Iran Foolery, and Don’t Mess with AfroMan! | The Joy Reid Show LIVE!

Summary

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The Joy Reid Show: "Iran Foolery, and Don’t Mess with AfroMan!" (March 21, 2026)

Host: Joy-Ann Reid
Main Guests: David K. Johnston, Lev Parnas, Justin Pearson, Afroman

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Episode Overview

Joy Reid delivers a packed episode dissecting the ongoing war involving Iran, Israel, and the US—with a focus on military, political, and economic impacts, surging conspiracy theories in MAGA world, government infighting, and the intertwining influence of money and religion in American culture and education. The episode closes on a high note with an interview with Afroman, celebrating his victory in a free speech lawsuit after turning a police raid into viral parody hits.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Escalation in the Iran Conflict

• [01:13–14:13] Reid opens with the "Mideast on Fire" segment, highlighting Israeli strikes on Iranian oil assets and Iran’s retaliatory attacks, escalating fears of a larger conflict and major shocks to global oil supply.
  • Social media provides much of the on-the-ground imagery as all sides increasingly restrict journalists.
  • Both sides are now hitting oil and civilian infrastructure, amplifying economic instability:

    "25% of the oil that goes everywhere in the world goes through the Strait of Hormuz. So it's a problem." (Joy Reid, [02:55])

2. Asymmetric Warfare & Propaganda

• [05:23] Footage of journalists allegedly targeted by airstrikes, raising concerns about deliberate attacks and repeating patterns seen in Gaza.

  • "It does appear that Israel would deliberately sometimes target journalists...more than 220 journalists have been killed thus far covering the war on Gaza." (Joy Reid, [05:45])

• Claims from both US and Iranian officials about downed F-35 fighter jets—social media fuels uncertainty and official narratives contradict.

3. Domestic and International Political Fallout

• [08:58] Israeli PM Netanyahu insists, "You can't really win a war from the air," hinting at a push for ground forces.
• [09:22–14:13] Joe Kent, ex-National Counterterrorism Center director (and MAGA figure), under FBI investigation for classified leaks, says US should pressure Israel to halt its offensive and threatens to withdraw military support if aggression continues.

  • "[Trump] will make sure that ballistic missiles aren't rained down upon you. However, you are done going on the offense because this is our war. We're paying for it. We're bleeding for it. This is not your war." (Joe Kent, [13:20])

4. Conspiracies & MAGA Schisms

• [15:07–18:46] Kent ventures into conspiracy, linking the attempted assassination of Trump, the murder of right-wing figure Charlie Kirk, and tensions with Israel. He alleges suppressed investigations, suggesting internal sabotage and hints of broader MAGA infighting:

  • "There's a lot of unanswered questions there...and Charlie Kirk was one of President Trump's closest advisers...then he's suddenly publicly assassinated..." (Joe Kent, [17:06])

• [18:46–21:00] Joy points out MAGA's splintering: pro-war "Christian Zionist" MAGA vs. "America First" antiwar faction with players like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Peter Thiel.

5. Economic Risks & Petrodollar Dilemma

• [35:07–41:44] Deep dive with David K. Johnston on US economic vulnerabilities, especially threats to the "petrodollar":
  • The US dollar is at risk of losing its status as global reserve currency if oil trades increasingly settle in yuan or euro.

  • "If the petrodollar goes, guess what, we're in big financial trouble." (David K. Johnston, [41:44])

6. State of US Media & Censorship

• The show laments crackdowns on the press—journalists arrested, outlets raided—underscoring shrinking First Amendment protections as Trump administration seeks to control war coverage.

7. Culture Wars: Religion & Education

• [78:30–95:36] Ongoing attempts to integrate Christianity into US public schools, exemplified by Tennessee’s “Founders Faith” bill, which would require teaching the religious beliefs of America’s founders while downplaying slavery and critical perspectives.

  • Justin Pearson passionately rebukes the weaponization of religion as justification for oppression:

    • "Anyone who misused the Bible to enslave people misused the Bible to keep people in Bondage. They were wrong then, as you are wrong now." (Justin Pearson, [80:44])

• The broader strategy, says Reid: test these bills in red states to prepare for national adoption.

8. Moment of Joy: Afroman’s First Amendment Victory

• [96:59–115:16] Afroman tells the story behind his viral protest songs lampooning the Adams County Sheriff after his home was wrongly raided.

  • Turns surveillance footage into songs, e.g., “Lemon Pound Cake,” poking fun at police eyeing his baked goods on camera.
  • Deputies lost their defamation lawsuit, reinforcing speech rights.

• Notable quotes:

  • "When you go in the wrong direction, you can't turn around too soon because you're going the wrong way." (Afroman, [105:14])

  • "If you win a case for the First Amendment, you are winning that for each, each and every one of us. So y’all toast some pound cake to Afroman." (Joy Reid, [118:01])

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Joy Reid on the cost of oil warfare:

  "When both sides start hitting oil infrastructure, you know what that does to the price of oil, right? This is going to lead to serious and really terrifying economic consequences throughout the world." [02:55]

• Joe Kent on US leverage over Israel:

  "We will defend you. We will make sure that ballistic missiles aren't rained down upon you. However, you are done going on the offense because this is our war. We're paying for it. We're bleeding for it. This is not your war." [13:20]

• David K. Johnston on the petrodollar:

  "If the petrodollar goes, guess what, we're in big financial trouble." [41:44]

• Justin Pearson rejecting religious justification for slavery:

  "Anyone who misused the Bible to enslave people misused the Bible to keep people in Bondage. They were wrong then, as you are wrong now." [80:44]

• Afroman on parody and police:

  "They don't understand when they sue me, they bring more attention to the situation than what the situation had...They shouldn't have been over here in the first place." [105:14]

• Joy Reid on First Amendment stakes:

  "If you win a case for the First Amendment, you are winning that for each, each and every one of us." [118:01]

