new night guards with Remy club. Subscribe and save. That is 50 off at Shop Remy. That's R E M I.com joy with code joy shop.com shop remy.com joy with code joy thank you, Remy, for sponsoring this episode. Okay, last week, let me get into this really quick. This rot congealed itself in the United States Capitol. Take a look live from the national
- [81:30]
Michael Fanon
mall at the Rededicate250 event where thousands
- [81:34]
Joy Reid
are gathering for a day of prayer and faith. For more, let's bring in the Gen
- [81:39]
Harry Dunn
Z faith influencer, Anthony Gross. Anthony, you're everywhere. Now.
- [81:44]
Joy Reid
What is your. What is your hope for this event? For people watching this event, what do you want them to take away?
- [81:51]
Congressman Adam Smith
I think hope.
- [81:52]
Robbie Jones
I think hope is my hope.
- [81:54]
Michael Fanon
And getting alignment and unification.
- [81:57]
Joy Reid
Oh, yeah.
- [81:59]
Derek Johnson
I stand before you as living proof that prayer, the power of prayer, changes lives. It's prayer that inspires our nation. It's prayer that transforms our world. There is no way to GRASP the last 250 years of America without looking to the power power of prayer. You can see it at our Judeo Christian foundation.
- [82:34]
Harry Dunn
You can.
- [82:34]
Congressman Adam Smith
It's hard to believe that it would take two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man, to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand. It's extraordinary. We only had to wait 200 years.
- [82:50]
Joy Reid
So listen. It's in the hands of two entities. God the father and Donald Trump. God the father on earth and Donald Trump on earth got the Father on earth and Donald Trump on Earth.
- [83:04]
Jason
Joy. I'm sorry. Tim Scott should be ashamed of himself. Where does his fourth. What does he think his forefathers were?
- [83:10]
Joy Reid
250 years ago, he said it was the Judeo Christian ancestry of this country. 250?
- [83:15]
Jason
You mean the slave master teacher. He's still listening to that.
- [83:18]
Joy Reid
I promise you. He, You. His family.
- [83:20]
Harry Dunn
Oh, my.
- [83:20]
Joy Reid
Inherited hundreds of acres from the white family that enslaved the Scots. And the land was taken from them. Seized from them. It was one of those cases where black formerly enslaved people inherited land from the enslaver and it was violently taken from him. And his takeaway from that is the Judeo Christian ancestor of America is just a wonderful, wonderful.
- [83:43]
Jason
That brother needs Jesus, man. He needs.
- [83:45]
Joy Reid
He needs black Jesus.
- [83:46]
Jason
Yeah, that's what he needs.
- [83:47]
Joy Reid
Would rebuke him, though.
- [83:48]
Jason
Yeah.
- [83:48]
Congressman Adam Smith
Yeah.
- [83:49]
Joy Reid
Joining me now to discuss this insanity is our friend Robbie Jones, co Host of the Countering White Christian Nationalism series right here on this very channel and founder and chief demographer of the Public Religion Research Institute. His new book, which I do believe is in pre order right now on our bookshop, is called Backslide Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy. Robbie, welcome back.
- [84:10]
Robbie Jones
Thanks. Well, I'm always glad to come in on Black Jesus.
- [84:14]
Joy Reid
Listen, Black Jesus is he, he loves everyone and he's here for Tim Scott and you as, and me and everyone else. Robbie, you covered that insane thing that took place in the, in our nation's capital. What was it? Who was there and why?
- [84:31]
Robbie Jones
Well, it was an abomination, I'd say. Like I, so I, so I went, so I, you know, I live in D.C. and I went to this. I was actually looking to see if I was wandering around in that clip you were, you were showing. But you know, when I walked in, I tell you what I saw. I mean, you know, I've been down the mall a lot, but the setting was quite something. So my wife's a theater professor so she has taught me how to read a scene and they know how to set a scene. But it's sort of terrifying what it was telling us. I mean, so they set this between the Washington Monument and the US Capitol, right? So the Washington Monument is right over the stage. And they constructed this stage with these 40 foot high columns to make it look like a government building complete with stone, kind of fake stone, matching the Washington Monument. And then literally the backdrop inside the stage was another stone wall, but this time it was a big gothic window with a massive 30 foot cross. So like the message before you hear any words is that there is an evangelical church sitting inside the state. I mean that was just the image of this. Again, this is like something put on by America 250 Freedom.
- [85:42]
Joy Reid
250.
