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The Joy Reid Show
A Moral Monday: Elections, Kings & the Antichrist | The Joy Reid Show LIVE!
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- [00:01]
Justin J. Pearson
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- [00:40]
Joy Reid
And I'm told we have an excellent connection. Aha. There we go. Hey guys. Welcome to the Joy Reid Show. The what is it? AWS outage is not letting us be great. So you notice we just came up without our famous song. We do not have our food chain song this evening, but we still have you guys. We appreciate everybody in the chat. Welcome to the Joy Reid Show. Thank you all. If you're hanging with us on YouTube, on Substack, the Spotify folks, hello to you as well. We are going to make it through this AWS chat. It is literally like taking down the entire world. It really does remind you that like six, you know, tech lords control the entire world. They own all the media, they own all the tech, everything. So basically, if one of them goes down, it takes everything down. This is the Amazon service. That's what's happening right now. But we're going to are going to press on with the show and we appreciate everybody, especially our team TJRS members. Thank you all to be for being there. Love to everybody in the chat. So here's the question that I want to ask you all on this Monday. What do you do when your own government becomes a troll, like an official troll? Right now, our federal government is literally this country's most prolific and scatological content creator. Every federal agency has an X Twitter account and social media accounts and likely a truth Social account, even though no one reads it except Donald Trump. And what they primarily use those accounts to do is to troll individual Americans and to distribute propaganda. That's what they do. And literally trolling individual American civilians. I want to show you guys a really amazing video that shows you an assourcement of the no Kings. Oh, actually, before I get to that, I want to show you guys what we're doing. Even before we get to know Kings. I want to show you guys what's happening to your White House. This is what they're doing with your property. This is the state of the White House right now. For Camille. This is a zero. This is from the Washington Post. It's showing you that they've begun demolishing the east wing facade of the White House that you own. Your property is now being demolished by Donald Trump because he wants to build his $200 million fancy. Actually, 250 million. Sorry, I'm selling it short. To build his $250 million ballroom. He is wrecking part of the White House. I'm not sure how much if this kind of demolition has been done on the White House in 100 years. Like, they're literally demolishing parts of the White House. We're gonna try to get that video free, but be patient with us on tonight because we don't necessarily have all the bells and whistles because of the damn outage, but change streams too. Oh, yep. And we are. We change. We're doing a whole different thing. We're using a whole different technology to bring you guys, so be patient with us. We're trying to make it work. A lot of people are saying in the chat that a lot of your social media is down. It's been hell. But if we can pull it up, you'll see that the White House east wing is now basically partnering a demolition site because Donald Trump needs his 250 million dollar ballroom. Like, he has to have it. Camille, do we have that? We don't have it. We don't have. It's okay if we don't have it. That's fine. But I want. Oh, wait, we got it. We got it. We got it. Let's see. Do we have it? Here comes. Okay, we're gonna leave it alone. Trust me when I tell you it's hideous. I'm gonna actually turn my laptop around so you guys can see it on here. Let me just turn around. Ooh. Let me just turn it around for you. Okay. I don't know if you guys can see that, but that is the state of your White House. I'm not sure if that is visible to you. You got it. Y' all see it? Oh, too light. Too much light. Too much. Too bright. Too bright. But anyway, look, it looks. It looks like hail. Okay, now I just want to show you guys some of the no Kings protests over the weekend. And thank you all for tuning in. Those of you who tuned in to our super coverage, Myself, Don Jim Acosta. We did our super show. It was really fun. Four hours of live streaming, which I personally believe was better than the coverage that you get on mainstream media. But let me show you guys just a compilation of the no Kings protests. There's literally a 50 nifty United States clip, which you can see on my Instagram, that shows you like all of them. So these protests obviously triggered Donald Trump, and this is what he had to say when his minions in Congress and his spokesperson had said they had promised him that this would just be small, unimportant, anti American, terrorist, you know, expressions of the Hamas support. Instead, they were like, joyful, peaceful, lots of fun animal characters, which, you know, we love. So let's play a little bit of A two, which is one of my favorite clips from it. If we have it, and we have it, we're gonna. You guys gotta be patient with us with these clips, and we'll see if they come up. Let's see if Camille can get these clips up. This is the Frogs for Peace. This is A two. If we have it. Oh, we may not. Don't see A two. Sorry. All right. Sorry. We don't have it. All right, we're going to move on. We're going to move on. The biggest content creator troll of them all, of course, happens to be the Twitter accounts of the President and the Vice President, United States, as well as all the federal agencies that they control. Now, Donald Trump on camera. I won't even try to pull it up. He basically said, no one was at these protests. They were small, they were unimportant. But then he added that. He's like, but I'm not a king. He's like, I'm not a king. These protests were small. They were unimportant. Let us see if we have A four. A four, which is. We're gonna have to pull the sound off of that video because YouTube will be very upset. By the way, Kenny Loggins, who actually made that song Danger Zone, has now demanded that Donald Trump pull that sound and that song off of his Twitter thing because they're, like, disgusting. First of all, dumping. Having the President of the United States. Think about this for a moment. Use the platform of the White House official account to put a video of himself wearing a king's crown, getting into a fighter jet, which, by the way, he would never have done because he was a coward who literally claimed to have bone spurs so that he wouldn't have to fight during Vietnam. He's a draft dodger. So the draft dodger president gets in, supposedly using AI into a fighter jet and shits literally on the American people. And the guy in the front that you see there is a content creator named Harry Sisson. He's a young guy who's now getting trolled by the Vice President of the United States. I just want to again make this clear to you. You had the President of the United States, first of all say, I'm not a king, but then dress himself up as a king in an AI video, post a video of himself as a king shitting on the American people, and specifically on Harry Sisson. And then J.D. vance goes on Twitter and trolls Harry Sisson. So, again, this is why I'm asking you this question. What happens when your government is basically a trolling outfit? It's not a government anymore. All they do is troll. So welcome to the club. By the way, Harry Sisson from getting trolled by the President United States and the Vice President United States. They both are just trolls. I want to show you what else JD Vance was doing when he is snagging a government paycheck. When he's not defending pro Hitler and racist tweets by young, but actually fully adult Republicans, some in their 30s and some, you know, two years younger than him and referring to them as boys and kids. When he's not doing that or presiding over the military literally firing live shells over a Los Angeles freeway. Some of those shells actually hit his own motorcade during the no Kings protest in LA because they wanted to disrupt it. So they had the Marines do their, like, birthday tribute and fire live rounds, some of which landed on his motorcade. When he's not doing stuff like that, he's posting videos like this one. Let's see if we have this one. And this one is a seven. And it's called Hail to the King. This is what JD Vance was posting and Trump reposted it. No. Okay, so it's fine because we would have to take out the video anyway. The sound of it, anyway. That video is the song Hail to the King, which is also another 80s rock jam. And it's also showing Donald Trump portraying itself as a monarch. They also posted on the official White House Twitter, the two of them sitting next to each other all in what kind of look like queen's crowns. If we have a eight, they are. Some people have said that those are actually the crowns that the Queen of England wears, not the King of England, which is fine, but I guess they can be queens if they want. It's a modern world. It's 2025. If that's what they want to be, that's fine. We don't have any of the stills. But while we're waiting, by the way, by the Supreme Court, for the Supreme Court to decide whether any of us have the right to vote under the Voting Rights act, they're going to decide whether we actually get to choose our representatives or whether they get to choose us. In this captured Republican Party and captured Supreme Court, I want to note that we still are going to have elections. So here's what's happening in the state of Tennessee. On October 17, a group of local Democratic Memphis and Nashville officials sued that state's Republican governor, Bill Lee, over the deployment of the National Guard to Memphis, claiming that deployment of the Guard violates the Tennessee Constitution, especially the part that says that the governor of Tennessee may not send the National Guard into a city unless there is a case of rebellion or invasion. And then only when the General assembly of the State of Tennessee has declared by law that the public safety requires sending the National Guard, none of those conditions apply. And yet Governor Lee not only sent the Guard into Memphis, but I don't know if we have this clip of him saying how long he believes the protests are going to last. Do we have that video? That would be. I'm going, going, going. It's B1. You have B1.
- [10:10]
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee
We've just begun. We do know that this is going to last for months, and we have just begun. In fact, I will tell you that it will last forever. Because what we believe will happen is the numbers of law enforcement agents from different, from different agencies will change depending on the mission. At the moment, it'll be mission dependent. What we find this week will inform what we do next week. But we know that the surge that has taken place currently, or that is taking place currently, that surge will diminish at some point. But what we learned from that surge, the collaboration that is happening right now between the U.S. marshals Service and the Memphis Police Department and the FBI and the DEA and the. The Tennessee Highway Patrol, that collaboration that in some ways has never been this effectively executed, that collaboration will be here from, from now on. So this operation in some ways may never end. It'll just change in its scope as we execute through the mission. And obviously the goal is to minimize, if not approach, the elimination of violent crime in the city of Memphis.
- [11:40]
Joy Reid
Do we have our guest? We can bring him in if we have him. Representative we are going to talk with Representative Justin J. Pearson of the great city of Memphis, Tennessee. Y' all let me know when he is on. But that is actually a pretty frightening statement by the governor of the state of Tennessee, effectively saying that they are going to have a permanent occupation of the city of Memphis and the city of Nashville. What you need to understand about Nashville and Memphis, especially Nashville, is that Nashville actually is the economic heart and soul of Tennessee. And so what the governor is saying is that they are going to cause the National Guard to occupy their most economically viable city, Nashville, and their blackest city, Memphis, which has the largest black percentage population in the state. And they're going to occupy them, according to the governor, permanently. Permanently. We don't have Justin J. Pearson yet, so let's move on because I also want to talk about the state of Texas, because that is also a state where we're going to. And by the way, Justin Pearson, who's one of the Justins, you guys remember the Tennessee Three, Justin Pearson, Justin Jones. And I'm gonna, oh, my goodness, I'm gonna forget the third name of the sister, the, the lovely lady who was the third member of the group. They, she, he is running for the United States Congress. That is what he is doing. So we're going to talk to him in a little bit. But let me move on to Texas really quickly. District 18, which we've talked about a lot on this show, which was created as a result of the Voting Rights act of 1965, if you'll recall. We talked about it a lot on this show. It was first held in its present form by Barbara Jordan, the great Barbara Jordan, legendary Barbara Jordan. Mickey Leland, Sheila Jackson Lee held the same seat. Also, Sylvester Turner, the former Houston mayor, held the seat. That seat is facing a special election on November 4. And early voting in the state of Texas actually begins today that goes all the way through November 4th. So that seat is really critical. There are a bunch of people running for the seat. There are actually 16 candidates who are running for the seat in District 18. And if you will recall, we what's being done to District 18 is that it is being effectively merged with District 9, which is another historically black district in the Houston area. They're kind of merging them together, moving the centers of them around. You saw those maps and you, we told you what was going to happen with the, the district, with District 18 and with District 9. Because what Texas Governor Greg Abbott is order has ordered Republicans in the state to do on Donald Trump's orders is to shrink black representation down to one or two seats from the four they currently have. They want them to go away. This is going to force whoever wins the District 18 seat to then compete again against Representative Al Green, a liberated Democrat, one of our favorites on the show as well, because his district is basically being scooped out and most of those voters dumped into District 18. They're being kind of merged together. So what will happen is this special election will happen and then that the winner of that race will have to turn around and run again against Representative Al Green. He's got high approval ratings, forcing the two to run together. It's sort of like a game of Survivor to try to make sure that there is less black representation that we have now. Isaiah Martin, if you guys know him, he's been on the show, one of our favorite social media guys. He's also running in the seat. There's 16 people running. It's a special election. Y' all, let me know when our guest is here, because this is one of the first tests of the electoral prowess of District 18 and what the future will be. And joining us now is Jalanda Jones. Representative Jalanda Jones, who is the person who came on this podcast and explained what was going to be done to D18. She's now running for Congress in that seat. Representative Jones, great to see you.
- [15:37]
Jalanda Jones
How are you?
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Joy Reid
I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. So let's talk about this race. Was I correct in saying early voting starts today?
- [15:44]
Jalanda Jones
Yes. Started this morning, 7 o', clock, 7 to 7.