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Important Segments & Timestamps

| Segment | Topic | Timestamp | |---------|-------|-----------| | Opening — War in Iran, Social Media Evidence | [01:13–05:23] | | Asymmetric Warfare & Strikes on Journalists | [05:23–06:47] | | US, Iranian, Israeli Claims & Propaganda | [06:47–09:22] | | Joe Kent’s MAGA Infighting and Conspiracies | [12:21–18:46] | | Pro/Anti War MAGA Factions & Donor Influence | [18:46–21:00] | | Petrodollar Crisis & Global Economic Risks | [35:07–41:44] | | Education/Religion Culture Wars | [78:30–95:36] | | Afroman’s Viral Parodies & Lawsuit Victory | [96:59–115:16] |

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Tone & Style

The episode blends Joy Reid’s signature mix of sharp, sometimes sardonic analysis with urgency and humor, particularly in the “Moment of Joy” segment with Afroman. The show’s tone is critical of those in power, skeptical of official narratives, pro-transparency, and deeply concerned about democratic backsliding—whether via the militarization of foreign policy or the spread of religious nationalism at home.

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Summary

From the fog of the Iran war and unchecked oil chaos, to infighting and intrigue within the MAGA movement, through to a celebration of First Amendment victories against police abuse, this episode of The Joy Reid Show takes listeners inside the biggest issues roiling American and global politics. With stakes ranging from wallets at the gas pump to the fate of democracy, Joy connects the dots—and keeps things lively, right through the closing laughs with Afroman and his famous lemon pound cake.

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[Listeners are encouraged to watch the full episode for additional context, voices, and Joy’s energetic engagement with her audience.]

Transcript

[Afroman]

Okay.

[Joy Reid]

All right, everybody. Tgif. Welcome to the Joy Reed Show. Big ups to everybody that is listening, wherever you're listening, whether that is on YouTube or on Substack or on LinkedIn. We love our LinkedIn folks. Or also even whether you are listening on. Am I missing some sub stack? I think I said sub stack. I think I said Twitch. I hopefully said twitch. Big up to everybody. We just appreciate you no matter where you guys are listening. Thank you all for tuning in. I have lost connection with my little machine here, so I'm just gonna go ahead and. And welcome you all. Why does this thing not want to let me back over here? So we're having a little bit of a technical challenge on this morning. Computers are. They are not your friends. They are not our friends. And I'm trying to get this little mouse to go. I wanted to go because, aha, I have conquered the mouse. Because everybody, if you have not hit like and subscribe, please do that. We. It really does help us out with the algorithm. We really appreciate it. Special pickups to our team TJRS members and our readers who are premium members on both substack and also on YouTube. I want to let you guys know, just a matter of housekeeping. We're going to do our chat for our team TJRS and readers, you know, super subscriber members. We're going to move that to next Friday because we're actually traveling today. As you can see, we are in our B location, which means we are on the road. So we're going to move that to next Friday. Okay? So put that in your. In your calendar. Put that in your Google calendar. So you guys know that's going to be next Friday. I'm going to jump right in. We have a lot of news on tonight. So I want to get really quickly to the war. The latest on the war on Iran. Israel has taken to bombing oil assets owned or operated by Iran and its allies in the region, leading Iran to strike them back, AKA pre World War iii. Now we call this compilation, which I'm going to show you, which is I'm going to note from social media posts. There are similar to the way that we saw it play out in the war on Gaza. Lots of people are posting social media. Officially, most of these countries, really all of them, Israel, Iran, the uae, all of these countries are blocking journalists in general from showing any of the damage being done on the ground in their countries. So any video you're getting out is really coming out on social media. So we have not personally verified this video. But what we can say is it seems to be backed up by reports out of the region. So the post that we're going to show you in this next clip here is seem to have an associated news item associated with this attack having happened, which is why we felt comfortable showing it to you. We call this Mideast on Fire. Jason, this is A one, please play it. And so what you can see here are some of the tankers in the Persian Gulf that were allegedly hit by Israeli airstrikes. The South Pars, which is a field of 30 different tankers which were on fire. Then you've got actual ships in the Gulf that are run by Iran being hit. Now allegedly the return hit was on some Haifa oil facilities here. This is allegedly off of Tehran. And in Tehran these are oil refineries allegedly being bombed on fire. What you see here is asymmetric warfare. Iran can't fight a head to head war with the United States and win it. But what they're doing is they're bombing assets belonging to Israel and to the United States, including hitting infrastructure that are on military bases and hitting refineries. Now when both sides start hitting oil infrastructure, you know what that does to the price of oil, right? This is going to lead to serious and really terrifying economic consequences throughout the world. The whole world relies on this oil. Again, 25% of the oil that goes everywhere in the world goes through the Strait of Hormuz. So it's a problem. You're also seeing Israel striking civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, including this housing complex. This is A two. Jason, if you could play it. Oh wait, okay, well we're gonna get that in a second because they seem to be targeting civilian infrastructure, meaning not just military infrastructure, but civilian infrastructure. Jason, when you have it, that is A two that we'd love to see. There it is. And that is a, an apartment building that was allegedly struck by an Israeli airstrike. So now what we've seen is the US striking a girls school, Israel striking a private home. One of our previous guests who was running for office in Michigan, his mother's home was struck. And then you saw this airstrike against a civilian apartment building. That's asymmetric warfare too. Also a British journalist who was working for the Russian media outfit RT seems to have, and I can only say seems because we can't verify who and why he was targeted or why he was targeted, but it does look like he was targeted by an Israeli airstrike. This was also in Lebanon. Jason, this is A three.

[Afroman]

The rocket attacks were reported against Nahariya and admitted.

