Beto talks Texas, CBS Fails the Fascism Test, and RIP Malcolm Jamal Warner | The Joy Reid Show July 21 Episode

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Joy Reid Show – "Beto talks Texas, CBS Fails the Fascism Test, and RIP Malcolm Jamal Warner" | July 21, 2025

Introduction

In the July 21 episode of The Joy Reid Show, host Joy-Ann Reid delves into a spectrum of pressing issues spanning political scandals, media accountability, and heartfelt tributes. The episode features thoughtful discussions with notable guests, including Pete Dominic and Beto O'Rourke, alongside a heartfelt remembrance of the late Malcolm Jamal Warner.

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1. Remembering Malcolm Jamal Warner

Timestamp: [00:01 – 24:23]

Joy Reid begins the episode with somber news about the passing of Malcolm Jamal Warner, best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Encouraging reflection, Joy shares Warner's final video message:

[18:50] Malcolm Jamal Warner: "Spread some love. Good cheer, you know? You know, life is out here. Life is right for me."

Joy introduces Erica Alexander, fellow Cosby Show alumna, to provide personal insights into Warner's character and legacy. Erica emphasizes Warner's dedication to his craft and his efforts to transcend his iconic TV persona:

[20:27] Erica Alexander: "Malcolm was always hiding in plain sight. He was always there doing great work."

Together, they mourn Warner's untimely death and celebrate his contributions to American culture, highlighting his private nature and enduring impact.

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2. Donald Trump and the Epstein Scandal

Timestamp: [00:48 – 12:24]

Joy Reid revisits the infamous 2016 Access Hollywood tape featuring Donald Trump, outlining its initial impact on his campaign:

[01:04] Joy Reid: "That was Donald Trump."

She elaborates on how Trump's connections with Jeffrey Epstein have resurfaced as a significant scandal, threatening his political standing despite his resilience:

[07:59] Joy Reid: "Donald Trump is president again for the second time because he won that time."

Joy critiques Trump's attempts to divert attention from the Epstein files by introducing other controversies, such as the release of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and unfounded claims against former President Barack Obama.

[10:50] Joy Reid: "He wants to get people to stop talking about this, do anything else. But stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein."

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3. Media Accountability and Corporate Downfalls

Timestamp: [12:24 – 32:06]

The discussion shifts to the mainstream media's handling of Trump-related scandals. Joy critiques major outlets like the Wall Street Journal and CBS for their perceived bias and vulnerability to Trump's legal maneuvers:

[62:24] Pete Dominic: "They are Rubio's, AKA Hollow barrels."

She highlights CBS's decision to cancel The Stephen Colbert Show, interpreting it as a move to silence one of the few outspoken critics of Trump:

[38:55] Beto O'Rourke: "That's a small example. But it gives me some hope that people are paying attention."

Joy laments the media's retreat from holding power accountable, suggesting that corporate interests often override journalistic integrity.

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4. Tribute to Malcolm Jamal Warner with Erica Alexander

Timestamp: [32:06 – 31:27]

Returning to the tribute, Erica Alexander shares personal anecdotes about Warner, emphasizing his multifaceted talents and commitment to artistry beyond his television fame:

[23:31] Erica Alexander: "Malcolm is us. That young man represented for so many people... He always made us proud."

She underscores Warner's achievements in music and his role as a cultural icon, advocating for collective mourning and celebration of his legacy.

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5. Beto O'Rourke on Texas Politics

Timestamp: [32:06 – 68:15]

The episode features an in-depth interview with Texas Senator Beto O'Rourke, focusing on his recent activities and the political climate in Texas. Beto discusses his efforts to engage with diverse communities through town halls, particularly in traditionally Republican districts:

[33:11] Beto O'Rourke: "People are hurting right now and people want to fight back. And in order to do that, you've got to bring people together."

Key Topics Discussed:

• Redistricting and Voter Suppression: Beto addresses the Republican-led redrawing of congressional districts in Texas aimed at weakening Democratic representation.

  [34:48] Beto O'Rourke: "House choosing their own voters... we're fighting with everything we have."

• Immigration: Highlighting the administration's harsh immigration policies, Beto emphasizes the need for comprehensive reform and compassionate governance.

  [35:30] Beto O'Rourke: "ICE agents routinely arrest, detain, ultimately deporting people who are here legally."

• Abortion Rights: Discussing Texas's strict abortion laws, Beto shares harrowing statistics and local resistance against oppressive legislation.

  [49:32] Beto O'Rourke: "More than 26,000 women and girls in Texas were forced to carry the child of their rapist because of this law."

• Gun Control: Advocating for common-sense gun reforms, Beto highlights bipartisan support and the urgent need to address school shootings.

  [51:47] Beto O'Rourke: "Is it crazy that we lead the nation in school shootings?"

• Democratic Strategy: Beto underscores the importance of energizing the Democratic base, particularly Latino voters, and presenting a compelling vision for Texas's future.

  [47:28] Beto O'Rourke: "What's going to mean to have a job that you work that doesn't require a second or third job to make ends meet?"

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6. Challenges and Hope for the Democratic Party

Timestamp: [54:30 – 67:28]

In the latter part of the episode, the conversation between Joy Reid and Pete Dominic delves into the Democratic Party's strategies and internal dynamics. Pete emphasizes the necessity for the party to evolve and adopt more inclusive communication methods:

[54:30] Pete Dominic: "We need to understand where the future is and where trends lie... we have to follow the game."

Joy agrees, critiquing the party's reluctance to empower rising stars like Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico fully:

[57:49] Pete Dominic: "Listen, Joy, you've known me for a long time... let's effing go."

Together, they call for solidarity across communities and a unified front to combat emerging threats of authoritarianism and media manipulation.

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Conclusion

The July 21 episode of The Joy Reid Show weaves together poignant tributes, incisive political analysis, and strategic discussions on media and party dynamics. Joy-Ann Reid effectively highlights the interconnectedness of personal loss, political turmoil, and the ongoing fight for democratic integrity, offering listeners a comprehensive and engaging discourse on the state of American society and governance.

Notable Quotes:

• "Life is out here. Life is right for me." — Malcolm Jamal Warner [18:50]
• "We need to bring people together." — Beto O'Rourke [33:11]
• "What’s going to mean to have a job that doesn't require a second or third job to make ends meet?" — Beto O'Rourke [47:28]
• "If we don't do everything we can, we'll not get that paid power." — Beto O'Rourke [37:15]
• "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." — Pete Dominic [67:16]

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This summary captures the essence of the episode, providing a clear and structured overview of the discussions and key insights shared by Joy-Ann Reid and her guests.

Transcript

[Joy Reid]

There we go. All right. Good evening, everyone out there and all the ships at sea. Welcome to the Joy Read Show. It is a Monday in every conceivable way. We've got a lot to get to tonight. Some tragic news that we're going to talk about just a little bit in the show. Obviously, the death of Malcolm Jamal Warner. We're going to get to that soon. But first, before we go there, I want to take you back. I want to take you guys back to 2016 and the presidential race. You will recall this very famous piece of video. Apologies for the cuss words.

[Pete Dominic]

Maybe it's a different one. Better not be the.

[Joy Reid]

No, it's. It's. Yeah, that's here with the gold. I got to do some Tic Tacs.

[Erica Alexander]

Just in case this guy, you know.

[Pete Dominic]

Automatically I just start kissing like a magnet. When you start. Do it.

[Joy Reid]

You can do anything. Do anything. Grab him by the. By the.

[Pete Dominic]

Do any.

