Hey MAGA: Welcome to the Backlash | The Joy Reid Show LIVE!

Summary

The Joy Reid Show | "Hey MAGA: Welcome to the Backlash"

Host: Joy-Ann Reid
Date: May 19, 2026

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Overview

In this impassioned episode, Joy-Ann Reid delves deeply into the continuing backlash against the MAGA movement's attempts to roll back voting rights, particularly in the Deep South. Reid and her guests tie current voter suppression efforts and disenfranchisement of Black Americans to a broader national project by the far-right to establish oligarchic rule—a return, Reid argues, to a kind of American neo-Confederacy. Through a mix of breaking news, historical context, grassroots activism updates, and candid interviews, the show paints a vivid picture of a nation at an inflection point. Notable guests include Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), LA State Senator Royce Duplessis, civil rights elder Doris Crenshaw, activist Jatan Busby Gilchrist, and Bishop William Barber.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Breaking News: Hate Crime at San Diego Mosque

[03:05 – 06:00]

• Incident Summary: A tragic mass shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego resulted in five deaths (three victims, two teenage suspects). FBI is investigating it as a hate crime.
• Contextualization: Joy Reid directly links such acts to “Trump’s America” and discusses the rise of violence and hateful rhetoric directed at Muslims under right-wing political influence.
• Emotional Impact: Heartbreaking images of children being led from the mosque’s parking lot showcased the familiar but devastating routine of mass violence in America.

2. Grassroots Mobilization: “All Roads Lead to the South” March

[06:01 – 10:59, 41:08 – 53:50]

• Event Recap: Thousands, organized with just 10 days’ notice, marched in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, echoing the historic Selma to Montgomery march to protest Black voter suppression & rollback of civil rights.
• Notable Clip:
  • Justin J. Pearson: “They thought they could stop a movement. You can rig a map, but you can't rig a movement.” (06:14)
• Movement Strategy: Demonstrated a broad, multiracial coalition; involved organizations like Indivisible under Black leadership, and included calls for sustained voter mobilization, civic education, and direct action.

3. Wider Threat to Democracy: From Black Voters to the Whole Nation

[10:59 – 13:00]

• Broader Argument: Reid asserts that targeting Black voting rights is only the first step in a larger right-wing strategy to disenfranchise all opposition—including women, LGBTQ+ people, and poor/working-class whites.
• Joy Reid:
  • “The goal is to make a kleptocracy where a tiny number of people eat everything and leave nothing on the table for anyone else. But Black folks are just the first ones to go.” (08:12)
  • Describes the MAGA movement as “neo-Confederacy” aiming to recreate a modern plantation society for the benefit of oligarchs.

4. Polling Data: The MAGA Agenda is Unpopular Nationwide

[10:59 – 16:15]

• Polls show Trump is “underwater” on every major issue (approval as low as 27%–37% in some categories: economy, war, cost of living).
• Even among previous Trump voters, a vocal backlash is growing.
• Notable Call-In: A former three-time Trump voter on C-SPAN renounces Trump:
  • “He’s a conman, a liar, doesn’t keep his promises... He’s the worst president we’ve ever had.” (14:16 - 15:17)

5. Louisiana as ‘Ground Zero’ for Backlash

[18:28 – 38:02]

• Redistricting Fight: New maps threaten to eliminate one of only two Black-majority congressional districts.
• Interview: State Senator Royce Duplessis explains how current moves parallel post-Reconstruction disenfranchisement.
• Royce Duplessis:
  • “They're using this [Supreme Court] Kallay decision as a cop-out to get more congressional seats for Trump because they know they can't win on the merits.” (28:01)
• Grassroots Resistance: Record Black/Democratic turnout foiled all five proposed state constitutional amendments backed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.
• Broader Implications: Discussion of targeted disempowerment (not just of Black voters), economic underdevelopment by design, and the need for national attention/support for southern organizing.

6. Civil Rights Continuum: Elders and New Leaders

[41:58 – 53:50]

• Elder Doris Crenshaw (NAACP Youth Council): Emphasizes intergenerational, interracial movement and the vital role of women and youth.
• Doris Crenshaw:
  • “Freedom is never won in one generation. Every generation has to continue this struggle.” (46:31)
• Jatan Busby Gilchrist (ACLU of Alabama): Stresses sustained activism, the “arc” of civil rights work, and localized power-building.
• Calls to Action: Voting, civic engagement, mutual community support, and preparing for long-term battles (including next census/redistricting cycle).

7. Exposing MAGA Corruption & Oligarchy

[73:35 – 102:58]

• Donald Trump’s Self-Enrichment: Detailed discussion of Trump’s personal profiteering—stock market manipulation, conflicts of interest, and use of office for private gains, including a new $1.7 billion DOJ “slush fund” for January 6th insurrectionists.
• Joy Reid:
  • “The only real success Trump has had as a businessman is his second term as president.” (88:34)
• Comparison: Contrasts Trump’s corruption with Martha Stewart’s insider trading prosecution, emphasizing the scale, impunity, and normalization under MAGA.
• Rep. Ro Khanna Interview: Discusses the deficiencies of Congressional oversight, the complicity of Republican leadership, the need for economic power in the Black community, and legislative coalitions across party lines over shared interests such as government corruption and foreign influence.

8. Religious Nationalism & ‘False Prophets’

[103:56 – 116:00]

• Segment Highlight: Joy Reid and Bishop William Barber react to a taxpayer-funded prayer event framing Trump as divinely appointed.
• Bishop Barber:
  • “Only false gods in scriptures have temples and statues built to them... Every strongman—Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar—did it. This is the same old cover-up, theologically and politically.” (107:03 – 111:58)
• Moral Outrage: Barber critiques the lack of repentance for America’s sins (slavery, racism, oppression), accuses the current movement of idolatry, and calls for more clergy and faith communities to move from apathy to public, prophetic witness.

9. Strategies for Organizing and Activism

[48:06 – 51:56]

• Concrete Strategy: Activists recommend:
  • Voter mobilization
  • Civic education
  • Building local coalitions beyond traditional Black organizations (League of Women Voters, ACLU, Indivisible)
  • Personal engagement: “You are the most trusted source to your community.”
  • Avoiding shaming apolitical neighbors—focus on bread-and-butter issues, not abstract appeals to “democracy”
  • Prepare now for 2030 census and further gerrymandering fights

10. Final Thoughts: Joy, Resilience & Hope

[120:27 – End]

• Uplifting Segment: Ends on “moments of joy” highlighting Black achievement (Tiffany Cross’s book event) and a comedic musical interlude.
• Call to Persist: Encouragement to keep organizing, reach out to disengaged voters, and not lose sight of hope or humor in challenging times.

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• Justin J. Pearson:
  • “You can rig a map, but you can't rig a movement.” (06:21)
• Ayanna Pressley:
  • “Whether you're from Massachusetts or Montgomery... teacher or tradesman… This is your fight.” (09:32 – 10:59)
• 'Thomas' (C-SPAN caller):
  • “He’s a conman, a liar... I just hope the best way we—" (14:16 – 15:17)
• Sen. Royce Duplessis:
  • “This is not about some Supreme Court decision... they're setting our country back more than six decades by doing it.” (28:01)
• Jatan Busby Gilchrist:
  • “Our movement is iterative… You cannot gather 270+ organizations together, with 1,000 satellite events, without sustained movement work on the ground.” (43:37 – 45:56)
• Doris Crenshaw:
  • “Freedom is never won in one generation. Every generation has to continue this struggle.” (46:31)
• Joy Reid:
  • “Take democracy out of your vocabulary... talk about bread-and-butter things.” (54:43)
• Bishop William Barber:
  • “The only ones who had statues built to them in scripture were false gods... They use power to hurt the marginalized. That’s wickedness.” (107:01, 111:58)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• San Diego mosque shooting & commentary: 03:05 – 06:00
• Selma/Montgomery march analysis with Pearson: 06:01 – 10:59
• Polling, white voter discontent, C-SPAN call: 10:59 – 16:15
• Discussion on Louisiana, redistricting, legal fights, Sen. Duplessis interview: 18:28 – 38:02
• All Roads march, elders/activists segment: 41:08 – 53:50
• Movement strategy and calls to action: 48:06 – 51:56
• Discussion on Trump, insider trading, Ro Khanna interview: 73:35 – 102:58
• Reaction to MAGA religious nationalism, Bishop Barber: 103:56 – 116:00
• Moments of joy, closing thoughts: 120:27 – End

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Flow and Tone

• Direct, urgent, and historically grounded
• Mixes incisive political analysis, grassroots organizing strategy, humor, and cultural references
• Emphasizes coalition-building, pragmatic activism, and intergenerational solidarity
• Concludes with resilience and hope despite heavy subjects

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For New Listeners

This episode is essential for understanding the stakes of the current fight over voting rights, the interconnectedness of racial justice and economic power, and the broad coalition necessary to confront rising extremism in America. It provides both the big-picture context and concrete calls to action—encapsulating The Joy Reid Show’s signature blend of news, history, organizing tips, and moral clarity.

Transcript

[Joy Reid]

Okay. All right, everyone. Happy Monday and welcome to the Joy Reid show. It is not the happiest Monday. We've got a lot of news to go on tonight. We got a lot of guests on tonight. Want to first of all, start by asking everyone, if you please could like and subscribe. Just make sure that you're hitting like and subscribe because we want to make sure that the algorithm is noticing you here. Good evening to everybody who's come in early for class. Brittany Stewart said ready for class. We got our lemon hands, our lemon readers in the house, always early for school. We appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you to everybody in the chats, whether you're on Twitch, whether you are on Facebook, whether you are on LinkedIn, whether you are on all the different platforms. Who did I miss? I missed everybody. Jason. Happy Post birthday. Is Jason gonna pop on? Oh, he's not gonna pop on. Well, happy Jason's birthday was this week. Oh, there you go. Happy Post birthday, Jason Reed.

[Jason Reed]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Joy Reid]

It was a very eventful weekend. Toward the end of the show, we're gonna get to some of the things that happened on this weekend, but let's. Let's get right to.

[Ro Khanna]

Hey, family.

[Jason Reed]

How you guys doing? How about your show?

[Joy Reid]

Have a happy show indeed. Let's start by thanking one of our amazing sponsors. The Joy Read show is brought to you on this happy and very complicated Monday by our friends at Blissey. Now, look, I had no idea that cotton and satin were actually the thing that was causing, like, my sleep creases and frizz in the old hair. Because, you know, when you have the short hair, everything shows. And so Blissy is this amazing secret to healthier skin in weeks and healthier hair. Better hair that looks not frizzy, not broken. Preserve your style, preserves your color. And by the way, you know people who say put on a satin, that's actually not accurate. Silk is actually better. It's cooling, it's natural. It's actually gentler on your skin and your hair. So a lot of people who are putting satin caps on your head, that's actually not the healthiest thing to do. And Bliss uses the highest quality silk. It's 22 moms, 6A grade 100% pure mulberry silk. The added benefits, natural, naturally cooling and breathable. It's hydrating, it's hypoallergenic, it's easy care. It's great for your skin, it's great for your hair. It's also great for your budget. Over 3 million have been Sold. It's been featured in Vogue, Oprah Daily, Good Morning America, you name it. It's won all kinds of awards as a practical, wonderful gift. I live in my blissy little face covers. I pop it on whether I'm on a plane, whether I'm trying to sleep at night. It's like super darkening, but also gentle, soft, wonderful, wonderful on your skin because you're listening to Blissey's right now offering a 60 night risk free plus an additional 30 off when you [e-mail] joyread that is b l-I s s y.com joy pod, sorry, joypod j o y pod. So if you use the code joypod j o y pod, you will get an additional 30% off your skin in here. We'll thank you. Keep an eye on that because it's really important. So if you want to have like great skin, great hair, get that little Blissy. It's fabulous. I love it. All right, so we are keeping an eye on this breaking news. Unfortunate news of a shooting at a San Diego mosque which has left five people dead, including two teenage suspects. The incident is being reported as a hate crime, according to San Diego authorities. And so what happened is three people, including a security guard, were shot dead at the Islamic center of San Diego. According to authorities, two teen suspects were then found dead in a car near the mosque. Mark Remily, the speaker agent in charge, the special agent in charge of the FBI in San Diego told the news conference that the two appear to have died from self inflicted gunshot wounds. So that according to authorities in San Diego, again, this is being considered a hate crime based on where the shooting took place because it was in a mosque. And Jason, if you could show this footage here and you can see some students that were leaving the mosque, it's one of these tragic images that we become so used to in covering this kind of stuff. Aerial TV footage shows more than a dozen children holding hands and being walked out of the parking lot of the center, which is surrounded by scores of police vehicles. The White Mosque is in a neighborhood where there are homes, apartments and strip malls. Also Middle Eastern restaurants and markets. Unfortunately, this is Trump's America. The center is the largest Islamic center in San Diego county, the largest mosque in San Diego County. It's about nine miles north of downtown San Diego. It hosts the Al Rashid School, which the website for the mosque offers courses in Arabic language, Islamic studies and the Quran. No word yet on if there's a motive, but you know, welcome to Trump's America. This is awful. And the kind of hateful rhetoric we've seen from the right about Muslims has it cannot have helped. We'll just put it that way. So we're going to keep watching that story. So as there are more developments, my my friends, my wonderful producers will keep me up to date and then I'll keep you guys up to date so that we can stay up to date on that really horrible breaking news story. Meanwhile, this weekend, with literally just 10 days of organizing, 10 days of organizing, thousands of people descended on Selma and Montgomery, Alabama to march. And this was the march that was called All Roads lead to the South. And of course, we streamed it right here on the TJRS channel. And thanks to everybody who tuned in. Lots and lots, tens of thousands of you tuned in both here and on Substack to watch it live. And this is Jamar Tisby. Some of the footage that he posted on his social media. He was there in Selma and Montgomery. They redid the Selma to Montgomery march to protest not just the loss of voting rights for black people. And you can see it was a multiracial crowd. I will note that Indivisible helped to send people and worked under the black leadership.