[Joy Reid]

That missile landed really close to him and where he was standing. You then hear him cuss a lot. We can go come out of the video before he starts laying down the F bombs. But that is a strike that was very, very close to somebody who you can see had on the journalist black jacket. Now, the reason this is suspicious when Israel does stuff like this is this is the kind of thing that they did very regularly in Gaza. It's how more than 220 journalists have been killed thus far covering the war on Gaza. Because it does appear that Israel would deliberately sometimes target journalists, people who were clearly journalists who had the journalist flak jacket on. That happened. Again, we cannot verify that that was the purpose of that military strike. We can just say that it happened now. Your president Donald Trump is claiming that Iran should not be able to do any of what they're doing on their side. Right? Since according to Donald Trump, who also said that their entire nuclear capability was destroyed and decimated and only to strike them anyway, he has said that our military has obliterated their air defenses here. Donald Trump is his A4.

[Afroman]

Just about everything there is to obliterate, including leadership. The Navy's gone, Their air force is gone.

[Joy Reid]

Their anti aircraft equipment is gone.

[Afroman]

We're flying wherever we want, Pete. We have no nobody even shooting at us.

[Joy Reid]

Nobody's even shooting at us really. Because the Iranian government claims otherwise. Releasing a satellite image of what it claims is a US F35 being shot in the air. This is a five, Jason. And this has never happened before. This is satellite imagery that's released by the government of Iran. Again, we can't verify it. It is a piece of video that is circulating all over the place online. You can see it being hit by some sort of missile. But here's the challenge because how do you explain this story which came out from a reputable news outlet? This is a six. This is a confirmation on the US Side, right? This is a CNN report, but I believe Associated Press also reporting it that an F35 had to make an emergency landing allegedly because of airfire, which seems to track with what Iran is saying about whether or not they were able to strike a F35 which has never been shot out of the air. This is one of the highest high tech planes in the United States armada. If in fact it was shot out of the air or at least shot to the point where it had to make an emergency landing and those are the same aircraft, it's kind of a challenge to the credibility of the regime. I'll put it that way. The bottom line is what I'm saying to you is that we really don't know a lot of what's happening in the war on Iran because all we have generally are social media posts and things people are saying on their own from the region, which they also have to defy those governments to be able to report. So it's a lot. The next question, of course, I think for most Americans who are looking at what's happening is are we going to get stuck putting troops on the ground in this mess? In the midst of these bombings and missile attacks and drone attacks and our, our $2 billion a bomb missiles versus their $20,000 drones, are we going to have to put in ground troops to try to move forward on this war? I'll tell you who says yes. BB nets and Yahoo. Jason, if you could throw up a 7.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

It is often said that you can't win, you can't do revolutions from the air. That is true. You can't do it only from there. You can do a lot of things from the air and we're doing. But there have to be, there has to be a ground component as well. There are many possibilities for this ground component and I take the liberty of not sharing with you all those possibilities.

[Joy Reid]

So he says you can't really win a war from the air. That sounds like a foreign leader very casually saying we may have to go on the ground and we're in this together. So you know what that means. That leads me to remember the guy who resigned saying that this whole thing, this whole idea of going to war against Iran was a bad idea. Joe Kent, the Far right wing MAGA, January 6 Denier, you know, cuddled up a little bit to white nationalist that guy. So he turns out be under investigation by the FBI for allegedly leaking classified information. Now here's what's interesting about that. This investigation allegedly apparently precedes his resignation. So apparently at the time that he sent that letter, posted that letter on X Twitter announcing that he was resigning from the administration as the deputy to Tulsi Gabbard, who's the Director of National Intelligence. He was the under Director of National Intelligence at the time that he resigned. Apparently he was already under investigation for allegedly leaking or sharing classified information. Remember this is the thing Donald Trump did and got away with. He took boxes and boxes of classified information home and put them in his bathroom, in his tacky bathroom in Mar a Lago and his ballroom. Nothing happened to him. But note that anyone else who does that who's not literally the President of the United States is likely going to prison for that. So this is an interesting development. So this guy who's been saying this was a terrible idea, he was always against it, it was awful idea. Turns out he's under investigation by the F. From the FBI, by the FBI. Now, since he's resigned, this guy, Joe Kent, who is a former two time congressional candidate, has had some really interesting things to say about Iran. The first thing that I want to play for you, that he said to Tucker Carlson, whose father was alleged to have been a CIA agent, which is always a fun fact about Tucker Carlson, the allegation is that his dad was CIA. So this is how he comes to have all of these very interesting deep connections to sort of foreign leaders and foreign information, et cetera. Tucker Carlson is friendly with Joe Kent. They've been friendly for a long time. He has done Tucker Carlson's shows plural, going all the way back. I want to say to Fox, to when he was still working at Fox before he got fired. So he goes on, Tucker, this is the first big interview that he does after resigning from the Trump administration in protest over our war on Iran. Here's what he says we should do next. This is a nine.

[Joe Kent]

It's going to take drastic action. And the good news is, I believe that this is something that President Trump is uniquely qualified to fix on his own through his sheer willpower. President Trump has an amazing ability, it's almost his superpower, I think, to be able to kind of breathe life into ideas and again, to capture large data sets and to find leverage. And right now it's clear that this conflict will just continue the way it is and get exponentially worse. Especially if we go down the path of demanding a total surrender with boots on the ground, or maybe even something far, far worse. What President Trump.

[Joy Reid]

And that is the path we're on

[Joe Kent]

that I mean, inevitably, if we say it's total surrender, what does total surrender mean? Now, again, this is where President Trump is uniquely suited. President Trump can define his own total surrender. He's in charge. I ended my letter with, you know, you hold the cards. Because President Trump truly does hold the cards. He's a very powerful, very respected leader. And what I think President Trump must do is, number one, he has to address the main issue. The main issue is what the Israelis are doing. And he needs to very forcefully and probably with a new team of diplomats, go to the Israelis and say, you're done. We will defend you. We will make sure that ballistic missiles aren't rained down upon you. However, you are done going on the offense because this is our war. We're paying for it. We're bleeding for it. This is not your war. If you choose to continue this offensive operation, we're out. And as a matter of fact, if you choose to continue, we will start withdrawing features of your defense system so that you will be on your own. We have to say that to them and we have to be very blunt. We have to be very forceful. And I know a lot of people who, like the Israelis are going to say we can't do that, that's wrong, they're under fire, etc. But if we don't do that, if we don't address our relationship with the Israelis, even if we come up with a temporary cease fire, we'll be right back in the same situation in very short order.