[Joy Reid]

Do anything. You could do anything. That was Donald Trump. I was speaking to Billy Bush on the set of Access Hollywood when he did not know that his mic was hot. No, to sell your mic is always hot. And he got busted. And this set off one of the biggest cataclysms in the Trump campaign to that point. It is the reason why, the main reason why Donald Trump wound up cutting a check to Storm Daniels and to another Playboy model that he was also in the past had an affair with. He needed to get those stories off the table because at the time, he was cultivating this very evangelical white Christian base, and he needed them to continue to vote for him. Republicans were condemning him. People were getting off the Trump train because they were like, this guy's got no moral fight fiber. We cannot have this guy be our candidate for president. And he needed to do something desperately to make sure that he didn't end his campaign. So when that video came out, it marked the biggest crisis in the Trump campaign in that 2016 campaign to that point. Fast forward to today, because Donald Trump survived that. Donald Trump survived that video that came out that seemed like it could have derailed his candidacy. It didn't derail his candidacy. Evangelicals overwhelmingly voted for him. He got 8 out of 10 evangelical votes, women, particularly white women. They voted for him in overwhelming numbers. It didn't matter. More than 50% still pulled the lever for Donald Trump. They didn't care. He said it was locker room talk. They didn't care. Well, fast forward to today. Donald Trump is president again for the second time because he won that time. He just won again after A Joe Biden interlude. And now it seems like he cannot get away from what is the current biggest scandal and impediment to his progress. As in this case, I want to be king. And it is his old pal, the late, horrible pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. There he is partying with Jeffrey Epstein back at Mar A Lago. They very famously were friends. Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend says they were best friends. Michael Wolf told us on this program they were best friends. They hung together along with other people who are agents for young, young models. And they all hung together in one big group. I will note that there is a great piece on joynery.com that I wrote that goes into all of this history. John Casablancas, Donald Trump, all of them used to actually run a model. You name it, he was involved in that modeling world. And Jeffrey Epstein was his buddy. And the scandal over whether or not Donald Trump is in the Epstein files is something he can't get away from because. Because his base, Donald Trump's base, has been primed and groomed to believe this is the most important issue. And they want those Epstein files and they want them now. And Donald Trump has tried everything to try to dissuade them from continuing to focus on Jeffrey Epstein. He's tried calling them stupid, saying only stupid people care about this stuff. His doj, his Department of Justice, which is incredibly obedient. They do whatever he says. They fired Maureen Comey, who happens to be James Comey's daughter, but she also was the person who prosecuted both the diddler and also Ghiain Maxwell, who was Jeffrey Epstein's buddy and. And help meet in terms of grooming young women for abuse. She's serving time in prison and appealing her case. That's the woman who prosecuted her. She's now been fired. They've tried everything and none of it has worked. None of it has worked. The other day, they tried a new gambit over the weekend. Having talked about Tulsi Gabbard, who for whatever reason is the Director of National Intelligence, a job she is not qualified for, having her come out and say that Barack Obama, former President Obama, should be prosecuted for treason, Tulsi Gabbard, DNI comes out saying that there's overwhelming evidence that demonstrates how after President Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, President Obama, as National security Cabinet members, manufactured and politicized intelligence about Russia. Donald Trump, trying to get all of his old grievances, put it all on the table in a extremely desperate attempt to get people to stop talking about this, do anything else. But stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein. It's weird, right? It's almost like he's, like, afraid of what's in the Epstein files because he will not release them. He won't do anything about it. The Wall Street Journal comes out with this blockbuster story saying that Donald Trump, when Jeffrey Epstein turned 50, sent him a poem including a Magic Marker drawing that had a signature. The Donald Trump classic Magic Marker signature, but where the pubic hair would be on the. An image of a naked woman. He claims that is not. He didn't do it. Says, nothing to do with me. I don't doodle. Even though he used to sell doodles. And then he sued Reuben Murdoch, Dow Jones, which owns the Wall Street Journal and the Wall street journal for $10 billion. He might as well sue him for 10 bazillion d dollars because he said, that's not me. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. Now he's suing them. He's also taken the Wall Street Journal out of the press pool. They have been Associated Press. They have been kicked out of the press pool. He's on his way to Scotland. He's on his way to Europe. And they can't go because he's disinvited them. The latest gambit now is a document dump today of the entire contents of the files that the federal government has about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Of Dr. King. Just dumped that into the public, hoping that it will send the little QAnon ers and all of the curious magas running off in that direction so they'll get on that conspiracy theory instead and get off the Epstein files. The King family has released a statement. I've got the statement here. Because they are furious about this. They were not consulted before this was done. They were not asked what they felt about releasing this information. The King family released a statement. I'll read part of it. We recognize that the release of documents concerning the assassination of of our father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Has long been a subject of interest, captivating public curiosity for decades as the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King. His tragic death has been an intensely personal grief. A devastating loss for his wife, children and the granddaughter he never met, and absence our family has endured for over 57 years. We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint and respect for our family's continuing grief. One more piece of this. The release of these files must be viewed within their full historical Context. And he talks about all of the FBI's persecution of Dr. King. They go into all of that. They talk about the unknown, potential co conspirators, about government agencies that point to a wider scheme in the death. They go into a lot of it. I'm going to post the Entire statement on Joann reid.com if you want to read all of it. But I also will note, and Reverend Sharpton released a statement making this point as well, that the release of these files has nothing to do with Donald Trump and the Trump regime's empathy for the King family. They clearly don't have empathy for them because they did not want these files dumped out without any sort of context. This has to do with trying to get the MAGA base to talk about anything other than Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump is extremely triggered. Very clearly. I mean, he's so triggered. He released medical information about himself. Not flattering medical information about his fat ankles, his swollen ankles. We never get medical information about Donald Trump. Note that when there was this attempted assassination of Donald Trump, we got almost no medical records about that. And this was the potential assassination of the president of a presidential candidate. We know almost nothing about that. His medical records at the time he showed up with a Duplo bandage on one ear one day and then it was gone the next. He was, you know, had the big bandage on during the, during the Republican National Convention. And then like in between, he didn't have it when he was golfing. Like, we don't really know anything about his medical history during that time. And that seems to be a pretty important thing. The fundamental question of was he shot in the ear? We don't know. We don't have that information. But we know all about his ankles. We all about the Venus condition that is afflicting Donald Trump's ankles because it was an opportune time to put out some information that would distract the media, distract the press from running the other way and talk about really anything, anything, anything other than the Epstein files. Let me go back and thank Ronald Barnett Jr. Who threw 4.99 in the till. We love that. Thank you to everybody who is a TJRS member. I want to thank you all for being here. I see the little green around your name when I'm looking at the chat, because I'm glancing over at the chat. I want to thank Suzanne Leroux, who is a member of Team tjrs. We got some good stuff coming for y'. All. Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining. But yeah, the point is the distraction the distraction is the point. Because for whatever reason, clearly inside of Trump world, they believe that this is a crisis for them. They believe that this is a problem. Meanwhile, the mainstream media doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. Much of the mainstream media, the New York Times had a big headline today saying, woo, Trump got past the Epstein thing. Has he though? Because last I checked, he hasn't. His base is still screaming about this. The podcast bros who helped get him elected are still saying, release the files. I don't think he's changed anyone's minds. Except of course, the obedient people at Fox will probably go off and start talking to Tulsi Gabbard about arresting President Obama. Obama, which is ridiculous. There's nothing to it. I'm going to do a segment on it because it's such a stupid thing. But it's catnip, right? It's catnip. And the media is willing to go along with it. We've seen that in the behavior, unfortunately, of much of the mainstream press. You had ABC take the knee, settling with Donald Trump. $16 million payout slash bribe to Donald Trump over George Stephanopoulos saying a very true thing about what Donald Trump did to Eugene Carroll. He sexually abused her. George Stephanopoulos talked about that in an interview with a Republican congresswoman, Nancy Mace. And Donald Trump sued him because he used the word rape, which the judge also used in his ruling in favor of Eugene Carroll. They settled anyway because they're trying to take the knee. Of course, we've seen what Jeff Bezos has done with the Washington Post, demanding that they only talk about liberty, get off the Trump stuff. Same thing with the LA Times, the mainstream media attempting to take the knee in every way possible. Culminating in the news last week. The really, I think shocking to everyone, shocking to all of us news that cbs, that Paramount, the company that owned cb, was going to cancel the Stephen Cole show, the highest rated late night show, period. And I know people are like, well, Greg Gutfield's highest rated late night show, Greg Gutfield show is on at 10pm he does not compete directly with Stephen Colbert. They have not had a head to head competition. The shows that are on at 11:35 are technically the late night shows. And of those three late night shows, the number one rated one between the tonight show, the Jimmy Kimmel show, audiences, yes, it's expensive to do any kind of a network show, but his show was successful. Canceled it anyway. Feels like removing a very spicy critic of the president, one who annoys Donald Trump. And Donald Trump seems to see it that way, too, because he's now calling for Jimmy Kimmel to go as well, because Jimmy Kimmel gets at him real, real good. I don't know if our guest is here yet. I'll let me know when our guest is here because we have somebody both here. Oh, okay. Let's. Let me. Let me bring in Pete Dominic. My friend Pete Dominic, one of the funniest guys and really best people in the radio biz. Pete Dominic is the host of a great show on Sirius XM called Stand up with Pete Dominic. Pete, thank you so much for being here. You opened for Stephen Colbert for a really long time. I have to first ask you what your reaction was as somebody who knows this man when you heard that his show was going to be canceled as of next May.