[Justin J. Pearson]

We are here because they thought they could divide us into black and white,

[Joy Reid]

rich and poor, Southern and North.

[Justin J. Pearson]

They thought they could stop a movement. You can rig a map, but you can't rig a movement.

[Joy Reid]

And of course, that was Justin J. Pearson, the state Representative. Justin J. Pearson, who is running for Congress. He's still running. I will note that Steve Cohen, who was in the seat that Justin J. Pearson was running for has now dropped out, is no longer going to run for reelection. Remember, his seat is gone. The seat he was in is now redistricted away. But Representative Justin J. Pierson is deciding which of the three new configured congressional districts he's gonna run for. He's still running, but you can see he spoke. Lots of people spoke. This was all roads lead to the South. And to be very clear, this is not just about Jim Crow maps. I mean, this is about the neo Confederate south and the MAGA movement, which is basically the neo Confederacy. It's their assault not just on black voting rights and black power, but as a first step toward dismantling the power of everyone who is not a fake Christian right winger, right wing man. The rights of women, the rights of LGBTQ folks, the rights of workers, the rights of union workers, the rights of low wage workers. Everything is on the table to recreate this sort of kleptocratic oligarchy. Another name for that is a rich man's thieves. Or they can basically steal and you cannot vote them out. And they're doing that, you know, targeting everyone by trying to hyper focus white voters on black voters losing seats so that they will think something, something dei, this is not my problem. And so if they can lull enough white conservative voters who are used to voting Republican and conservative to say, we don't care because this is just black people losing their seats and blah, blah, blah, dei, while they're doing that, they are also being targeted. Their wives, their children, their LGBTQ cousins. They're also being targeted. They're just targeting black people first. Because the goal, as we're going to talk about later in the show, is a larger goal of remaking the United States into a giant kleptocracy where a small number of people get rich, rob the bank, leave nothing in the bank, and leave everyone else destitute. Everyone else's cattle. That is their end game. They're just going to rob the bank, rob the country blind. They're stealing and leaving not just black folks, but everyone powerless. Black people are always the canary in the coal mine, the first to get hit, the first to get driven out of the voting booth, because black voters tend to vote for the most progressive candidates and tend to vote for the most progressive policies. So if they lock black voters out first and say, well, you can't choose your representatives, the next step is to move on to the browns, the aapi, the indigenous, and. And eventually they get to the white people, too. The goal is to make a kleptocracy where a tiny number of people eat everything and leave nothing on the table for anyone else. But black folks are just the first ones to go. You heard, obviously, that's the reason. You heard Justin J. Pearson say they're trying to pit black versus white. But really, the backlash. The backlash is spreading across the entire South. What MAGA thought they were going to get was that they were going to unite white voters behind disenfranchising black people. Instead, they're catching a backlash that is not just the South. The backlash is pinging all around the country. Want y' all to listen to Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley for a moment. Take a listen.

[Justin J. Pearson]

The need of voter suppression is heavy on the neck of black America. Yes, yes. But this is a fight for all of America. Land of the free. Home of the brave. Land of the free. What about me? Lands of the free. What about we? Whether you're from Massachusetts or Montgomery, this is your fight. Whether you are a teacher or a tradesman, a pastor or a plumber, a farmer or a first responder. This is your fight. Young, old, black, brown, indigenous, Asian, and white. This is your fight. We fight. We are summoned here not because black folks are just tired or fed up, but because we dare to dream a world where all bodies are truly free. Free to thrive, free to love, free to be. We've always been the architects of progress. Our brilliance, our resilience, our imagination, our voices, our votes. We are powerful. We are the super majority.

[Joy Reid]

And there you have it. Ayanna Pressley making it very clear this is literally not just about black voters. Black voters are the first step in a larger project that includes everyone in the country. And I think that the. Right. You know, maybe it could work, like maybe this idea that you could strip black voters in the south of their opportunity to, you know, elect the leaders of their choice. And most white voters who are still combined 61% of the country, 31% black, white women, 30% white men, that they would all just go along, then say it's fine. And that might have worked if everything else was going fine, if the economy was good, and if people were in favor of the war. That's not how things are going. Things are going in a whole different kind of direction. Jason, if you could put up a five. Donald Trump. The New York Times Siena poll shows Donald Trump underwater on everything. He's underwater on Iran. Just. You have 2/3 of voters saying that the war is not just a bad idea, but. But not worth it. An overwhelming majority say the war is not worth the cost. Donald Trump has hit historic lows in the New York Times Siena poll. And I'm looking at the poll. It's in front of me. He's underwater on everything. His approval rating is just 37%. And honestly, the Time Santa poll has it higher than it likely is. He is underwater on immigration, which was his strongest issue. He's 15 points underwater on immigration. 41% approved. 50, 56% disapprove. On the economy, 33% approved. 64% disapprove. On the Israeli Palestinian conflict. This is huge. 31% approved. 62% disapproved. On the war in Iran, 31% approved. 65% disapproved. On the cost of living. This is his worst number. 28% approved. 69% disapproved. So it might have been. You might have been able to pull this off if things were good. But things are not good. Things are not good. Jason. You can put up the Next poll, cbs, the most suck up network of all. The one that is destroyed, 60 minutes under Barry Weiss, that is turning CBS Evening News into a Trump fan show. Even their poll, you know, Anderson Cooper recently left CNN because cbs, he said, I can't even take it anymore. I got to get out of here. In their poll, if you look at what people are saying, seven in 10Americans in that poll, if you put up a six, Jason, seven in 10 said they are frustrated with the regime's approach to the economy. 65% say Trump's policies are making things worse. Only 27% approve. 38% of respondents describe themselves as frustrated. 32% describe themselves as angry. 32%. And that is not just black people. This is not a poll of just black people. This is a poll of all people. And so again, maybe the divide and conquer strategy of getting white voters to choose whiteness over their own economic prosperity could have worked if the economy was decent, if people were making money, they could say, I don't care about what's happening to the blacks, I'm doing okay. That's not how it's going. White Americans are also. I have to play the C Span has become like a weekly source of clips of callers calling in who voted for Trump, saying that Donald Trump is the worst president in history. Here's just one of them. This is a seven.

[Thomas (Caller on C Span)]

Jason, please to say this, but I think if I can open up about it in public, that it might help others. I wanted to believe Trump was the real deal for a long time, even though I had doubts because I knew enough about his business history to think otherwise. But now I regret my support for him and I should have known better. He's making it plain as day, he's a con man, a liar, doesn't keep his promises, he's in office all for himself, and he doesn't even try to hide his corruption anymore. So unless you get all your information from what I call the right wing propaganda for profit, disinformation, media, industrial complex, he's the worst president we've ever had. And he's the most corrupt president we've ever had. I know that's hard. It took me a while to be able to say that. Very difficult when you commit yourself to believing in somebody.

[Mike Johnson]

Thomas, if you don't mind me interjecting,

[Joy Reid]

did you vote for Trump all three times in 2016? 20. 20, 2024.

[Thomas (Caller on C Span)]

I'm saying that. I'm sorry, I missed that. Say that again, please.

[Joy Reid]

Did you vote for President Trump all three times that he's running.

[Thomas (Caller on C Span)]

Yes, I wanted to vote. I considered a third party and I considered even a Democrat, but I did in the end vote for him. But.

[Joy Reid]

And what do you feel that's really interesting? What do you feel? Or what was the, the straw that broke the camel's back this time around? Was it the war?

[Jason Reed]

Is it.

[Thomas (Caller on C Span)]

I don't think it's one thing. It's been a cumulative process and it's, it's gotten so blatant now. And he's just literally, the things he's, you know, he's gonna lower prices on day one. He was gonna do this on day one. Only he could fix all this stuff. And now I understand how somebody like Adolf Hitler was able to brainwash millions of people. I never thought I'd see that again in my lifetime. But. But it's happened, right? I thought we got past that, but we don't learn from history, but okay. I just hope the best way we

[Joy Reid]

got it, we can leave it there. Yeah, that this is kind of like opening the door to the vampires and sinners and being like, you know, I really thought that they were just going to come in and dance. I mean, and, you know, the, the indigenous people say, hey, there's vampires out here. And you know, I really thought if I opened the door and let them in, they were just going to dance with us. Like, come on, man. Do you have Google? Like, and it's easy to, to say, to write these people off as fools. And even if this person was disingenuous, it doesn't matter. Hearing that person who is clearly sounds a white person say that on C Span is actually powerful messaging for the Democratic side because it definitely appeared this person called in on the Republican line. This is powerful. This is looking like you can't just DEI your way out of the problem that Republicans clearly have in November. And this is why they are, as one of our commenters has said, building a fortress. They're trying to build a fortress around the United States Congress because they know that in an environment where everyone can vote, they're going to get wiped out. They're going to lose the majorities in the House and Senate. They know that's going to happen. And so they're literally trying to build a wall around themselves so they can keep stealing. They can keep stealing. But what's happening instead is that you're seeing this incredible backlash, not least because they don't know how to message this. They don't know how to message this as a good thing. I want you to listen to A Louisianan named Mike Johnson, who's the speaker of the House, who's asked straight out, well, what's your message to black voters? And keep in mind as you listen to Mike Johnson respond to this question, 20% of the people in his own district are black. He's one of the few MAGA Republicans who represents even 20% African Americans. And you see what he's done for them. It's one of the poorest districts in the country. Roll him, Jason, please. So what is your message to black Americans, black voters about this redistricting?

[Mike Johnson]

The Supreme Court issued a long awaited opinion and I think it was long overdue. And they stated the obvious, that drawing congressional lines must be fair. You cannot draw lines on the basis of race. And that's what was done in Louisiana. So they declared it to be fair, an unconstitutional gerrymander. And it was. This is, brings back fairness and certainty, this to the system. And I think a lot of states are looking to make sure that their maps are not unconstitutional like Louisiana's was.

[Joy Reid]

Okay, we have another big legal issue. Okay, let me move on. And not ask a follow up question that seems obvious as a journalist. No follow up there, lady. Of course not. Because it's a right wing outlet. But, but yeah, he doesn't have any. They cannot explain, they cannot message this in a way that makes any sense. So they just say, well, you know, the Supreme Court, they just throw it on Alito and them, they say, well, they did it. You know, the states are just trying to comply because they really don't have an answer. But what's happening in Louisiana is, number one, the governor is facing a potential recall. There's a recall election. Two Louisiana voters have called for him to be recalled. That's part of the backlash. Another part of the backlash. Louisiana had five amendments on its constitutional ballot. That was on Saturday, same day as the voting rights march in Montgomery. And here's what happened. The amendments included one that would have dissolved three education trust funds to pay off the debt of the state teacher pension and give teachers a modest pay hike. But it went down with all the other four, including one that would have raised the retirement age for judges from 70 to 75, which is insane. That went down as well. And here's what a local outlet, the Louisiana Illuminator, said Landry, the governor, the devilish governor of Louisiana, backed four of the five amendments and his political action committee, Project Louisiana values, spent $1 million on a campaign to pass them. They lost by margins ranging from 16 to 56 percentage points. That's the margin. That's not just all black people. However, left leaning groups and the Liberty and Dignity Coalition like the Liberty and Dignity Coalition ran a no on all campaign tying the amendment vote to anger over Landry's decision to suspend U.S. house races Scout scheduled for May 16. The governor canceled those elections after a Supreme Court ruling struck down Louisiana's congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander giving lawmakers time to redraw district lines. Chris critic said the new map was drawn to eliminate one of the state's two majority black congressional seats. Black voters. This is per this local outlet energized by the redistricting fight turned out in higher numbers than expected during early voting and on election day. Pollster John Cuvian of JMC analytics noted before the polls closed that black and Democrat turnout looked more energized in early and mail in voting. And one last thing that is also motivating people in Louisiana is that remember the gentleman who we had on our show named Calvin Duncan? Remember Calvin Duncan? Calvin Duncan who won a seat in Louisiana in a seat that would have helped people like him. He spent 30 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and he won this seat that would have allowed him to be an elected office in Louisiana. Republicans in Louisiana eliminated the entire office. They eliminated the entire office to make sure that he could not be seated. This went to court. There was originally a an injunction and he would have been the criminal. The clerk of the court in Louisiana they were like if you want to see black man, we're just going to get rid of the whole office. Joining me now to talk about this is Senator Royce Duplessis of Louisiana and he is one of the people who gave a really fiery speech about the elimination of these, the pending elimination of at least one congressional seat. And he was recently appointed as a Senate governmental to to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and that's the panel that oversees redistricting. Senator Du Plessis, welcome.