[Joy Reid]

So, okay, so he says we should get tough on Israel. Tell them you're going to stop, particularly bombing the oil, which is going to send gas prices through the roof. Natural. They hit a natural gas field as well. So oil and gas prices are going to be through the roof. They're already over 375, I believe, in even the least expensive states. Over $4 in. In Maryland last time we filled up. And so this is the reality, right? He's saying that this is a guy who was in the intelligence world. Whatever you think of him, whatever you think of his past, he was sitting at num at in a very high level in the intelligence circles. Then he opinion is what we should do is tell Iran, Israel, you're gonna stop bombing the oil fields, you're gonna pull back or we're just going to defund you. Okay. But then he said something weird, Jason, if you could tee up a 10. Because then this was genuinely odd. Here he is.

[Joe Kent]

I mean, we still don't know what happened in Butler. We don't know what happened with, with Charlie Kirk. And by no means am I saying like, you know, the Israelis did this, or, or any of that, but I'm saying there's a lot of unanswered questions there and there is enough data to at least say that there's a good chance that President Trump feels like he is under threat. We're not allowed to ask, basically. Was there any linkage between what took place with Asif Mershant, who was recruited by the Iranians to come to America to recruit proxies to kill President Trump? The FBI put a, put a confident human source at him. All this is public now. This is all out there in the open and he's arrested, and then two days later, a sniper takes a shot at President Trump. We think Merchant and the ch, we know the chs was talking about the human source that the FBI put at Merchant. They were talking about, hey, we could kill the President potentially with a sniper rifle. But then they arrest him two days later, Butler happens. And Crooks, according to the official narrative anyways, is an enigma. We don't know anything about him. We can't get into his devices. If we did get into his devices, maybe there's nothing there. No more questions are allowed to be asked about Thomas Crooks. And then, you know, Charlie Kirk is killed publicly in a very horrific way, and we're not really even allowed to look into that at all. And Charlie Kirk was one of President Trump's closest advisors, and he also advocated heavily against a war with Iran. He was in the Oval Office in the lead up to the 12 day war. I wasn't particularly close with Charlie. He was very gracious to me when I was running for Congress. Very, very supportive. So we knew each other. And the last time I saw Charlie Kirk on this earth was in June in the West Wing, in the stairway. And I said hi to him and he looked me in the eye and he said very loudly, and it's a small. He'd been in the West Wing. It's, it's small, it's a tight space. And he said, joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran, very loudly.

[Joy Reid]

He was single minded.

[Joe Kent]

And he walked off and he went, I believe, into the Oval. So when one of President Trump's closest advisers, who is vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink at least our relationship with the Israelis, and then he's suddenly publicly assassinated and we're not allowed to ask any questions about that. It's a data point. It's a data point that we need to look into.

[Joy Reid]

What do you mean when you say

[Christine C1]

we're not allowed to ask any questions about that?

[Joe Kent]

We've been told that this individual Robinson is a lone gunman, and maybe he is, but the investigation that, that I was a part of, the National Counterterrorism center, was a part of, we were stopped from continuing to investigate. And the FBI will say that they stopped that because they wanted to have every turn everything over to the Utah state authorities. Everything's going to trial. It's very, very sensitive. But there was still a lot for us to look into that I can't really get into, but there was still linkage for us to investigate that we needed to run down. And I'm not making any conclusions. I'm not saying.

[David K. Johnston]

No, I don't think you are.

[Joe Kent]

Because, you know, because of this, this happened. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying there's unanswered questions. We know the pressure, because of the text messages, text messages that have been made public that Charlie was under a lot of pressure from a lot of pro Israel donors. And again, we know Charlie was advocating to President Trump against this war with Iran. And we knew at the end of the 12 Day War, at the end of Midnight Hammer, that the Israelis were to come back and ask us to go back to war again.

[David K. Johnston]

Right.

[Joe Kent]

So we have a lot of data points between Butler, the assassination attempts against President Trump, the breaches of his security, what happened to Charlie Kirk.

[Joy Reid]