[Pete Dominic]

No. No way. We're not getting ready. I. I am so happy to see you in a second, but I just want to say, say I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna cry. I love you so much. So much. I'm so excited, so excited to talk to you and doing this project. Who said, hey, Joy. Content and keeping us informed. Give up, give up, not give up. And also on your new channel. And I love her. I'm not going to go right into. We haven't talked in a while, and this is a new thing and I want to honor you. Hundreds of thousands of subscribers here on YouTube. You give me so much hope, and I'm happy and proud of you.

[Joy Reid]

I appreciate you so much, Pete. See, this is why I love this man. He is such a good guy. And it's true. The thing about it is some of your favorite people in the world, you know, you're really good friends. And when we talk, well, you know, we won't talk in a long time, but when we talk, it's like we just were talking the other day. Because I just love Pete so much. He's just that good of a guy. I am good. I think we are good. The friends are on here. We see them in the chat. They're loving you, Loving you, loving you. I think we got to make sure that your sound is okay, Pete. I don't know if your WI fi is a little wonky. So we just want to make sure that you've got good WI fi. So I'll make sure that people can hear you well. And that's what folks are saying. I'm. Thank you, Lawrence Richardson. Lawrence Richardson. Tipping. What? That's cool. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. So, Pete, now I do want to ask you My question was, you opened for Stephen Colbert for a long time. You were his opening act. So what. What. What did you make of it when you heard that his show was going to be canceled? Not just canceling the show, ending the Late show franchise, period.

[Pete Dominic]

Revenge. Revenge. I mean. I mean, Stephen Colbert. Colbert.

[Joy Reid]

It's just a little bit in, out. Yeah, your echo's just. Your. Your sound is just a little in and out.

[Pete Dominic]

I have a pro setup. I'm gonna look at it for everybody listening.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, Live. We're doing it live. We're doing it live. We're doing it live. There's a little echo. There's a little bit of an echo. Okay, there we go. And we're gonna say, got that full loop. Garrick going. Is on. Echo. Echo. What's echo? Echo. I don't know what that is, but five people like it. Whatever that is, thank you for doing that.

[Pete Dominic]

Whoever said, I'm sorry for torturing everybody. I don't know if that's on me. I want to figure it out right now.

[Joy Reid]

Sounds much better.

[Pete Dominic]

Is it better?

[Joy Reid]

It sounds better to me. It sounds good to us.

[Erica Alexander]

I don't know what YouTube is hearing.

[Joy Reid]

Go for it.

[Pete Dominic]

Okay, well. Well, Colbert is. Colbert is proud. Stephen is going to go on. Go on television every night. Every night. And he is going to talk about this. And every show is going well. They're all going to pay. It was his tribute. Imagine. Joy. Joy had announced that you were. Announced that you were leav.

[Joy Reid]

Wait, hold on. I'm going to stop you right there, because you still have an echo. And it's weird because it's like there is a very heavy echo. That's what a lot of the chat are saying. They're saying, turn off your delay if you have a mixer. Look at this. We have, like, experts in the chat that are jumping in, offering tech support. Live tech support. This is actually why I love YouTube so much, because literally, if we were having a sound problem on msnbc, our amazing. You know, our amazing sound folks would come out and they would run out and they would start fixing things, and they would physically, as a human, come out and do it. But we're getting live tech support right now where people are saying they're hearing an echo and they cannot hear you. So I'm going to go ahead and give you. Give me a countdown. Give me a countdown. We're going to do it live. We're going to get this countdown live.

[Pete Dominic]

Punch out and come right back in two minutes.

[Joy Reid]

Punch out and come back in. That sounds like a Good plan. All right. We're going to have Pete dip out and come back in. And hopefully we can get a better signal. Thank you all very much. We really appreciate the chat. You guys are always on top of it. Somebody said it sound like that they're in the twilight zone. But you might be in the twilight zone. See, that's what you don't understand. We are living in the settings on this side.

[Erica Alexander]

I don't see anything.

[Joy Reid]

Settings look good. Okay. I think he's going to log out and come back in. My. Okay, and mine sounds good, everybody. Let me know how my. My sound sounds. My sound sounds good, everybody Give me a thumbs up if you think my sound sounds fine. Okay. I'm getting some hearts that are telling me that my sound sounds fine. Absolutely. Good. Okay. Mine sound. I'm getting smiley faces. I love the live action. Tech support. Okay, so, Pete, let's see if we can try you again. He just stepped out of studio. Okay. He stepped up to. He's gonna come back. So I have a little. I'm just gonna let you all know that my setup. I can actually see your chat, but my video is slightly behind. So I'm gonna wait for him to come back in. But I'm gonna. Before I bring Pete back in, I'm actually gonna bring in another guest while we're waiting on Pete to come back because we want to have this conversation. Over the last 24 hours, a really shocking piece of information has come out. And it is about the death of Malcolm Jamal Warner. At 54 years old, he apparently drowned. I believe he was on vacation in Costa Rica. All of you know him, of course, as Theo Huxtable on the Cosby Show. He's like a family member, I think, to those of us who grew up watching that show. And while obviously there were great flaws that emerged about Bill Cosby, it doesn't change the import of this show. I was talking with Tiffany Cross about this today who talks about that in her book that's coming up. It doesn't change the fact that this show really changed the world. Let me play very quickly the. The final video that Malcolm Jamal Warner, who seemed to me to be such a decent man. This was his. The last video from him before he passed. Was good. Yes.

[Malcolm Jamal Warner]

I got the flower in my hair. Daughter's birthday. She put the flower there.

[Joy Reid]

So I'm rocking. Rocking. What?

[Pete Dominic]

What?

[Malcolm Jamal Warner]

It's a beautiful day.

[Joy Reid]

Beautiful day.

[Malcolm Jamal Warner]

I just want to shout out, spread some. Spread some love. Good cheer, you know? You know, life is out here. Life right for me.

[Joy Reid]

And everybody, everybody, but.

[Malcolm Jamal Warner]

But just wanted to. Just wanted to remind myself that what's going on has always, always the reason.

[Joy Reid]

I guarantee.

[Malcolm Jamal Warner]

And if for some reason, some reason.

[Beto O'Rourke]

Then.

[Malcolm Jamal Warner]

Then that's probably the best time to be the reason for somebody else. So.

[Joy Reid]

Wow, that makes me so sad. Let me bring in Erica Alexander, who you all know from all of her many, many, many roles. I will not give her full resume because I could be here for a half an hour giving her roles. But relevant to this conversation, she played Pam, Pam Tucker on the Cosby show, one of our fave, fave characters ever, my friend, Eric Alexander. Thank you so much. I know that you, you are. You were cruising to get home to get to Wi Fi to do this for me. So thank you for being here, my friend.

[Erica Alexander]

Thank you, Joy. It's a sad day.

[Joy Reid]

Sorry, sorry.

[Erica Alexander]

Circumstances.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, I can hear you. Okay, good. I was just making sure that you weren't having a sound problem because we were having one with Pete Dominic earlier. Talk to me a little bit. About what? Malcolm Warner, because we just see him. I think I was texting this to you earlier. When we see him from the outside looking in, we just assume he's exactly like Theo. Right. Because Theo is the person we grew up with. What was he like in real life?

[Erica Alexander]

I think he was very much like, frankly, he was a good dude. I think that we were living in a time that for a lot of young black men, they were being perceived as predators, perceived as a person who could take your bag and rip you off that type of jive, talking all that nonsense. But Theo was a upper middle class young man who had been raised in a household that was stable, but he also made mistakes. And he was also a boy with hormones and those types of things and dreams and, you know, just finding his way, becoming. So I think you found Malcolm right where he lived. They cast those children partly because they were very closely associated with the type of child they wanted to play those roles. And he did it brilliantly.

[Joy Reid]

Can you talk about. Cause you had to do a similar thing. When you're in an iconic show and people know you as one character and they see you as that person, how do you get beyond that? Because he had really started to come into his own, doing other acting roles that took him out of that Theo space. How hard is that to do and how challenging was that for him?