[Royce Duplessis]

Thank you. Thank you for having me, Joy.

[Joy Reid]

So let's talk about. I want to start with the Calvin Duncan situation because this to me seems like the old Jim Crow South. I call this the John Crow era because of John Roberts. But in the Jim Crow era, if a black man want to see the white neo confederates just they would just get rid of the seat. And now this is like that's what they're doing against.

[Royce Duplessis]

Yeah, you're seeing this whole thing play out in real time. Never thought I'd see it in my lifetime but I'm learning and continuing to Learn that if someone shows you who they are to believe them. So when they passed this bill in the legislature, they made it clear that if no other bill was gonna pass, it was gonna be the bill to stop Calvin Duncan from being duly seated, a man who was. Who was elected with nearly 70% of the vote. You know the story, but it's really playing out just. Just like it did post reconstruction. And we're seeing it all play out right here in 2026 in Louisiana, a state that has historically lived up to its name. And it's playing out again right now.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, it's interesting because Louisiana was one of the most successful Reconstruction states. And when the Confederates of the time came back during the redemption period, they were very efficient about eliminating all the gains that had, you know, that black Louisianans had achieved during Reconstruction. And it does appear that your current leadership of the Republican Party and your governor are trying to redo that history.

[Royce Duplessis]

Yeah, what you're doing is you're not just blocking Calvin Duncan from becoming the clerk, because this is certainly about Calvin Duncan, but it's so much bigger than Calvin Duncan. You are undermining an entire city, a majority black city, New Orleans, that made a decision, that made a choice to say, this is who we want as our clerk.

[Ro Khanna]

So.

[Royce Duplessis]

So when you undermine a city like that, that is so much in line with everything that we saw, as you just described post Reconstruction. This is classic disenfranchisement at the highest level to simply say, we're going to eradicate an office after an election, but before he's sworn in, let's talk about

[Joy Reid]

the elimination of one of two, which is only. There have only been four, five, five black congressman. Four black congressman. Four, four black congressmen total. Ever, ever, ever, ever in the state of Louisiana, Ever. And there are now two. And they're saying there will be none. Or is it none or one. Where are they going to?

[Royce Duplessis]

So right now we have a 4, 2 map in Louisiana, and the map that advanced from the Senate is a 5:1 map. So it would reduce us from having two black congressional representatives to one black congressional representative. But it's still a huge step backwards because we fought very hard for that second seat after the last redistricting cycle. And it's a fair map that represents one third of this state. This state is made up of 1/3 black. We're second behind Mississippi. So that's what we should have in place. But it's a rollback of that under this horrible ruling by the Supreme Court that's really doing Trump's dirty work, and that's to basically make redistricting and partisanship a proxy for race. So that's where we are. The map that's advancing right now will reduce not just black representation, but Democratic representation, independent representation.

[Bishop William Barber]

Right.

[Royce Duplessis]

We have a lot of white Dems and allies that deserve representation, and it's hurting the entire state. So that's the map that's currently in play.

[Joy Reid]

And part of this is that the right has never been able to culturally control New Orleans. If we're just being honest. Right. They want control of the. The one part of Louisiana that is the economic center of Louisiana, the economic bastion of Louisiana is really New Orleans. They want control of it. Right. They can't culturally take it, so they're just seizing control of it. Is that fair to say?

[Royce Duplessis]

No, that's more than fair to say. That's always been the case. And New Orleans is not alone. We share that with cities like Memphis and Atlanta and Jackson, Mississippi, and all cities, majority black cities, that generate the wealth, that generate the economy, that generate the culture, that make it where people want to come to the state. Conservative legislatures and red states want to control the state. They suck out our resources and dictate to us, going back to the Calvin Duncan situation that we talked about earlier. So that has always been the case. When you're talking about the Louisiana legislature's relationship with the city of New Orleans. It's all about. It's always been about control.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, absolutely. It is. They prefer a plantation system where all of the black people in the state are effectively controlled by a white overseer, and they don't trust even a white Democrat to be that overseer. They needed to be a white MAGA person. And so they're saying, well, y' all are not gonna get to pick your representation. We're gonna hand you a MAGA person, and they're gonna be your congressman. No matter if all of you vote, we're gonna sink. We're gonna make you such a small percentage of your own district that you will have no choice but to have this MAGA overseer who's gonna tell you what you can read, what you can do economically, who can get grants, who can have a small business grant. Basically, they're gonna essentially force black people and, like you said, liberal white people in Louisiana to beg MAGA for crumbs.

[Royce Duplessis]

That's right. That's been the case. You have to come and beg for authority to make certain decisions in the city of New Orleans. When we're. We are the leader. We're the reason People come to Louisiana and it's always been an imbalance, fighting for our fair share, to generate, to keep more revenue that we actually generate and to be able to be a true home rule charter city that. That determines our own, our own fate and our own destination. So, yeah, we're going to keep. We're going to keep battling back against this. But I just want to say this.

[Joy Reid]

Sure.

[Royce Duplessis]

That, you know, we, we as a city and as a state and as a country, this is bigger than just maps. This is about whether or not certain people in society are going to be able to fully participate in democracy. That's what this is about. So this is not about some Supreme Court decision, just saying, oh, we're complying with the Supreme Court. Look, the Supreme Court said in Plessy v. Ferguson that you could segregate. They didn't mandate that we segregate. But states like Louisiana chose to take that decision and segregate based upon race. The same thing's going on here. They're using this Cali decision as a cop out. They're using it as a cop out to get more congressional seats for Trump because they know they can't win on the merits because the MAGA message is a failing message. And it's not winning. I just put $100 in my gas tank today and I drive a Volkswagen. Okay. People are feeling the pain because MAGA is losing. So this is the way they have to cheat. Okay. And that's what's going on right now. But to try to hide behind this idea that we can now redraw party lines based upon. I'm sorry, Redraw congressional lines based upon party, as though that's not a proxy for race. Justice Jackson, in her dissent, clearly said that we should not hide behind this idea that we can redraw lines and based upon party, as though as a proxy for race to hide from accountability under the Voting Rights act. And I think she's spot on. And we have to look back at our history and not say that the Supreme Court is what's telling us to do this. No, the state is choosing to do this, and they're setting our country back more than six decades by doing it.

[Joy Reid]

You know what's so interesting? History has a way of rhyming, right? I mean, Homer Plessy was a man of Louisiana. I mean, the Plessy versus Ferguson. Casey was from New Orleans.

[Royce Duplessis]

I'm the city.

[Bishop William Barber]

That's right.

[Joy Reid]

That's right. Who could have passed for white, but chose to be black and said, I'm going to get on this train. And I'm going to say, hey, I'm a black person on the train. Anybody want to kick me off and launch this whole case? And it took until Brown v. Board to reverse that. Taney, who was the Chief justice then, said that black people have no rights. Essentially, they're not citizens, have no rights that are bound to be respected and that slavery could not be stopped. You now have John Roberts, who to me is the detainee of this era. This Chief justice, even though he didn't write the decision, he handed it to an insurrectionist. And the person who brought the case was a Louisiana insurrectionist. And he was like the reverse of Overmert Plessy. He's a villain that brought the case and his name is Kallay. And this man, Herb Klay, is a man of Louisiana who brings an insurrection based case to an insurrectionist on the Supreme Court, which to me is so historically crazy. But let's talk about the. Well, let me ask, before I ask you my next question, are people in your state really catching on to the bigger meaning of this? This isn't just about Louisiana, that it is about taking over the whole country. Are people getting that?

[Royce Duplessis]

I believe they are. I really believe people are waking up. And that's why I made the comment earlier about just the price of gas and so many other aspects of our lives that are just worse. Now that this president has been in office less than two years, the country is just worse. Everything is just bad. Right. And I think people see that. I certainly know that people in Louisiana feel it and people are waking up and they know that this is largely tied to the midterms, that the Republicans know that they're going to lose. So that's why you have this cheating that's going on across the country. So the people of Louisiana, they know what time it is and people are waking up. Earlier you were talking about these five amendments that failed. That was an indictment on the governor, period, point blank. People in my district, when I tried to explain to them what each amendment was doing, they didn't even want to.

[Doris Crenshaw]

They didn't care.

[Royce Duplessis]

The answer was no. We're voting no on all five. And that feeling was palpable. You could feel it, how angry people were and how angry people remain. So I believe that people are really waking up and you're going to see a big movement come this fall.

[Joy Reid]

I'm a punishment person. I believe you have to punish the politicians for doing you, for doing you wrong 100%. Is he gonna get a recall oh,

[Royce Duplessis]

no, the standard is. The standard is pretty high. I think it's like a 600,000 signature requirement. I believe the number is. And look, he was elected governor with fewer votes than that. So I'm excited to see what kind of momentum it catches. But. But in the meantime, we just have to continue to stay active and express our displeasure. But being angry isn't enough. We have to show up. Right. We have to elect better candidates all across the state of Louisiana because the current legislature does not represent the diversity of our state. And this map that they're now trying to force on us certainly does not represent the diversity of our state. By having a 5:1 map that's totally taking us backwards.

[Joy Reid]

Is the state Democratic Party prepared to fight in every district fire every single Republican legislator that voted for these new maps?

[Royce Duplessis]

We better be. They certainly better be. And I'm asking everybody across the country to look at what's happening in Louisiana. This is ground zero. All the southern states, Louisiana, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, you know, I see Georgia just called a special election. So we need everybody in the country to pitch in. And don't turn your backs on Louisiana, because this is where it's happening. This is ground zero. And we need everybody's support so that we can fight these battles. But the party absolutely should take on anyone who voted to dial back our democracy when they knew it was wrong. They knew it was wrong.

[Joy Reid]

And if I could give you some free advice, I mean, I think the Democratic Party, you know, we know the national Democratic Party has effectively abandoned the south, which to me is absolutely crazy, given how many African American voters and even liberal. That's where you're gonna find the last of the liberal white people are in the South. Some of the most liberal. If they're still a Democrat and they're white in the south, they're a liberal. You need to go after them. But there are so many alternatives. I mean, I wonder if people are thinking about finding solid Republicans to run against the neo Confederate Republicans in their primaries. You know, if you make, you know, these seats less Democratic, you also make the Republican seats a little more Democratic. That's the only way you can do it. You have to put some black voters in there.

[Royce Duplessis]

Yeah.

[Joy Reid]

You know, something like Mike Johnson has a 20% black district.

[Royce Duplessis]

Yeah. So to that point, what I'll. What I'll say is the reason I think we're not looking at a 6o map is because of what you just said is that if they go for a 6o map, that's going to jeopardize some safe Republican seats like possibly a Steve Scalise or even a Mike Johnson who have leadership in Congress. It's not because they're just being charitable, right. Or generous. But I think if those numbers are what they are. But look at what just happened to Bill Cassidy right now. He challenged Trump and he was punished as a result. When you talk about solid Republicans, look, I've been in the legislature eight years now and it seems like every Republican who's willing to show some independence or some willingness to hold their party accountable or to not be in lockstep, they get, they get either ousted or they choose not to run for reelection. So I would look if we could go with some solid Republicans in some of these areas that aren't just full blown MAGA neo confederates. Absolutely. That's what our democracy should look like. But I just don't know where they are. I don't know if they even exist anymore.

[Joy Reid]

They probably don't. And you could also try a third party candidate. I mean, I know that the Working Families Party is out here, a third party candidate in there, maybe a Democrat can win in some of these seats. You know, there just have to be ways to remove these Republicans because unemployment is such a good teacher. Look, for me, unemployment was a great teacher. Unemployment is a fantastic teacher. And if there is a good working families candidate that could run in the Mike Johnson district, that might split that vote three ways. Gas prices are high, grocery prices are high. And there are ways to punish people like Mike Johnson. He could come out his seat. If there are three people in that race and, and enough people vote for that third party candidate, that reduces the margin for the Democrat to be able to win. So at this point we have to play chess. Thank you for the person in the chat that has said Coco Burnett, it's not time to play Texas anymore. It's time to get gully like the people. I'm OG we used to say get gully. We have to get down, get off our high pedestals and start playing games. If you can find a working families candidate to run in Mike Johnson's district, run them and run them in there with the intent to make that vote go from 50, 50 to 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 and then run through the midd. Take them seats. That's just my advice. Sir, you're a state senator, not me.

[Royce Duplessis]

Receive it. Let me say this. Look, Louisiana, we still have more registered Democrats than Republicans. We just had a two term Democratic governor before this governor was elected. So there's absolutely a lane for us to execute on what you're saying. And I think this is the moment that we have to seize upon this. We just can't sit back and allow this to be just to be handed to us and just accept it as though this is the way it's going to be. And I certainly won't accept it.

[Joy Reid]

Are you interested in maybe running for governor next? Because we need a candidate to do that, too. Come on, now.

[Royce Duplessis]

No, no, look, I, I, I'm, I'm just interested in continuing to serve the people of Senate District 5 in New Orleans. Well, we love you, Joy. I, I, I don't have any, any other comment beyond that right now.

[Joy Reid]

All right, well, we're gonna work, we're gonna keep working on you. State Senator Royce Duplesses. I put on my social, everybody, his excellent firebrand speech that he tore the house down. Let those people know the truth and shame the devil. So, y', all, please don't jump on my social and take a look at that speech. State Senator Royce Duplessis. Thank you, sir.