It's interesting, right? So you've got this guy who's a hardcore maga. He goes on Tucker Carlson, who's also maga, who's also friends with Donald Trump, who also is the guy who got Donald Trump to take J.D. vance as his running mate. Joe Kent goes in there and he starts throwing out maybe just plain conspiracy theories, but this isn't just some like random conspiracy theorist. This is the guy who was the director of the National Counterterrorism center, which is a very high level job. And he's saying that even at his level, reporting up to the Director of National Intelligence. Well, who said that you could not investigate Butler, which is the Pennsylvania assassination attempt, alleged assassination attempt against Trump, saying you can't really look into that any further and you can't look into the Charlie Kirk murder. Well, why wouldn't you be able to look into that? Charlie Kirk's not like a political figure. He's a very popular right wing figure. He's killed and he says that he was told he can't look into it. Then he draws the connection between Charlie Kirk, who the far right wing turning points USA guy telling Trump to his face, don't let people talk you into invading Iran. Then this guy resigns and says it's because Israel tricked Donald Trump into invading Iran. It's all very weird right now. I want to know, like when you ask like, who is this guy Joe Kent? Let me put this up a 11 if you could, Jason. He as he said he did run for Congress. He said Charlie Kirk was supportive when he read in 2021. You know who else supported him and put money into his campaign? Peter Teal. Yeah, Peter Teal. The same Peter Teal who is responsible for the making of J.D. vance, who took J.D. vance from Hillbilly Eley to the Vice President's office. That same Peter Teal is his big donor too. And again, remember Peter Teal made J.D. vance and he's another made Teal guy. Well, that's weird. So I'm working on this substack called the Maga has two faces and there are two maggots. There is regular Maga which is the crusade against the Mullers Maga represented by creepy Pete Hegseth who's like pray to Jesus and we're bomb the mullahs and blah blah blah and Proof of Life Huckabee and Lara Loomer and Mark Levin and all of these like far right wing hyper Christian Zionist migas is what they call it. I make Israel great again, just hyper focused on mowing down the entire Middle East. And then there's the other maga. There's the Tucker, Nick Fuentes, Nicola Fuentes as we call him, Jeff Sachs, Piers Morgan, Candace Owens, that MAGA that calls themselves the America First Wing, that's anti Israel, anti this war and the Occam's Razor. If you're playing maga, Game of Thrones is that they are setting up for what they must believe is going to be a Rubio vs. Vance showdown in 2028 when all of this goes to hell. Because it is all going to hell so that they can sideline the shape shifting neocon turned Tea Party or turned maga but really always down for regime change and imperialism. Marco Rubio, who really is a neocon who's masquerading as MAGA and masquerading as a Tea Party. Or before that. Or maybe they're just trying to set up a dark horse 2028 candidate to inherit MAGA to try to steal it back from the neocons who've got us in another war. And maybe that dark horse candidate is Tucker Carlson. Just something to think about as you kind of try to unpack all that's happening here. Let's take a quick break and thank one of our favorite and wonderful advertisers. The Joy Read show tonight is brought to you by one of our faves, Shopify. Now if you enjoy the Joy, read Shop. 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Here's what he said.

[Justin Pearson]

Hi, Tom. Tiffi Burrige, ABC News Prime Minister, given the escalation of attacks on US Allies across the Gulf, given the spiraling energy costs, the high cost in general, the US Service personnel killed in this war, many Americans are asking that question, whether you misled their government into starting this war and for how long should Americans keep paying the price?

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Well, I misled no one. And I didn't have to convince President Trump about the need to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program, putting it underground and being able to launch nuclear tipped missiles at the United States. He understood that. He explained it to me. I didn't explain it to him. And I think that our partnership is the only way to avoid this catastrophic development. The loss of servicemen is painful. I early on in my military service, a fellow soldier died in my arms. I lost a brother who fought terrorists, led the historic Entebbe rescue. The the cost to bereaved families is enormous and I sympathize and send the condolences of the people of Israel to these families and to the American people. Freedom is precious. It has its costs. But if you're not prepared to defend the

[Joy Reid]

yeah, so Bibi seems awfully casual with the idea of boots on the ground. For us, a reminder that his son is not in jeopardy. Yair Yair Netanyahu, who is his only son. He lives in a Broward county high rise leading to this quite viral meme, Netanyahu's son versus your son, which is B3. That's what a lot of folks are saying. Meanwhile, let me actually Just bring in our guests and we'll go to this next clip later. Bring in award winning, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter David K. Johnston. David, thank you so much for being here. Bibi Netanyahu seems awfully casual about the idea of other people's sons going to war when his own son lives in a fancy and fabulous apartment in Broward County.

[David K. Johnston]

Well, we could say the same thing about Donald Trump. No, Trump has served in the military all the way back to Donald's grandfather who fled the draft in Germany. Barron is right. Exactly. At the appropriate age. And you know, In World War II, all four sons of FDR went and volunteered to join the military during the Vietnam War. Two rich boys who could have easily, like Donald, gotten out of the draft. John Kerry And Al Gore Jr. They went and signed up and insisted they be sent to the front. And remember, Al Gore's father was the head of Senate Appropriations. He, he could have blocked this any day of the week with just a nod. So this is, you know, it's always easy to send other people's sons to die. My standard about a war is, am I willing to die for it? Am I willing to lose one of my sons? Well, they're now in their 50s. Am I willing to lose one of my grandsons, five of them who are in their 20s and 30s? This is not a war. I'm willing to lose one of them for Ukraine. Yeah, yeah, but, but not here.

[Joy Reid]

Let me read you, this is a new from Donald Trump. I don't like to treat his missives as breaking news, but I will, I will, I will make an exception on today because he seems to already be doing his favorite thing, which is Taco Trump always caves. This is something that people have, have come to, you know, get used to with his tariffs. Wars are a little bit different. It's a little harder to cave. But this is the statement that was released by the White House for immediate release. And here's the weird thing about it, is it's got the White House insignia, but it's literally just a truth social post that they blew up big and put on letterhead, which is insane in and of itself. But this is what he started. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but he says we are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great military efforts in the Middle east with respect to the terrorist regime of Iran. What do you make of the fact that he seems to have already gotten cold feet 19 days in?

[David K. Johnston]

Well, I don't think Donald had any idea what he was letting himself into. I mean, remember, Donald is so ignorant that he said the other day that you can, with one step, go from Iran to Qatar. No, it's about 120 miles of water in between the two of them. You know, he doesn't know a Sunni from a Shia and why it matters. And I don't expect people in the audience to know, but if you're President of the United States, you damn well better know the significance of that. And, you know, they're all. The dictatorships in the Middle east are all awful regimes. I mean, he pals around with mbs and MBS has put all this money in the pocket of Jared Kushner and Ivanka. MBS had 39 Muslim imams, clerics beheaded for the crime of praying for a better government. So, you know, there's no, no monopoly on vicious leadership in Tehran. They're terrible government. I don't think any, hardly anybody in the world is going to defend them. There are some people who will, but not many. But the same thing is true of the other governments in the Middle East. They are just as vicious.