[Erica Alexander]

It's difficult. It would have been more difficult for him than possibly anybody else. Especially that entire show was the biggest show in the world. It changed television. It was must see tv. But it also changed the very nature of comedy. And who could be in those spaces, who could have a voice and what types of things we could put in those spaces. I mean, the elements and the types of Mary Makeba and jazz and all those things that flavored the Cosby show were very rich. And so when you come off of that, people want to keep you in there because it's nostalgic, but it also is a comfort. And so I think he probably struggled very much. I think I was able to transition sooner because I got living. Living single just after that, and. And I was just a partial player on there on the seventh and eighth season, so I wasn't as identified. But I know that Malcolm did his work, and where he worked was he created a. You know, you work sort of laterally sometime, and he became a musician, and he was masterful at it. His mother, Pamela Warner, was a brilliant talent manager. And one of the things she made sure that her son had was the freedom to explore those things and make sure that he had the stability inside of, you know, finance and that type of stuff. But I thought he did it brilliantly. And frankly, he became a musician that not only envy, but had a Grammy and all these other things. So I think that's how. That's how Malcolm kind of, you know, he didn't want to escape it. He was very. He loved that part. He loved what the show did for him. But it made people see him in a new way that I don't think they would have normally done if he had just. Not if he had just kept acting.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah. And, you know, one of the things about him that I thought was really admirable in this business where everything is so public is he. You really didn't know his business. Like, he was very, very private. You didn't really know what happened to his family. They weren't out there. And he did a good job because it's hard to guard your peace. Right. When you are a public person. But he seemed to have done it.

[Erica Alexander]

He did a fantastic job. Actually, that's what I was thinking the most when this came up. I got a text from a friend and I hadn't checked it, and then I got another text that had, like, a screen grab, and I was with my mother. I was going to talk to Kiki Palmer on her show and with Kim Coles. And I looked and I saw his name flash.

[Beto O'Rourke]

I'm sorry.

[Joy Reid]

I saw it. I'm sorry. I saw it.

[Erica Alexander]

I heard it new. I said, are you kidding? Because you never see his name. You never see his name associated with anything bad. So if somebody's sending it to you. And I sort of realized that there were some gatherings of, you know, texts and calls that I hadn't seen. I said, oh, no. And sure enough to say, drown. Because I said, well, how could this possibly be? And then your mind starts to flash about. I don't know, you just. To me, you just start thinking about. You just regret you won't see that person in the world. There's so many other people that I would prefer. I hate to say it, to see that about. I'm sorry. I'm telling you the truth. But he didn't deserve it because he was so good. He was a good, good man. And he had been a good boy and he'd been a great actor and he had been an amazing artist. And I just immediately thought to myself, three weeks ago, I said, I'm going to reach out to Malcolm. I think I want to ask him about this project. And it came up again last week and I didn't do it, and I'm sorry, because I would have at least spoken to him again. And I went immediately to my text and started to see that I had sent him a long text about his work and what he did. And I'm going to post that up so people can see it. But I'm sorry, this is one of the. This is one of the saddest things because I know, Joy, you feel the same way. He was our brother. Everybody was grieving. If you knew who these people were, you grieve. So I'm. I'm trying to still process it, like I'm talking to you outside of maybe going into that studio and sort of saying to people, hey, did you hear the news? You're the first person I'm talking to. And it belongs. He belongs with us to process this and everybody to gather up and compare notes and to. This has just been a tough freaking years. These years are tough. We're sitting up here and we're losing the most beautiful people in the world that help build America's culture. And he deserves his flowers. And so I'm glad we're talking about him. So thank you, Joy. But I. You couldn't have told me today that that would have come across my text. I wouldn't have believed you. I'm sorry. I want to send family.

[Joy Reid]

Do not apologize. And yes, we're sending deepest, deepest consoles as his daughter, his family. It's so I think that first, I didn't believe it either. Honestly, Eric, I'LL be honest, when I saw it, I thought it couldn't be true. But I wanted to talk to you because those of us like me who had never met him, you know, but I still felt like I knew him. Like, I would have been like, of course I know you, Malcolm. You. You know me. Like, you've been in my tv. Couldn't you see me on the other side of the TV watching? You are. You know, aren't we best friends? Right? It's one of. He was that kind of a person that it felt like he couldn't be other than the what you saw, what you. What you could tell that what you saw was what you got. But I wanted to share this moment with somebody who did actually know him. Irl, like, in real life, that was not knowing him virtually like I did, because that. It hurts so much. For those of us, for the culture. It feels like our childhood is dying. One, you know, you know, Gen X rapper at a time, you know, one Michael Jackson you know, at a time, one Whitney Houston. It's just like, you just look at all these icons of what we were growing up in Gen X, and it's like people are dying. It's such a clip and it's such a horrible time in the country, but I really want to talk with somebody who really knew him. My exit. Exit question to you is how. How can we. What's the best way in a situation like this? Do you think that we can be of help? Because what we don't want to do is flood his family with more grief, but we're all grieving, like, collectively for this. I mean, what do we do?

[Erica Alexander]

Just what we're doing now, Joy, you're doing the right thing, is sort of just gathering and having people speak about him, speak their name, give, bear witness, that type of thing. I came on the show as a fan, so I feel like I have an insider, but a very outsider point of view, because I am you. I literally never really thought of myself as this core family. I got a chance to spend two years with them, and then, of course, afterwards, Malcolm stayed friends with everybody. He was at the time dating my friend Karen Molina White, who played Charmaine on the show. And so I saw them, definitely. But also, you know, he left a blueprint, all of those shows. And it's an unfortunate thing to have to speak to somebody where there's all sorts of other things that you're trying to navigate, but all you want to do is sort of say, the Cosby show was historic and it was amazing. It Was brilliant. And we want to rescue the performances and the idea of it without having to always start to talk about the other things that came around, came up because of, frankly, Mr. Cosby, that's what I call him, because that's. I still think of myself as in that space. But he put out an album and he put out his last album called In Plain Sight. And that just meant that he was always hiding in plain sight. Malcolm was always there doing great work. Go get that album. I wrote him last because it was a work of genius. It was a work of genius. He's in our DNA. So we should all remember that Malcolm is us. That that young man represented for so many people, and not just black people, but so many people, what excellence looked like and what boyhood and teenager and also growing and matriculating into a young man looked like. And he always made us proud. But he also did it in plain sight. He did not hide himself. And so we should be proud. By the way, he loved music. He was always on set with music. If you came in, when we come into work, there would be Boys to Men, there would be Naughty by Nature, Arrested Development, There would be. Actually, he loved Tripod Called Quest. They were always there with him. And I just realized how many young men also were in his orbit because he wanted to learn about music. But also those were his peers. So they are in his DNA. And we are always having this conversation. When you embrace the culture. So everybody should embrace the culture. And they should look at those shows, frankly. They should look at Malcolm, they should look at Keisha, they should look at Raven and Phylicia Rashad, who I did a film. Sorry, an off Broadway show with afterwards, who is directing Off Broadway. Go see Purpose. Go see Purpose. They're all there and. And let's all celebrate. But we should mourn. We should mourn. And he went way too early. He was always going to be.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, it was always going to be too early. Eric Alexander, my friend, my sister friend, I love you so much. I appreciate you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this moment with me. I really couldn't have done it without you or gotten through it without you. So thank you.

[Erica Alexander]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Beto O'Rourke]

Thank you.

[Erica Alexander]

Love you.

[Joy Reid]

Love you back. I believe. This is rough, man. It's hard because it is like your childhood is dying. Like one person at a time. It is so, so, so, so hard. Eric Alexander, an absolute genius actress and just an even better friend, I believe. Pete Dominic, other guest in the room. Okay, let me go back to Pete for A few minutes before we get to. We have Beta o' Rourke coming up, which I'm really excited to talk with him as well. But Pete, I think we have to.

[Erica Alexander]

Go to bed or not because he.

[Joy Reid]

Has to leave soon. Oh, okay, okay. Just Pete. Hang on. Hold on a second. Are we going to Pete or are we going to Beto? Let's go to Beto. Okay, let's go to Beto or Rory. Beto. Thank you so much for being here. Beto o'. Rourke, we all know him as the man who should have beaten Ted Cruz, one of the worst candidates for the United States Senate. Somebody who, weirdly enough, it seems that no one in Texas likes, but they keep voting for. But he came very, very close to beating him. Very, very close. And right now he's been doing something new. He's been back out on the road, and he's been holding more than a dozen town halls across. Across Texas and nearly all of them in red Republican districts, getting the news from the people, finding out what people are thinking better. O', Rourke, thank you so much for being here.