[Royce Duplessis]

Thank you, Joe. I appreciate you.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you very much. Y', all. We over here doing whatever it takes. Look, I, I'm a whatever it takes person, Jason. I don't care. We have to do whatever it takes. And that is, I think, what we need to do. Let me just let you all know that the sponsors for the show are many. They are wonderful. And I want to let you also know, very appropriately, that the joy retail tonight is brought to you by Bullies, Parasites, and Slaves, a book by Dr. George Byron Koch. True leaders do not benefit themselves, but work to meet our common needs. That is the difference between a bully or a parasite and a true leader. Bullies will pretend to protect us while actually using us to guard their own privilege, but they can be stopped. Every refusal to submit, every expose of exploitation moves us closer to a future where true leadership prevails and the old methods of domination lose their power. We can all get there together and prosper together. Here's where to start. You got to read the bullies book Bullies, Parasites and Slaves by George Koch, and that is pronounced K o C O K even though it's spelled C O C H like the bad coke. He's a good Koch. You will use his insights. Go to BPS Online or just text CARE C A R E to 511-511. Get that book, BPS Online or text CARE to 511-511. It's also free if you even need a text CARE to 511-51-511 today to receive a link to get your free book today. The only thing you might pay is text rates if you decide to text. Okay, so let's take one more look at the all roads lead to the south protest that happened on Saturday. We going to be coming in hot, so.

[Royce Duplessis]

Me too. I can get it.

[Joy Reid]

They probably plan on asking us for birth certificates and everything.

[Bishop William Barber]

Yes, ma'.

[Thomas (Caller on C Span)]

Am.

[Doris Crenshaw]

And the day of the days of the any election, we need to be

[Justin J. Pearson]

sure that people get to the polls

[Doris Crenshaw]

and from the polls. That's right. And this ain't gonna have no camera behind.

[Bishop William Barber]

Right.

[Joy Reid]

You see, there's a lot of important

[Doris Crenshaw]

things are done that can never even told by the press. I remember YT Walker sent me to do something, take a message. I didn't realize how important that message was. I'm gonna tell you what it was, okay? But it was so important today I realized how important it was thinking this saving somebody's life.

[Justin J. Pearson]

Amen.

[Joy Reid]

I didn't know.

[Justin J. Pearson]

I didn't know. I just didn't know.

[Doris Crenshaw]

He told me to go to a certain room and they got the gassing lounge and tell of them somebody, the

[Joy Reid]

police was out there.

[Justin J. Pearson]

That's all he told me.

[Doris Crenshaw]

And I did exactly what he told me.

[Justin J. Pearson]

All right, thank you.

[Royce Duplessis]

In Selma, we spent the morning here, just crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

[Ro Khanna]

Spent time with demonstrators, activists, protesters.

[Joy Reid]

And now we're getting ready to head

[Ro Khanna]

back to the state capitol for a massive rally.

[Royce Duplessis]

Part of the All Roads Lead south

[Joy Reid]

organization and mobilization in response to the

[Royce Duplessis]

Supreme Court's attempts to curb black voting rights.

[Joy Reid]

And you can see that was a very ecumenical and elders centered movement. But people of all ages joined that protest. Super important. Joining us now, Jatan Bosby Gilchrist, executive director of ACLU Alabama endorsed Kren, a civil rights elder in Alabama who is the former vice president of the NAACP Youth Council back in the day. Thank you both for being here.

[Doris Crenshaw]

Thank you for having us.

[Joy Reid]

A pleasure.

[Bishop William Barber]

Thank you so much. Joy.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you so much. I'm going to start with you, Elder Crenshaw. Talk about the importance of this march and what do you think it achieved on Saturday?

[Doris Crenshaw]

Well, I was thinking it was. But she's. Are you the elder? I'm there.

[Joy Reid]

No. Why? I could be you. I'm gonna say you. George.

[Doris Crenshaw]

I thought. I think my.

[Joy Reid]

We gonna make elder just today.

[Doris Crenshaw]

I'm the youngest elder.

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Doris Crenshaw]

Anyway, anyway, to be serious, I think it was vitally important for us to show up Saturday as we did. And I think it energized us. It energized me I was pleasantly surprised to see that number of people out in the streets of Montgomery, Alabama on Saturday. And it was intergenerational and interracial and male and female, black and white, yellow and red.

[Joy Reid]

I'm going to ask you to turn around wherever you're listening, if you're listening in your. On your laptop, so we can make sure we don't hear a reverb.

[Bishop William Barber]

Is it me?

[Joy Reid]

I think it's you.

[Doris Crenshaw]

It's this one.

[Joy Reid]

There we go. There you go. Yeah, just look. You can just listen right in. There you go. Perfect. All right, Mr. Tom, let me make sure, first of all, that I'm pronouncing your first name correctly.

[Jatan Busby Gilchrist]

It is correct. Jatan. Thank you so much.

[Joy Reid]

J. Ton, tell me, what do you. What do you hope to get out of the activation that we saw this weekend?

[Jatan Busby Gilchrist]

I think it's important to understand the power of, of what Saturday really demonstrated. And I like to go through an arc of what we mean when we talk about civil rights being iterative. We are celebrating, really this past week, 65 years since the Freedom Riders came to Alabama and made it to Alabama. And we are just 62 years removed from James Meredith, integrating the University of Mississippi, 63 years removed from that Birmingham Children's Campaign and the Crusades of Birmingham, Alabama. And then when we look to it now, we are just 62 years removed from Freedom Summer. And so when you look at that arc, we have to understand that the civil rights work, the movement work, is iterative. And what yesterday, excuse me, Saturday demonstrated, was how sustained our movement is. We have to understand that this just didn't happen in fits and starts. You cannot gather 270+ organizations together with 1000 satellite events nationwide without sustained movement work actively happening on the ground. And so that really is a demonstration of our collective power that often gets overlooked in that national framework and media because there are grassroots individuals, large coalitions that are working across the Deep South. And yes, we saw that Saturday. But if you think about a week before, you were having special sessions across the Deep south, in Tennessee, in Louisian, in Alabama, and we were on the steps of the Alabama State House, ensuring that our voices were heard. And one of the things that I really talked about was our power, our presence, and the importance of policy in this time and ensuring that we are showing up in these ways that really help inform what is going on next. We know that individuals like Doris Crenshaw, like Joanne Bland, like Bernard Lafayette, and so many others really built a framework and a foundation that is instructive for those of us doing the work and on the front lines today. And so that's just a little bit of what the power of Saturday meant. It was a culmination, but it is really just the start of something that is greater that we're building upon. But again, that is historical.

[Joy Reid]

And Elder Crenshaw, you know, I part of me wants to apologize to you, your generation. You know, you were head of the NAACP Youth Council. I did a lot of studying of the NAACP youth councils, doing this book about Medgar Evers and Medgar and Merle Evers. And they were such a powerful force for good in the 19, early 1960s. I hate that you all have to do this again, that you have to march again in this era. We should have fixed this by now. So what can you teach us and the next generation of activists from what you learned doing this the first time that will help us do this again?

[Doris Crenshaw]

Well, I think we have to stay engaged. And I think Bernice King often quotes her mother as saying, freedom is never one in one generation. Every generation has to continue this struggle. And that's. I think in some ways we went a little lulled. I think we went to sleep. But I think that we had a big wake up call and I think that we are here in declaring call and that we will do this again. We are prepared, we are energized and we know what we have to do and we'll get the job done. I often talk about the fact that all of the major movements in the world were propelled by women and youth. And so I was delighted on Saturday. We had some men out there, but this whole Jatan and her crew and Latasha and her crew and many of the women in Alabama and across the nation mobilized youth and women and a few good men. And that's always needed.

[Joy Reid]

It's always needed. And Jaeton and you call the name of the great Latasha Brown, Cliff Albright want to big him up as well. Also, of course, Brittany Packnett, Cunningham, all the people who are part of this. Ja'tan, talk about a little bit. What is the actual strategy here? Because I think in addition to the marches, which are symbolically important, it's important to be in community. But we need to know, like, what's the point? What's the plan?

[Jatan Busby Gilchrist]

Yeah, I think that's really important and that's what everyone is asking. And I think that's also what has been instructive about movement work. I want to say this. Mrs. Crenshaw gave me some feedback as I was speaking on the steps of the state capitol about a week ago. And she said, well, what you missed were the calls to action. And I said, oh wait, I absolutely do. So I am obligated in my role to children of the movement. And so what? Our calls to action are very specific here. And when I say specific, I do want folks to know that doesn't mean that they are things that you can't continuously do. We have to understand that generational, that movement work is generational. It is not just something you do today, is not just something that you do in an election cycle. And so Saturday we want to understand and remember that this is about voter mobilization, civic education and direct action and talking about our collective power building. So you don't get to continue this work and think, hey, we just showed up to a rally, that's all. You have to actually plug into the local organizations that are doing incredible work. And so local organizations, yes, you have black voters matter and incredible, you know, work there, you know, Fear Fight. Aclu, who has affiliates across the Deep south and the Southern collective that I have to shout out for. The ACLU is also a strong network of the southern affiliates across the Deep south. All of those 13 below the Mason Dixon line. So tap in there. But think about the League of Women Voters. Think about those organizations, the black women's roundtables that are, that are happening across the Deep south, those that you don't always hear about plugging into these spaces to understand the power of civic engagement work each and every day. And the next thing is, I want folks to understand that outside of organizations, outside of politicians, outside of pastors, you are actually the most trusted source to your community. You are the most trusted source to your family. And so what I want folks to understand is that we cannot lose the art of dialogue. We have to be able to listen to folks. We have to be able to meet folks where they are. So whether that's the kitchen table for me, it's oftentimes just a kickback that might be in my mother in law's house or my husband's house. And those are where you listen, right? We have to get people involved in this movement and we cannot shame them for maybe not having the information that we may wield. And we also have to understand civic engagement comes even before we get to that ballot box. And so we have to be able to engage with people in and outside of election cycle. So yes, we want folks to show up tomorrow and that's our biggest call to action, which is May 19th in Alabama. It is voting day. We have incredible organizations here that are taking people to the polls. An organization specifically known as Roll into the Polls, led by a good friend and activist, Kenesha Brown. And so literally, you are connecting with people, taking them to the polls. Ask your neighbors and your friends and your church members, what can I do? Getting folks to the polls is critical, and I want people to understand the power of that. And then also just showing up, showing up where you can, doing what you can, when you can, is critical. And so those are some broader calls to action. But the thing that I want people to understand is we gotta tap in, folks. We are talking right now about 2026, but I want folks to think about what 2030 looks like when that new census is coming. We have to prepare for that. We're talking about gerrymandering, but the redistricting process itself is something that is about the will of the people. It is about us showing up. It is about resources. And so that is a critical part of this work. So I want us to think about the long game, but in the meantime, while we're learning, we got to lock in and plug in where we can in our community.

[Joy Reid]

Amen. Amen. Amen. I'm gonna give you the last word on this. Elder Doris. Please take the last word.

[Doris Crenshaw]

Okay. What I was going to say is I talk to people a lot about. Let's get back around the table again. We stop talking, and we stop talking to each other. People don't talk. They.

[Joy Reid]

At.

[Doris Crenshaw]

At dinner time, nobody's around the table. But see, we got to start back to talking again. I always close my talks with. When we attended meetings in the 50s and 60s, we were asked, why are you here? And what is your assignment? And I want people to not think about just me and you. Joey owed me a visit to Montgomery.

[Joy Reid]

I know I do.

[Doris Crenshaw]

What are you going to do? Because history is visiting you, so you have the power also. And another thing we say, it starts with you. It's not about us. It starts with you.

[Joy Reid]

Amen.

[Ro Khanna]

Amen.

[Joy Reid]

Wise words, of course, from elder Doris Crenshaw, one of the legends of the civil rights movement, one of the unsung heroes, heroines of the civil rights movement. We appreciate you so much, our dear, beloved elder, and of course, Jayton Busby Gilchrist, and the new generation of leaders. And thank you for being here, because I need people, people to understand it is not just black organizations that we think of as black organizations. And I want to push back on that lie that was trying to be circulated on some kind of social media. Saying, oh, no, no, it was just black. No. Aclu, League of Women Voters, Indivisible. Everybody was there. They had 10 days to organize a giant march, and they did it in 10 days. And the results were about 5 to 6,000 people all on hand just for that, to walk over the Edmund Fetters Bridge Bridge. Imagine what folks could do with all the time we have between now and November. I want to thank you both good sisters for being in this fight and for being here on this evening. Thank you.

[Doris Crenshaw]

May I take one more minute?

[Joy Reid]

Of course you may. Of course.

[Doris Crenshaw]

As we close out the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott, we want to salute the Women's Political Council. And it was the Women's Political Council that push for a boycott of the buses. And the leaflet that was made by Joanne Robinson, who was an English teacher at Alabama State, got the word out over this weekend. So this year as we close out, we want to honor communicators and especially women communicators. That includes you, Joy. So we expect you here in December. Thank you very largely for your time.

[Joy Reid]

Yes, ma'. Am. I will see you in December. Look at that. Invitation live on air shall not be declined. Okay, I will be there, ma'.