- [85:42]
Robbie Jones
We can get into that in a minute. But you know, it's, it's part of the official government celebration of our nation's 250 years. And all of that stuff you heard and what was just so egregious about it is that it was just such a direct, crass aim at blowing a hole in the wall of separation between the separation of church and state. I mean it was not even close to pretending you know, anything about religious diversity. Everybody there prayed not only to, you know, God bless America, but in Jesus name. I'll tell you the scene I walked up to and then I'll shut up,
- [86:17]
Harry Dunn
but please, no, no, I walked up
- [86:19]
Robbie Jones
to, I got there a Little bit late. And I walked in, and on the screen, I heard somebody behind me say, hey, it's Jesus. And I looked up on the screen, and it was Jonathan Roumie on the screen, the actor who plays Jesus in the Chosen, the TV show the Chosen, who was one of the keynote speakers at this event. They literally had him just for the image, for him to stand up there and be Jesus on the massive screen up there. And just the layers of, I would say, like, apostasy was sort of so rich because here he is, he's an actor who pretends to be Jesus on tv, showing up at this thing with a big cross behind him, and on his suit, he had a cross, a porcelain cross with the stars and stripes kind of embedded on the cross. So here's Jesus wearing the instrument of his execution with the stars and stripes kind of emblazoned on the top of it as a. And a shiny, you know, shiny piece of. Of jewelry. So, like, you know, anybody who, like, takes their faith seriously, I mean, this should turn your stomach, right? This. This sort of multiple layers of, like, blasphemy, apostasy. You know, no serious Christian could take that seriously and not be deeply, deeply troubled.
- [87:38]
Joy Reid
Did they not realize that if Jesus actually had shown up at that event, I mean, the world was ending that moment? Yeah, like, that'd be it.
- [87:46]
Robbie Jones
Yeah. But, yeah, yeah, no, it was. It was quite something.
- [87:51]
Joy Reid
You know, it's interesting because I watched a few clips of it. I didn't have the stomach to go myself. You go. So that I didn't have to. But the thing is, they kept on saying, different speakers, kept saying that the Founding fathers were Christian nationalists and wanted this to be a Christian nation. But I just Googled it took me two seconds to. To say. To look up. What they actually said is that they. They would. They said that there should be no. No religious test. They were very clear in saying that
- [88:22]
Robbie Jones
there should be a clear constitution. Yeah, yeah.
- [88:24]
Joy Reid
I mean, they literally said no. They were deists who did not believe that God was active in the lives of humans. They believed that God was effectively a dispassionate observer of the people. And they didn't ever say anything about this country being a Christian. In fact, they said the opposite. They said that there should be no marriage between church and state. Like, it's. It's very clear if you look it up.
- [88:47]
Robbie Jones
Well, there's just this fallacy, too, that. I mean, let's just take the premise. Let's just assume that they're right, that everyone there was a Practicing white evangelical Christian. But then when you ask, well, what did they actually do then when they went to create these founding documents, they did exactly what you said. Even if the premise were true, which it isn't. But even if it were, these supposed Christian, you know, kind of Christian evangelicals is the way they think about them, created a constitution. Yeah. That says, no, there should be no establishment of religion in the country. So they had the opportunity to create a Christian nationalist state right there at the beginning. And they were like, no, that's not actually. So we're fleeing back across the pond. That's not what we want to recreate here. So, I mean, the argument falls apart. Both is historically. I mean, Thomas Jefferson, for example, cut out all the supernatural events in the Bible. Like when he created his own version of the New Testament where he cut out all the miracles, cut out all the supernatural. Now, I don't think many of the current people praising him as a great are going to be very happy with that idea of how he wanted to read the Bible where he, he said, you know, Jesus ethics are good. All the supernatural stuff, not miracles, anything about kind of supernatural actions. That's gone out of my, out of my New Testament.
- [90:01]
Joy Reid
Well, he wouldn't want the enslaved people to know that there is a miracle that could free them. Religious diversity, this is what Thomas Jefferson said about that is a difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. Let us reflect that the world is inhabited by a thousand millions of people, that these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion, that ours is but one of a thousand thousand. He said there's another one. It does the legitimate powers of government. This is Thomas Jefferson, extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does mean no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. You can find quotes like that from all of them. They all said similar things that said, it's fine to be religious if you want to, but it should have nothing to do with other people.
- [90:51]
Robbie Jones
Yeah. Well, here's the dangers. I think that Trump is, I mean, take that, that quote. I think that the maga movement and Trump in particular has figured out that he can use religion to pick our pockets. Right. To kind of pick that image from the quote there because he can kind of distract us with all this stuff while he's running straight to the bank, you know, with any number of, of things that we've been, you know, you've already been talking about on the show, the slush fund, the ballroom, the monuments, like, you know, it's all a big grift, right? And but you know, you sort of gin people up with this idea. And particularly I think just as a reminder, you know, we talked about this, but one of the things he's appealing to is the, is the diversity of the country, right? And the changing demographics in the country. And this group of white evangelicals in particular who are looking around and going, oh wait, you know, the country really is diverse and like we are not the majority anymore. And just so everybody remembers, I'm gonna, I want like every American to kind of be able to just spit this out as a mantra. White evangelical Protestants make up 13 of the country. Even among Christians, they only make up 20% of Christians in the country. And yet they style themselves as the whole country and as all people of faith. I mean, that's the thing that I saw there is this one that, that crowd joy. I mean, you know, I didn't count everybody there, at least 95% white, almost entirely evangelical. So it didn't even represent the diversity of Christianity. There were no historically black churches or denominations represented. There were no non evangelical Protestants represented. There was one token rabbi who was Orthodox. So even, even the Reform and conservative Jewish movements weren't represented, you know, there. I mean, it's just a farce. But this idea that they are the only true Christians and ergo the only true Americans is really the arguments being made here. But with this was a taxpayer funded event. Right. And I think that's the thing that makes this not just like another crazy Trump rally, but like the, you know, your tax money, my tax money being used. Right. To run this Christian nationalist event. And we're going to see more of this. This was just the opening salvo between now and July 4th.