[Beto O'Rourke]

Thank you for having me. I'm grateful to you. I'm grateful to you.

[Joy Reid]

Of course. Of course. Of course. So talk to me about this. You've been traveling, and this is what you did actually during your campaign. I remember I covered that campaign a bit. And, and this is your style. Why did you decide to go back out on the road? Are you running for something or, or, or what's the reason for the.

[Beto O'Rourke]

You know, people are hurting right now and people want to fight back. And in order to do that, you've got to bring people together. So when we go to Amarillo, Tyler, Texas, we say this is open to everyone, Republicans, Democrats, independents alike. I'll speak for just a little bit to open up the meeting, and then I want to hear what's going on with you. And what I'm learning as I listen is it really doesn't matter where we are, but people know that we're not okay as a country. And I never asked party affiliation, but folks will stand up and say, look, I'm a veteran. I served in Vietnam. I don't know how cutting 83,000 jobs at the VA is going to make it easier for me to get my service connected disability or to see a behavioral specialist for my PTSD folks who are concerned about due process and not necessarily just in the liberal bastions, but people who understand the Constitution and that it's not okay for plain clothes, masked agents without badges or warrants to sweep people up off the street and deny them the ability to defend themselves and illegally detain them, imprison them and deport them to a country from which they'll never come back, a country that they've never been to in the first place. And, and Joy, I know that you'll get this, but, but perhaps the most consistent thing I hear is people want the Democratic Party to fight back and they really want them to fight not to, not to roll over, not to submit, not to bend the knee, not to wait till polling numbers change. They want him to fight right now in 2025 and not wait till 2026 or, God forbid, 2028. So that's what I'm getting no matter where I go across Texas or really across the country.

[Joy Reid]

Break down some of these issues because I will note that Gallup has shown Donald Trump's numbers deeply underwater. He's even underwater on immigration, which was his signature issue that he ran on. Let's zero in on that. Texas is already a state that is majority non white. You wouldn't know it from the way that it is governed. The non white vote is deeply suppressed in Texas, which was a challenge that you and every other Democrat has had running. But it's a state where you haven't seen as many of the headlines about people being kidnapped off the streets. You're not seeing that as much because they're focusing on doing that in blue states. Are you seeing that happen in Texas? And how are Texans reacting to.

[Beto O'Rourke]

Is happening in Texas? Perhaps not in as dramatic fashion as it's happening in California or Massachusetts or, or other places. But yes, you have ICE agents who routinely arrest, detain, ultimately end up deporting people who are here legally, who are paroled legally into this country and who are going to a regularly scheduled either court hearing or going to renew their green card or other legal papers that allow them to have status in this country and sweeping them up off the streets, terrorizing them and their families and by extension, terrorizing the communities in which they live, whether they're immigrant or mixed immigrant status or just people who care about their neighbors and their friends and, and their family members. But, you know, you brought up Texas. It's also central to how the president's trying to answer the question that you just posed, which is on what was arguably his most popular issue, immigration. He's polling at 35% percent right now. How in the world could he hope to hold on to that slim majority in the US Congress, in the House of Representatives? And he has asked Governor Greg Abbott in Texas and the Republican majority legislature to convene. And they just convened today to redraw five congressional boundaries currently represented importantly by African American or Mexican members, Mexican American members of Congress, and redraw them so that Republicans can win those seats. And it's the only way he has any hope of holding onto that majority is to rig this system mid decade, you know, nearly unprecedented. And we have a few levers at our disposal to pull and to fight back. But it just shows you the depth of his unpopularity and what he feels like he needs to do in order to hold onto his purchase on power.

[Joy Reid]

I think about Texas, and it is home to some of the most frightening headlines outside of immigration that we've seen. The measles epidemic started in Texas. It's the most egregious in Texas. You have a massive shortage of doctors and nurses in Texas. Doctors are leaving the state because the abortion ban makes it hard for them to practice or dangerous for them to practice or afraid to touch any woman who might be pregnant because they're afraid that, you know, if anything happens and she has a miscarriage, they go to prison. And so you're seeing doctors leave, you're seeing teachers leaving Texas. Texas as a teacher shortage. And then, of course, you just had this incredible, incredible tragedy, this hundred year flood. And then we find out that Texas turned down $10 million in that county where that flood took the lives of so many people, more than 100 people. They didn't want the money because it came from Joe Biden. So they allowed their community to be victimized and vulnerable to a flood, that they could have at least given a warning to the people living there. Why did you. Go ahead, please.

[Beto O'Rourke]

Sorry about that, Joy. But in addition, you know, one of the positions eliminated at the National Weather Service was a liaison in the Austin, San Antonio office who was responsible for communicating emergencies like the one that we just saw on the 4th of July in the Hill country to local emergency responders and officials and others who could carry the message to their communities. You know, we don't know everything that happened in that tragedy yet. And I think we should, you know, hold judgment until we do.

[Joy Reid]

But.

[Beto O'Rourke]

But you have to assume that that did not help and it is not what we need. And everything that you just described is deeply unpopular. I mean, folks want teachers in their local schools. People want to be able to get healthcare, and they can't if doctors are leaving the state and if we're the least insured in the nation. In 2021, when it got cold in the energy Capital of the world. They couldn't keep the lights on or the heat running. 700 people lost their lives, many of them literally freezing to death in the state of Texas. But when post Shelby vs Holder, you make this the toughest state in the nation in which to register to vote or to cast a ballot, it helps to explain the otherwise inexplicable, because it's not as though Texans don't care. They're certainly not lazy. They love this democracy, or what is left of this democracy, as much as anyone. It's just that they've literally been drawn out in many cases of the ability to vote. And this redistricting, which is just shorthand for members of Congress choosing their own voters, that's going to make this even worse unless we stop it. And so my hope is, and I hear this from everyone everywhere, the Democrats fight back with everything they have, fight fire with fire. So if that means the Texas state House Democrats need to leave the state to deny the Republican colleagues a quorum, so be it. Let's do it and let's have their backs. If Governor Gavin Newsom wants to follow through on his threat to redistrict in California to give Democrats more advantage there. I know no one likes this, but we've got to win power until we can change it. And if we don't do everything we can, we'll not get that paid power. And then the third thing is, you know, if they do succeed in redrawing these districts, Democrats have to be ready to compete in and win them. Not just the five newly created districts, if that's what they end up doing, but Republican districts that before were considered to be safe that will have to lose some Republican voters to these newly gerrymandered districts. There might be, you know, 10, 11, 12 districts in play in Texas, and who knows, in a midterm for the president, whose party is in power, what might happen with the wind at our back, with him driving this economy and our nation with it into the ditch. So I just want to make sure that we fight with everything we have on every single front.

[Joy Reid]

Not everybody likes it. I like it. I actually am in favor of this. I think Democrats have been, you know, Democrats in New York, in a sense, lost the House by redistricting, quote, unquote, fairly. Democrats are always trying to play nice. No, I think that California should redistrict so that there are no Republicans in Congress if that's what it takes, because it's clear that the Republican Party is not. It's not. My father liked the Republicans. He was a Reaganite. That Republican Party, this is an extremist party that is allowing fascism to take it over. So, yeah, I think Democrats should do whatever it takes. Let's talk specifically about some of the things that do sound like they are moving in the right direction in Texas. James Talarico is. He's been doing a lot of talking in a way that people are looking and going, you know what, there are Texas Democrats and you're. I would say you would be another one who do know how to talk to regular people and who know how to talk without sounding like pointy headed elites. Is Texas finally getting its bearings in terms of finding communicators? Jasmine Crockett is a brilliant communicator out of Texas. So is, is that the key that Texas is finally finding its voice or.