[Ro Khanna]

Am.

[Joy Reid]

Yes, ma'.

[Thomas (Caller on C Span)]

Am.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you.

[Doris Crenshaw]

Okay, thank you.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you, Elder Dora. Thank you. Jay, Tom, thank you both very much. Listen, when. When the elder tells you to show up in December, Jason, you will be there in December. Let me just let you know, that's where I'm gonna be in December. And it's important, I think, what. What these two wonderful women were saying that I think is important to remember, too. Not everybody is super political. Not everybody watches the news. Not everybody even watches gas. Joy, Rico. And so you have to figure out how are you getting to people who are apolitical, who just don't think about it, who are busy reading the Shade Room and not paying attention without shaming those people. And I think one tip that I would give all of you who are the very ready and obviously the woke people are watching this show, whatever the format you're watching it on is, number one, don't talk about democracy. I think just take that out of your vocabulary, because for a regular person that's trying to afford their rent for food, groceries and can't make it through a week and don't have enough coins left at the end of the day to eat and also pay for their gas, they don't care about democracy. Democracy is an ephemeral concept. It's very. It's a nice book concept, but it isn't like a real thing. People are actually living in their real lives. You got to talk about like the straight ahead things. I was talking with my good friend miss Kim in Florida who's trying to think about how do we get Florida to wake up. And Florida is one of those states that's just been dead asleep ever since the two times that Florida elected Obama. Then Florida just went to sleep and it's just been elected the most trash Republicans you can possibly imagine on the verge of maybe putting Byron Donald in the governor's mansion. That's the only thing that could be worse than Ron DeSantis, for God's sake. But how do you wake those people up that just will not be roused when it comes to things like civil rights and voting rights. They just figure what's the point of voting? Nothing ever changes. I think we need to get down to like real simple. You, if you, if you really need food assistance, good luck getting that. If the MAGA take over your district, the only reason you're getting it is you are in a congressional district where your congressperson fights for you to get food and renaissance. If you need that, if that's something that you count on to survive, just know that when the MAGA takeover, you won't get it. Go ask the people who are being governed right now by the speaker of the House if you think because your congressman is the speaker and you are in New Orleans in that district, if you think those people are doing well, maybe go ask them. It's one of the poorest districts in the country. Go and ask the people of Kentucky who had the most powerful Senate leader maybe in the history of the United States Senate. With all respect to Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell wielded enormous awesome power. Did he make Kentucky less poor? No, he sure didn't. Kentucky is one of the poorest states in the Union. Was when he started once when he finished. That man was in office from 1985, when I was literally in high school, all the way until he's just about to retire. And that state is as dirt poor as it was when he started. Maybe poorer, but he's richer. I'll put it on the Democrats too. Joe Manchin got in the Senate. Did he make West Virginia poor? No. These oligarchs come in and they get rich. We're going to talk about that a lot in our next hour. Ro Khanna will be here. I've been really excited to talk to Ro Khanna for a minute. We're really excited that Ro Khanna will be here. These people are looting the country. They're getting rich. Their states are poor. Why is Louisiana poor? This is one of the richest states in the Union. During the con, you know, during the Confederate era, during the antebellum era when it was all plantations, they were very wealthy. As soon as they took the slaves away from them, they went poor and have never climbed back. Mississippi, it was the richest state in the union during slavery because they had all that plantation wealth. As soon as you took the slaves away from them and let the slaves be free, they were like, we're not paying those people any money. We wanted to have low paid labor. So they decided to stay poor. And they've been led by people who've been impoverishing Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama. Why are these states so poor? The only blue state that's in the bottom 10 is New Mexico. But that's because New Mexico does not have an inherent industry and has a lot of indigenous reservations on it that are not moneyed and they keep them poor. That's the only reason that state's so poor. But every other blue state is. Are the richest states, California, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine. Why are the blue states so rich and why are the red states so poor? They're poor because they want to be poor, because the people who lead those states guap all the money for themselves. They still have a plantation mentality. They want one or two really rich people at the top and a whole bunch of poor people at the bottom who they can exploit in Louisiana. Jeff Landry, his idea for how to create an industry in Louisiana is not to have jazz in New Orleans. He wants to destroy New Orleans, destroy that beautiful jazz culture, Ruin, move all the black people out. I guess he's going to remake jazz like Apple music does. Jazz is only white people. Get rid of all the, all the black culture, rip away the industry in New Orleans and replace the entire economy with prisons and Amazon plants where people work for work 12 hours a day and have to step over dead bodies and prisons. He's literally decided Louisiana's economy will be prisons and they will then not just incarcerate the prisoners that they grab and drag into prison in Louisiana, but, but they're going to then take all of these migrants and you know, when they ship these migrants out of the places where they're dragging them into vans, you know, where they send them. Texas and Louisiana prison economies. That's what he thinks is going to make him rich because he's probably heavily invested in Geo Group and core Civic. I would love to See his portfolio and see how much Core Civic and Geo Group he has in it. Because all these little oligarchs are getting rich and they want their states to stay poor because they want a bunch of poor, desperate cattle chattel. Just saying. We're going to get more into this in this hour of the Joy Reach Show. I want to appreciate everybody for tuning in. This is hour two. We're jumping right into it. If you have not hit like and subscribe. What are you doing? Please hit like and subscribe. We appreciate it. The algorithm loves it. Makes the algorithm happy. And if the algorithm's happy, we're happy. And we just appreciate all the support we've already gotten. We are making our climb toward 500,000 subscribers. That would be the birthday present we would love to have. Our birthday is fast approaching, so you have a little bit of time to send 10 friends the link to the Joy Reid Show YouTube channel and tell them, just go ahead and subscribe. It's free. We appreciate everybody who's throwing a little coin in the till. Very kind people who are supporting this independent media venture. I want to big up. Megan Underwood. 99.99 in the tail. Just a wonderful, wonderful friend that is here to support our independent media venture. So appreciative of you and everyone who's become a member. So feel free to become a member, but you don't absolutely have to. You can just become a free subscriber, but please don't do it alone. Arrive with five. Like they used to say in Florida when they used to vote, arrive with five. Send this to five or 10 friends and tell them, hey, just subscribe. We literally. Jason and I were at an event this weekend and ran into yet another person who had no idea that I'm doing this show and gave me the same. We missed you so much on msnbc. And I was like, whoa, whoa. We have a place. Come and join us. Come and join us here at the Joy Reach Show. People don't even realize it's here yet because we didn't pay for advertising. We're just growing organically. We didn't do the thing where we bought subscribers or paid for advertising. We didn't do any of that. We're just growing naturally just by people finding out we're here and hopefully loving what we're doing. If you're a team TJRS member, special big ups to you as well. And I don't know if I picked up substack earlier, so. Hey, to our substack friends. All right. The Joy Reach show and this hour is brought to you by one of our favorites, 120 Live. Listen. It is High Blood Pressure Awareness Month. But awareness without action does you absolutely no good. Half of all adults in this country have high blood pressure and many don't know it. And they don't find out until it's too late. The people who actually benefit from this month of awareness are the people who actually check their numbers and then try to do something about them. Try 120Life to do that. 120Life is a once a day functional drink made from ingredients that help you support healthy blood pressure. It just tastes terrific. It's refreshing. It's made from a blend of superfruit juices. It fits into your real life. And the powdered version has just one gram of sugar, making it a smart option if you're watching your blood pressure, watching your blood sugar as well as your blood pressure. So just try for 14 days. Measure your blood pressure before and after. If your numbers do not improve, you'll get a full refund. It's a great, a great bargain. Over a thousand health professionals have supported or endorsed its uses, increasingly becoming a go to and natural tool in clinical settings, not just Wellness Circle. So if you want to try it, give it a shot. Go to 120life.com that's 120-life.com. use the code joy or the code read for 20% off. Try it risk free for just two weeks. If your blood pressure does not come down, you get your full refund. 120life.com use the code joy or read don't wait till next month. You have nothing to lose but your high blood pressure numbers. These statements have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Okay, so back in 2017, I interviewed Professor Nancy McLean. I don't know if you guys were AM Joy viewers, but I interviewed her back on that weekend show. And Professor McLean had written a book called Democracy in Chains that made the right just go apeshit. Like they got really mad. Like the Cato Institute did a whole write up about how that was terrible, horrible scholarship and everything. Let me read you the NPR review of her book. Here's the quote. Obscuring census data to give conservative districts more than their fair share of representation. Preventing access to the vote, decrying socialized medicine, trying to end Social Security using dishonest vocabulary like strengthened lionizing linen from the old Soviet Union, attempting to institute voucher programs to get out of the business of public education, increasing corporatization of higher education, Harboring a desire at heart to change the Constitution itself, this unsettling list could be 2017 bingo. In fact, it's from half a century earlier, when economist James Buchanan, an early herald of libertarianism, began to cultivate a group of like minded thinkers with the goal of changing government. This ideology eventually reached the billionaire Charles Koch. The rest is, well. 2017 bingo. Oh, I have eyelash coming off apparently. Okay, I'm getting, I'm getting a 911 on my lashes. Apparently my eyelash has decided it doesn't like what I'm saying and so I'm getting an eyelash emergency alert. Thank you very much, Winsome. No, Winsome has interrupted me for very good reason. Eyelashes coming off is an actual TV emergency. It's not TV, but still emergency. So this was 2017 bingo, right? Bingo indeed. And Professor McLean might well have added institute a nationwide bank robbery to allow a small claque of billionaires to loot the entire economy, enrich themselves and their families, and leave the rest of the country broke and destitute, while making it impossible for voters to ever remove them from power by voting them out to keep the shrinking majority population voting in favor of the oligarchs by constantly bombarding them with incentives to choose whiteness over even their own economic safety. And this is why you have to think about the theft of voting rights as part of really the same story as the overall theft that's happening in Washington and in your state houses. Perhaps right now, Trump, his party, the Republicans, who are very ironically the same party as Lincoln, but they've completely flipped the brand to be the old Dixiecrat brand. And their friends in Project 2025, those fake Christians, they're not just stealing black Americans right to vote friends. They are starting with black voters in the south because those voters consistently vote like 90% for Democrats. But make no mistake, the plan is to eventually disenfranchise everybody, black and white, native born, immigrant, Asian, Latino, lgbtq, straight woman, everybody. That is the end game. And they intend to do that using anti blackness as a wedge, but eventually moving on to every other community, while the oligarchs themselves and their pet politicians, particularly in Washington, scramble to loot the bank to clean out the bank vault, enrich themselves before the whole country just collapses and goes bankrupt inevitably, just like every single Trump business ever. If you take nothing else from this show, take that it is that this attack on voting rights that seems to be an attack on just black people is just step one in an overall attack on the entire country. Because this group of people do not believe in democracy. This thing I'm like, we don't. We talk about. It's this ephemeral concept. Well, what is democracy? Democracy is the ability of the people, the demos, to choose their leadership. That's all democracy is. It's just your ability to choose your leadership. Just say that. But they want to make sure that you can't choose your leadership. You can't choose who governs you. They'll choose who governs you. That isn't a way to live in freedom. That is a way to live on a plantation. And I've said it before, and I'll say it again, these people like the way the country was in the beginning, when it was an oligarchy controlled by a few wealthy planters and everyone else was property. Their wives were property, their children were property, their enslaved were property. And they believed that indigenous people weren't even people and didn't count at all. And they like that system. They want to go back to the status quo ante. They want a plantation system. They kept trying to have it. A civil war deprived them of the slaves. The women's rights movement deprived them of their female property. And then the female property suddenly had the right to an abortion and a right to contraception. They're out of control. They're out of the kitchen. They can't own children anymore and put them to work in the mines or in the fields like they used to. These people want the old world back when they can own all the other people, including all the other white people. And they have a real problem with the idea that a black woman could run for president, that a black man could be president. They have a real problem with non white immigrants going in and opening up a restaurant or working in the back in a restaurant when it used to be only young white men back there. They don't like the idea there could be non white people working as cameramen and on the crew on a TV set. They hate this idea. They hate it. They don't want to walk into any place of business and see any of you. They just want to see each other, even if each other have no qualifications for it. They hate the idea of the modern world. Samuel Alito shows it on his face how much he hates the modern world. He's disgusted by the idea of women having equality, except his wife, who apparently could fly whatever flag she wants to in front of their house, and he doesn't say anything. He hates the idea that women could choose to. To not have a bunch of kids if they don't want it. He hates it. He hates the fact that there is racial equality. And even with Clarence, they're clear like, yeah, me too, man. Claire's like, I hate it, too. I hate these blacks. Never like. But you. Aren't you up? No, man, I'm not black. On clearance. On clearance, yes.

[Jason Reed]

Enjoy. The funny thing about it, this is what Barack Obama syndrome does to people, right? The entire country, especially the majority of the country, have lost their mind. I guess the brother defiled the lady of America, so they just treat America like she's a soiled rag because this brother took the presidency of the United States for eight years. And then this sister had the unmitigated call to try and run also.

[Ro Khanna]

Come on.

[Joy Reid]

That is a problem.

[Jason Reed]

So America itself, this is part of punishment.

[Joy Reid]

Yes. They're punishing for marrying a black man.

[Jason Reed]

For marrying a black man. You know, I was trying to keep it political right here, but that is it.