- [93:11]
Joy Reid
Yeah, between that and forcing colleges to put Turning Points usa, which is a religious themed right wing youth organization, you know, sort of the Hitler Youth of maga, if you would all of that. Right. They're all doing the same thing. But what do. So why do evangelicals, this group, which is about the same percentage of white South Africans when they were running South Africa, right. So I don't think they have a problem. They don't care if they're a super minority. They didn't care in white, in the white South, South Africa either. Why don't they mind that Donald Trump put up a 15 foot statue to himself which is very ballist in Florida, or that he wants to build a Arc Du Trump, an Arc du Triumph which is unfortunately named the same thing that Hitler named the big arch he wanted to put in Germany. Like those things that seem very, it doesn't sound like the way that normally religious people, it's idolatrous. That doesn't bother them.
- [94:04]
Robbie Jones
You know, it doesn't seem so. I mean, it is really remarkable. And we've been tracking Trump's favorability since 2015, even before he became the nominee of the Republican Party and became president the first time. And once he becomes the Republican nominee and he gets into office, the favorability, like name your scandal, right? Over the last decade, like things that should be shocking. Paying off a porn star, having an affair, right? Like all this kind of stuff. And it is just absolutely shocking. Being convicted, you know, sexual assault.
- [94:37]
Joy Reid
Doesn't matter.
- [94:38]
Robbie Jones
Doesn't matter. Their favorability rating has been in this narrow band. It goes down, you know, maybe to 63% and it goes up to 80%, but it has never dipped anywhere outside of that, that range. And the last, the last, just a few weeks ago, our last numbers have him at 69 approval among white evangelicals.
- [94:56]
Joy Reid
You know, and I, they get mad when I say things like this, but I think it is very true. I mean, if you look at the Waco cult, right, or if you look at the cult that was operating in, in, in Guyana, Jonestown, the, the, the Jones cult, those religious leaders were literally telling moms and dads to bring their daughters to the religious cult leader, and those parents were doing it. And I think if Donald Trump said, I need a parade of your daughters delivered to the White House, even though he is listed in the Epstein files, more than Jesus is listed in the Bible. Hundreds, thousands, hundreds of reports, including a 13 year old who alleged that she was abused by him. It doesn't matter. They can hear every word of that. It doesn't matter. If he said, I want your daughters dropped off at the White House tomorrow, I promise you, the majority of his base would do it.
- [95:47]
Robbie Jones
Well, if there's a bright line, we haven't found it. There isn't one with Trump that is absolutely right. And it's worth remembering. Everybody knows this crazy thing that he said, which doesn't even sound crazy now, but in his first term, he said, you know, I could walk down Fifth Avenue in New York, shoot somebody in broad daylight, and my voters would still be with me. What people forget is that the place he said that was at an evangelical college. That was his audience when he, when he met, and they were all laughing and kind of gigawing in the room. Nobody walked out, nobody said oh, wait, what? You know, even then. And so I, I do think it's just so far down the road now. And, but I think the thing that really cements it for him, and this is what we heard over and over, you know, at this event too, is that there's a literal demonization, not a metaphorical demonization of the Democratic party. And basically anyone who's not maga. And so once you, what you really say, okay, look, you may have some concerns about this guy, but he is God's chosen and everyone who opposes him is in league with the devil. And this is what Paula White has said, you know, over and over and over again. And that's the ticket they're selling. So that you can just dismiss whatever misgivings you may have. Right. If you're convinced that, okay, well, however flawed he is, I mean, that's really the formula that they settled on after they couldn't convince people that he was Christian.
- [97:12]
Joy Reid
My favorite quote this weekend was it wasn't a quote. It's. It's people on social media because he once again could not quote a Bible verse. I mean, even the devil could quote, could quote the Bible. He can't.
- [97:22]
Robbie Jones
Well, when he showed up at the event, all they did was they recycled this awkward Bible reading that he did for this non profit group reading Second Chronicles, chapter seven. And you know, the, it's so awkward. I mean, every time he's around the Bible, you can tell he doesn't know what to do with it. Like in this case, he had it open on the desk, but he had his folded hands on. He's supposed to be reading a passage from the Bible. He's got his folded hands on the Bible and is reading from a teleprompter.
- [97:52]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [97:52]
Robbie Jones
Very, very awkwardly.
- [97:54]
Joy Reid
Oh, Robbie. He's trying not to go up in flames. I think we sometimes forget that he is trying to maintain. You know, he's already got burns all over his hands and the marks all over his body that show that he's going down the tubes and he doesn't want to go up in flames. Robbie Jones, I appreciate you, man. Thank you very much. You guys, please check out the book. The book is, it's there it is called Backslide Reclaiming of Faith in a Nation after the Christian Turn against Democracy. When does it actually drop?
- [98:18]
Robbie Jones
It is out the day after Labor Day. September.