[Beto O'Rourke]

Dems are two great examples. You know, the first, James Talarico, young state representative who's also a student in seminary, who can speak and just as importantly, listen to people everywhere on any issue and connect the dots for folks. You know, why did Governor Abbott want to defund local schools to send vouchers to families who are already taking their kids to private schools? Well, there's this challenge with Christian nationalism in Texas where billionaires are literally footing the bill for these campaigns to upend, destabilize, and ultimately destroy local schools. To have a preacher like James Talarico connect those dots for us is really powerful. And you're right, Joe. He does it in language that everyone gets, and he does it everywhere. I mean, he'll talk to you, he'll talk to Joe Rogan, he'll talk to folks in a big blue urban area. He'll go to a remote rural red county and he'll do the same thing. I think he's one of the most exciting people on the scene anywhere right now. Jasmine Crockett, I mean, no one can pack more into a sentence than she can. And she can do it on the fly, on her feet, in the middle of a committee hearing when she's under intense pressure from the chairman and the other extremist magazine in the room. She can do it in front of a microphone. She can really do it anywhere. And those two, no matter where I go in Texas or the country, are two of the folks that I get asked about the most in the state of Texas. And then you've got Joaquin Castro and Colin Allred and so many other talented people there. We don't lack for talent in Texas, but, but it is a real challenge in a state that is so Suppressed, so intimidated when it comes to voters, and is about to double down with this mid decade gerrymander. That that's why it's so important. And the big case that I want to make is it's important not just to the state of Texas, but it will determine the balance of power in the United States Congress. If President Trump pursues a third term, which I believe he will try to do. Just look what he did at the end of his first term, then having a check on him in the House of Representatives is literally existential for this country. And that comes down to Texas.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah. Oh, no, he will. I don't think Donald Trump ever intends to leave office. The one place you cannot gerrymander a state is in a statewide election, whether it's a Senate election or a governor's election. And you've got a Senate election coming up. Ken Paxton, who is your Attorney general, who's got all kinds of problems, crimey problems, marital problems, which seems to be getting a lot of attention. You know, he's getting a divorce for some very unpleasant reasons. Does that mean that is Texas like Florida in the. And I say that as someone who used to live in Florida. The worst people win in Florida, even though everyone hates them. I don't think anybody likes any of the two United States Senators in Florida. They just vote for them anyway because they're Republican. Can Ken Paxton still win even though it does not appear that he's very well liked? Is that how bad Texas is?

[Beto O'Rourke]

Yeah. I mean, look at ted Cruz in 2018. I mean, we came so close to beating him in down ballot. I mean, James Talarico won his seat in that election. Colin Allred won his seat in that election. We saw an incredible transformation in Texas. But at the top of the ticket, very often, not only is it partisan muscle memory, but these folks who ironically and perversely get to run as outsiders, which is Ken Paxton, he'll say, look, yes, I was indicted twice, I was under active FBI investigation, I was impeached by the state legislature, by a majority of my own party. But like Trump, what I believe he'll do is he'll say, that's a deep state. These are the systems that have failed you. They're coming after you, but they've got to come through me first. So we have to have an inspiring motivational candidate at the top who can excite the people of Texas, regardless of where they live and in some cases, what party they used to vote with or for. But that candidate needs to be joined by an all star team. Of folks at the gubernatorial seat, at the attorney general, at lieutenant governor, and then just as importantly, down ballot, every state House seat needs to be contested, every congressional race. If we do that, if we put that full team out there on the court, I really do think we have an honest shot at winning in Texas in 2026. And who knows how much worse Donald Trump is going to take this country? And who knows if that will come off on either Ken Paxton, who's likely to be the nominee, or John Cornyn, who no one really loves out of either party. So, yeah, there may be a chance for Democrats, and I want to make sure that we're ready for it. And so we're out there doing the voter registration, voter organizing, and staying in touch with these newly registered voters so that they can navigate this incredibly challenging system in Texas.

[Joy Reid]

I have two more questions for you. Second to last question. One of the big challenges in Texas is that you have this massive Latino vote that never, it never kicks in. Latino voters turn out in relatively low numbers, you know, compared to their numbers in Texas, which are large. Have you started to unpack, like, how you change that, get people to vote? I mean, if getting people who look like you kidnapped off the streets of America based on the color of their skin won't do it, I don't know what else will. But do you think that's enough?

[Beto O'Rourke]

You're absolutely right. I mean, El Paso, Hidalgo County, Cameron County, Zapata county, they literally had a front row seat to the cruelty of the Trump administration in his first term. You know, family separation, kids in cages, all of that stuff. Trump's vote share increased in some of these counties dramatically in 2020 and in 2024. I think part of it is that Democrats really didn't offer a compelling aspirational vision for the future of these communities. You know, what's it going to mean to have a job that you work that doesn't require a second or third job to make ends meet? What if you could see a doctor in the least insured state in the country? What if you could afford to buy a home? I mean, basic things that Democrats have not been talking about and really, to their credit, Republicans have, along with a lot of other obnoxious, horrible, racist stuff, but they had that much right. And then the other big fault that the Democrats have to understand, come to terms with and never repeat again is they took so many of these voters for granted. You know, the thinking was never said out loud, but if you're black or if you're brown, you're likely going to vote for a Democrat. We don't have to worry about your vote. It's already in the bank. We're going to go chase that suburban soccer mom in Collin or Denton County. She's important. But so are all these people who have literally been the bedrock of our party and have powered our success not for election cycle after election cycle, but literally for generations so far. And if we don't show up and include them in the conversation, include their dreams in the campaigns that we're running, then we're going to get a result like we saw in 24. So we cannot afford to make that mistake again. And I sure hope that our party has learned that.

[Joy Reid]

And let me ask you about abortion, because Texas has been a leading indicator of where Republicans want to go nationwide in terms of abortion bans, really vicious abortion bans, including a snitch law, you name it. Has that changed the way in your experience when you're out on the road and talking, particularly with women, particularly with white women, has this changed the way they think about politics at all?

[Beto O'Rourke]

It has any Greg Abbott, our governor, when he was into law, a reporter said, you know, Mr. Governor, there's no exception for rape or incest for the life of the mother. How are you going to handle that? And he said, we're going to eliminate rape in the state of Texas. They studied this following the passage of this bill and the total abortion ban in Texas. And in the 19 months following that, more than 26,000 women and girls in Texas were forced to carry the child of their rapist because of this law that he signed. So that that has got people's attention. In addition, we sit at the epicenter of a maternal mortality crisis that has gotten much worse. Translation, women are dying in the state of Texas. Here's the good news. You mentioned some of this crazy stuff in Lubbock. They passed a bill that does not allow you to drive on their streets if you're pregnant. And, and you seek to drive into another state like New Mexico, where abortion is safe and legal. That really happened. They tried to do it up north in Amarillo, which is even redder and more conservative. But what's wonderful is that everyday Texans, many of them women, many of them the white women that you just asked about, stood up to be counted at this moment of truth and stopped the city council in Amarillo from passing a similar ordinance. Now, that's just one small example. But, but it gives me some hope that people are paying attention and they're really, they're ready to take action. When the call comes. And so let's hope that comes through in 2026, but let's not wait until then. Let's get out there, organize, register and fight right now.

[Joy Reid]

My last question to you is this is something that's going to be familiar because we've talked about this before on my previous shows, my previous iteration, the issue of guns, you were very forthright in trying to challenge that orthodox proxy that it's firearms first, guns before people, guns before children. And Texas is really at the vanguard of this obsession with having as many guns as they want, as many guns anytime anywhere. Has that softened at all? Or are people still reflexively voting no matter what else is happening? Measles killing their kid, floods drowning their kid, no matter what? Are Texans still primarily gun voters?

[Beto O'Rourke]

You know what, there's a surprising amount of common ground on raising the age to purchase an assault weapon, on having a red flag law, on having a universal background check, which we still don't have in Texas. And a majority of Republicans support those ideas, a majority of Democrats, independents as well. There's just not the political will or leadership in the state house or in the governor's mansion to do that. But you know, on this larger issue of whether, you know, an 18 year old should be able to buy an AR15 or two or three if they want hundreds or thousands of rounds of ammunition, when I say that we should ban that, you know, folks say that's crazy. And I think we need more people than asking the next question. Is that crazy or is it crazy that we lead the nation in school shootings? That more than three years after Uvalde, nothing's been done to make it any less likely that any child meets the same fate as those 19 kids did on that day in May of 2022. When we talk to people about the common sense of this issue, I think we're going to win more people over. But I think I'm in a very small minority of Democrats who are willing to talk about this publicly and forthrightly and to connect it to the deaths that are devastating communities across the state of Texas right now. We can figure this out. This wasn't God who did it to us. It's not a natural disaster. This is a man made problem that can be solved by the human beings of Texas and of the United States of America. So I still have hope. I still work on this. I do think most people are there in the common sense center on this issue, but we just got to make sure that we're connecting with them, listening to them and then fighting right alongside them to win these elections.