[Joy Reid]

Here's the other question I have is as vicious as those governments are, a lot of them are very generous when it comes to Donald Trump, Lots of the folks from the uae, from Qatar, et cetera, have put a lot of money into his crypto businesses, helping to make him into a billionaire. Allegedly. He's about a 7 billionaire at this point. $7 billion net worth. And in addition to putting money into his crypto businesses, they've also put money into Junior and the dumb one. What's the other one's name? Eric's business. They've also gotten a lot of investment in their pro, in their projects, including building other complexes, hotels, resorts. There's lots of Trump money on the ground and physical enterprises in some of these places. Can you talk about the extent of the business there? Because it would seem to me that if Iran wants to really hurt Trump, he could just target Trump's businesses in.

[David K. Johnston]

I'm actually kind of surprised the Iranians haven't hit one of his golf courses in the Middle East. Yeah, at least one of them is within range. Donald makes an enormous amount of money from these various projects where he doesn't have any money invested in them. That's a key thing to understand about Trump. With the exception of Trump University, which was a fraud top to bottom, every business he's ever been involved in, he had a negative investment. That is, he borrowed all the money and took a fee off the top. So he never had a dollar invested in Atlantic City, for example, even when he had three and a half casinos there. And Donald sees nothing wrong with this. The emoluments clause is to him absolutely meaningless. And in Donald's mind, and viewers should know, I've covered and known Donald for almost 40 years. I spent hundreds of hours with him. The only difference between your home and Donald's property is he doesn't have your property yet because it's really not yours, it's his. He just hasn't gotten it from you. He is a mercantilist. That's the economic theory before Adam Smith realized and explained to everybody market economics in 1776, the idea that if you have a piece of gold and I don't have it, then I can kill you to get it. I can destroy your life to get it, because there's no other way to get wealthy but stealing from other people. And that's Donald's view of the world. And the real question we should be asking is, where are the Republican leaders in the Congress? They have a constitutional duty here. They are the only ones who can declare war. They're the only ones who can impose taxes. They are supposed to do oversight on the Justice Department. The President, under Article 2 of our Constitution, essentially is there to carry out whatever orders are given to him by Congress. And to be commander in chief. And commander in chief doesn't mean you can start a war. It means if there's an end imminent threat, you may act to protect our person, our people, our property, our military. That didn't apply here. And one of the things Donald doesn't understand is nuclear weapons are defensive weapons. If the Iranians were to drop a nuke in Israel or in the United States, the country would get wiped out immediately in a retaliatory response if the Ukrainians hadn't given up their nuclear weapons. When Bill Clinton said, oh, yeah, no, we'll take care of you if the Russians ever come to invade. And the Russians said, oh, no, we'll sign this document, we'll never invade you if you give us your nuclear weapons. Well, we didn't do that. If the Ukrainians had nukes, they would not have been invaded by Vladimir Putin.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, very clear. Clearly, that I'm sure they regret making that deal. Now, I want to play. Not to give Joe Kent too much credit, but he said something that I thought was interesting. In addition to the weird a conspiracy theory about Charlie Kirk, he also said something that I think I was interested in asking you about specifically. And so, Jason, this is B4. This is Joe Kent talking about what China is doing in this moment. Here's.

[Joe Kent]

That's the first thing that President Trump must do, address the main issue. The main issue is how the Israelis are out of control and they are driving this entire war. Address that aggressively get the Israelis to stop.

[Lev Parnas]

How realistically, just having lived through this

[Joy Reid]

whole thing, how hard will that be?

[Joe Kent]

It will be hard. But again, President Trump can do it. President Trump can call the Prime Minister of Israel and get him to the table. President Trump can force it. I believe that. I truly believe that he can. So I think it's doable. It's only doable with President Trump. And then from there, once we get the Israelis to stop, we still, for now, have strong allies in the Gulf. We have the Emirates, the Qataris, the Saudis, the Bahrainis, all these actors, the Omanis, they may not always agree with each other, but they're all pretty good partners with us. I think we need to use them. And again, I think we probably need to bring in some new diplomats and we need to aggressively engage with the Iranians while we can, to get to a ceasefire and to come up with a way that we can stop the killing, we can stop the destruction of not just these countries, not just the loss of more life, but basically the collapse of the energy system that we have right now so that we can open the Straits of Hormuz back up again and so that we can make sure the petrodollar is being used. Because right now, we didn't stop the flow of oil going to the Chinese. The Chinese are still getting their oil out, and they're settling those transactions in yuan, not the petrodollar.

[Joy Reid]

They're settling these transactions in the yuan, not the petrodollar. If you could. I've talked about this before on the show, but if you can explain what the petrodollar is and its importance to our economy, because that actually strikes me as one of the underlying issues. Even in our attack on Venezuela, it's not so much about the oil, it's about the petrodollar.

[David K. Johnston]

Yeah. This is one of the worst things Donald Trump is doing. The US Dollar is the world's reserve currency. Everybody accepts it everywhere in the world. Some countries, Ecuador, for example, use the US Dollar as their own currency. If you go to Argentina and you have a lot of ones and $5 bills, you can buy things at ridiculous discounts. The same thing was true in Egypt the last time I was there. It was a long time ago. The yuan is not a reliable Currency, it's a weak currency. And nobody trusts the government of the Chinese Communists to engage in respectful business activity. What's happening here is Donald is reducing the influence of the American dollar. The euro may be the currency that comes forward and becomes the world's reserve currency, but any minimization and especially the just elimination of the US Dollar will cost us so dearly. It is this massive subsidy because people buy our dollars and hold them, which means we've essentially gotten the dollar's value back into our society. Donald has a degree in economics from an Ivy League school, Pennsylvania. He didn't earn that degree. It was given to him. He didn't show up to class and he only took classes in real estate. And he basically spent his time working on daddy's apartment projects in Ohio and in New York. And for the, for us to antagonize our friends, to diminish them, to call them all the terrible names he has called them. You know, sit there in front of the Prime Minister of Japan and make this tasteless remark about Pearl harbor, which was not supposed to be a sneak attack, by the way. That was a screw up. It is just despicable and it's going to hurt us long after Donald Trump is gone.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, and maybe long after he's gone and has essentially destroyed our economy. As you said, we will lose the dollar as the reserve currency. And I think Americans don't understand that. That actually is what underwrites the cheap prices that we've enjoyed. The lifestyle we as Americans enjoy is in large part because the rest of the world trades, particularly oil in petrodollars. It's a made up currency under the Nixon administration to trade oil only in dollars. Even Russia, even during the Cold War, would trade in petrodollars. If people stop doing that, fam, we're going to have more than a recession, worse than a recession. All of a sudden prices. You think inflation is bad now? Wait till we're not the reserve currency before I let you go.