- [98:20]
Joy Reid
After Labor Day, yes. All right, so we're in pre orders. We're in pre order time. Thank you, Robbie. Appreciate you. Oh, Lord. He had. He said, let me not touch this Bible Too much because remember when he was sworn in, he didn't touch the Bible at all. Melania held it in her two hands and he put his hand over the. He did not touch that Bible because you don't want to go up in flames, y'.
- [98:38]
Robbie Jones
All.
- [98:40]
Joy Reid
Hakeem Jeffries, let's move on. Hakeem Jeffries and members of the Congressional Black Caucus held a press conference this week to call for what Jeffries called a Jackie Robinson moment. Take a look.
- [98:50]
Harry Dunn
To stand with members of the Congressional Black Caucus as well as former athletes committed to this cause in getting this egregious situation turned around. This is an unprecedented moment featuring an unprecedented attack on black political representation. And therefore, it requires an unprecedented response. We are here standing in solidarity with the NAACP and its call for athletes to boycott institutions within the SEC that belong to states that have unleashed these Jim Crow like racially oppressive tactics, which is unacceptable, unconscionable and un American. And we believe that the silence of these institutions is complicity and we will not stand for it.
- [100:00]
Joy Reid
And Hakeem Jeffries was responding to a call from the NAACP to boycott. To have the parents of great athletes, young black athletes who are high school seniors and rising seniors, boycott and do not accept, accept admission to SEC schools to punish the right wing Dixiecrat Southern Republican run states that are eviscerating the Voting Rights act and gerrymandering black elected leaders out of power. The NAACP has labeled their plan out of bounds. And joining me now to discuss it is Derek Johnson. He serves as the 19th president and CEO of the NAACP, a role that he has held since October of 2020 17. Derek Johnson, thank you for being here.
- [100:50]
Derek Johnson
Thank you for having this important discussion.
- [100:53]
Joy Reid
So talk to me about out of bounds. What are you calling for parents to do?
- [101:00]
Derek Johnson
You consider the flagship schools of the former Confederate states. Those schools drive the economy for those states. They take pride in the schools, whether it's Texas A and M all the way across to University of Florida. It is important for parents as their children are considering their options to recognize the fact that their kids should not be creating profits for the universities when those universities and the state will prevent those same young people from being prepared and participating in the public policy decision making. Sharecropping is over and we don't, we believe that when a child has an option, they should exercise their option and leave the southeast region.
- [101:47]
Joy Reid
So let me, let me give you some of the pushback that I've just heard in the world. I won't even play the sound, but I have. Jason, we can forget the sound bite. But people who say, you know, these young, let's say these, a young basketball player, a young football player, they've dreamed their whole life growing up, they really, really, really want to play professional, professional ball. And the best way to do that is to get into the best possible athletic program in college. They get recruited by an SEC school, there's a lot of money on the table, you know, now there's a potential that, you know, they can make a lot of money even while they're in college potentially and make their way to the pros. Why should they say no? And if they say no, who's going to help the family economically if they can't?
- [102:29]
Derek Johnson
But nothing we're talking about is saying no. We're saying exercise your option to go somewhere else. If you have an offer from Alabama, University of Georgia, surely you also have offers from ucla, University of Michigan in any number of Big Ten schools. And oftentimes is a more attractive option. Many parents will select the SEC so they can be closer to their child. And we're saying in this moment, it's time for us as a community to stand up. We want every family to make the right decision for their family and their economic standing. But we know that if you're a top recruit, you have more than just one option. You probably have up to 15 different options of schools all across the country, particularly conferences like the Big Ten.
- [103:15]
Joy Reid
What about a parent who's got a student who maybe doesn't have lots and lots of offers? And the choices they have, like, let's say they're in the state of Alabama or they're in, you know, Mississippi are an SEC school or like Jackson State. Is there enough support financially for those programs at an hbcu? And are you encouraging people to maybe stay in the south if they can go to an hbcu?
- [103:39]
Derek Johnson
Oh, absolutely. The exercise in your option is if you have an economic opportunity and you have an option outside of the flagship schools of the targeted states, you should exercise that. You should make this one of your considerations. All of the high performing athletes that I have been in contact with, they are spending all summer visiting campuses across the country. And we're just saying, and when you line up all the factors, this should be a factor you should consider. Now some students, some parents would ultimately decide to go to a school that's on the list and that's okay. But at the same time, we're saying, really consider, do you want your child to go to a place where they're not seen? Their history is not respected and their voice is muted. It because the state simply don't want them to participate in the policy making process or deciding who policymakers should be. Sharecropping is over. I say that over and over. Making profits on the field should not be the main driver. You should also want to create a whole person and your child should be seen as a whole person.
- [104:49]
Joy Reid
Yeah, indeed. D.L. hughley was on the show and you know, launched this idea with us and he said the same thing. He's like, you're not going to be responsible, respected in a state that won't let you vote. You couldn't even vote if you were there. So let's say you register and you're living there. They're like, yeah, you can't vote here. You're in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana. We don't respect you. You drive off the campus, you're a target for the police. In an incarcerated state like Louisiana, it's clear that these southern governors who are sort of cosplaying as old Dixiecrat governors, they don't have a great deal of love for black people or for black people's rights. And so it is a good question. Why are black folks, why are black athletes enriching these coaches, these schools pumping money into these states that really don't have an economy? I mean, other than these SEC programs. Like, what is the economy of some of these states? Like they're depending. Alabama needs their SEC money and if we take it from them, what are they going to do? You have a part in your program that's for parents, but you also have one for fans. What do you want fans to, what pledge do you want them to take?