- [15:47]
Joy Reid
So 16 people running for the seat. How do you distinguish yourself other than the fact that you were the sister who brought the maps and explained to the country what in the hell was being done to D18?
- [15:58]
Jalanda Jones
So I think that that is one thing that, that distinguishes me is that I. And you know, when you contacted me, you reached out to me, I told you, hey, there are these maps. If I show you the maps, you will see what I mean, because I'm a visual person. And once I showed you those maps, you were like, oh, my God. And you, I think, broke the story down to the minutiae to the world. So that distinguishes me because I believe that knowledge is power and details are power. And I was the only elected official in Houston or Harris county that hosted redistricting emergency town halls before the sham hearings to educate the people in Texas 18 and in House District 147, because I am currently the state representative about what they were doing so that they could see with their own eyes that they're literally trying to eviscerate black and brown representation. So that's one thing.
- [17:02]
Joy Reid
Yeah, go ahead. Well, I want to ask you, I mean, to me, the most offensive piece of this is that let's say you win this race, you've now been elected, you are the, you know, representative elect for D18. You then now have to run again, effectively against another sitting member. It's pitting black Power against black power. I mean, to me that seems incredibly offensive. But talk about what that calendar looks like. When would that next race have to happen?
- [17:29]
Jalanda Jones
So I'm just going to claim it. When I win, I'm just going to claim it. I will be the sitting congressperson for Texas 18. If the maps are not stricken down by the courts, and that's before the courts now, then it would cause Congressman Green probably to run for Texas 18 because they have shrunk black represent representation in Texas. They can they combined 30 and 33, which are Jasmine Crockett and Mark Z. And they combined 18 and nine. Right. So they're literally trying to wipe out two black seats at a minimum. So I'm gonna hold my fingers crossed because in Louisiana they struck down maps. So I'm hopeful that they will strike down these maps. If they strike down the maps, there will be no clashing, but it won't be for lack of effort on the Republicans trying to steal some damn seats.
- [18:26]
Joy Reid
And let's talk about what you want to do for the district because one of the things that I really love about what you did, Representative, is you also explained like what the economics of D9 and D18 were and the attempt to steal the economic heart of both of those two districts. Yeah, talk about that.
- [18:44]
Jalanda Jones
Talk about so Texas 18 for the record, for people who want to know who was set in Texas 18, Barbara Jordan, your so Texas 18 was created in 1973. Barbara Jordan, then Mickey Leland. The whole world knew Mickey Leland. Then Craig Washington. Then people know Craig. He was a tremendous trial lawyer. Then Sheila Jackson Lee. Everybody knows Sheila Jackson Lee. Then Sylvester Turner. He wasn't there that long, but he was a former mayor of of Houston and he also State Rep. My point being, at a minimum, people know that Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, Craig Washington and she was actually fighters.
- [19:25]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
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Jalanda Jones
That's what in the hell they did. Right? They were fighters. And I am a fighter. That is what I did when they stick the FBI on me, when they sicked the Texas Rangers on us, when they tried to fight, when they found us close to $10,000 which let me be clear, I'm fighting that because I believe them to be unconstitutional. That is just not good insofar as the economic engines. Joy, what they did in 30 where Jasmine Crockett is, they literally took out Love Field Airport. That is a airports are economy drivers wherever they sit. Right. What they did in 18 was they took out Bush Airport, which if you fly flown to Houston, it's the biggest airport. Bush Airport has always been in 18. They removed it from 18. So they took away economic drivers and districts. Strong congressional districts need economic drivers.
- [20:23]
Joy Reid
Yep.
- [20:23]
Jalanda Jones
So. And. And that's a problem. So they stealing from black and brown people.
- [20:28]
Joy Reid
And.
- [20:29]
Jalanda Jones
And I gotta tell you, Joy, I did not come back.
- [20:32]
Joy Reid
Right.
- [20:33]
Jalanda Jones
I was gone. I was gone during the first special session where we successfully kill those maps. Now, the second special session is when they got the quorum because some of my colleagues came back. I didn't come back. I was prepared to stay gone until December, which would have killed the maps for sure. I was prepared to do that because for me, this was the Montgomery bus boycott moment that lasted for over a year, 380 something days. And. And effectively my colleagues and I were gone. They were gone for 13 days, which is how long it took to kill the maps in the first special session. But had we stayed gone, let me be clear. There would be no theft of two seats.
- [21:17]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [21:18]
Jalanda Jones
And so now I got. I'm fighting. So the reason I'm dressed like this, because I've been at the polls all day. Right, Right. You see that? I'm working.
- [21:26]
Justin J. Pearson
Yeah.
- [21:26]
Jalanda Jones
I got tax. Right. I'm a regular.
- [21:29]
Joy Reid
It's a humble brag look. And you can do that humble brag on here any day. Go ahead and show them.
- [21:33]
Justin J. Pearson
Good.
- [21:34]
Mike Simmons
For real.
- [21:35]
Joy Reid
Let me ask you this, because one of the things I do love about you, and again, we are so appreciative that you actually educated the Joy Reid show audience about what was happening. So you knew this was coming and explained it. But. But you also. I feel like in this moment, what I think people are looking for is authenticity. That's how we love it. We love the outfit, we love the fit. But also the fact that you're a regular person who understands struggle and who actually understands the economic struggles, that a lot of people that are a lot of people, that keep a lot of people from voting, that keep a lot of people from feeling hope because they're like, my lights are off. I don't know what to do. Can you just talk about the personal reasons that you are in politics and what you want to accomplish?
- [22:12]
Jalanda Jones
I was just telling someone. So here's the deal. My parents met like. Like they do. And you hope your life's going to be like a fairy tale. Well, my dad, my parents were very young when they met. My dad enlists in the Marines, goes away to Vietnam, doesn't come back the same as what we now know as ptsd. Cried all the time, never cried before. He went to Vietnam and blew his brains out. I was in the room with my dad, he blew his brains out. Traumatizing. But I've had a whole bunch of mental health counseling just so you know, so that I could try to get through that. But effectively, what that did to my mom, who only ever aspired to be a homemaker. Yeah, all of a sudden she's got a kid, right? She's got a kid. And so I was in a single parent household. So I was the oldest of five. My mother's checks didn't last from paycheck to paycheck. My mother got a social work degree from D Texas Southern University. Couldn't make a living, Ended up working a government job. The post office was a letter carrier. Management harassed her her entire career. She ended up being a union steward and she was getting the managers back. But we got evicted all the time. We got evicted all the time. We probably lived in 12 places from 9th grade to 12th grade. The really interesting thing is I was a sports star, so I was always in the media. They always wanted to interview me. Wherever we lived, I would never let them. Right. In 10th grade, we did not have electricity. We were using candles, so the candles caught fire. And I remember in 10th grade being 6 foot, that's how tall I am, barefooted in panties and a T shirt, standing outside of our house burned down. By the grace of God, My mother was able to find her car keys and pull the car out of the garage. And what I learned from that, and this is what I'm going to do for the people. And in Texas, 18, even though we lost everything that night, and even though we didn't have a place to stay, my mother dropped me off at my best friend's house. She dropped off my sister at her best friend's house. She dropped off me and each of my siblings at our best friend's house because my mother couldn't afford to miss work. I went to school the next day and my friend Winnie Pena's clothes. I'm six foot, she five four and crab and pants. But I went to school the next day. It is so interesting. People were like, jalandha, you smell smoke. Everybody was smelling smoke. I was so embarrassed to tell them that our house burned down. Rent house. We didn't own it. Our house burned down because we did. We're using kettles, didn't have electricity. I told them we had an electrical short. What I learned from that is you just got to keep on keeping on.
- [24:44]
Joy Reid
Amen. Right?
- [24:44]
Jalanda Jones
My mother could not afford, you know, to, to. To miss a paycheck. I got my Eyes checked. I got my vaccinations, I got my teeth cleansed at the city health clinic. That is government dollars coming down to keep me healthy. Right? I'm a public school product. Elementary school, middle school, high school, college, law school. All public schools. All public schools. And look where I am today.
- [25:12]
Joy Reid
Amen. Right?
- [25:13]
Jalanda Jones
My brother was murdered, my aunt was murdered. A bunch of my cousins were murdered. I could go on and on and on. My point is, I understand the struggle. I understand the embarrassment. I understand you can work a full time job and still not have enough money to pay your bills. And so that's what makes me different. I don't have stories that somebody else did something. I lived it.
- [25:34]
Joy Reid
Yeah, right.
- [25:35]
Jalanda Jones
I lived it. And so I'm a fight. And so I always see the world through the least, the last and the lost glasses, because that's who I am. And some people, like Jolanda, you're a lawyer now, and I am. My son and I practice law together. I'm a survivor of domestic violence. I'm very lucky to be alive. I've been strangled. If you know anything about domestic violence, you know that strangulation is very intimate and it is control and you mostly die. God intervened and I didn't die. But let me be clear. Even though I'm a successful lawyer, I come from a union family. My grandfather was union. I'm a dudes paying member of the Texas State Employees Union because I believe that unions are as strong as their dues paying members. Which is why every single solitary time the Republicans try to take away automatic pay into your union dues. I vote against it because they are trying to get rid of unions. And, and this is what I learned from having a mama who was a letter carrier. If the employees are not allowed to organize and collectively bargain, management will crush you. And so, and so that is why I fight for unions. I could go on and on and on. But let me be clear. I am a trial lawyer. It's not like being a finance lawyer where I'm in the ivory towers crunching numbers for bonds. Most people don't even know what a bond is, even though we're asked to vote on them all the time. I'm not a lawyer who's a county attorney, right. Where I literally spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year to hire law firms to fight for county issues and then say, I beat you. When law firms are actually handling it, you're not in court. Those law firms are. I'm a trial lawyer. My clients are the little guy and the little girl. And guess what they do? They come into my office and they say, the police are messing with me, or somebody hit me, or my insurance company doesn't want to pay, or my boyfriend hit me or my girlfriend hit me. Somebody stepped on them. And they need for me to go into court and bow up. Right? They need to fight for them. And when you are a trial lawyer, you have a certain set of skills. Remember that movie taken when l said to the dudes, you got 48 hours to give me back my daughter. Otherwise, I got a certain set of skills and I'm gonna kill your ass. Remember that?
- [27:55]
Joy Reid
Amen.
- [27:56]
Jalanda Jones
I got a certain set of skills as a trial lawyer. When I see some, I call it out and I go for it. And you know that. That. Yeah, let's do this. Let's do this.
- [28:05]
Brandon Johnson
Let's do this.
- [28:06]
Jalanda Jones
Oh, yeah. So, Jolanda Jones, if you can go to jolandajones.com and to donate to my campaign, let me be clear. The powers that be in this town don't want me to be the congressperson because they want the same old, same old. Want to keep getting their contracts. They want to enrich their friends. Guess what? I'mma fight for the money to trickle down to us because it don't never work. And follow me on Instagram at Jones. And I got a made up black name. Thank my mama for that. Jolanda. J O L A N D A Jones. That's an Instagram. So that's who I am.
- [28:41]
Joy Reid
Better to do Jolanda Jones Special Voting has started already. If you are in Texas, you need to head to the polls. Let's support our sister. She has been there for us. The F folks are loving you. Getting lots of hearts in the chat. Thank you so much, everybody in the chat. They're giving you all the love of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
- [29:01]
Jalanda Jones
D9. D9. Love you a Delta.
- [29:04]
Joy Reid
There we go. And look, we across the D9. It's all D9. Love, y'.
- [29:07]
Brandon Johnson
All.