[David K. Johnston]

Combine this joy with the fact that as I've been documenting now for the last 31 years, the US government has all these programs nobody knew about until I wrote about them in the New York Times and in my books that quietly reach into your purse. They take a penny a day here and a nickel there and a dollar somewhere else and redistribute it to the people at the very top. And those policies have reached the point now where from 1970 to 2000, if you measured the increase in income for each person in the 90%, the vast majority of us is one inch the 1% of the 1%, 62 and a half feet. So I just recalculated and brought it forward to 2021 minus one inch. Incomes are lower now than in 1970 for the 90%. And over here it was 62 and a half feet. 2,356ft, more than a half a mile. There's this massive income upward distribution, what I call Amazon up or Niagara up. Mostly Republicans, but the Democrats have also not got a clean record here because a lot of times they went oh well, I guess we have to let the Republicans do that. But that's going to tear us apart. It's why Donald Trump is in office. It's why you have people who are so completely down on American society. And you can seem being interviewed, you know, by everybody from Jordan Klepper to, to people on the Daily show who are furious about the country. Yeah. They just don't understand what's happening. They're getting their pockets picked. And now we have a guy at the top doesn't even understand that he's destroying our global investments, our global prestige and position. And the petrodollar goes, guess what, we're in big financial trouble.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, deep doo doo as they, as they sometimes say in the comedy shows. David K. Johnson, always a pleasure. Thank you very much my friend. I appreciate you have a great weekend.

[David K. Johnston]

Thank you Joy. Take care.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you very much. Let me play really quickly just something that corroborates what what what David had reported. Jason, this is B5. Remember when David said that Iran was prepared to make the deal of a century with Donald Trump days before he started bombing them with Israel? This is B5. Jason, if you could play it, David

[David K. Johnston]

and there was one development yesterday. It builds on reporting Ms. Now had earlier Iran offered to give away all of its enriched uranium during the peace talks and hours later the US started dropping bombs. And the Guardian broke yesterday that there were British officials. The British national security adviser was present in Geneva the during, during that last round of talks, the British were surprised by the Iranian offer.

[Joy Reid]

They thought it was credible.

[David K. Johnston]

They thought the talks could continue. And the British were shocked when the Trump administration started bombing Iran hours later

[Joy Reid]

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[David K. Johnston]

All.

[Joy Reid]

You may have missed this moment when Georgia Senator John Ossoff dismantled the Director of national intelligence. 1 Christine C1 C1 Whenever you get

[Christine C1]

a chance under the law, you are responsible for providing National Intelligence. To the president, Correct?

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Christine C1]

And to the heads of executive branch departments and agencies? Yes.

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Christine C1]

And to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and senior military commanders across the ic?

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Christine C1]

And to the Senate and the House and relevant committees? Correct?

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Christine C1]

And the law states that the national intelligence you provide to Congress, quote, should be timely, objective, and independent of political considerations, correct?

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Christine C1]

And you noted in your opening statement you're here fulfilling a statutory responsibility and that your testimony, quote, represents the IC's assessment of threats. Correct. That opening statement, as submitted to the committee in advance of this hearing, stated that as a result of last summer's airstrikes, quote, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated, end quote. Correct?

[Joy Reid]

That's right.

[Christine C1]

And is that, in fact, the assessment of the intelligence community?

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Christine C1]

So the assessment of the intelligence community is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated by last summer's airstrikes?

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Christine C1]

In the opening statement you submitted to the committee last night also stated, quote, there has been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability, end quote. Correct?

[Joy Reid]

That's right.

[Christine C1]

And that's the assessment of the intelligence community?

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

[Christine C1]

The White house stated on March 1st of this year that this war was launched and was, quote, a military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime, end quote. That's a statement from the White House. Quote, the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was an imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime?

[Joy Reid]

The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment.

[Christine C1]

Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no, Senator?

[Joy Reid]

The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the President.

[Christine C1]

False. This is the worldwide. This is the Worldwide Threats hearing where you present to Congress national intelligence, timely, objective, and independent of political considerations. You've stated today that the intelligence community's assessment is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated and that, quote, there had been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. Was it the intelligence community's assessment that nevertheless, despite this obliteration, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime. Yes or no?

[Joy Reid]

It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. Okay, that is.

[David K. Johnston]

Here's the problem.

[Joy Reid]

Based on a volume.

[Christine C1]

No, it is. It is precisely that he received. It is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a Threat to the United States. This is the worldwide threats hearing

[Joy Reid]

false. I love the way he did that, like a proper prosecutor. Joining me now is our friend Lev Parnas, who is our good friend. He is the proprietor of Levera Members on Substack. He's also a candidate for Congress in Florida's mighty 27th congressional district. Lev, is that lady in trouble?