- [105:47]
Derek Johnson
But we should stop buying the paraphernalia. Let's stop going to the games. If you in Mississippi go to the Jackson State or Alcorn game. If you are in Alabama, Alabama State have a great football team. If you are in Louisiana, Southern Baton Rouge or Gramlin, they need the support. Let's support the institutions that have sustained and supported us. And let's stop going to the store buying the paraphernalia for these schools. And you're correct. Many of these states are dependent on, on the sports programs for their economy. Every school on the list generate north of $100 million annually from their sports program. That's on the back of African American kids who are on the field making up over 70% of the of the talent on the field or on the basketball court, Men and women, basketball court. So we truly should reconsider how we leverage our collective Power so that our rights will not be taken. And when those states are seeking to take our whites, we should take our dollars away.
- [106:45]
Joy Reid
You know, and Derek, I would take it further. I mean, I don't understand why any D9 organization is having conventions in Orlando. I would be willing to give up. As much as I love New Orleans, why are we going to these red states and giving them convention money? Why are our big organizations like the NAACP and others when y' all are having your conventions? There are beautiful places to do these in blue states. Why are we not rewarding them? And I would love to see it broaden out. I think it is time to treat these southern states like South Africa. They want to be like South Africa. They want to take a large section of their population and disenfranchise them. If that's what you want to do, we'll just treat you like old South Africa. Should we broaden this out not just to the SEC, but really to treating all these states the way they're treating us?
- [107:30]
Derek Johnson
Well, this is the first step we should be looking at, you know, this recent announcement about the super bowl going to Nashville in 2030. This is an opportunity for many of us to begin to force NFL to reconsider that decision. In this moment we are at war because southern confederates have declared war on black rights. And so we have to fight with all the tools that we have at our disposal. And we should do it strategically. We should focus, we should double down in areas where we can make some true headwinds. The day of performance politics is over. Let's identify clear targets that's measurable and move out. We are in the midst of a 10 plus year fight right now. When a Supreme Court hand down that type of decision, it is hard to reverse. When the Supreme Court give license to white supremacists to reverse well settled law immediately, what they're going to do is try to reverse all the gains that have taken place. And I can tell you that individuals running the state of Tennessee or Mississippi or Alabama or Georgia or Texas or Louisiana or Florida, South Carolina right now are a group of white supremacists who are in fear of black intellect. They are in fear of black excellence and they will do anything they can to suffocate our ability to aspire to be all that we should be in this country.
- [108:53]
Joy Reid
Yeah, imagine putting your young, talented high school senior in a school where they will not learn black history. They will learn that slavery was good and that black people should be grateful for the job training program that it was. That the founders were saints. They did nothing wrong. There was really nothing wrong with slavery. They're going to teach you a truncated, disgusting, gross, false history. They're going to treat you with disrespect. The police would disrespect you. You go to a state like that and if you try to register to vote, they're going to do everything they can to make sure that your young person cannot vote. They don't want them to vote. And if they're a young woman, they have no abortion rights. God forbid anything happens, they get pregnant. They have no rights over their own body. They're effectively in chattel slavery as a woman, if you live in a southern state. And the challenge I have, Derek Johnson, as I think about the 52% of African Americans who are stuck in apartheid at this point is what are we doing to make sure that we're sowing a seed for those families? They're still living there, they're still trying to get through life there. And they are literally living in apartheid states. Is there a plan to make sure that those people who are stuck in those places and can't necessarily move or who don't want to move to make sure that there are financially whole in
- [110:04]
Derek Johnson
this moment, to be clear, I'm one of those people. I live in the state of Mississippi. The power of the black electric is in the South. What they're really doing is trying to kneecap have half of our voting power by, by targeting these states. So we need to double down, we need to strategize. In the state of Mississippi alone, over 10% of all black elected officials in the entire country reside in that state. That's a result of ongoing struggle, strategizing and successful political organizing. So for those individuals who live in the south, it is about continuing to struggle to organize and be strategic about the targets that we pick. They can't redistrict all of us out of, out of political office because there's too many of us. So we need to double down on that while we take away the economic benefits from those who seek to leverage on our skills and on our talents as if we still in sharecropping, I keep repeating sharecropping because that's what this is about. And the last thing we need to do is create more Hersh Walk. We must continue to push, push, fight and push.
- [111:12]
Joy Reid
Yeah, 100%. I mean we should really think about whether or not young black people should join the military. They're going to send you off to Iran to fight a war that Israel has Demanded. And they don't even respect your history enough to say that there were ever black heroes. They want to erase Medgar Evers, erase Jackie Robinson, erase the existence of the freaking code talkers. They're like, there was never anybody but a white hero. And they want you to walk into West Point and walk beneath this. The, the, the, the image of Robert E. Lee. You know, there are renaming bases. I don't even have the courage to really rename it after Confederate generals so they find someone with the same name so they can get the Confederate name back. This is such an abomination. We really are in this nadir and I think people feel like, well, what do we do? We need to do something. And, and I love that you all are, are getting behind it again. I have to pick up DL Hughley, who did come, come and bring this idea to us as well that we have to do something. Right. Are you in conversation with some of these parents and are people willing, like, are people open to it as you talk to them?