- [29:08]
Joy Reid
Please support this wonderful aka we love her. We appreciate her. A friend of the show, a sister of the show, and my hair twin. All right, thank you very much, State Representative Jalanda Jones. Thank you very much. Y' all go ahead and support her at Jalanda Jones. You can find her on all the Instagrams, you can find her on all the things, all the hearts in the chat. You all are loving her. And she educated us right on this show. And so we had to bring her back to support her run in Texas. All right, let's go down to the state of Mississippi. We're doing elections this hour, by the way. Next hour we got a lot of good stuff coming. But this hour we are getting into these elections. Let's go to the state of Mississippi where I would argue the most underrated, which is, I would argue is the most underrated potential electorate in the country. People, they crap on Mississippi. They say Mississippi's unwinnable, that it's not an important state. They think of it as a deep red state. It really kind of isn't. I want you to notice, though, how rarely you ever hear when's the last time you heard from one of the senators from Mississippi? Can you even remember? Roger Wicker is one of them. Senator Cindy Hyde Smith is the other. Can you remember the last time you heard either of their voices? How would they sound like? Let me play for you. The last time I remember hearing from Cindy Hyde Smith. I hope we have this video. This is her in on November 2, 2018. She's in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis country, and she's praising a local rancher who invited her to speak. Camille is going to try to tee this up. This is D1, if we have it. This is Cindy Hyde Smith. I hope we have this clip. Here we go. We. We gonna try to find it. It's memorable because it now didn't understand what she. She said. If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row. Y' all do realize that Mississippi is the lynchingest state in the union, right? It is the state that. That lynched more black people than any state in the union. And that is what she decided was a good idea to say that she would be front row if she was invited to a hanging, which is AKA a lynching. That's the last time you heard from Cindy Hyde Smith. Now the time that she said that she was actually in a runoff against a black Democratic challenger, former congressman and U.S. agricultural secretary during the Clinton administration, a guy named Mike Espy. Do you remember? His name comes from a big funeral fortune in Mississippi. Now, she refused to comment much about her statement other than saying it was an exaggerated expression of a God. And it's such a Southern term, an exaggerated expression of regard. That's what she had to say about what she said. Again, in the most lynching estate in the Union. Well, she did end up winning that seat, Cindy Hyde Smith, but she won it by a lot less than you would think. I think a lot of people believe that. There we go. Actually, we have it. This state, which we think of as a deeply red state, that no Democrat could possibly win. Or. Let's put that up. Just leave that up for just a minute. I want y' all to take a look at this. She says the lynching comment, the pro lynching comment, she ends up getting only 399,995 votes. That is a very small turnout. That is 41.25% of the vote. The black candidate, Mike Espy, he got 40.9. That rounds up to 41. It was effectively a tie race, similar to Donald Trump's margin over Kamala Harris. That's how close Mississippi was in 2018. Then when he loses that race, Mike Espy, then he files to run again in 2020, 20 says he's going to try again. And this was in the runoff. In the runoff. It was a little bit further out. He then runs in 2020. And Mike S.B. comes close again. This time, it's now Super Trump time, right? Mississippi comes out, you almost twice as many people come out and vote 709,000 votes for her, that 54%. But Mike Espy gets 44%. And again, I think people think that Democrats get like, almost nothing. That is not the way things worked out. She is now facing yet another black opponent. His name is Scott Colum. He is a local DA in the state of Mississippi. I don't know if we have it, but he spoke back in September at an event in which he kind of. So you can kind of hear what he sounds like. Let me know if we have that video.
- [33:49]
Asosa Osa
America is long overdue. We don't want a piece of freedom.
- [33:52]
Joy Reid
We want the whole package. The city of Evanston. Nope, that's not it. That's all right. Scott Column. And we've had him on the show. We had. We talked to him briefly. I don't think we have him tonight. I think we're having some issues. Everyone's having issues. By the way, I'm just going to let y' all know, you got to give us some grace. There's some issues. Everybody's having issues right now. Justin Pearson was having some issues. We're having some issues also with Scott Column, but he is not running against her. Oh, we do have him. Oh, here he is. Let's bring him on. Scott column is God bless the Mississippi Delta.
- [34:18]
Bishop William Barber
I'm so proud to be here. Need pay raises and the cost of.
- [34:23]
Joy Reid
Living, not going up.
- [34:24]
Bishop William Barber
Grocery bill, all that, you know.
- [34:27]
Joy Reid
And then you got the elders, too, right here. A lot of stuff been cut out for them. You know, they need help. What matters is equality. You know, the Roles here in Mississippi are horrible. You know, just more job opportunity, advanced technology is going around. I think Mississippi is missing it. Education should be on the top of the list. Okay. Okay.
- [34:47]
Bishop William Barber
It's mess for Mississippi. So a part of my platform is no income tax for teachers.
- [34:52]
Joy Reid
How do y' all feel about that?
- [34:55]
Jalanda Jones
They need it.
- [34:56]
Bishop William Barber
You know, my thing is we don't give any money to teachers from the federal government. So why are we taking taxes from them when it's such an important position?
- [35:02]
Joy Reid
Which is. Yes. Right. She died.
- [35:04]
Mike Simmons
Terrible.
- [35:05]
Joy Reid
Char.
- [35:05]
Bishop William Barber
I'm so sorry.
- [35:05]
Joy Reid
Complication of childbirth. You know, but if. If it had have been a health care. Right. She center there.
- [35:11]
Bishop William Barber
Y.
- [35:11]
Joy Reid
We would have still had harmony. Y. Y. So, yes, we need those type of things. And the only way we're going to get it is that we have voices. Yep. Yep. What matters to me is our people being taken care of. It matters to me that we have a voice at the table, and that's most important. If your voice is not at the table, then no changes can be made.
- [35:33]
Bishop William Barber
I'm a seventh generation Mississippian.
- [35:35]
Joy Reid
I love Mississippian.
- [35:37]
Bishop William Barber
I'm raising my family in Mississippi. And I think that the Mississippi Delta.
- [35:41]
Joy Reid
Needs a United States senator, just like.
- [35:43]
Mike Simmons
Congressman Thompson that fights every day to.
- [35:45]
Bishop William Barber
Bring resources back to this community.
- [35:47]
Joy Reid
Who loves our community more than D.C. politics. Mississippi matters. Thank you so much.
- [35:52]
Bishop William Barber
Mississippi maps.
- [35:53]
Joy Reid
Thank you, brother. Thank you. Thank you. Mississippi maps.
- [35:55]
Mike Simmons
Thank you so much, Mississippi mate.
- [36:01]
Joy Reid
All right, so that is your choice if you're in the state of Mississippi. We've had Scott Colomant again. Again, he is not here tonight, and I apologize again. We are g. Everybody Grace. Because everybody is haywire right now, but he is the choice. And again, to remind you, the last black man to run against Cindy Hyde Smith fought him to a tie. And Mississippi is a relatively low voter turnout state. So if you just had a few more voters turn out, Scott column could win. And I want to also note, by the way, that when the original election happened, which actually got them to the runoff, there were actually three candidates in the race. There was a second Republican in the race. And so let me just read to you the numbers that I don't have them on screen. Cindy Hyde Smith. And this is in 2018, before they ended up at a runoff. She got 389,995 votes. Mike Espy got 386,742 votes. That's literally like 3,000 votes less than she did. And there was a third Republican in the race whose name was Chris McDaniel. And he got 154,878 votes. If you look at the Mississippi map, there are big swaths of blue in the map. And I want to note those of us who are thinking about the Voting Rights act and the reason Latasha Brown is so valuable, that state, which is a third black, it is one third black. That is why a black candidate is viable in Mississippi, because it is one third black by percentage. It's the blackest state in the union by numbers. Texas is the blackest state in the union by sheer raw numbers. Texas has the most black people, but percentage wise, the state that is the blackest percentage wise is Mississippi. So there really actually isn't any logical reason why Mississippi shouldn't be able to elect a statewide Democrat. Louisiana did it and it has slightly lower percentage of black people. It's possible if you have enough people turn out now know, because we have racially polarized voting. The vast majority of white Southerners now vote as Republicans. Back in the olden days, they were all Democrats. They were right wing conservative Democrats. And then they became Dixiecrats. And then when the Democratic Party under Lyndon Johnson embraced civil rights for black people, we had white flight into the Republican Party, the formerly hated Republican party in the South. And you even have some living Democrats like John Cornyn today, who grew up as Democrats. They grew up as Southern Democrats. But as soon as the blacks came into the party, the whites moved out. We've talked about this before, racial white flight. So Mississippi is one of those states where the vast majority, like 90% of white people vote Republican and 90% of black people, when they vote, vote Democratic. But what you also have in a lot of these southern states, maybe not Mississippi, as many as, as much as like Louisiana and other states, is you're starting to have reverse migration, meaning that northern black people are moving home south partly because of costs. It's cheaper to live in the South. You have lower cost of living. So you're having a lot of people remigrating and going back. And so that combination of more voter, more voting, tending voters, you know, people who tend to vote in higher numbers in northern states, coming back down to their rural kinfolk who may not vote as much and sort of inspiring them to vote. It is, it is possible. All you need, it's not a lot of votes. You need like 150,000 more votes to get rid of the woman who bragged about lynching. Just saying. All right, now let's talk about the state of Illinois. They've also got a candidate on the ballot now we can play E1. Camille.
- [39:30]
Asosa Osa
Reparations for people of African descent in America is long overdue. We don't want a piece of freedom. We want the whole package.
- [39:38]
Joy Reid
The city of Evanston has pledged to give reparations to black residents. This is American history. Give us what we're do now. That, of course, was the big payback. Erica Alexander, our friend and Whitney Dow co directed this documentary that Jason and I were eps on. It's a really, really great film if you get a chance to see it on pbs. But it talked about Evanston, Illinois, which is one of the first cities in this country to create a reparations program for enslavement and redlining. Of course it has wound up in court. You know, the, the MAGA people are mad about it. But there are still, you know, it happened, right? And there's still a lot of other issues that are facing the Evanston area and also the entire district. And one of the people who is running to represent Evanston and the surrounding district in Congress is a gentleman named State Senator Mike Simmons. He attended a no Kings protest over the weekend. If we have that video, it's E2. Camille.
- [40:37]
Mike Simmons
Hey everybody, it's State Senator Mike Simmons. Today is Sunday, October 12th. It's 11:00am I'm standing at the corner of Western and Tuohy and there have been multiple ICE sightings and abductions this morning. And Rogers park. We just had a truck drive by now at Rogers Park, West Ridge, they are all over the neighborhood this morning. We, we need you all to, if you've got the privilege and capacity to come out to outside. If you live in Rogers park or West Ridge. And we need you to keep an eye out for ice. We need you to get a whistle, blow it three times if you see someone being detained. Blow it multiple times if you see ice. And if you feel safe and can do so, record ICE in its activities. Try not to put the camera on the person being detained. We want to protect them.
- [41:25]
Joy Reid
And we had a.
- [41:26]
Mike Simmons
We had a ICE ICE detect break into a car right here. They busted the glass and took the, took the guy out of the car, left all of his stuff here, including his id. We're going to try to get it back to him, but we need all of our neighbors to really be on the street right now. Again, we are at Tui Avenue and Western Avenue and, and Westridge, Rogers Park. Multiple ICE sightings, multiple ICE abductions this morning. If you have the privilege and you have the capacity, we really need you. If you're our neighbors, to come outside and keep your eyes peeled for ICE and make sure you record them if you can do so safely. Go to Protect Rogers park online if you want to tap in more to plug into activities. And there are multiple mutual aid rapid response groups that have cropped up that are out here, and we want you to get part of those also. But today, we just need neighbors out their homes, out of your apartments, and just in these streets.
- [42:27]
Joy Reid
All right, let's bring him in. State Senator Mike Simmons joins me now. He is running for the United States Congress. Is he? There he is. And there he is. How are you? Senator Simmons, good to see you.
- [42:36]
Mike Simmons
It's good to see you too. I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on, Joy.
- [42:39]
Joy Reid
Excellent. That was very harrowing. You're showing us that car that was broken into by ice. Is that, to you, the main issue facing voters in your district? And tell me that. And what else is, you know, inspiring you to run?
- [42:54]
Mike Simmons
Yeah. So I'm proud to be running for Congress in Illinois 9th District. That's where I was born and raised. I grew up in public housing in this district, and I'll tell you, those ICE rays that happened last week happened all across my area. I currently serve as a state senator, where I'm the first openly LGBTQ person to ever serve in Illinois Senate. Right outside of the three Flat public housing building where I grew up is where ICE violently detained a WGN news reporter. I mean, yes, it just.
- [43:20]
Joy Reid
We have that.
- [43:21]
Mike Simmons
Yeah, just.