[Joy Reid]

Our little America. Our little sweet little America married a Negro. Oh, hell no. She's a. She's a. Destroy her. Jason, you got. It's. So they said, our little America. Why did I mar. Why did our little America. She lowered herself to marry a black. Hell no. And clearance is like, yeah, I agree with that. That's. There's them blacks. Horrible. They said, but you, sir, aren't you. No, man, I'm not black. On, Clarence. I'm not black. I'm Clarence. White power. Black power. That's what I say. Oh, every day. Every day. Every day. But this is a good point. Come back on. It's very. It's a great point. They. They are angry that they're. They said some. Jason. Facts. Jason, come back on. Come back on. We want you back. They're mad that their beautiful little American girl married this Negro, and they want to punish her forever.

[Jason Reed]

Remember some high schools, if the brother even says hello to the white girl, that white girl just be like, tarnished, feathered. Now you're defiled. You can't. I mean, it's literally. You know, this black man came in here and won the hearts of all these white women in this country, and that is completely unacceptable. We're not having it. And you have defiled her, filed her.

[Joy Reid]

That's right. That's right.

[Jason Reed]

She dirty now. She dirty.

[Joy Reid]

So we could just treat her like. Shh. What do they think of Jenny Thomas, I wonder? They look at. But they're. Oh, no, she's not married. No.

[Jason Reed]

Remember, she's one of the ladies in the green dress. And she's one of the ladies in the green dress, so she makes sure that everything runs.

[Thomas (Caller on C Span)]

Yeah.

[Jason Reed]

You know.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah. Her husband's not black. Her husband's Clarence. All right, let's. Let's thank one of our. We have a lot of. Of wonderful support tonight. Let me. Let me ask you guys a question. Ask yourself these five questions to see if it is time for you to switch jobs. Okay, this is important. Am I growing or just repeating the same experiences over and over? Do I feel energized by my work or am I constantly drained and counting the hours until, God, it's over? Am I learning skills that will be valuable three to five years from now? Do I know what my next career move should be? Or am I just hoping something better shows up? And if I stay here for another year, will I be proud of my progress or regret staying comfortable? Now, if these questions made you realize it may be time for a change, you should talk to a career coach through Strawberry me. Their coaches work with you one on one to understand your strengths, identify your gaps, and build a clear roadmap toward a career that you are actually excited. Excited about. Because the biggest risk is not making the wrong move. It's staying stuck without a plan. So take control of your future at Strawberry me joy today and get 50% off your first coaching session. That is Strawberry Me Joy. Okay, so who here. Put your hands up. If you remember when Martha Stewart went to prison, today is a shameful day. It's shameful for me and for my family.

[Royce Duplessis]

Martha Stewart was confident and defiant when she spoke after her sentencing. She stood tall and looked directly into the camera as she recalled her stock scandal.

[Joy Reid]

What was a small personal matter became over the last two years, an almost fatal circus event of unprecedented proportions. I had been choked and almost suffocated

[Jatan Busby Gilchrist]

to death during that time.

[Royce Duplessis]

Martha spoke right here in the courthouse steps. Just minutes after being sentenced to five months in jail, five months house arrest, and two years probation. It was the minimum she could have gotten. Judge Mariam Sederbaum told the court that she was influenced by the more than 1500 letters she received in support of Martha. The judge told Martha that she had read each and every one of those letters, including some from celebrities like Bill Cosby and Rosie o' Donnell, and said that Martha had helped many people and had hundreds of admirers.

[Joy Reid]

You remember that? That's when Bill Cosby was considered a good endorsement for a judge Lord ever. That was 2004, during the peak of her career. Martha Stewart this is from People magazine. Best selling author, successful entrepreneur, DIY guru and Emmy award winning TV host spent five months in prison after being embroiled in an insider trading scandal. Stewart's media empire, Martha Stewart Living, Omni Media, went public in 1999, making her the first female self made billionaire in the U.S. then two years later, in December of 2001, she landed in hot water after selling her stake in a company called McLone Systems, a biopharmaceutical company. When investigators questioned her about the trade in early 2002, she and her stockbroker Peter Bakanovic maintained that they had no insider information prompting the sale. Federal prosecutors later accused Stewart, who was once a stockbroker herself and Bacon, of acting on non public information when they made the trade and then lying to investigators about it. A highly publicized trial ensued in early 2004 and Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of lying to federal investigators. She was sentenced to five months in prison and two years of probation. However, Stewart kept her company intact, wrote a book and debuted two new TV shows. One was Snoop Dogg. Remember that? Within less than a year of her release from prison on March 4, 2005. Remember that? I'd like to finish my salad. Remember that? I'd like to finish my salad. That interview, epic where the lady kept asking her question, she's like, I'd like to finish my salad. Yeah, that was all in early, in the early aughts. Now, the problem with Martha's story that she knew nothing about what was happening with this stock of this company that she bought him was that she was not just a former stockbroker, she was actually a person who had a seat on the board of the New York Stock Exchange at the time of her stock sale. So she had insider knowledge that this company was not going to have its product, which was a cancer treatment, approved and that its stock was doomed. It was like classic insider trading. Well, fast forward today and Donald Trump has said hold my beer. According to Bloomberg and the Japan Times, in the first quarter, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, for some ungodly reason, because Americans are just the no thought went into that election in 2016, but he's president again. In just the first quarter of his second term as president, he bought at least a million dollars each in companies including Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, Boeing and Costco Wholesale, according to documents. Other trades involved ebay, Abbott Laboratories, Uber Technologies AT&T and discount store Dollar Tree. The disclosure reignites conflict of interest concerns that have shadowed Trump. Trump to Trump's two terms in the White House. Critics have regularly accused him of mixing his official duties with his business interests. Unlike his predecessors, Trump did not divest or move his assets into a blind trust with an independent overseer. I will pin for a moment to remind you that Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm to not have conflicts of interest. Moving back to this article here, his sprawling business empire is managed by two of his sons. The two eldest failed sons, and operates in several areas that intersect with presidential policy. At the same time, Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner, helps manage billions of dollars in investments for Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates while simultaneously serving as a volunteer envoy for the President on issues involving the war in Iran and the Middle east in general. Note here putting a pin in the fact that Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. Is invested in a drone company that now has Pentagon contracts. The other son has a crypto company that gets regulated with by the same people Donald Trump appointed in the federal government. All of the son's businesses are benefiting from Donald Trump either touting their businesses or changing policy to favor his own son's businesses or just giving them contracts. The White House dismissed concerns, saying there's no conflict of interest. Trump only acts in the interest of the United States. But the trading volume from Donald Trump exceeds anything Trump has previously reported. In the fourth quarter of last year, he made 380 transactions, mostly purposes. Purposes purchases of municipal debt. People are actually baffled by these trades. Wall street people are saying this is bizarre, it's not normal. Okay, so here's a little bit more from the Bloomberg reporting. Trump has made a number of policy moves that affect his publicly listed companies that he traded. And he interacts regularly with many of the executives of those firms, including Nvidia, whose chips critical to AI development require US Government approval for foreign sales. Trump pulled Nvidia Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang into his recent trip to Beijing during a refueling stop, joining a delegation that included top executives from Boeing City Group and Tesla Inc. Meaning Elon Musk. Donald Trump has this habit of saying something big about a stock, saying something great about it, and then all of a sudden the stock goes up and he owns some of the stock and benefits from it. He's done this numerous times where he will say, hey, you ought to buy this stock. It's really great. He did that with Paramount Skydance. He owned Paramount Skydance stock. Netflix and Paramount are battling to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery. All these are waging sort of a battle to get it. Donald Trump Buys a stake in Warner Brothers in March that was worth at least $30,000. A stake in Paramount, Skydance worth at least $15,000. And he had 19 transactions naming Netflix, including sales worth as little as 1,000 and as much as 5 million. And then he starts talking about the merger and all of those stock prices go up. Trump's biggest sales came In February, on February 10, when he unloaded holdings in three tech firms, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Amazon, in amounts between 5 million and 25 million dollars. And what he's been doing is he buys a stock, then he makes a public announcement that boosts the stock and then he cashes in on the stock or he goes after a company and then dumps the stock or buys it cheap. He's literally playing the market using his own words. He recently bought shares of Palantir. During the first three months of this year, Trump purchased between 247,000 and $637,000 worth of stock in Palantir, which of course is now based in Miami. In March alone, he made at least seven purchases of palantir, totaling as much as $530,000. The following month, Trump praised Palantir on Truth Social as shares suffered their worst week for over a year. This came as a software sellout accelerated amid the Iran war and the company was caught in the ire of famed short seller this guy, Marco Burry. Donald Trump. And it's not just that. Let's do one more. Donald Trump is also now saying he's no longer going to sue the IRS. He was suing the IRS for $10 billion because a contractor to the IRS disclosed he only paid 750 bucks in taxes, basically forever in his whole life. But he's now withdrawn the suit in exchange for a slush fund. $1.7 billion to pay reparations. Suddenly, they believe in reparations, but those are going to go to January 6th. Insurrectionist. A slush fund. He can do with whatever he chooses. No wonder the White House was posting this clip. This is C5 Jason. White House iced out. Now, I will note that the brilliant people of social media were replacing the word iced out with Epstein and pedo, which I think was quite well deserved. We have Rokana. Jason, join me now. I believe our guest is here. Wrote. There he is. Ro Khanna, representative of California's fighting 17th district congressman, it has been a long time coming. I have been semi, semi stalking you and trying to get you to come on the show to talk about all of the things. So thank you so much. For being here.

[Ro Khanna]

Oh, always a pleasure. I didn't know you were reaching out. You could just text me next time.

[Joy Reid]

Okay, good. We have to. I have to get your. We're going to exchange numbers so I can make sure I can text you. So listen, sir, this. Let's start with the slush fund. Any regulation there. Does Congress have any authority over what happens when. With this money, or is this just going to be Scott Besant wiring money to Donald Trump?

[Ro Khanna]

I mean, it's wiring money to Donald Trump and to his allies, people who are insurrectionists, people who are rioters, people who invaded the Capitol on January 6th. It is the most corrupt, unconstitutional thing I've seen. I mean, Donald Trump's basically saying to his own Treasury Department, justice department set up $1.7 billion. And it's not just give it to my political allies, which would be bad enough. Give it to people who organize precincts for me or campaign for me. He's saying, give it to people who are the ones who charged the Capitol on January 6th. Give it to the people who committed violence on my name on my behalf and were prosecuted by the Justice Department. And it's just chilling. Now, what can we do that we've filed with the court to say that the court shouldn't accept this as a. As a response? Over 100 members of Congress have filed with the court, and really, Congress should threaten to take away the money from justice for this amount and say that we're not going to appropriate Justice Department's money if you're going to give it out to criminals.

[Joy Reid]

And I don't know if you can turn your phone sideways. Is there a way that your two staff. Give us a sideways flip? Give us a flip. There we go. We're going to give you a turn. We're going to turn. There we go. Perfect. Okay. Live tv. Live. Because in new media, we don't mind doing a little phone adjustment mid interview. We don't mind doing that at all because we want this to look as good as possible.

[Doris Crenshaw]

Ready?

[Joy Reid]

We got you. All right, let's see. We. Let's see if Rokon is ready. Okay, we're gonna let him do that, but, yeah, because we. We definitely have to talk about the looting. And to me, the theft. The looting. The stealing actually is the story, and it is tied to the other stories, including the theft of voting rights. So as soon as we have Representative Ronna back, we're going to talk about that and the connections in. Because as I tell you guys all the time on this show, it's Just one story. Like it's not multiple stories, it's a story. And the story of the theft of voting rights is the same story as this. Because they can't keep stealing if there is a regulating authority that will stop them. And the only regulating authority that the Constitution provides to rein in the President is the Congress. And so if there is no Congress and there's no Congress willing to regulate them, they can steal all they want. They can do whatever they want because there's nobody watching the store. It's like leaving the store door wide open and you can come in and take whatever you want. There we have Representative Ro Khanna is. He's perfectly horizontal now. Thank you, sir. Let's talk about it, because the challenge has been that your colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Can I just play you. Let me play you the speaker of the House. Jason, do we have this clip of the Speaker, Mike Johnson, being asked about the members of Congress that are also using the stock market in a way that seems.

[Mike Johnson]

Well, look, you know, the salary of Congress has been frozen since 2009. You know, when you adjust for inflation, a member of Congress today is making 31% less than they made in that year. It goes down every year. And over time, if you stay on this trajectory, you're going to have less qualified people who are willing to make the extreme sacrifice to run for Congress. I mean, it's just people just make a reasonable decision as a family on whether or not they can come and move to Washington, have a residency or residence at home, and do all the things that are required. So the counterargument is, and I have some sympathy, look, at least let them engage in some stock trading so that they can continue to take care of their family.

[Joy Reid]

Congressman, members of Congress earn more than $200,000 a year. Most Americans will never in their lives earn $200,000 a year. And Speaker Johnson is saying, why not let people trade on insider information like Martha Stewart did? So, so that, you know, they're regulating this industry. They trade on this industry. Let them do it so they can feed their families. Who's going to sympathize with that?