- [112:10]
Derek Johnson
Not only are we in conversation with some of the parents, you know, we made sure. We created a type of retired sports council to make sure we hitting the right target, that we have the right metrics. And the response have been overwhelming. You know, DL would call for this because he's a good Omega man. But at the exact same time, those of us who are also good Omega minds, we listen to each other because this is a community effort. Not one of us have all of the solutions. All of us have a piece of solution, and we must build on this together. You may have heard me say egocentric leadership kills us. Community centric approaches is what has sustained us and allowed us to be successful. And in this moment, if you look at the demographics, the real theory is we are a growing population in these areas. There are, they are a shrinking population in these areas. And so as we grow and as we leverage our collective votes, we have seen more and more victories. And at the tipping point, which we are, they're going to try to throw everything against the wall to try to slow it down. But guess what? You cannot slow it down because we're going to continue to fight because we are informed by the veterans of the civil rights movement. We, we are, we are energized by our youth activists. And for those of us who are in between age, we are the continuity generation, that we're going to continue to push forward and we are winning despite what it feels like in this moment.
- [113:33]
Joy Reid
Yeah, Amen to that. I will just, I'm going to Find it and try to post for our audience. The person who most championed the idea of no longer thinking of ourselves as a group and going toward individual and as individualism is Clarence Thomas, who argued that we should no longer act in concert as a group. As African Americans, we should all be individuals. That is the path to destruction and to being like Clarence Thomas. Derek Johnson, thank you so much for being here. Let everybody know how they can get involved. If they want to get involved, you
- [114:02]
Derek Johnson
know, log on nacp.org the campaign is there. Sign up. Let's continue to push forward. And remember Naim Akbar. Collective consciousness. We have a collective history that we lean on and as the African Diaspora, and we must continue to fight through that collective consciousness.
- [114:20]
Joy Reid
Amen. Amen. Amen. You can get an Amen, and it is not even Sunday or Saturday if you are a Seventh Day Adventist. Thank you very much, Derek Johnson. I appreciate. You have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Appreciate you being here.
- [114:35]
Derek Johnson
Thank you.
- [114:36]
Joy Reid
Thank you very much. All right, everybody. So there it is. And here's the thing, Jason, is, you know, just as Derek Johnson was saying, it's hard for us to think about, like, as an individual, you know, such an opportunity to maybe get to go, you know, full fare to a college, because you're a great athlete, you're a good football player, a good basketball player. And as a parent, if you have a child that wants to go to one of those schools, you know, you as the parent, have to weigh in and give your vote and say, we're not sending you to a place where you're going to be disrespected, where your history is going to be ignored, and where you're not even going to be allowed to vote. Like, we just actually have to think about this stuff, right? We have to be more collective in our spirit.
- [115:11]
Jason
When our son went to Syracuse, what do we tell him? You got to be careful out there. You're going to be a black God and I see of everything. And you can't be free like your friends, you know, your other friends, because believe me, something goes south, they're going to point to you first. So be very careful out there. Any parent that sends their child down south just warned them it's a completely different system. They don't play with us down there. So just be careful.
- [115:34]
Joy Reid
And what they really want to do is put these young men in, you know, the football kind of. They put them in the culture, and football culture is very conservative, and they want to feed them with this Herschel Walker mentality, have them be grateful to the white schools and white coaches that are coaching them, Even if behind their back, they're treating them like the N word hard r. And they look at them and they don't see a voter. They look at them and they don't see a war hero. They look at them and they don't see a constituent. They see somebody you can incarcerate. They see somebody you can throw into prison. They see somebody you can ignore. They see somebody who you can lecture about how slavery is the best thing that could have happened to your ancestors as if there was nothing happening on the African continent until the Europeans got there. These people have zero respect for black people. And I was going to play this little Jesse Waters clip, but f Jesse Waters, because he's out there whining and complaining it that they were gonna. That were. You know, we're talking about punishing the fans. Yeah, we're talking about punishing the fans. You're talking about punishing the schools. Yeah, we're talking about punishing the schools. Jesse, we do want to punish the schools and the state, but you see
- [116:38]
Jason
how he reacts to stuff like that, you know, oh, the black book ain't gonna entertain us anymore.
- [116:42]
Joy Reid
Yeah. He's like, you're not gonna sing and dance for me? You're not gonna do the Huckabuck for me?
- [116:45]
Harry Dunn
Well, you're supposed to dance for me.