- [43:22]
Justin J. Pearson
You saw that video?
- [43:23]
Joy Reid
Yes, we played that video on air. And it was actually really, you know, if they're now detaining white women who work for the media, they left her undressed on the ground, they humiliated her, and then, I believe, tried to charge her with a crime. And, like, this is where we're at, you know, Senator. And so, you know, what has been the response of the community to seeing this kind of ICE violence cross over from just, you know, the brown people? It was bad enough they were kidnapping brown folks, but now they seem to just be no holds barred on any. Everybody.
- [43:57]
Mike Simmons
Yeah, people are outraged. I mean, all across the far north side of Chicago, where I represent the Illinois Senate, people have gotten in these streets and they're starting their own rapid response networks. They're policing the federal police. That's really what we've seen. And as the state senator and as candidate for Congress, I've been out there in the streets with them. Last week on TUI and Western and Rogers park in Chicago, helicopters flying over where I live on a Sunday morning as they waited for immigrants to come out of church right down the street from where I live. I mean, this is where we are in America right now. And people are just outraged by it. They know what this means throughout history. And I'm proud to be out there in the streets sending a loud, unequivocal message that we don't want ICE here.
- [44:39]
Joy Reid
What did you hear when you were out at the New Kings rally? What were people telling you they want to see done?
- [44:45]
Mike Simmons
You know, people were. People are so outraged. I think a lot of people want to do something and they don't know quite what to do because they're just so shocked and stunned by seeing Donald Trump send ICE agents into our cities and invade us and occupy us. I mean, it's like a declaration of war. And, you know, civilians, right, are being attacked here. People that, we've seen people that are US Citizens being rounded up. We've seen African Americans in Chicago where they went in South Shore and raided an entire building and pulled people out of there who were U.S. citizens. And we're seeing undocumented immigrants being taken, children being taken away from parents. People are. People are absolutely outraged. And they want people running for office who are going to do something about it and not just appease the kind of centrist, milquetoast Democrats that we see that consistently fail us and get a part of the reason why we end up where we are today.
- [45:35]
Joy Reid
Yeah. How many people are running? How many people are running your race?
- [45:38]
Mike Simmons
You know, it's a first time we've had an open primary in the 9th Illinois district in 30 years. So a lot of folks have stepped up. But I'm proud to be one of the top candidates in this race. You know, I'm talking about housing for all, health care for all, talking about bringing an end to the military industrial complex where, you know, Donald Trump is being able to make this budget and pay for all these ICE agents to come here. And I think we need to use that money for health care, housing, transit, and a path of pathway to citizenship for people that keep our society running. Just like my dad, who came over here from Ethiopia as a refugee, met my black American mother, and here I am, right, representing everybody in the Illinois Senate and running to make history in Congress. So we, you know, we're taking it to the people. And people want to see hands on leadership right now. They want to see elected officials and candidates who are not afraid of the people they represent and will be in the streets.
- [46:32]
Joy Reid
Wait a minute. You don't think that we should be spending money on two new cushy planes for Kristi Noem and a $250 million ballroom for Donald Trump. You don't think that those are top priorities?
- [46:42]
Mike Simmons
Hell to the no. No way. It's outrageous to see where the priorities are right now. And, you know, even as I run for Congress, the whole language that I use to talk about what we can do in Congress is different from what people typically hear. It's not the same old, same old from again, from just mainstream Democrats who are sitting on their hands and they're not fighting the way we need right now. You know, I'm running to make history as only the first openly LGBTQ person to represent any of Chicago in Congress.
- [47:16]
Joy Reid
I'm sorry, but, brother, that is crazy to me. It is the year of our Lord. 20 and 25. 20 and 25. You're telling me there has never been an openly LGBTQ representative from your air? That is wild to me.
- [47:28]
Mike Simmons
Never. But we've been here. We've been here. We've been here for. For. Since the beginning.
- [47:33]
Joy Reid
And, I mean, this feels so slow. It feels like sometimes America is an ancient country, but it's like 250 years old. But we're so behind.
- [47:41]
Mike Simmons
We're so behind, right? And I'm also black, right? I'm black and I'm openly lgbtq. And so, you know, in the US Congress, there have only been two black and LGBTQ members in the House of Representatives ever. And right now there's only one. Five years.
- [47:55]
Joy Reid
Has there ever been. Has there ever been a member of Congress with dreads? Because you might be the first of that, too, I think.
- [48:01]
Mike Simmons
I think I would be the first one to have dreads and freeform dreads.
- [48:04]
Joy Reid
I would add freeform dreads. Like the real. Not. Not. Not the. You know, not the play. Play dreads. The real. The real dreadlocks. I love it. I love it. I think we need that. We need that energy in the United States Congress. Tell everybody where they can support you. If they want to get down with your campaign, how can they do it?
- [48:18]
Mike Simmons
They go to mikesimmons.org m I k e s I m o n s.org that's where you'll find me. I'm not taking any money from corporate PACs. I'm not taking a dime from APAC. We're going to win this primary with. With grassroots donors. And so folks that are. That are watching right now, go to mikesimmons.org check out my story. Check out the way I've been shaking it up in The Illinois Senate. I've only been there four and a half years, got 50 bills passed, and I'm known as one that does not let complacent Democrats pat me on the head and tell me when to write legislation. I get it done. MikeSimmons.org make a donation. Volunteer. Help us out. Spread the word. We can win this. We will win this.
- [48:54]
Joy Reid
That is the energy we love on the Joy Reid show. See, this is why we're bringing folks on that I'm like, this is who I would if I could vote in all these different states, if I was, could like, pop into each one, these are the candidates that I would support. I appreciate you, Senator Mike Simmons. Best of luck. And when you are a member of Congress, you'll be nearby, so you have to come down, do an interview in the basement because, you know, we love to get a one on one and get all of your backstory. Thank you so much.
- [49:17]
Mike Simmons
Thank you so much, Joanna. Appreciate you.
- [49:19]
Joy Reid
Appreciate you very much. All right, y', all, that's Senator Mike Simmons. Look, you've got good choices. And so this is the reason that I wanted to do this on today because we need to know that we do have good choices. I think a lot of the reasons sometimes people don't don't vote is that they feel like they don't have any choices and it's all lesser of two evils. That is just not actually true. There are great choices. There are people who are willing to fight for you. Let me play one more. And this is somebody who is already in office and he's going to be part of our next hour. This is the mayor of Chicago. This is E3 for Camille. He was at a no Kings rally as well, and what he said has kind of gone viral. Let's see if we can play what the mayor had to say about what we should do next. If my ancestors as slaves can lead the greatest general strike in the history.
- [50:04]
Jalanda Jones
Of this country, taking it to the.
- [50:07]
Joy Reid
Ultra rich and big corporations, we can do the same.
- [50:11]
Jalanda Jones
Today I'm calling on black people, white people, brown people, Asian people, immigrants, gay people who wr this country to stand.
- [50:23]
Joy Reid
Up against terrorism passion to the ultra.
- [50:27]
Jalanda Jones
Rich and big corporation.
- [50:29]
Joy Reid
We are going to make them pay.
- [50:31]
Jalanda Jones
Their fair share in school, to fund jobs, to fund health care, to fund transportation.
- [50:42]
Brandon Johnson
Democracy will live on because of this generation.
- [50:46]
Joy Reid
Are you ready to take it to.
- [50:48]
Jalanda Jones
The courts and to the streets?
- [50:52]
Joy Reid
Recently are right when we're seeing just the depth of the attacks that are.
- [50:56]
Mike Simmons
Happening, trying to roll back all those.
- [50:59]
Joy Reid
Gains that were won through past struggle, you know, that you were talking about. You see that? That is revolutionary thinking. A general strike, meaning not just an individual boycott against Home Depot or Target, but just stop spending money. This is an idea that is gathering steam. Just so you all will know, you're getting that preview on the Joy Reid show tonight among a lot of people in the activist space, that what we may need to do is to cut off abruptly the money flowing into the United States from inside. Remember that the gross domestic product of the United states is like 70% consumer spending. And if consumer suddenly didn't spend, let's just say you decided to give love for Christmas instead of a whole bunch of expensive gifts that you buy from Amazon. If you decided to hold back and not go into that deep credit card debt, it would blow a hole in the economy and every single corporation that's bending the knee to Trump would get a very loud and clear message. It's the message that ABC got when they canceled Jimmy Kimmel. The people withdrew their money from ABC and they said, okay, you don't want to give us Jimmy Kimmel. We're not going to pay for espn, we're not going to pay for Disney plus, we're not going to pay for any of your shit. We're going to literally defund you. And they did $6 billion boom in a week. And suddenly Disney said, oh, you know what? Really love Jimmy Kimmel. He's, he's coming back on. Because the thing about it is we don't necessarily. And there's somebody in the chat that's talking about, we're just pivoting between the two parties. That is true. And in some ways both parties are problematic. But here's the problem. We the people can actually lever and lever in and out the politicians we want. If we're actually willing to vote them in and out and not just vote them in and then be comfortable with them for 30 years and let them become 80 year olds that were then like, why are they so old? Because we keep voting for them. We just leave them in there. Then they're Mitch McConnell and they're falling down weirdly. But if we decided to use our leverage on politicians and say every two years we're giving you a report card and we're either going to keep you in or fire you, suddenly politicians wouldn't get so comfortable taking advantage of us and abusing us, ignoring us, because they'd be a little worried. Same thing goes for corporations. Right now it is. There are about half a dozen tech bros who control all of your social media, of most of the media companies they're scooping up and buying up. We're going to get to the point where we've got like three or four corporations controlling all of our lives, but they can't force us to do business with them. They can take over CBS and Warner Brothers and CNN and eat up, TikTok. And eat up. You know, Meta is eating up all of everything else. They could eat it all up, but they can't make you use it. Coming up at our next hour, the Chicago mayor who you just heard will be here, Mayor Brandon Johnson is going to be here. I'm really excited for this interview. We're going to talk with him in hour two of the Joy Reach show. And we are here. Welcome to our two of the Joy Reach show. If you have not hit like and subscribe, please also hit share. We really would love for you to share this in this independent media adventure with all of your friends and family, But I want to talk a little bit about some of the national news before we get to the mayor. You do realize, as I said earlier, that Kristi Noem is now getting not one but two new private planes dedicated to her use and to the use of her staff. That, to me seems quite outrageous at a time when we can't apparently afford to extend the subsidies for your health care. What Congress is saying very clearly is they will not spend the money to extend your subsidy so you can afford health care. You can't have that. They want to let those expire. If you go on my social media, there was a gentleman who actually was a congressman from Georgia who actually admitted it on the radio on Dan Abrams show and said we don't have to extend that. They were written to be temporary. Well, so were the tax cuts, my friend. The tax cuts in 2017 were written to only last 10 years. That's how they made the budget math work. See, this is a little trick from inside the system. What Congress will do is they will pass something that's really expensive, but they'll say, oh, it sunsets in 10 years. And then they can do a trick in the books and saying it's cheaper than it really is with the tax cuts. They wrote them to be temporary 10 years and they were supposed to expire. But I told y' all before, I used to say it on the readout on Ms. Now, the whole election was about extending those tax cuts because the super rich were like, we're never giving those tax cuts back. And they did whatever it took. Whatever it took Elon Musk and those guys were going to do to get Trump in, to get those tax cuts made permanent. Guess what? They are. They're now permanent. Well, you know what else was written within expiration? The subsidies for your health care. Written the exact same way. But what they're now saying in the Republican Party, and this is why the parties are not the same. The Republicans are saying the tax cuts, which were temporary, must be made permanent, but the health care subsidies, which were temporary, must. Must be allowed to expire. That's what they're doing. And Kristi Noem needs a brand new plane. Two of them. Not even just one, but two. And let me play you a little bit. Thank you, Ronnie, for the 499 tip. We appreciate the love. Here's the lady who's getting this brand new plane. Kristi Noem. This is when she testified. This is Senator Maggie. Maggie Hassan trying to ask her a very straightforward question. What is habeas corpus? It's actually very important to her job that she know the answer to this question. So, Secretary Noam, what is habeas corpus? Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country to spend their rights. Let me stop, ma'. Am. Habeas corpus. Excuse me, That's. That's incorrect. President Hamilton. Habeas corpus. Excuse me. Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea. As a senator from the live free or die state, this matters a lot to me and my constituents and to all Americans. So, Secretary Noem, do you support the core protection that habeas corpus provides? That the government must provide a public reason in order to detain and imprison someone? Yeah, I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the President of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should. Should be suspended or not. It has never. Let us be clear, though. It has never been done. It has never been done without approval of Congress. Even Abraham Lincoln got retroactive approval from Congress. So, Secretary Noem, what? That is Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire attempting to get the answer to actually a really important question to Kristi Noem's job, because clearly she doesn't really understand what habeas corpus is because her Goons are out here attacking physically anybody brown they see on the street with an accent. She and Tom Homan have put us in this mess because they clearly don't care about habeas corpus. They don't care about the rule of law and the rights. You're supposed to have to be detained only with a court order. A court order is supposed to exist when you get detained. But they're going in people's homes, they're busting in people's homes. They're doing it all these two, Homan and, well, homan with his $50,000 bag of kava cash, that guy. So let me play for you now, Tom Homan, who's the second half of that two undynamic duo, he was asked about the deaths of people in custody. Again, none of these people have been tried for a crime. They've simply been picked up on the street because they're brown. Tom Holman is asked, what about the ones who have died in custody? This is F3. We're going to tee it up for you. I think, I think, I think. We believe, we believe. Oh, all right. We're going to, we're going to wait till it comes up. We're going to wait till it comes up. F3, there it is. Oh, okay.