[Joy Reid]

Vera o', Rourke, it's always a pleasure. Thank you so much. Tell everybody real quick, where can they find you?

[Beto O'Rourke]

I'm atpoweredxpeople.org. we would love to have you, if you want to volunteer with us, help us reach those Texas voters, turn them out and win elections better.

[Joy Reid]

O', Rourke, thank you very much. Appreciate you. Keep doing it.

[Beto O'Rourke]

Thank you.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you very much. All right, now we're gonna. We're gonna. Now we're gonna believe on God that God is going to smile on us and let Pete Dominic's audio function. So I'm going to bring Pete Dominic back from the cold. Pete Dominic, let's try it again. How's your audio sounding now?

[Pete Dominic]

I don't know. What do you think?

[Joy Reid]

Oh, it's a miracle. Look at God. Now I can hear you. I think I'm looking in the chat. I believe. I believe. I believe that it is sounding good. Thank you so much for your patience. We fixed the gremlins and now I will go back and. And first of all, do you have any comment? I don't know if you were able to hear Beto o', Rourke, but it is this thing where Democrats have got to figure out, like, how to sound like him, James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett and sound, you know, like, relatable. Do you have hope that Democrats have it in them to fight this mess?

[Pete Dominic]

A lot of white people. And getting bumped by Beto was not, you know, again on your show was not my favorite moment. I love that guy. I think he's awesome. I think he's like the one of the good whites, one of the best whites. And I think that it matters how we as whites communicate. I think that it's important that we follow and support people like Jasmine Crockett and understand. And I'd love to talk to you at some point, like, deeper and longer about this. I think that a lot of the whites still want to lead, and that's fine. I get it. But I think that it's really important that we understand where the future lies and that the old whites, especially the fossils, if you will, really need to, you know, you can stay in the game. I'm not saying you got to get out. I'm saying you got to follow trends and, you know, understand what's happening. And AOC and Jasmine Crockett and so many other, you know, women of color. And I don't mean to just kiss ass and be so virtuous here, but it's like, if you don't realize that this is the way to go. I'm about winning. I'm about gaining power. I'm about winning back cynical people, people who rightfully distrust government. And a lot of that comes when we follow and frankly, use the tactics of people of color. I mean, listen, Joy, you've known me for a long time. I've been stealing from people of color my entire career, and it's been wonderful for me. It's really worked out well for me to make sure that I be like, oh, what's that? Oh, they're doing that. Okay, great, then I'll do that too. I'll platform that. I'll listen to that. And so I think that Talarico and Beto and the rest of the Democratic Party just needs to get on board with what the future is and where trends lie and what we're doing anyway. You know, I mean, like Jasmine, I've been following her since she was a congresswoman in the Texas State House. I interviewed her back at SiriusXM when she was. I've interviewed her several times. And it's like a lot of people still are not realizing what she's doing. And it's like, join us or just step aside. That's my feeling. But I'd love to hear what you think about all that. Blanco.

[Joy Reid]

No, I totally agree. I look at the Democratic Party have this star in their midst, and she's not leading a single committee. And by the way, nobody cares about committees. The regular people in the world don't really care about that. But internally, in the way that Washington works, her inability to get to the head of a committee means that her own party is limiting her power. They're saying, we like you being out there. You're a great fundraising source for us, but we're not going to actually give you the power to really do what you. You know what I mean? To do anything functional. We just want you to talk, and that's fine. I think the same thing with Zohan Mamdani. That's a phenomenon. I'm like you. If I see a phenomenon, if I'm a political person that wants to win, I'm like, let's latch onto that. The Democrats are looking at Mamdani going, ew, I don't know if we want that. Are you serious now?

[Erica Alexander]

You don't want that?

[Joy Reid]

Because that guy just beat your guy. He just beat the Cuomo, you know, and so, come on, why wouldn't you want it?

[Pete Dominic]

Sometimes it's like a lot of the people are playing the old game and the new game, for better, for worse, Joy. I mean, we all know this, but, like, your social media game matters. And I'd love to say, I'm old, I'm almost 50, so I'd love to be like, this is all BS and in your Instagram and your TikTok and your YouTube and all that, but that's not where we are. So if AOC and Jasmine and Talarico wants to go on with Joe Rogan, which is new media, and do long form, like, let's go. It's so obvious what is working, which is why I called for Colbert to run for president. Like, people are making fun of me and being like, oh, that's all we need is another, like, tv. I'm like, listen, I would love to elect a statesperson, a statesman, a states lady, but this is the America we live in now. Eyes and attention. It matters. And so put the person in charge that's going to get the most views on their thoughtful commentary on Instagram. Like, go ahead, just do it, because it's going to happen anyway. I'm sorry, all due respect, Steny Hoyer, but listen, y' all should just get in line and follow the game because this is where we're headed and we're so much better at it, so let's effing go.

[Joy Reid]

No. And you mentioned Colbert. I want to go back to where we started, where your audio broke me down. I don't think people got to hear you say this, because I, I started out by leading in, saying you were his lead in, so you know the man and you were starting to say what you think he will do with this next 10 months. Because, yeah, I expect him to be fired. Like, they're not going to make him. They're going to cow him by saying his show's going to end. They're going to make it worse for Trump.

[Pete Dominic]

I'm assuming when you tell Stephen's own different than any other comedian, really. Or man. Let's be honest. When you tell a man or a comedian not to do something, what do you think happens? Don't tell Stephen Colbert not to do something. Don't tell him not to speak truth to power. Literally. I warmed up the audience for the Colbert Report every night for six years, Joy, as you know. And every night, someone in the audience, when he would do Q and A, would ask about the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner when he spoke truth of power right to George W. Bush's face about WMD that burgeoned his image that put him on the map with all of his peers, that showed that he wasn't afraid. And so what we're gonna see from now till May, if he, in fact stays on the air, he's going to savage fascists and Donald Trump and CBS and Paramount and every guest that's gonna come on the show is gonna pay him tribute. Stephen, you're the great. It's never going to go away. This was the dumbest thing for them to do to Stephen Colbert because he is going to scorch the earth. And people are asking what he's doing next. I hope he runs for president. I don't think he will. I think he'll probably do something that's in his veins of public service and, you know, his progressive Catholicism and wanting to do good and wanting to do entertainment at the same time. But I. That isn't a man I would never want to argue with. He is kind, he is generous, he is thoughtful, he is. He is brilliant. He is loving everybody that works for Steven is like family. But I'll tell you what, wouldn't want to get on the other side of him. He is going to savage them, and it's going to be amazing. I only wish that you were told at MSNBC you got six months left, and Joy's like, okay, and just does what you do. You know, you're doing it here and it's awesome. But, like, imagine if they. If they didn't tell you, like, the day of your last show, the way SiriusXM did me. Like, they do that on purpose so that we can't speak truth to power. Right?

[Joy Reid]

You speak 100%. I. They did. Look this. They were so serious. They did it on a Saturday. So they. I couldn't even think about writing a block because they knew my. My Monday A block was gonna be fired if they had told me and given me time. But absolutely. And, you know, I mean, I'm glad I got to do a final show a lot of time. And, you know, this in the business, you know, this is what happened with Tiffany Cross. You don't even do a final show show. You just kind of vanish, right? And this is the way that the mainstream media works. But I want to talk about the mainstream media just a tiny bit, because it. To me, these are some of the richest corporations on Earth. Paramount has plenty of money. They could afford 10 lawsuits from Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal is going to absorb that lawsuit. $10 billion lawsuit from Donald Trump. When you're seeing them fall like dominoes, one after the other. Falling to their knees. Is this because they, they, they, they. They agree in your mind that the top brass wants the things Trump wants, or is it just literally a business decision?