- [116:47]
Joy Reid
You're gonna dance for me? No, we're not gonna dance for you. How about that? You can't come to our barbecue. You can't come to our events. We don't want you, and we don't want to support your schools. One thing I really think it will be important to do is we need to get a list of all the HBCUs that are in those SEC states and let's all start buying their merch. We'll buy the merch from Jackson State. We will buy the merch from famu, but we are not buying no merch from no Roll Tide. We stop buying their merch. Why are you making these schools rich? These coaches. Some of these coaches make a million dollars plus. And why are they so wealthy? Why do these coaches get that money? It's because those black fullbacks and halfbacks and quarterbacks got them young bucks running up and down young black men who are making those schools hot. And then they sell that merch. They getting rich. And it is like a plantation. It literally is like sharecropping. They want these young men to work for free. They can only get their scholarships if they don't get A knee injury. God forbid they get hurt. They lose their scholarship. They barely educate them. They don't care if they go to class. They're not thinking about their brain or thinking about whether they can become a coach one day or become an executive. They're not educating them to be an executive. They're like, get on the field, boy, and run. That's all they want from these black kids. Yeah, we got no interest in their intellect.
- [118:01]
Jason
We got you for four years, boy.
- [118:03]
Joy Reid
For four years. Get on there and run. If you can't run, get out. They don't care if those kids go to class. They literally don't educate. And then when they do claim they're educating them, it's that they want to teach them to hate their own history and to ignore their own history and to love white supremacy. That's how you get a Herschel Walker. You steep somebody like Herschel, who's a good athlete in this world in which he learns that white supremacy is better, that the white ice is colder, and that that is what he should aspire to, is to have them pat him on the head like he. Like Byron Donalds got patted on the head. What does Byron Donalds learn that he doesn't get patted on the head by the right maga? And now you get to be governor, they claiming. Do you think he would be in control as governor? They're not going to want that. He's gonna find out what Michael Steele found out when he became the head of the RNC and suddenly he found out. Oh, they didn't want him to be really in charge. They wanted him to be nominally, visually in charge, but not really. Don't really, really spend the money. They really do not have respect. None of these people do. You know, Rhonda Sanders, it's on his face. He makes it clear how he feels about black folks. It's clear how Landry feels about y'. All. He's made K Ivy. She couldn't be clearer if she was an old plantation mistress from the 1800s. It could not be clearer how they feel about you. Why would you go and make their state this Governor of Tennessee. He can't even his legislature won't even let the Justins talk on the floor of the Senate. They are so offended. And by that, the white lady, Gloria Johnson, for daring to stand next to these two black men. He can't stand them. He couldn't be clearer in his contempt for black people. They don't even want black people to run Memphis. And now they have the nerve to say what do they want us to support the Super Bowl? Would you like us to come and support your super bowl in Tennessee? No. You want us to come to Nashville and spend money because we're the ones who love to go on vacation and we're coming back to. No. No, we're not. We need to stop. We have to stop going to Miami. There are other places to go on vacation. Go to Hawaii, go to California. Those are beautiful places. Forget Hawaii. Forget Florida. Why y' all going to Florida every minute? Every time I turn around. No, stop. We need to literally abandon the tourism and commerce of these red states. If they don't like us, then try to get along without us.
- [120:05]
Maddie J
You don't like black people.
- [120:06]
Joy Reid
You don't like black people to vote. Well, then good. Good luck with your. Good luck with your cute little football program. I hope it survives Roll Tide. Good luck. Good luck tsu. Hope it survives without good. You know, if you. If you think that you can. That your football programs can survive without us, then do it. Y' all thought your military didn't need black heroes, then have a military without us. You thought you don't need us? Okay, if you're going to go to a red state, go to an HBCU in a red state. If you go to a red state, if you. If you want to have your kid go to school to rest and make those red state programs incredible. Turn Jackson State into a. Into a juggernaut in Mississippi. Let them get the money. Let everybody buy their merch. Let their merch become the best, best selling merch. Let their stuff become hot. And forget these other schools. They don't like you. They don't want you. They hate your history. They hate your votes. They don't want you to have a representative in Congress. They want you to effectively be on a plantation. That is the only way that the right is comfortable with black people. So we need to start acting accordingly. And everyone else, please, ditto. Same thing. Latinos, you thought they liked you. You said, I will vote for Donald Trump. They want to deport you. They don't like you. All right, let's do our moment of joy. Asian Americans are like, don't worry. This lawsuit against Harvard is for you. And then after the lawsuit is over, when there's still a lot of Asians at Harvard, they're like, this is an outrage. Why are there all these Asians in here? They're like, no, no, no, no, we're suing. Ed Blum is like, no, I'm suing because I want the Asians to get a chance. And then as soon as the Asians get a chance. Like what Asians? Why are they here? Why are they getting all of our jobs? Get out. H1B visa agents. No Mohaven Asians. Get out. They keep on being like, we just like the Asian. No, you don't. You don't like it. Don't pretend we know. We see you. You're real visible. Okay, let's do. Let's do our. Yeah, let's. Y' all stop. Don't watch that. Yeah, stop watching the real. Stop. Stop supporting them economically. The only thing they truly understand is economic pain. Seriously, stop. Okay, let's do our motor joy. Our motive. Joy tonight is from one of our favorite favorites, Ms. Mary J. Mrs. Matijay. No, we have put the Mrs. There as she came for a hea who came for your girl. Take a listen.