- [58:35]
Mike Simmons
All right.
- [58:35]
Joy Reid
We're going to leave it alone. He basically said, I don't care. You don't care. Again, we're giving a lot of grace because the tech is not tech in tonight. He said, I don't give, I, I don't care, I don't care. Which. So she gets a plane, he gets to keep the of a 75 year old Cuban national who died in ICE custody. He had lived in the United States for 60 years.
- [58:51]
Mike Simmons
He was being held in ICE detention in Florida. Is there anything you can tell us about that?
- [58:55]
Joy Reid
I'm unaware of that. I, I, I'm not aware of that. I mean, people die in ICE custody, people die in county jails, people die in state prisons, people are dying in ICE custody and so called White House borders are. Tom Holman doesn't seem to care. At least 22 people have died in ICE custody between October 2024 and September 2025, marking the highest number of deaths in ICE custody in 20 years. Meanwhile, detention centers around the country are severely overcrowded, the number of detainees now exceeding 60,000 and breaking a modern record set during the first Trump administration. One of her clients settled at the South Louisiana ICE Processing center, otherwise known as Basile, was forced by the former assistant warden into near daily Sexual acts under threat. Some of our other clients held at this facility were coerced into a forced laboring scheme. Asked to push heavy cinder blocks across their dorm, only to be told to push them back to where they came from. They believed they were targeted for their gender identity. The former assistant warden told him, if you want to be a man, I'll treat you like a man. Evidence shows that ICE was aware of this abuse, but systemically ignored and buried the complaints. We need to get as many eyes on this as possible. Help us share this video and visit the link in our bio to learn more. So There we go. Dept. And cousins. Like I don't care. Thank you. Lawrence Richardson, 38, for the tip. Thank you. Appreciate it. Sean Garrett, 7542. Thank you very much. We appreciate all the love. So he doesn't care. Oh, we got. Okay, well, let's go ahead. We're gonna. We're gonna go back in time. Let's bring in State Representative Justin Pearson. We're gonna pivot back. There he is. There he is. How are you, my friend? It is so good to see you.
- [60:41]
Justin J. Pearson
It's good to see you. It's good to see you.
- [60:43]
Joy Reid
I have to start by congratulating you on your wedding nuptials. I don't know if we have this cute picture. We have an adorable picture of you and your gorgeous wife. So I want to congratulate you all. I think you guys had a summer wedding. I think it was a July wedding. You guys are in the summer.
- [61:01]
Justin J. Pearson
July 19th.
- [61:02]
Joy Reid
Yes, absolutely. There's the beautiful. Oh, my gosh. I mean, look, you all. You all look amazing. And so we are very happy for you, very proud of you. You are entering. And her name is Oceana. Ocean A. Ocean A, Ocean A, Ocean B.
- [61:20]
Justin J. Pearson
That's what she told me.
- [61:23]
Joy Reid
Oceanae. It's spelled like. Oh, you're right. Look. It's spelled like. It sounds kind of. All right. Well, it is great to see you again. Let's talk really quickly about your run for Congress. Talk to me about what inspired you to go from being one of the Tennessee Three. And my bad. I forgot. Gloria Johnson is the third member of the Tennessee 3. Justin Pearson. Justin Jones. And you, my friend, Justin Pearson, what inspired you to want to run for Congress?
- [61:51]
Justin J. Pearson
Look, right now, we are living in a historic moment in time where we are seeing the rise of an authoritarianism, a dictator in the White House abusing authority and power. And we need new energy to meet this moment. We have to have new voices that help us to understand what we are dealing with, but also speak up and rise up to fight back. We've got to prioritize the issues of affordability, economic opportunity, access to health care and have people in the positions of power who, who actually knows what that means. Right. Like I'm not some multimillionaire who's talking about these things. This is my life story. These are my beginnings and this is how my life has played out thanks to the investments of so many people. And we need representation in Congress that can elevate those voices in a way that the status quo just isn't doing for us.
- [62:34]
Joy Reid
And talk about, you know, the process because, you know, you're a state representative. We've talked to a few state reps on tonight and it's expensive. Right. And as you know, we had one gentleman on who said he's not taking pat money, it's just having to really go out and raise the money for it. How complicated has it been to go from a very prominent, very well known, at one point thrown out of the Tennessee state house figure to becoming a member of Congress? How hard has it been?
- [62:59]
Justin J. Pearson
Yeah, I mean this is hard work. I mean it's lots of phone calls reaching out to people, telling them, go to votejustinjay.com, sign up to volunteer, donate whatever you can because the incumbent has $1.8 million from corporations and I'm not taking any corporate PAC money. Right. This is going to be a people powered movement supported by people. And so we need folks to invest in our campaigns, in these efforts because people with money, and he's independently wealthy as well. Right. They're able to run for office without any concerns. And now you have some of them saying, you know, I'm not going to accept, you know, my paycheck from the government. You shouldn't have been getting a paycheck anyway. You're multi billionaire many, many, many times over. And so it's much more difficult for regular folks to run. But it's important that we do because the perspective that we bring is one that's needed in.
- [63:43]
Joy Reid
And this is Representative Steve Cohen. Is it Steve Cohen that you're running against in the primary? Yes, you are, and he's a decent member. But the reality is you have to have that challenge. And I think we have this phobia against primaries among Democrats and it's become a real problem in that people get offended that somebody would run against an incumbent. But it's like that's the way that we refresh the bloodstream of the country. It's the reason they need a princess die in the royal family. Right. You have to have some new blood. What would you want to do in Congress? Talk about some of what your priorities would be?
- [64:14]
Justin J. Pearson
Yeah, Our main priority is to deal with the issues of poverty and access to good jobs and dealing with the affordability crisis. We need to end the grocery tax. We need to do things that make it easier for people to access home ownership. Because right now we're seeing a lot of equity firms buying up neighborhoods, skyrocketing the rents, but wages aren't going up for people to be able to pay for that. So half of the paycheck is going to rent and the other half is going to keep the lights on and a little food on the table. Like, that's not fair. And we need to have a more fair economic system that's going to provide access to opportunity to more people, but also raise the minimum wage. It's been 725 for 20 years. And so one of the first pieces of legislation I'm going to fight for is to increase the minimum wage. We can't continue to live like this and continue to operate our country believing in democracy when so many people are blocked out of it. We're going to fight for health care for all. You shouldn't die from having access to health care in the richest nation in the world and making sure that all of our kids and our teachers get a raise, that kids get educational opportunities, opportunity that I got denied when I was just in high school going and fighting for textbooks. And then we're looking at how we can protect those who protected and served us in the. In many wars. Our veterans in Shelby county, in District 9 are missing $600 million in federal resources and benefits and compensation. And I'm going to D.C. and to Congress to help fight for them. Not having a voice is not something that's right in a representative government. And we can't just have a voice for the richest and the most powerful. Everybody's got to have a voice in Congress.
- [65:43]
Joy Reid
I spoke earlier about the fact that there are some local representatives in both Memphis and in Nashville that are fighting a court case right now about your governor saying not only is he going to put the National Guard, has he, but the National Guard in. On the streets of Memphis and in Nashville, but that it's going to be permanent. What do you make of that?
- [66:00]
Justin J. Pearson
I mean, it's completely illegal and unconstitutional. Article 3, Section 5 of our Constitution is very explicit, explicit that the militia, in this case the National Guard, can only be used in cases of Invasion and rebellion. This governor took away the.
- [66:12]
Joy Reid
The.
- [66:13]
Justin J. Pearson
The attorney general's opinion that actually stated that fact and said they withdrew it as if it did not exist. But we know the truth. We know we have a constitution and they have a responsibility of upholding it. And they are not. The governor, Bill Lee is. His name is violating his oath that he swore on a Bible to protect and to defend. And I'm really proud to see elected officials and organizations suing because that's what you do in a democracy. You hold those in power accountable for their actions because no one should be above the law.
- [66:43]
Joy Reid
And I want to put up the demographics of Memphis. It is. It is arguably the blackest city. It is the blackest city in the state of Tennessee. It feels like what your governor and what your state legislature are attempting to do is to control the economic. The history or the economic futures of black Tennesseans, essentially to say that you cannot have autonomy economically in Nashville, which is the, you know, the beating heart of the. Of the state's economy, but also in Memphis, one of the most historical places in America. And it seems that they're doing that. While also you. Last time you were on talking about the way that these AI generating companies are being allowed free reign to do to the people of your city whatever they will in terms of pollution. How do you fight that as a member of Congress? Will that make it more effective for you to fight it?
- [67:31]
Justin J. Pearson
Absolutely. I mean, we have to realize our positions aren't just for legislative purposes. Is to use our influence to help create change, to build coalitions that help to topple a status quo that's really harmful. When 1 out of 5 kids in District 9 are living underneath the poverty line, or 37% of kids are living underneath the poverty line and 1 out of 5 adults are living underneath the poverty line, we know we have to do something differently. But our system is set up and it is rigged for the wealthy. It's rigged for the extremely powerful to, To. To. To use against everybody else. And so you get the richest people in the world building a data center and illegally polluting Xai and Elon Musk for an entire year. Now you're seeing our governor working with Elon Musk to create a tunnel using public property as part of that for private benefit. Like, this is not the way that things are supposed to be. It's this extreme radical behavior from Republicans that's really deteriorating our democracy and the view of checks and balances and the way that governing, if you had civic class is supposed to be operating. And so we've got to return to some sense of normaly and holding true to what we believe about the future, which is that a constitution needs to be respected by those who swore an oath to protect it. That we need to protect the voices of those who are too often being silent and the lives of people like our immigrant brothers, sisters and siblings who are suffering underneath this administration who's kidnapping and disappearing people. We can't let go of our values just because of the moment that we're in. We have to protect them and defend them now more than ever.
- [69:02]
Joy Reid
Let me ask you to close by giving some hope, because people, I think, feel pretty discouraged. You know, I've been thinking, thinking a lot about this may be our last chance to stop this. Because if the gerrymandered maps that Donald Trump has ordered go into effect, it will affect next year's elections. There are likely to be troops on the streets of every blue city during next year's elections. We may be in martial law next year. So this is kind of like this is our shot, right? How do you get people to understand that you've got, if there was ever a time to use your voting rights before the Supreme Court takes away the Voting Rights act like it would be now. Right? And then tell us, answer that question and then tell us how to support you and when the vote happens.
- [69:45]
Justin J. Pearson
Thank you. You're 100 correct. This is the moment, right? For a long time people have said we should be afraid for our democracy. We should be worried.
- [69:52]
Bishop William Barber
And this is it.