[Ro Khanna]

Yeah, I don't know what he's talking about. No one's forcing you to run for Congress. There are a lot of other ways and things you can do with your life. And there are people who serve the military who make far less, and that's a much bigger sacrifice. They're millions of people who are in the civil service. They're making less. And many of them are senior and they're serving the country. So no one is also saying that you can't be invested in the markets. The Trust act says that you have to put it in an independent trust and put that in a fund or have an independent entity manage it. But why do you have to pick stocks? I mean, I don't understand that.

[Thomas (Caller on C Span)]

That.

[Ro Khanna]

That is just a recipe for either corruption or for the appearance of corruption. And here you have with Donald Trump, I mean, you know, stock after stock after stock that he's making decisions on when he could just have put it in a trust. No one is saying, Donald Trump, you look, he's a rich man, he's a rich family. He could have done what every other president has done, put it in a trust. Put it in a trust. That's putting line. And then they can still invest it, and they can still get the stock market's 20%, 15% return. It's just that you would know that he's not selling Nvidia and making decisions on Nvidia.

[Joy Reid]

And it's not just him, but, I mean, if you isolate it to Donald Trump. Donald Trump was rich, but he was never a billionaire. He sued Tim o' Brien because Tim o' Brien disclosed that he wasn't a billionaire based on his actual career being a real estate investor. He never succeeded to become a billionaire.

[Justin J. Pearson]

He.

[Joy Reid]

He's now a billionaire six times over based on crypto schemes, based on selling phones that his fans never got that he said were gonna be made in America that are not based on scams he's running and promoting as president, and based on playing with the stock of companies he owns by making an announcement about them. This seems to me to be so corrupt that even John Roberts could see it.

[Ro Khanna]

It's the only time Donald Trump has really had a successful business venture is a second term as president. The reality is, you know, first he had a crypto scheme where he got foreign governments like UAE just to give him money, and he made the interest. Right? He has a crypto token. They put in billions of dollars. He's getting all the interest on that money that he has a meme coin where he makes hundreds of millions of dollars. Now it's lost 97% of its value. So other people may be out of luck who bought that coin, but he cashed out when that was hot, when he. Right when he got elected. And of course, everyone knows about the Qatari jet that he got. But the problem is not just that he's making money and lining his pockets instead of making money for ordinary Americans, which is his job, to put money in people's pockets. He's putting it in his own pockets. The problem is it's also impacting his decisions. He is giving UAE a waiver to get advanced chips. He's giving Qatari defense sales. He is giving other people pardons based on what they're paying him. I mean, it's just a transactional White House, a pay to play the most corrupt administration in American history. We've never seen anything like it. And he's bragging about it. He basically says, this is what I do. I make deals. You pay me, I'll do things for you. That's the way.

[Joy Reid]

He's not just doing that, but he's also going further, doing things that seem, it seems that this should be a minimum for Congress to say no. Destroying the East Wing and not having the permission of the authorities that are supposed to supervise construction there. Planning to build himself an arc du Trump wrecking the White House at every imagine what looks like a cheap nothing against Marriott who. But it looks like not even one of the nice Marriotts. Right? He's destroyed the White House itself. But also putting his face on a coin, putting his face on the American passport. None of this seems legal. But Congress is inert.

[Ro Khanna]

Congress is inert. The courts are inert. He's basically taking public property and making it his own, making it private. I mean, I can't go on the Capitol and in my office in the Capitol and just start on the walls putting my name all over. Or when I go sit on the House floor, put putting my name on a Sharpie. I can't, I can't get go do that and deface the Capitol. And neither can the other 434 members of Congress. Yet Donald Trump can just say, well, I want to destroy the White House. It's not his House, it's not his property, it's not his currency. But he treats it all as his, which is why people call him a king, because the last person, that's what a king thinks, that everything of the state is owned by them. And Donald Trump is acting that way. What is sad is that you have a Republican Party that has just gone along with it, a Republican Party that's going along with it even as Donald Trump is so unpopular. Why? Because my friend Thomas Massie is facing a reelection tomorrow and it's a neck and neck race. Bill Cassidy lost. Because what happens when you defy Donald Trump is you get the wrath of the MAGA base in your primary and people are afraid and that's the reality of what's going on in this country.

[Joy Reid]

Well, Thomas Massie is also catching hell because he has run afoul of the Israel lobby that is spending a ton of money in that race as well. Donald Trump, Marin Adelson. But also because weirdly enough, it seems that the MAGA base, rather than being empathetic toward the Epstein victims, is angry at the Epstein victims and wants the Epstein files suppressed. They've decided they don't mind pedophilia. They're actually okay with it. They just want to protect Donald Trump. In your mind, what will be the ultimate outcome of the Epstein situation? Are we ever going to see prosecutions? Are we ever going to get the names of all the people that Yourself, Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who. I do want to ask a question about her investments as well. Are we ever going to get the actual answer to what this Epstein class was doing?

[Ro Khanna]

Well, we've seen 3 million files, about half the files, and people are disgusted by what they saw. They saw rich and powerful men basically engaged in visiting this island where girls were being trafficked, abused, paraded naked, and they did nothing about it. Some of them participated in it. Some of them knew about it and kept quiet. And they cared more about being part of this club, this class, than they did about justice for young girls, than they cared about the abuse of young girls. There are people already out there publicly in these files who should be having investigations and prosecutions. People like Les Wexner and Leon Black with very serious allegations against them. Yet no investigation. No, no, no prosecutions. Every single man who was on that island should be investigated. At least get a call about what they knew, what they did, what they saw. But this Justice Department has not wanted to do that at all. So do I believe there is going to be justice? I do. But I think it will take a new administration committed to it to actually engage in the investigations and prosecutions. And until then, people like Thomas Massie, myself, the oversight committee is going to fight for the release of the rest of the files and continue to have these depositions to understand why there was a cover up. And what is the reason that we're not getting prosecution for these men who abuse these girls.

[Joy Reid]

Let me, let me ask you about Marjorie Taylor Greene, because she was the sort of the third person in the trio. Well, obviously Lauren Boebert is now also being threatened with a primary by Donald Trump. These are people who are on the MAGA side, his former allies. In the case of Marjorie Taylor Greene, she's leaving Congress, but she's leaving a lot richer than when she came. Do you think that her exit is more about being punished by Donald Trump for siding with the Epstein victims, or more about just cashing out and moving to Costa rica with the 25 million allegedly that she's earned investing while a member of Congress?

[Ro Khanna]

Well, my understanding. I don't know all the facts, but my understanding is she had a business coming into Congress. And I don't know whether, you know, the appreciation was beyond the market or not. I don't want to speculate. I do think that there needs to be a ban on stock trading. But look, Marjorie Taylor Greene has said things that are deeply hurtful, that are deeply offensive, especially as we see the Supreme Court engaged in the fastest rollback of black political rights since Rutherford Hayes ended reconstruction in 1877. I mean. I mean, she has said things that have not recognized the equality of rights of people of color, of black individuals, of people of different backgrounds, and we can't minimize that. But on the Epstein issue, she showed courage. I mean, I do believe that that is the reason she's not in Congress. She would have faced a primary, and she knew that she probably wouldn't prevail, and she was getting death threats. Those are real things. And so, in my view, we have to separate an ideology that needs to be called out from an act she took, which was, in my view, sincere in standing up for the survivors.

[Joy Reid]

Let me ask you about this issue that we started off the show with tonight, because I keep telling folks, it is one story, the story about the suppression, as you just mentioned, of black voting rights in the south, and the story of the looting of the United States, the looting of the Treasury. Donald Trump attempting to create reparations for January 6th insurrectionist and a slush fund for himself. It's the same story. Because if there was a Congress that was willing to investigate it or stop him or cut the money off or say we're going to defund the Treasury Department, you can't have a budget if you're going to send it to Trump. He couldn't do it. And they want to stop the House and the Senate from flipping to the Democratic Party. Because if there's one thing Democrats are good at, it's hearings. And they're terrified of the hearings and the investigations. I think that's. Is that fair? Do you believe that that's the case?

[Ro Khanna]

I do believe that's the case. And this sad cruelty of this moment in our country where we're providing reparations to the people who stormed the Capitol to elect Donald Trump when he had lost the election. Instead of reparations to the descendants of those who were enslaved or faced Jim Crow. I mean, that's a summation of the historical injustice that so many have faced in America. But look, I think this is a wake up call for the need for economic power in the black community. The first Reconstruction was about the abolition of slavery and expansion of political rights. Second Reconstruction was about civil and political rights. But the third reconstruction, in my view, must be about economic power, because what it shows is that if you do not have economic power power, those rights are taken away because they're not just based on principle, they're based on the exercise of power. And Donald Trump is showing what happens when you have the exercise of power that we aren't able to stop and that the black south hasn't been able to stop. So, yes, we need, of course, protests and we need the Voting Rights act and we need the court expanded from nine to 13 and we need term limits. But what we really need is economic power. Do I think that they would have messed with the black south if they had Jeff Bezos, like figures there? I don't. I think that they are able to exploit racial oppression because of a lack of economic power.

[Joy Reid]

That is really interesting and wise, I think a way to look at it. Absolutely, you're absolutely right. And we need to increase the, you know, the benefits of, the potential benefits of the economy for everyone. And they don't care about that. They just want to a few rich people and everybody else to be broke. The last question I want to ask you before we let you go is about this question of coalitions. You formed one of the most interesting coalitions I think that we've seen in modern politics. Yourself and Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene on this Epstein issue. And it just shows that that saying there are no permanent friends, no permanent allies, no permanent enemies. It's really permanent interests, right? If you have an interest, you can ally with some strange bedfellows to get it. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Thomas Massie's attitude on guns. I'm not a huge fan of the fact that Kyle Rittenhouse has endorsed him, which is really gross to me and weird. But I hope he wins. Because if he wins, it shows, right, that there's a Massey Republican that in theory could get rid of a whole bunch of other Republicans. Because I'm interested in seeing every Republican in the state level and the federal level who voted to gerrymander these maps taken out of office. And in some of those districts that's going to mean a different Republican runs against them or, or that a third party, a working families party or some other party runs in those races to make that a three person race. Like there's all these different strategies. Do you think that. I know Democrats never want to think about that because they just want Democrats to win, but is there in the sort of, sort of multipolar circles that you're now traveling in, the fact that you're now talking with people on the MAGA side and on the right and the left, are there people who are thinking that kind of three dimensional chess or is everybody thinking D team, our team?

[Ro Khanna]

Some of us are. I mean it takes a bit of risk because you get criticized. And I understand where some of the criticism is coming from. I mean Massey has terrible views on guns. He's got very bad views in my view on race in America. He's got very bad views on the role and the need for affirmative action and dei. And so I understand when people say ro, you're aligning with him on these issues, but look at his holistic view of America and how do you do that? And I understand that. I'm not dismissing it, but I guess my view is that if we can find some areas of agreement that we shouldn't be funding foreign governments that are committing human rights violations like Israel in Gaza, that we should not be in the war in Iran, that we should not be threatening Iran with a genocide, that we shouldn't be engaged in a fuel blockade that's starving people in Cuba, that we should be holding rich and powerful men who raped young girls accountable, then we need to do that. Then we need to take those opportunities without losing our moral bearings, without losing our progressive values. And that's the approach I have taken. And I found some success on Epstein and I found some success in stopping the Iran war. Do I think that there's going to be a Kumbaya moment where suddenly they're going to embrace progressive politics in a multiracial democracy? No, but I rather there be some competition there and at least some areas where we can build that coalition as opposed to just total Trumpism.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, if, if Massey can oust an APAC pro war, eternal war candidate Go Massey. I'll never agree with him on anything. Would never vote for him myself. Don't like and like he said he chilling with Ky Ritten. You can have him. I don't care about that. I do want him to win though, because I want MAGA ism To lose. Rona, thank you very much. There are people in the chat who want you to run for speaker. Before I let you go, would you ever challenge Hakeem Jeffries for speaker? That's something that you would do. You were not.

[Ro Khanna]

No, no, no. Hakeem Jeffries is going to make history. He's going to be. Let me say this. I mean, I appreciate the compliments, but don't you think. I mean, just on a basic level, when the Supreme Court is trying to eliminate black power in a way we haven't seen since the end of Reconstruction, that the Democrats would make a statement by having the first black speaker of the House when we win? I'm not saying that. A lot of other reasons I support Hakeem, but just having a sense of the. The moment we are in history should put. It should say, let's put aside some of the differences. There'll be plenty of time to litigate the differences. But let's have a symbolic win, and let's have a symbolic sense of a first black speaker of the House with a court that's trying to eliminate a third of my black colleagues from their districts.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah. If it makes them mad, it brings me joy. Congressman Ro Khanna. Keep fighting the good fight, man. Thank you very much.

[Ro Khanna]

Thank you. Appreciate you.

[Joy Reid]

I can text you next time. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

[Ro Khanna]

Thank you.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you very much. Look, I like the way he thinks. He is pragmatic. And I, as a pragmatic person, that is down for some strategic. Even if it means not always rolling with the Ds, I'm willing to do that because we have to win. More importantly than anything else, we have to win. Let's bring in our next amazing guest. Our friend Bishop William Barber is here to talk about all of these things that we are dealing with in this. In this moment. But before, do I have Bishop here? Because I want to play something for you. Bishop, how are you? I don't think we have him yet. Before we bring Bishop on, I want to play this for you all. So over the weekend, there was this federally funded prayer event on the National Mall, and this was funded by your tax dollars. And at this event, a MAGA radio host named Eric Metaxas gave a speech that I think for some people, was beyond parody. And I just want to play it for you now. This is D1, Jason.