- [122:31]
Maddie J
Listen, publics, and listen well. Maddie J. Has never and will never be the type of woman to poke fun at people's sh. I don't do that. That's disrespectful. It lacks couth class and courtesy. That is not who I am. And I stand on that. However, with a heifer of intense heiferosity. Rings my doorbell. Puglies. I gotta answer. I can't just leave her standing out there on the street without seeing about. Today we will be highlighting the dumb heifer. Now that's a heifer of an illiterate frequency who tried to show sarcasm in a public setting only to expose her lack of spelling bee potentiality and then end up getting her own self stone he. Let me tell you something, Mad J gonna be brief. There's no space in your empty mouth that is worthy of you speaking on my friend Joy. Then when you referred to this queen, you spelled her name in a special head reading this fundamental what that word Secret. Don't do that, baby. Don't do that. Cause the way your spelling is set up, you is a reading rainbow eligibility. And my brother Lavar Burton liable to ask you to come. Now sit with him. Sit close to him. Sit right there at his table so he can hold your hand.
- [124:35]
Joy Reid
Hustler.
- [124:36]
Congressman Adam Smith
Heifer.
- [124:37]
Maddie J
Don't say a word. You don't know the difference between a noun and a verb.
- [124:47]
Joy Reid
Misses Maddie J. She is the greatest.
- [124:50]
Jason
Ms. Maddie J came for that woman who tried to come for you. Sis, what is that about? She said not.
- [124:56]
Joy Reid
Not spelled my name.
- [124:58]
Harry Dunn
R E A D. Listen, you could
- [124:59]
Jason
come for us, but please spell that last name.
- [125:02]
Joy Reid
Now.
- [125:03]
Harry Dunn
Come on now.
- [125:03]
Joy Reid
Spell it.
- [125:04]
Jason
Read is for reading a book.
- [125:06]
Joy Reid
Come on.
- [125:07]
Jason
There's a R E E and R E I D with the R E I D. Get it together.
- [125:12]
Joy Reid
She spelled it R E A D, like, yeah. I'm like, what are you doing?
- [125:15]
Jason
But Ms. Maddie came to bed and she. She.
- [125:17]
Joy Reid
She told you was unfollowing her. She said, oh, hold on. She came with a blade. I love her. Oh, my God. Love her so much. All right, you guys, thank you so much for tuning in. If you are a premium subscriber, we're about to do our Members Only live. So if you're a member, we're about to jump on the Members Only in, like, two minutes. I have to go and get my security. I have to go get my cocktail. But if you're not yet a member, come to the next one. We want to make sure that you can participate. We will not have a show on Monday, so want to wish you all a wonderful Decoration Day. That is the other name for Memorial Day. I have a piece on Joann Reid.com that will explain why it's Decoration Day. Remember, it was black folks who actually started Memorial Day. You're welcome. That's why you gotta. You got a holiday. And it was to celebrate the end of the Civil War because we whoop them tricks from the Confederacy. Whoop them tricks from the Confederacy. Whoop them good. And it was only their wives and daughters from the daughters of the Confederacy who brought them back from the ignominy of complete and utter embarrassing, humiliating defeat for having shot at Union troops. I. I keep on saying, I don't. I don't know why. There's more. Not more celebration of that.
- [126:27]
Maddie J
We need.
- [126:27]
Joy Reid
We need more. We need more William Tecumseh Shermans. Somebody name your child Tecumseh, and I'll know who you are. Name your kid Tecumseh. Because William Sherman whooped their behinds and thank God for it. And Ulysses S. Grant whooped them. That's why we have Memorial Day, because black people came out and they said, we're going to come up there and celebrate that we whoop that trick. That's right. Whooped them. Whooped them good. Icy honey Whooped them good. And we'll never forget it. And you shouldn't either. Have a wonderful weekend. Have a great Memorial Day weekend, and we will see you on next Wednesday. And if you have Tiffany's book on order, don't worry, it's coming. Remember, back order. We're gonna work on it. We love you guys. Peace. Run me my hush hush money. Bye, Rust me run me my hush money dot com. Hush money. Bye. I mean, not hush money for slush money. Slush money. Oh, run me my slush money. Run me my slushmoney.com. slushmoney.com. You know what I mean?
- [127:25]
Harry Dunn
Have you got it together?
- [127:26]
Jason
Because, you know, I don't want to end it to you.
- [127:28]
Joy Reid
Run me my slush money.
- [127:29]
Jason
Okay.
- [127:29]
Joy Reid
I mean, if you want to run me some hush money, too, maybe I'll be quiet, but have to be a lot of money.
- [127:32]
Jason
Okay, well, I'm gonna.
- [127:33]
Joy Reid
It would have to be a lot of hush money.
- [127:35]
Jason
Bye, Joy.
- [127:36]
Joy Reid
Bye.
- [127:37]
Harry Dunn
Getting back to the basics Grassroot level
- [127:40]
Joy Reid
Let me dig a little deeper with
- [127:41]
Harry Dunn
the shovel plenty can't tell the force from the trees that I'm hard to detect Like a black hole in a dark injustice anywhere It's a threat to justice everywhere Let me make this clear I got a bone to pick and I'll never fear the threat of poverty they don't want to talk about it they rap the party so I'm a real talk about it for show.