- [69:53]
Justin J. Pearson
This is it happening. Seeing the National Guard being deployed, seeing federal agents coming into communities without any request from the local government and particularly black led and democratic led cities, like the fire alarms, the bells should be going off for everybody. Like, this is not okay. And if we do not speak up now, the opportunity to speak up may not be there. Into the future. And so everybody is needed and necessary in this moment to fight back. Which is why I was so excited to be at the no Kings rally this past weekend. To be like, wait, thousands of us, millions of us are in solidarity. And there was a lady, Reverend Nance, Reverend Nancy actually has terminal cancer. And she still came out Saturday saying, with my last breath, I'll fight for what I believe to be right in District 9, in Memphis and in this country. And the Reverend Nance is still coming out. Then we've still got to show up. We've still got to give all that we can in the belief and in the hope and the, in the, the possibility of democracy, because this is it things will change if Donald Trump, the Republicans are allowed to abuse and misuse their power in the ways that we've seen it. And so join our campaign. Join our movement for justice rooted in love. You can go to votejustinjay.com you can donate, you can volunteer, but we need everybody to either be running for office or. But supporting somebody who is running for office as we go into next year's election, because everything is on the line and we can't afford to do nothing. And that's my hope.
- [71:12]
Joy Reid
U.S. state Representative Justin J. Pearson, one of our favorites. We appreciate you fully, support you, hope that hopefully people will get out and vote. There is that picture again. That is one of the best ever. You all look so happy and you deserve. You deserve all the good things. Thank you very much. Best of luck. Come back anytime.
- [71:29]
Justin J. Pearson
Thank you so much. I appreciate you, Joy.
- [71:31]
Joy Reid
Thank you very much. All right, y', all, you've got your assignment. If you are in Chicago, if you are in Illinois, if you are in Texas, you've got people to vote for. Don't go out there saying, and if you're in Mississippi, don't pretend like you do not have good options. We have presented you four incredible options of people that you can vote for to make a real change. Do it while we still have a Voting Rights act, because John Roberts and them may get rid of the Voting Rights act by next year. We may be voting under martial law. We may not have the opportunity to have the elected officials of our choice. If we don't do it now and get people into office right now, who can force the United States House of Representatives to cut off the money so Donald Trump cannot continue bailing out Argentina. Why is he bailing out Argentina with our money? Why is he building a 250,000 new, whatever, 1,000 million dollars, you know, ballroom for himself? Why is he building an arc to Trump? Why do we need that? Why does Christine Noem get two new planes when you don't get health care? This is why people marched. Because Donald Trump is out there posting videos of himself literally crapping on America. That is his message to America. I crap on you. I crap on your activism. I crap on your marches. I literally shit on you. And I am a king. He says, I'm not a king. And then he literally posts content showing himself as a king. This is why people march. Let's play F6. This is just Chicago. We showed you the big picture. When F6 is ready, let me know, because Chicago was one of the largest. No kings march I think it was 150,000 people just in Chicago alone. New York was huge, too. But Chicago, where we have a current occupation by this regime, was one of the biggest. Let's play that real quick. And then we're going to bring in our special guest. We may not have it. Oh, that's all right. Let's bring in the mayor. Let's bring in Mayor Brandon Johnson. We'll just think about it in our minds. We'll see it in our heads. Mayor Johnson, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate you.
- [73:36]
Brandon Johnson
Hey, thank you. Can you hear me okay?
- [73:37]
Joy Reid
We can hear you. You sound great. You sound great. Really terrific audio. So you at the no Kings march, you made a pretty strong call for economic pain to be distributed among those who are oppressing us. Can you say more about what your call is for?
- [73:56]
Brandon Johnson
Well, you're not messing around this evening, huh? Let's get right to it.
- [73:58]
Joy Reid
Not at all.
- [73:59]
Brandon Johnson
You know, look, you know, the. The ultra rich and these large corporations have received tremendous benefit from this president. In fact, as you know, in the. That big piece of nasty legislation that the Trump administration pushed through, it was the largest upward transfer of wealth from middle class, workingclass people into the hands of the ultra rich in the history of America. Right. And so when we talk about authoritarianism, it's very clear about what it represents. It's simply about absolute control. And unless we as working people rise up collectively, I don't believe that simply having rallies and speeches and press conferences is going to do the job. And so I come from a deep, long tradition here in Chicago with the Rainbow Coalition that is connected through, I believe, what is the most potent force that Dr. Keene described, that if the labor rights movement and the civil rights movement were to ever collide, what enormous potential it would have. And he gave that speech before the AFSCME delegation, I believe, in 1967. And so it's not like we have to reinvent ourselves. Joy, if there was ever a time for working class people to rise up collectively, together, this certainly is the time.
- [75:25]
Joy Reid
Yeah, and I mean, you know, there has been a lot of talk about an economic strike. And I mean, it is. It is the simplest thing you can do. Medgar Evers would say, not everyone can march, but everyone can just not buy a dress from a store that won't let you try it on in the store or that make or don't buy food from someplace that makes you go around the back. It's an act of not doing right. That actually saves you money, for one thing. You can just sort of say, let me hold onto my money for myself. We don't know if we're going to be in a deep recession or depression next year because of Trump's tariffs. It is one of those things people can do just by not doing right.
- [75:56]
Brandon Johnson
That's exactly right. In fact, you know, when I think about, you know, all of the major resistance in this country, you know, whether it was, as I said on Saturday, the greatest general strike and greatest act of resistance is when, you know, my people threw down their tools and decided to take up the great cause of uniting these states through like, ensuring that we abolish slavery. Right. And when we think about the civil rights era, the organizing around public transportation. Right. Do you think about the, the great movements that were centered around public transportation and public education. When we think about fair housing again, going back to Dr. Keane coming to the city of Chicago and setting up shop and living on the west side of Chicago, where I proudly live, he understood that if we don't provide a real pathway for everyday people to be able to experience the economic vibrancy of this city or this country, then our, our work is limited. And quite frankly, I would take it one step further. I believe that our work is in vain if we don't come together collectively as working people. People. It's imperative in this moment that we send a strong message to the, the ultra rich in these large corporations who again are receiving tax breaks from a president with tariffs that have been deemed most of them illegal. And here's the thing, they do not care. Right? And so while we're trying to find a sophisticated, polite way to, to demand our rights, there's just no record joy in history that I taught as a social studies teacher here in our public schools that without real collective organizing and resistance and, and, and that includes economic resistance to the ultra rich in this country. I, I do not see a successful example without having that type of organized.
- [78:02]
Joy Reid
Effort in the city of Chicago. There's been a lot of real creativity from you all with the salt trucks which you ordered to go out to make it bit a little harder for ICE to operate on your streets. To local businesses who have said, ice can't come in here, you can't use our bathroom, you can't eat here, you're not welcome. Right? They want to bring back discrimination from the pre voted civil rights era, Civil rights Act era. It's like, okay, fine, you can't eat here. But Kristi Noem is responding to that by apparently going on a buying spree, attempting to buy A property in the city of Chicago in, to order, order to operate from that sounds like they want to have that operate, that occupation become permanent. What do you make of that?
- [78:42]
Brandon Johnson
Yeah, and I'm glad you lifted up the fact that we have businesses across Chicago that are working in tandem with my administration. You know, I was the first city in Illinois and one of the first cities across this country to actually put up what we call ICE free zones. So on public property that the city of Chicago controls and operates, we're not going to allow ICE to set up their operations that are, that's terrorizing people across our city on public land. Here's yet another example where, you know, I'm going to look into more actions and more activity to, to, to, to get a greater handle on what Christine OM is attempting to do. And that's going to take some collective cooperation. Now look, these are unprecedented times and it's going to require a great deal of innovation as well as creativity to push back against these acts of tyranny and authoritarianism. But it is further example of how they will go well beyond anything that we thought imaginable to, to, to carry out this, this absolute unconstitutional and terrorizing form of governance. So there's a lot of work for us to do. But I do believe that there is a rising spirit of resistance that's taking shape across this country. You know, we had estimated over250,000 people just in the city of Chicago alone. You know, we're saying 7 million, I believe, nationwide. And so look, we're going to use every tool that's available to us to push back against the Trump administration. But it's really going to take all of us to be united as working people to put it into this authoritarian, and this authority. Authoritarian rule, rule right now.
- [80:29]
Joy Reid
Yeah. You know, sometimes buildings get condemned. I mean, you just can't buy them because I'm just saying.
- [80:33]
Brandon Johnson
I like the way you're thinking, Joy. I appreciate it.
- [80:35]
Joy Reid
I'm just saying. Let's talk before I let you go about this, this operation Midway, in which gnome and Kava bag home Bowman ordered military troops to rappel onto a building in your city. Treat that building like a war zone for Donald Trump said he wanted to practice, have his military practice in U.S. cities. They dragged black and brown families out at 1am in the morning, some in their nightgowns, some with no clothes on, made them stand in the street, zip tied children, threw them into the back of U Hauls and separated the children from the adults, the men from the women, it was very 1930s. What is, has been the reaction of the city to that? Is there anything that the city can do to ameliorate the suffering of those people? Some of their homes were completely trashed as a result of this.
- [81:29]
Brandon Johnson
Yeah, this is, you know, a moment in our nation's history in, in right here in Chicago where again, we have not seen anything like this. And the only way in which you can describe this is, is through authoritarian rule that we've seen in other, other nations. And you know, this is an incredible community on the south side of Chicago, the South Shore community, and these Black Hawk helicopters hovering over buildings. There was one black resident who said, you know, you had armed masked men with long guns, you know, you know, staring her down in her face. And again, as you indicated, children being ripped out of their, their beds in the middle of the night and some of them did not even have any clothes on. It was just, absolutely, just horrific. And so what it has done, though, quite frankly, it's united the people of Chicago. We've said all along that this is not about immigration, it's not about crime.
- [82:30]
Bishop William Barber
Right.
- [82:30]
Brandon Johnson
Because violent crime continues to go down in the city of Chicago. Our homicides are down, shootings are down, shooting victims are down. The number of people who have been detained who have documentation, or the number of people who have been detained who have no criminal record at all is significant. So this operation is not about the worst of the worst. This is about terrorizing and looking to conquer cities. This is really a war on American cities. And so now we have black folks, brown folks, folks, white folks, Asian, young, old, who are all united collectively in our city to defend all of Chicago. That's what my executive orders have done. That's what our organizing have, has done. I just released my budget, Joy. I gave my budget address just last Thursday where we are challenging the ultra rich, these large corporations who have received tax breaks from the Trump administration, administration to put more skin in the game, to fund housing, to fund education, to fund transportation, to fund good paying jobs, to make sure that we have environmental justice, to make sure that we have real safety in our communities. And so people are, are, are, are, are being awakened in this moment. I know that's a word that frightens the alt right in this country, but there's nothing wrong about becoming awakened, to have a greater sense of consciousness of how we can come together to provide, protect our democracy and to defend humanity. And so that's essentially what has happened here. The, the, the, the, the Trump administration indiscriminately Releasing tear gas on families and on police officers. It's really galvanized our city to build communities that are centered around our humanity and dignity. So we're going to fight back in Chicago. Congress refuses to, to stand up to, to this administration. But Chicago, as we say it, we ain't scared.
- [84:24]
Joy Reid
It's clearly not. Chicago is doing the thing. The wonderful mayor of Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson. Thank you so much. We appreciate you, sir. Thank you.
- [84:32]
Brandon Johnson
Thank you. Appreciate you, Joy.
- [84:33]
Joy Reid
Thank you. Keep up the fight. All right, y', all, we are going to continue. It is a moral Monday and you know what that means. It means our bishop is here. Y' all are going to let me know when he is teed up and ready to go because we are in a moral crisis. And so if you're in a moral crisis, you're going to need your yourself a man of God. And here he is, Bishop William Barber of Repairs of the Breach. He's also a, a professor at Yale in the Divinity School. So he's doing all of the things I have to say at Yale because I went to, I went to the other one. So you know a Yale man. How are you, Bishop?
- [85:02]
Bishop William Barber
I'm a Yale man. That's right.
- [85:04]
Joy Reid
Yale man.
- [85:04]
Justin J. Pearson
Yes.
- [85:05]
Joy Reid
He got.
- [85:07]
Bishop William Barber
You're a Harvard woman.