[Pete Dominic]

You told me the answer to that a decade ago. I love. I just, I want to pitch a segment for your show where you stop asking questions you know the answer to. Okay? So I think the truth lies somewhere in between the obvious and just like a guy wanting to keep his kid in private school in an indoor pool. Like, there are a lot of executives that just. We both know this. You know it and I know it. Out of all the media companies that we've worked at and we've worked at all of them, they just want to keep their gag. They just don't want to cause any friction. I think we give them too much credit when we ask about their political ideologies or the principles, because the truth is, they are Rubio's, AKA Hollow barrels. The people in media. They might be progressive, they might be conservative. Don't matter. What matters is that gig, sweet gig, 401k, health care, private school, maybe. Either way, New Jersey suburb in New York, wherever you are, you have a good life. And when. I'll just say this as a white. When you are a white and you're an SVP or a vp, you're not going to bat. I mean, I like to think that part of the reason I got pushed out of SiriusXM is because me and Mark Thompson, Michelangelo Cinerelli, pushed back against the rehiring of Steve Bannon. Like, we rocked that boat. We rock boats. We speak truth to power. Because if we don't, we can't look ourselves in the mirror. We can't sleep at night, they can. And you know that and I know that as well as anybody. When you are in a comfortable position. I mean, Dr. King talked about this over and over, about. It's not this. It's the silence of our friends. I mean, I can't remember all the quotes right now, but I, even though I live by them, I have the memory of a fish because of the cannabis. But the bottom line is I know what he said and I know that if I don't do, like, if I let you down, if I let the people whose shoulders I stand on, if we don't do what we are supposed to do and we do everything we can to keep our lives comfortable, fine. But I had the great honor of introducing of interviewing John Lewis. And when that interview ended, he said, you, sir, are good at getting in good trouble. And I hope you Keep doing it. And then I knew that I had gotten off the bench from high school. My therapist told me, you interviewed John Lewis. He gave you directions. You're off the bench. And that's. You're just not going to see people in media doing that. Like, they're just not going to see executives in media going to bat for the principles because their life is so comfortable and secure. And the same is true for the white progressive liberal. And if they're watching right now, they will come for you. Make no mistake. They came for Colbert. You think they're not coming for you. So everybody has to stand up right now. Every hap. Everybody has to follow the lead of the most influential, inspiring people, like Joy Reid, who is doing her thing right here every night. You have to subscribe, you have to support people like you. And I just have to listen to what you tell me to do. And that's fine with me. Like, it's not virtuous. It makes. That's my role. I'm a soldier, that's all. I don't need to lead anybody. I just need to be told what to do. Let's fucking go.

[Joy Reid]

Listen, this is why I love this man. And Pete, this is the thing that we need, is we're going to have to figure out a solidarity project across all of these communities, because you made the point, which is he's coming for everybody. No one in the first Trump administration survived with their reputations intact. Some of them have felony convictions. They're ruined. Like Rudy Giuliani. Nobody. Michael Wolf has said this. He said it on this show. Nobody survives close contact with Donald Trump other than Jared and Ivanka. No one came out of that first administration looking good or in good shape. And he's going to come for his friends and his enemies. There's nobody that can escape it.

[Pete Dominic]

It's not just him. You know, there's. There's a whole bunch. I mean, you know, something happened. Some Latina woman did something to Stephen Miller in California in 19. 1989. But it's not just Trump, you know, it's the people that are on board with fascism, with whatever you want to call what we are seeing. And I mean, so I don't want to give him too much credit because there's a whole lot of people that have to be on board with this. Tom Holman and everybody that's a face of Christine Noem and everybody else who's a face of fascism, they all have to be on board with it to make it happen. Dr. King, I got the quote Sorry, Joy. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. That's it. I wake up and I. That's it. That's it. That's it.

[Joy Reid]

Dominic, my friend, I appreciate you. Thank you so much. And you've been the most patient. You literally stayed overtime through the Beto interview, got that audio together. Thank you my friend. I appreciate you. And I'm glad to be on the battlefield with you.

[Pete Dominic]

I'm glad to follow you wherever you go. If you tell me to jump off the cliff, I'd be like, sure, Joy.

[Joy Reid]

Dudes, come on, we're friends. I appreciate you. Thank you, man. Thank you so much. Pete Dominic, everybody. Where can people find you? Tell me. Tell people where to find you.

[Pete Dominic]

I host a daily podcast. I talk to the smartest people in the world. I do a great and robust news, comprehensive news recap. It's way overboard. I do it every single day, Monday to Friday. I can't not do it. You know, that's what I did at SiriusXM and that's what I'm doing on my own. And I hope that you'll join me on that show because you are one of the smartest, most inspiring people I've ever met in my life and I'm so glad you're doing it. This so stand up.

[Joy Reid]

Fighting myself. I am inviting myself. Tell people the name of it where they can google it.

[Pete Dominic]

Pete.com. stand up with Pete.com on YouTube, on substack. Pete Dominic and all the things but podcast every day. Stand up with Pete Dominic.

[Joy Reid]

Love it. Stand up with pete.com and I will be on there. I'm inviting myself. I will just be outside the door being like, hey, what's up? You invited me. I'm here, I'm here. I brought a cake. What do you want? Thank you very much, Pete Dominic, I appreciate you. And I think with Pete. Thank you. And what, what Pete said is true. I mean this is the reality, right? You know, they've just dumped the regime, dumped the entire King file on us with the idea of getting mainly white conservatives, you know, the Charlie Kirks of the world to go on a deep dive because they already hate Dr. King. They've already got an issue with him based on him being black and him being woke and they don't like that. And so they're going to try to send the, you know, the Ben Shapiro's and the Charlie Kirks off on a, on a hunting expedition, a fishing expedition, to try to find something in those files or to try to go off on the arrest Obama tangent to get the people that like Trump off of the QAnon train that had that leads right back to Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump is clearly afraid of the Jeffrey Epstein files. He's clearly worried about something that's in those files. He's clearly scared to have those files come out in full because he's releasing everything but that. He's giving everything but that to the public, dumping it, dumping it into the media, hoping that somebody will come up with something that Fox can seize on and that Greg Gutfield can, you know, latch onto other than self describing himself as a Nazi and saying that they're now going to embrace being Nazi, which is the thing he said. But he said it. So that's it, everybody. Thank you very much. Let me big up some of the people in the chat. Thank you all for tuning in and being patient and going through all of our little technical foibles. But you know, sometimes WI Fi, WI fi can be a little bit unreliable. It depends on where you are and how close you are to the trees. Sometimes WI fi gets a little funny. But thank you all the members of Team tjrs and please join them, if you will. Thank you to ruels, who threw $5 into the chat and asked me to marry him. Ruels wants to get married. I'm already married. This is my ring. Hey, look, okay, I can't marry you. And for $5. Come on, it's gonna take more than that. I'm already married. But thank you for the offer and thank you for the five bucks. We really, truly appreciate it. We love our team JRS members and also everybody in the chat. If you're in the chat, one thing I do want to say that you guys, in addition to Please following Pete Dominic's great directions of subscribing and supporting this YouTube channel, please also hit the little bell thing. If you look on your screen right now, there's a cute little bell. If you hit that, you will get a notification whenever we go live. We're going live at 7pm Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but we are planning some additional content that we're going to have that's going to be special and you're going to want to know about it. Let me play for you one little piece of special content before I let you guys go. This is a preview of a special that we're going to be running tomorrow that's going to go live tomorrow. This is a special that we shot back in June about what's happening in California and still the ongoing devastation of families in Altadena, California. Let's see if we can play that.

[Malcolm Jamal Warner]

To say the least, this is waking up to a nightmare. So when you say recovery, again, we don't even believe it's real. As a community, we still wake up and try, try to act like it's some dream that keeps happening and we can't process it. Like I said, I've been through gang violence, I've been through the crack epidemic time periods and all of that stuff. Which to give credence, like I said, my brother was murdered and that was the worst time in my life. I lost my grandmother, who was our matriarch. All of that loss went to a funeral every month for that year. When that happened, and this is 100 times worse, is to kind of give some type of perspective of what it feels like because you literally are waking up in a nightmare every day.

[Joy Reid]

It's called losing all to Dina. It is a the Joy Reid show special. It's going to be on tomorrow. If you hit that little notification button, you will know when it comes on. You'll know everything that we're doing. You'll know when we go live. So please do that. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Please share if you can as well. Thank you all for tuning in to the Joy Reacho. Much love to all of you and. And whoever was in there. Trisha said don't be asking me to marry asking me to marry you because you know, Mr. Jason, go jump on the live soon. He'll be on the live if you don't, if you do that again. But we appreciate y'.

[Erica Alexander]

All.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you very much. Love you guys. Bye. Okay. Yeah, Sam.