[Royce Duplessis]

It's hard to believe that it would take two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man, to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand. It's Extraordinary. We only had to wait 200 years.

[Joy Reid]

That is beyond parody. This person said that God raised up Donald Trump to build a ballroom. To build a ballroom. I want to also note that this is a person that has claimed that Islam is evil and not a religion. And you wonder why there was a mosque shot up in San Diego. People like this talking, saying that Islam is incompatible with American values. He's dismissed Pope Leo's words, saying that we should strive for peace and not war as, quote, pious blather and Marxist garbage. He's called Pope Leo's papacy leftist corruption infiltrating the church. And I know Bishop Barber is here, but going to be audio only. Is that what you're telling me? Absolutely. So I believe we have Bishop Barber and he's going to just be on audio because we have issues with his video. Bishop Barber, can you hear me? I don't think so. And I don't hear you, Jason. Now I don't hear you either. Oh, there we go. Bishop Barber is into the studio. Let's go ahead and let's listen to Bishop Barbara if he can hear me. Can you hear me, Bishop Barber, Live. This is the live. And the live. This is the live part of live streaming. There we go. Hey, Bishop,

[Bishop William Barber]

I hear you. Yeah, live programming, live.

[Joy Reid]

But listen, this is the way we do a new media. We just let it all hang out. We let everybody see behind the scenes or hear behind the scenes. But we can hear you, and that is all we need. You're getting lots of love in the chat. I want to first let you chime in on this person named Eric Metaxas who said that God spent two centuries waiting to raise up Donald Trump to build a ballroom. Your thoughts?

[Bishop William Barber]

Well, you know, first, my first thought is how foolish is that, considering all of the people that God has actually used down through history, you know, from Harriet Tubman to Martin King to Frederick Douglass to Ida B. Wells to William Lloyd Garrison to Dorothy Day. I mean, I could run the roll, but think about that. To build a ballroom. So you're so called rededicating the country to its Christian principles. But your focus is a ballroom. Now, Joe, for your audience. I don't want to go too deep, but. But in the scriptures, the only ones that had temples and statues built to them were false gods. And I want folk to hear that in the scriptures now, the only people that had temples and statues built to them, you know, Trump had unveiled this, earned this big statue 21ft tall called Don Colossus.

[Joy Reid]

Don Colossus, yes.

[Bishop William Barber]

Yeah, we're false prophets and false gods who use religion to do evil, to do wicked. And in the Scriptures, the word wicked, wicked in Hebrew is rasha. And rasha always means four things. Wickedness is whenever you use power to hurt the poor, the marginalized, the women and the children. That's wickedness. Wickedness is whenever you use power to make money for yourself through your political office. And wickedness is refusal to repent of how you are abusing and using power. And the only persons that, as I said, built temples and, and ballrooms or, or statues to themselves were people engaged in wickedness. Now that's a hard language, and I know I'm probably getting some kickback from it. But what we saw on Sunday was a display of wickedness because first of all, it didn't start with repentance. How are you going to rededicate a nation of God without repenting of all the things the nation did that wasn't like God? Slavery, mistreatment of women, taking land from the Mexican people, taking the Trail of tears for Native American. No, there's no pathway to God that doesn't start with repentance. That was none of that. Then they said they wanted jubilee. Well, the word jubilee in the scriptures refers to a time when all debts are relieved, all the poor people are lifted up, all the sick folk are healed. So there was nothing jubilee about that. And then thirdly, they had trump to read Chronicles 7:14. It says, if my people were called by my name will humble themselves. There's no humility in what they're doing. And they said if they'll understand and turn from their wicked ways. There was no call for turning. There's. There can be no thing calling itself Christian or religious. You don't say a word of repentance about an unholy war. You don't say any word of repentance about the poor paying more money, the rich getting more more money, the poor paying more and more able to eat. No word about the sick dying when not having health care. None of the policy violence, none of that. You just gloss over everything and claim that there was this time of perfection way in our past somewhere. And you said we're going to rededicate to that. This is some sick, dangerous stuff.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, it is. And the fact that the, the, the next thing that was posted on the White House official Twitter was iced out. A literal silver glittering bauble that they want to symbolize the country and Marco Rubio claiming that we are, we were formed as a Christian nation, a Christian nation that was Literally physically enslaving people based on race. These people are idolaters, they are liars. And they keep trying to call themselves Christians, which I know offends you and other people who are actual Christians and

[Bishop William Barber]

evangelicals and call themselves. The only scripture in the Bible that mentions the word evangelical. The way is it says Luke chapter four. The spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news. That's evangelist. That's what the word literally means for your listeners. And the word evangel means good, good evangel, good, good news. And the only good news in a society where there's oppression is good news to the poor. In other words, relieving the poor, their poverty, healing to the brokenhearted recovery of sight. The glee of jubilee is welcoming and accepting people and strangers and immigrants, not pushing them away. This, this cover up, though Joy, is the same thing that the slave masters did when they created slave master religion. It's the same thing that happened in the 1930s, the 30s, when people were against Social Security and against some of the New Deal and they came up with this form of religion and called for a moral revival. That what they said deboned the gospel, in other words, made the gospel appreciate so that the billionaires could be blessed. And they could argue this. And this was their argument. If you have a lot of money, it's a sign that God has blessed you, right? If you don't have money, it's a sign that God hasn't blessed you. Therefore, the billionaires and the millionaires are the sign of God. That's who we should be aspiring to be.

[Joy Reid]

That's right.

[Bishop William Barber]

And the poor are those who are poor because of their own moral failures as opposed to the thievery of those in power. And every strong. Last thing I said, every strong man or woman, woman has done what we see going on. Hussein built a statue to himself. Statues to himself. All, all. Pharaoh in the Bible, statue unto himself, Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible. And they all also wanted to create a kind of state religion that undergirded their ugliness. But here's the thing that, that, that, that I'm gonna say this, Joy, and we talked some time and I'll take this one. What gave them the courage to do this? And, and it is, it has been the fact that too much of the church and religion, the folk that know better, we've been too hidden out, quarantined in our sanctuaries, and we've not been the church in the street. That's why today, you know, for eight Weeks we've been in front of the White House turning that street, 8th street into a public pulpit. But I will tell you I'm concerned because we put out, you know, we had 12,000 clergy that we asked to repost it today. But we've asked a lot of people in D.C. to come and, and we get clergy. Well, you know, I'm busy. I got a. Golf is my golfing day and they're taking this stuff too lightly. You know, all, every religion in D.C. they ought to be doing prayers and sit ins and every week, you know, and I'm telling you it's concerning because it is apathy and it is when the prophetic voice is too quiet that these folk get the courage in every age to do this. And I. Let me say this one last thing. You a Bible. Look, you're a Bible girl. You know the Bible. You know, you know the Bible. You remember the story about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?

[Joy Reid]

And Abednego, yes.

[Bishop William Barber]

And King never trump. I mean King Nebuchadnezzar.

[Joy Reid]

Come on.

[Bishop William Barber]

Nebuchadnezzar told his folk to build what, put up what an image. And in the word, in the, in the Hebrew, that image means a portrait of oneself in stone. He said put up an image and then play the music. Notice all the music they had yesterday and tell the people to bow. Bible says that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, which is actually their Babylonian name, not the Hebrew name, they didn't bow and they got thrown into the fire. Because what empires do is when you won't bow to them, they burn you up. They try to burn you down. They'll burn you down if you, if you're a media person now, they won't bow. They'll burn you down if you. That's what. But here's the question I asked. Why only three? That's. See, that's the question. We got to ask that question too. Not just what did Nebuchadnezzar do, but. But what gave him the courage to do it was he knew that very few people would challenge it. And what did he find out? Only three. Notice how some of the media yesterday didn't have people contradicting their own. Their shows? They showed it. Yeah, they ran it. They called it Christian just because a certain cardinal was there. They acted like it was fine. Nothing wrong with it. They were a little critical. They were critical. More, more about being separate in church. They. Not about the fact that these folk are covering up political violence.

[Joy Reid]

That's right.

[Bishop William Barber]

The Nebuchadnezzar or Trumps or whoever, what gives them the courage to. Is when they get a sense that the culture is so apathetic and so accommodating that they will allow it to go on.

[Joy Reid]

And as you. As you say, and the question really does beg, why would only three people stand up against Nebuchadnezzar? And now why are so few people willing to stand up to these people? Because. And the fact is, they're openly stealing, they're openly killing. If you think of Pretty and Good in Minneapolis, they're openly covetous. If you think of their partnership with the covetous settlers that are stealing land in Palestine. And these people covet the votes of black people. They covet the seats of black elected officials. They're covetous. They're doing all. They are literally breaking every one of the Ten Commandments every day. They're bearing false witness constantly. I mean, we're looking at this situation in San Diego where the Islamic center was shot up by two teenagers. Now getting some updated reporting from Axios that the center had received multiple threats of violence before today's deadly shooting. And these same people who call themselves Christian are bearing false witness against the cousin religion of Islam. So these people are doing everything sinful, and yet their base calls itself Christian. They believe they're holier than you, Bishop and me, and all of us. Do we lose you? Do we lose Bishop Barber? Oh, you still there, Bishop? Bishop, we. We got you. We there. Okay, we're going to take Bishop Barber off stage for just a moment because he's having some issues in terms of his visuals and in terms of an audio problem. If we get him back, we'll bring him back. We are coming to the close of the show, but I think Bishop Barber has spoken the absolute truth. Truth. And done it so eloquently that we can understand it. Even if you're not religious. I think even. Especially if you're not religious, because at the end of the day, this isn't even about whether or not you yourself are a Christian or you're into Christianity. They are warping a religion for the purposes of theft and for the purposes of lies and for the purposes of untruth. And it is something that we all have to pay attention to. Let me give Bishop Barber the last word. If we can get him back. Bishop, you there? No, I don't think so. All right, I'm text him afterwards and let him know that we weren't able to get him back. Let's do two Quick moments of joy before I let you go. We're going to keep an eye on this story out of San Diego. Deepest condolences to everyone who was killed. They are the three people we know who have died. We're going to look out for any information as far as injuries, etc. You can just keep following my social media at Joanne Reed on Instagram. If I get any updates, I'll put them there as well. Well as well as on substack. Thank you all for tuning in, but I want to make sure that before we go, we do get in a couple of moments of joy. The first one I have to show you all. This weekend I had the honor of doing a book talk with our friend Tiffany Cross, whose book Love me is burning up the airwaves. I mean, listen, black women are so excited about this book, y'. All. And so we did a fantastic event at the Eaton in dc. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to all, all the team there at the hotel who were so kind to us, Jason and myself. We were there all weekend. And let me show you just a little clip because I found it joyful. So, Jason, let's do. Actually, let's do. It's M O J2. Moment of Joy 2. That was a joyful moment. We had such a good time. Congratulations to Tiffany d Cross. If you want to get the your own copy of Love me, you can get that at shop thej.reshow.com Keep supporting this sister. She is doing big things. People just absolutely adore her. She's such a superstar. So congratulations to Tiffany Cross. And now our official moment of joy. It is by a comedian named devant e West. That'sore d e v o n t e w e s t devonte west. And this was hilarious because he did a send up of the tiny desk series and this was hilarious. And so this is our moment of joy. Roll them, girl. Like the other day and I got the courage to tell her that I liked her. Wait, there she goes. Hello.

[Doris Crenshaw]

Not again.

[Joy Reid]

I thought you were my lover. You say I'm just a friend I know you like to dance I just panicked at the disco. Look at her panties, Cisco. I don't know but I like to tango but now I'm just drunk and alone with my bottle oh, the state of the world is crazy. So why are you mad at me? Cause I'm freaking lazy. No, no, no, no, no. I'm a people pleaser but today I say no thanks for coming to my show. I'm a lover fighter hate you.

[Bishop William Barber]

You're a liar.

[Joy Reid]

Just me again. You're fighting friend, your lover, your boyfriend. Maybe in the next lifetime see you again. I see you next lifetime. Yeah, I see you again. I bid you badoo. Badoo. I bid you badu devonte E West. Very hilarious. That is our moment of joy. It really, I mean, I love tiny desk. I mean, you know, I kind of almost don't want to laugh about it because it's because I do actually love tiny desk. But y', all, if that is not every single tiny desk, I don't know what is. Because I bid you badoo. Thank you all for watching the Joy Reed show. Pray for all those folks that are out in San Diego praying for peace and that these fake Christians find their way out out of our book and go back to just being secular leaders of a country that is not supposed to be a giant fake church. Thank you for coming to this TED Talk. Appreciate you all See you guys on Wednesday. Good night.

[Royce Duplessis]

Getting back to the basics grassroot level? Let me dig a little deeper with the shovel Plenty can't tell the force from the trees that I'm hard to detect? Like a black hole in the dark? Injustice anywhere? It's a threat to justice everywhere? Let me make this clear? I got a bone to pick? And I'll never fear the threat of poverty? They don't want to talk about it? They wrap the party so I'm a real talk about it for show.