- [85:08]
Joy Reid
Harvard and Yale in the house. Yes. Dei Diversity, equity and inclusion. Let's talk about. We, we were having a little bit of challenge. We're trying to have a little bit less video etc because of all of the stuff that's going on with this tech down. But I wanted to talk about what you had to say when you also showed up at a no Kings rally. Give us a summary of what you had to say to the people at no Kings too.
- [85:35]
Bishop William Barber
Well, number one, 250 years ago we were wrestling with similarly trying to get untouched for a king. And even though that was not perfect and you know, the same people that were getting untouched for a king had slaves. But it was the reality of this country. 250 years later, here we are again. I also talked about there's one thing that must be clear, that bowing down is not an option. Giving up on the democracy is not an option. And we have to have moral fusion. I talked this talk about being white and black and brown and red and yellow and gay and straight and trans and north and, and south and poor and rich and all. But we have to say we aren't going anywhere. Look, we ain't going nowhere. And that we have to have strong non violent resistance in every form. I like what the mayor said. I want to talk some about that. I got some ideas about economic as a form of nonviolent pushback. And we have to understand that part of the reason we have mass gatherings is not because after the gathering everything is fixed, but the gatherings say we ain't gonna stop till it gets fixed. The gathering gives people mass imagination so they can reimagine what's going on. And it gives them mass courage because people can see that they're not alone. And finally, what I said, joy, is there are some things we have to be indivisible on. There's something we can't look, we have to be united and indivisible on. The Constitution is what guides us, not a king establishing justice, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, ensuring domestic tranquility, equal protection under law. There's no play in that. We're indivisible on that. We're indivisible on the fact that health care ought to be a human right. And you don't shut down the government because you don't want people to have health care. We have to be individual. There's a place in which the pain must unite us and we must organize the pain. I keep saying, if 16 million people are losing their health care, that ought to be 16 million people. We organized to vote next year, you know, so and so. And the closing was about us being indivisible and what has happened down through history when that has happened. And it was a charge for people not just to come to a rally. See, authoritarians must know. And one thing we did in Monday, you were one of the first ones, you were the first one to provoke moral Monday is that we kept coming and coming and coming. But also connected to that was a legal strategy and an economic strategy and a nonviolent civil disobedience strategy and a voter registration strategy. It has to be all together.
- [88:14]
Joy Reid
Absolutely. And so give people a sense of how they can find the courage. I mean, 7 million people found the courage to come out. And in March, despite the Republicans saying it was going to be a hate rally, that it was terrorist rally, you know, antifa, making up antifa, which does not exist, by the way, all of that, but people still found the courage to come out. How do we get more people to get involved?
- [88:37]
Bishop William Barber
Well, one of the things I said Saturday is you have to understand we is the most important word in the justice vocabulary. It's not what I can do, but what we can do when we stand together, fight together, move together. So one reason way people find the Courage is you keep giving them opportunities. You don't stop. So in November, I don't announce it here for the first time. Ezra, who's working with Indivisible, we've decided to connect Indivisible and Morrow Monday in November, just before Thanksgiving and call for a massive national money for people of faith. Clergy have got to get in now to get people courageous. Clergy need to be out there. Your members need to see you, whether you're Jewish, Muslim, Christian, whatever industry, people of faith. The way people get courage is those that came have to call others and say, I was there and bring people out and understand that again, the coming out is the way you keep saying no. Just like in South Africa, they didn't win every time they marched, but they never stopped the marching. And so the other thing, Joy, one of the things we're doing is we had moral Monday today. So, so after individual, we didn't stop this Monday. 12 Southern states, plus Pennsylvania, Ohio and California, clergy with impacted people and caskets went to the Senate offices to have pray ins. Now guess what they did, which lets us know that, that we got a lot of power. They locked the doors. They in North Carolina, literally. Joy, the Bud is in a building. Senator Bud is in a public building. He got them to say it was a private building. At 9 o' clock this morning, it was a public building. Everybody's going in and out. We had people watching it. At 9, at 10 o' clock, he got a sign put out saying, this is private property. We've knocked on the windows. We had people in wheelchairs. We had people with multiple sclerosis. We had impact people. We had clergy knocking on the windows saying we want to come in. So they didn't let us in. So we prayed there. But the media saw that. And we were clear that our praying is not the kind of praying where we're going home. It's the kind of praying that bishops and ministers did in South Africa when they said praying here is a sign that we're staying here. We're not going anywhere. We're going to fight. And, and, and, and, and at the same time, Joy, while we were there, the Senate in North Carolina, right. Is passing, is redistricting, right? They're doing this redistricting and the redistricting is so ugly that they are now trying to go after the black belt in North Carolina and change it. So we had people there, the lawyers are ready to go. But the other thing we're saying, okay, if the Supreme Court gut section two and throws it to the Congress to fix it, then what we have to do is have the most massive turnout of black and brown folk ever in the history of North Carolina. Because a movement vote could upset some, not all, but some of what these districts are trying to do. If 80% of black folk turn out that registered to vote and eligible to vote, some of this redistricting can be flipped on its head.
- [91:59]
Joy Reid
Right.
- [91:59]
Bishop William Barber
You remember, like Andy Young, remember, he won in a District 5 that was predominantly white in the 1970s. Right. I think it was 1970, and it was a predominantly white district. So that doesn't mean. That's right. That doesn't mean that we don't fight for the minority majority district. But what it means is we've got to turn up the heat. We've got to turn it up.
- [92:22]
Joy Reid
Absolutely. Exit question for you, Bishop. There is this talk. I have to ask you this. I would be remiss if I didn't bring you on here. You've got a lot of talk on the other side about the Antichrist. This is what Peter Thiel's new thing is, is that he's decided the Antichrist is people trying to regulate his money. And Greta Thunberg, who's trying to regulate the environment. As a man of God, how do you respond to somebody who is saying that the Antichrist is the attempt to regulate wealth?
- [92:52]
Bishop William Barber
Yeah. Well, first of all, let me just be theological and tell you what Antichrist means. Antichrist literally means Anti Christ. So how are you Antichrist? You are Antichrist when you don't feed the hungry. You're Antichrist when you don't care for the sick. You're Antichrist when you don't care for the least of these. You are Antichrist when you focus on greed rather than grace. You are Antichrist when you're driven by the love of money, which is the root of all evil. The Bible literally says you are anti God when it says war. Those who legislate evil. And evil is described as making women and children pray and. And robbing the poor of their rights. So if they want to get this argument, we read it. The fact of the matter is Antichrist is greed. Antichrist is power unchecked. Antichrist is using power in any way that destroys humanity. That's one of the reasons why, Joy, we're taking from our Monday a group of clergy to meet with Jeffries. Because what we're saying to the Congress, you all have to be ready for the moral fight. This can't be just a Democrat Republican fight. And you have to shift your language as well. Right. Because these folk are playing with language and you can't laugh at it. You can't just. You got to take it on.
- [94:07]
Joy Reid
That's right.
- [94:08]
Bishop William Barber
Antichrist is actually. You're Antichrist when you're doing the kind of thing Trump and them are doing. You're Antichrist when you're stealing people's rights. You're Antichrist when you're robbing from the working, the poor and the working class and giving to the wealthy. You're Antichrist when you're letting people die because you take health care. Because Christ Jesus didn't do that. He gave the lepers healing and never charged the copay. So, look, we need to really have. And I'm glad you asked that question because we have got to take on this stealing of language and allowing them to play with it and say, no.
- [94:46]
Joy Reid
No, no, no, no, no, no.
- [94:47]
Bishop William Barber
You, you, if you want to step over here in this moral ground, then it's going to be a battle we will take you on.
- [94:53]
Joy Reid
Amen. Bishop William Barber, our friend of the show. It is a moral Monday. Thank you, my friend. We appreciate you always, always, always bringing the good word to, to us today. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right, let's, let's quickly pay some bills, guys. As American women are finding out the very hard way, control over your body, your reproductive choice is not guaranteed in this world and outside the United States, in some places, it never has been. That's why I am so proud that we at the Joy Reid show have a new sponsor, MSI Reproductive Choices. They are a nonprofit that provides reproductive health care in 3:36 countries outside the U.S. now, I've been learning about their work, and you know what really hit me? In sub Saharan Africa, 4 million teenage girls drop out of school every year because they get pregnant. And let's get real. Teenage teenagers everywhere are going to have sex. It is just human nature. But in too many places, these young girls do not have enough access to birth control. No options, no information once they get pregnant. Most never go back to school. In fact, only 5% ever do. Most others actually risk their lives. Many others actually risk their lives trying to end a pregnancy. And a tragic number of young girls die as a result. But there is hope. MSI Reproductive Choices is out there doing the work, traveling to remote places to bring girls contraception, health care, and control over their futures. And with USAID gutted, their work has never been more important. Important mis Reproductive choices. They're the real deal. Charity navigator. They are a charity navigator and they both and charity navigator. Sorry and candid. These two rating agencies both rate MSI at the highest place for quality, efficiency and impact. Now here's how you can help. For just $26, you can give one girl contraception for four years. That is four years to stay in school, follow her dreams and build her future. So just if you want to help, all you have to do is give tax free. @msi United States.org you can also text read my last name Reid to 511-511. So in the US you can go to MSI United States.org for tax deductible giving. That's M for modern, S for safe. I for Informed. MSI United States.org you can also text my last name Reid. That's R E I D to 5 11. 511 text read to 511-511. Go to MSI United States.org let's give these girls a chance, y'. All. Text fees may apply. Okay, back to the show. So as promised. You know, there are, there are many reasons, there are many reasons to really concern, be concerned about our federal government. And one of them is that they are using and weaponizing all of the tools of government, including one of the newer ones, social media against Americans. I want to go through this story that I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard that happened to a young tiktoker. And my final 10 minutes, I really want to talk about it. The Department of Homeland Security, over the last couple of days, they've been zeroing in on a group of young black. They're kids for all that you can tell by looking at them. Certainly more kids than the Republicans who were tweeting I love Hitler, who are in their 30s. And they've been using this massive platform, the Department of Homeland Security's official X Twitter account, to deem these young people, they're young men, young boys, as you know, the, the JD Vance, the Vice President says the 40 year olds that are in his little Republican, young Republicans group, these guys are really kids. And they're deeming these young men to be physical threats to ICE agents. So this all started, as many things in the Trump regime do, with a tweet. We don't have it to show right now, but when we have it, we'll put it up. So basically this tweet went up the other day that accused this group of young men of threatening ICE agents. They also linked to a video that they say they took from Twitter that they're claiming that the friends made that he and the friends made that they say was a threat against ICE agent. So here's the tweet from the Department of Homeland Security. That was the tweet. Now, y' all saw it. You saw it on my social media. You saw it everywhere else, right? There's also a video which will play without the sound. Once we pull it up, we can't put the sound because we're have to take the sound off the thing we played earlier. You can't have sound on YouTube because they will immediately, like, pull your video. But they put up this video, and it says in the video, we're coming for you. Something like that against ice. They posted that video with the threat that you saw in their post, saying, we're coming for you. Basically making a threat that, you know, we're going to come after the people who posted this thing. But then an astute tweeter actually noticed that the video that was playing had different music on it, but it looked exactly like a post that is still on this young man's account. It's not on Twitter. It's on TikTok. It's still on his TikTok account. And this older video is from June 26 second. Now, if you remember what was happening in mid June, the Trump regime bombed nuclear sites in Iran. And when that happened, a lot of content creators, particularly on TikTok, were making posts that were about potential World War III. This became like a trend. It was actually a really popular trend. So the young man not only posted one video jumping on that trend, he posted like four of them. He really got into this trend. He was really into it. So he jumps. He posts on that trend. That was what this sort of, you know, smart Twitter person noticed that he had posted previously on that trend and that the one of the video and one of the videos that he posted looked a lot like this video, but with different captions. And then this young man came out and he posted a clip on his TikTok account saying, it wasn't me. I didn't do it. I did not post that. This is an old video of mine, and I didn't post this. So let's see if we can play. Hold on. Let me go back and let me try to find which one we want to play now, because I want to try to get his defense of himself. This is H4, if we have H4. So that is the smart Twitter person that actually found and said there's something off about these videos, right? So H4 would be his own defense. And this is A. Okay, well, let's go to H5. Let's go to H5.
- [101:32]
Justin J. Pearson
So I'm getting these mad messages from my DMS and social media and on my comments, and I randomly get a text message talking about a recent video that was posting my account. I was like, what are y' all talking about, by the way? I'm sick. So if I sound weird. Yeah, I get threats daily on IG and everywhere, all over my social media. All of a sudden, due to an old video I posted months ago about Iran. Iran. That was not to be a threat. It was literally a joke, bro. Like, seriously, it's just content. Anyways, once I seen that video that was posted on my account, then I was like, what the. What? Did not post this, like, months ago. Then I seen the caption, and then I was like, wait, I didn't do that. Still got the videos saved on my draft months ago on Tick Tock, bro. I was like, I'm gonna pull it up right here. Now, here's the up part. Federal government is involved with something that I didn't do. Like what? So this is what they reposted off my Tick Tock. That video got taken down. So here's what they reposted on their page. Now that video is going crazy to hell on Twitter, bro. Now I'm a threat to the government with something that I didn't do, bro. I'm being called a wannabe Y N. A wannabe gang.
- [103:04]
Joy Reid
Let me bring in our guest, Asosa OSA of Onyx Impact. She is terrific and really understands this world. And so I was really excited to be able to talk to you, Asosa. So this thing went. Has become a problem for this young man. I will note for the chat that I did reach out to him. I was able to get in contact. He is getting an attorney, which is a very smart thing to do. He's not talking to the press. He's not ready to do any interviews. But for me, a couple of things are important here, and you can tell me if they. You're an expert in this. Number one, it really frightens me that the federal government, that the United States, the Department of Homeland Security, this big federal agency, is going into individual, you know, social media users post and posting this person who's not been accused of anything, posting them, putting their face, their Twitter handle and everything, exposing them. He says he's gotten death threats, and without charging him with anything, just dragging him into the public sphere. That's number one. And number two, this is the same federal government that is Also posting content literally taking a shit on the American people. Specifically targeting Harry Sisson who's a young content creator, posting Donald Trump being a king, posting all sorts of trolley ness. What do they think they're teaching young social media creators? They're teaching them to be trolls and to do trolley things. Those two things bother me. Please tell me what, where do you see in this mess?
- [104:34]
Asosa Osa
Thank you so much Joy for having me on and talking about this important issue. First, I want to say that I am praying for that young man's safety and we must continue, even regardless of what others do, to condemn violence in all forms at all times. And we also have to be clear eyed about what is going on. And what we are seeing is fundamentally DHS trying to distract from extremely, extremely poor press of, of and viral footage of ICE agents causing harm and terrorizing communities, particularly black communities. Right. They that they are are being called out for very real videos of active harm and, and, and, and using and weaponizing a single video of a young black man in order to try to stoke fear and feed, to shift and feed a narrative of black crime. Right. That comment that you show that they.
- [105:57]
Jalanda Jones
Have the receipt, guess what?
- [105:59]
Asosa Osa
This administration literally never has receipts.
- [106:04]
Joy Reid
And the other thing about it is the origins of it. There are a couple videos I want to show Jason. We're going to go through and I'm going to see if we can try to pull these up. There's a couple of things that I want to show because I think there are a couple are important. Number one, I wanted to show a video of just sort of what he normally posts. This was a young man who really didn't post a lot. And I think for all of you young folks that are out there using social media know that if you post stuff privately to your friends it can still be found. If you're doing anything proud, we do not know. And he says he did not post this video and there's been no proof that he posted it at all. There's a weird sort of caption on it that really matches his first Iran post where he says iran, we're coming for you. And then this one has this sort of cartoonishly evil, you know, ice we're coming. It is very strange. Some of it is very strange. But he also mostly posts like goofy videos. Right. Let's play H12 if we can, if we can play H12. This is what he normally. This is sort of the kind of flavor I went sort of a deep dive into stuff he posts, he posts a lot of stuff like this, if we have age 12, these kinds of videos that are kind of like silly videos. He posts a lot of dance videos. He actually has two accounts and one of them is mostly like sort of dancy stuff. Okay, so we don't have it then age 13. Do we have age 13? Because age 13 actually talks about the person that actually made this viral in the first place. Tell us who that is. Isosa.
- [107:21]
Asosa Osa
So the. What we've seen is again, in order to try to distract from very, very, very real scrutiny and pivot and change the narrative, we've seen far right influencers like the spokesperson for Turning Point USA consistently uplift videos trying to push.
- [107:51]
Joy Reid
A.
- [107:51]
Asosa Osa
False narrative of far left folks trying to incite violence. We just have not seen any evidence that that is at all some type of widespread strategy. Right, but we have seen this pattern. We have seen this pattern by this administration over and over and over again. When ICE or law enforcement is under scrutiny, they pivot to stories that will blame black people. They pivot to stories that will blame young black men falsely for violence to fuel racial stereotypes and justify unjustifiable.
- [108:31]
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee
We've just begun. We do know that this is going to last for months. And we have just begun. In fact, I will tell you, you that it will last forever. Because what we believe will happen is the numbers of law enforcement agents from different, from different agencies will change depending on the mission. At the moment, it'll be mission dependent. What we find this week will inform what we do next week. But we know that the surge that has taken place currently, or that is taking place currently, that surge will diminish at some point. But what we learned from that surge, the collaboration that is happening right now between the U.S. marshals Service and the Memphis Police Department and the FBI and the DEA and the Tennessee Highway Patrol, that collaboration that in some ways has never been this effectively executed, that collaboration will be here from, from now on. So this operation in some ways may never end. It'll just change in its scope as we execute through the mission. And obviously the goal is to minimize, if not approach the elimination of violent crime in the city of Memphis.
- [110:02]
Joy Reid
So unfortunately, that was the governor of Tennessee and it just wanted to play. It decided, you know, good old Riverside decided. It just wanted it to play. But let me let you finish your thought because what we did have is Turning Point usa. And that is the thing that when we spoke earlier, ISOSA really sort of struggling like, oh, Turning Point again. Because their purpose is to cause, you know, sort of recruit more young white men mostly to be white Christian nationalists, to be conservative. But also they are one of the megaphones for the maga. Right, so you're saying that they are what, going through people's tiktoks, looking for things that they can amplify that they can then repurpose as threats against ice?
- [110:42]
Asosa Osa
I am, I am saying that if you look through their accounts, they. That one, you are, you are correct. They have a massive, massive, you know, media, digital media infrastructure and the ability to take a narrative and push it over and over and over again for a very long time in ways that, you know, progressive apparatuses just don't yet. And so when you are looking at these particular accounts, you see a lot of the same type of narrative and video that is trying to weaponize racial stereotypes, trying to rep. Increase political divisions and highlight and try to make individual instances seem like something far more widespread.
- [111:29]
Joy Reid
So we're out of time. But tell us about this report that you all have out at Onyx Impact that is talking about some of the real dangers in social media. It feels like social media has never been more dangerous because now you have the federal government also weaponizing it. Talk about your report.
- [111:42]
Asosa Osa
Exactly, exactly. So the blackout report, Bionics Impact is the most comprehensive analysis that we have today of the. Of the real world harms and impacts that have been perpetrated against black communities this year under the false guise, under a disinformation campaign meant to erase, distort and suppress black progress. It is all about using this term, dei as a smokescreen. But when I say real world costs, what do I mean by that? I mean they are using that term, but behind closed doors, cutting $31 million in funding for black kids with asthma in neighborhoods that need help with air quality. Right? They're cutting tens of millions of dollars for maternal mortality. They're cutting nearly $10 million in grants for. For sickle cell disease research. And I've said that my little brother suffers from sickle cell disease. And to say that there's no justification for that research because it's not enough of a return on investment for a rare disease that just happens to impact black folks. Right? This is an attack on black health, on black wealth, on black progress. We have seen hundreds of thousands of jobs lost. We are looking at the highest rate of unemployment for black Americans since COVID Right? And all of this is happening using this smokescreen term to try to distract us once again from their real goal, which is to gain illegitimate power and control. We are seeing that just this past week with looking at the attempt to take down the Voting Rights Act. Right. This is not just about changing history. This is fundamentally changing the. Manipulating the present and trying to stack the future for opportunity and stack what America looks like moving forward. So I highly recommend folks go check out the report@blackoutreport.org and read through, because if there's anything that we have that they don't, it is receipts, Right? And so please read through the report and read through the database and use it to uplift and amplify their tactics and strategies.
- [114:04]
Joy Reid
Blackoutreport.org we're going to put the link in the description of the show. Thank you so much, Asosa. Oh, so we always appreciate it. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate you so much. Thank you very much. All right, y', all, that's it. You've got your. You've got your homework assignments. If you are in one of these states where there are elections coming up, there are members of Congress members. They go up every two years. So you have an opportunity to vote. In these primaries, the primary is where your power is. Because in the primary, you pick the candidate that is going to go to the finals. By the time you get to the general election, that's when you're stuck just voting D because the R's are cuckoo crazy and all, bending the knee to Trump. You have to vote in the primary so that you can have your best possible choice, make yourself heard in the primary so that you send your best candidate into that general election. Because when it gets to general election time, it's time to just man up or woman up and just vote D. The Democratic Party is not perfect. I have a lot of problems with it. We have an interview with Karine Jean Pierre coming up on this show very soon where she has left the Democratic Party. I am one foot out the door myself. But in a general election, I'm gonna pick the D every time over the R because the Republican Party is embracing people who praise Nazis. On Wednesday's show, we're gonna talk a little bit more about this, about the candidate for a very important office in the Trump administration who said he's got a little Hitler in him. He's got a little bit of Nazi in him. He's a little bit pro Naz. He's a little. He's a little Nazi and he's up for a big job in the Trump regime. We're going to talk about Marco Rubio literally defying deals that were made with MS.13 gang members because they gave. They told on the president of El Salvador. They were doing dirty Work with the president of El Salvador. They then turned on the president of El Salvador and were giving information to the US, to our Justice Department, Marco Rubio. Sold them all out. Sold them all out. We're going to talk about the military bombing fishermen. The government, the president of Columbia has called the US Murderers for killing fishermen, literally dropping bombs on fishermen. We're going to talk about all of that stuff on Wednesday. We have a big show on Wednesday. But you've got that same government weaponizing social media against you. So be very careful on social media. Be careful what you post. They can find anything. But vote, vote, vote. Because by the time we get to the general, you just gotta team up and just vote deep. So in these primary elections, you get a chance to choose your fighter. Choose your fighter. Make sure that you vote. Don't miss it, don't give your power away, and then get stuck with the lesser of two evils because you're not happy with who won. Ask the people in New Jersey. You could have had the mayor of Newark. You could have rasparaka. Now everybody's like, I don't know if I want to vote. Now you got to vote for the boring white lady. Now you got to do it. You have no choice because you had a choice in the, in the primary and you didn't do it. If you skip the primary, you just got to vote. Same thing in Virginia, people. You know, if that wasn't the candidate you wanted, too late. Now you're going to have to vote for her because if not, you're going to get that wacky lieutenant governor lady, win some Sears. Those are your choices. Jay Jones. You're mad about his text. Too late. He's the AG candidate and the other guy running for AG will not stand up to Trump at this point. Choose your fighter. You just need to vote for Jay Jones. I'm sorry you don't like his text. Sorry his texts make you upset. But you don't have a choice. We have to fight the regime. That is your only mission. So vote in these primaries. Make sure that if you're in Texas, if you're in Illinois, if you're in Mississippi, get out there and vote. Thank you all for watching the Joy Reid Show. Please be sure to hit like and share. Thanks to everybody who tuned in in the chat. Big love for everybody that are Team TJRS. Leslie Young, 7192. Thank you very much for letting everybody know. To hit the like button, hit the share button. We love you guys and see you on Wednesday. Thanks for watching Joy Reacho. We're not gonna play music. I'm just gonna pretend like I hear it, and I'm gonna sway like Donald Trump did when he pretended. Oh, wait, you have it. Oh, well, no music. I'm gonna sway. Bye, y'. All. See you on Wednesday.