[Lev Parnas]

Oh, yeah. I, I could say it's just the beginning. Joy, thanks for having me. There's term, there's a lot of turmoil happening at the White House tonight. I could tell you that much. I just literally right before we went on, I wrote the story, I broke it on my sub stack about several things that are happening. First of all, none of it is, none of this is coincidental. The fact that Joe, what's his name, Kent, who came out and basically wrote, you know, he was underneath Tulsi Gabber, very close to Tulsi Gabber in their opinions, their beliefs and things that were going on. Also, what I'm hearing is the relation between Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabber is very, very close. And the rift that's happening inside of Trump world between people like Laura Loomer and Tucker Carlson. And you would think this would be crazy that we're talking about influencers that are actually having influence on the White House. It was, it's, it's insane to think about the rift that's happening. So, yeah, what I'm hearing from my sources is Tulsi Gabber is planning on leaving. And, and that set off major alarms in Trump world in the White House because there's a lot of reasonings. Trump does not, cannot have her leave, not only because of having her go on shows like Tucker Carlson and start talking about, because as you saw in her testimony, she did not in any way support Trump, that there was an imminent threat. On the other point, she actually laid Trump out there saying that's Trump's decision to make. And you could tell, obviously, with Joe Kent coming out saying there was no imminent threat and with other sources that I have that have been telling me there's other reasonings that not only had to do with BB Netanyahu, but because of BB Netanyahu's relationship to Putin and things to that have to do with Nordstrom 1 and 2, it's a very complicated thing. But that at, at the end of the line, as I hear, Tulsi is planning on leaving and Trump's planning on doing whatever he can to keep her in there because remember, she's also involved in the, you know, Or Georgia, Arizona, the election stuff with Venezuela. T. Has a lot going on her plate right now.

[Joy Reid]

So let me ask you this question. Yeah, clearly. Let me ask you this question, because there was a story that came out in February. I'll just hold it up here. We don't have it on screen, but there was a whistleblower who came out and claimed that she was burying his whistleblower complaint that the Wall Street Journal reports had to do with Jared Clark Kushner. And it does appear that Jared Kushner is one of the people who was in Trump's ear, along with Mike W. Mike Witkoff, even after Iran agreed to effectively go to zero nuclear material. Not just nuclear weapons, nuclear material. And then hours later, we're bombing them. And it seems that Jared, who has business in the region and has $2 billion worth of business with this, the Bonesaw prince of Saudi Arabia is. Tara is, is. Whose side do you think that she's taking in this? The end of Joe Kent's career when Joe Kent left. Because it seems to me that she should be ideologically aligned with him against Jared, right?

[Lev Parnas]

She is. She is. And it's a lot more interesting, Joy, because the, the relationship between Jared and Bibi Netanyahu and the Kushner family is one thing, but a lot of people are forgetting the relationship that Bibi Netanya built with Vladimir Putin and a lot of the oligarchy in the 1990s. A lot of people also forget that in 2018, when Bibi Nanyahu was running for office, Trump and Giuliani sent me to Israel to help Netanyahu with his race that he barely won at the time, and that was strictly due to Russian Vladimir Putin and a lot of the oligarchy that helped him in there. So the, the, basically Trump is being used like a puppet by Bibi Netanyahu and Putin to start to be able to start this war that is now, like I say, he knocked over a hornet's nest that he can't control.

[Joy Reid]

And does. Is. Is there a risk, in your view, that Iran will turn around and start bombing, you know, Trump and Kushner and Wyckoff properties in the Middle East?

[Lev Parnas]

Oh, 100%. I mean, this is just the beginning. That's why a lot of people need to understand that even if Donald Trump came today, which he doesn't, says we won, that war is over. Whatever he wants to say. The, the effects that already are taking place from the Iranian regime and all of these sleeper cells. And that's the dangerous part. It's not even the regime as much. It's the sleeper cells, Joy, that are all over the country and all over the world right now that are going to start and we're going to start seeing a lot of different attacks. I think that you're having a little bit feedback on your site.

[Joy Reid]

And so if, if Donald Trump says that the war essentially is over, who in the regime would try to stop him? Because it seems that Hegseth is all in. Rubio is all in. Who's actually wielding the power right now in the White House?

[Lev Parnas]

Stephen Miller, really. I mean, that's the other thing is Susie Wiles is on her way out, especially as we've been talking about now she's announced her cancer bid. But also there's new people coming into the orbit like Alina Haba I heard is now coming in. I mean, it's just crazy what's happening. But there is nobody that's telling him to stop the war and they can't because in Donald Trump. See, the whole problem is Donald Trump did not get, doesn't understand that this war is a different war. He's spending billions of dollars and he's going to ask for 200 billion more who fight 30,000, $20,000 drones. This is a different war of, you know, that, that we're fighting. And in Donald Trump's mind, as he thinks that we're going to go out there and just bomb, destroy all these people, he's not even considering all the innocent lives that are being killed and destructed in the meantime. And so in his mind and the people around him, winning is a totally different thing that what is taking place. And that's why they lost control of the situation. As you could see, gas prices are running. There's no more about gas prices, economy. You know, every day it's a different story. Now he's upset that, you know, he does, he's not getting help from the allies with the straight of our moose. From every professional, every military people that you speak to and over all my sources that I spoke to is even if he were to stop her, there's nothing he could do. Donald Trump, literally, that's why I say there's nothing that he could do right now. And, and literally until, I mean, you have some sort of dependent diplomacy that goes in there that is, tries to. Because there's not going to be peace in the Middle East. It's the total opposite.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, there's not going to be any peace in the Middle east and there's not going to be any way to easily back out of the war if Iran decides they want to keep going. Let me play for you a couple of sound bites, Jason, if you could play C2. This is Mike Johnson essentially giving away his power as speaker of the House.

[Afroman]

If there are ground troops that they come to Congress first.

[Joy Reid]

If they're ground troops, again, all the details matter. This, if, if we're completing the mission and it's a limited scope, then that's not a declaration of war. So it seems to me that there's no congressional even speed bump to this continuing. Are the people in the White House confident that they're going to get another $200 billion? And I say that, Lev, knowing that they would not pass $300 billion to extend the Obamacare subsidies, but somehow they're going to find another $200 billion for a Pentagon that's already spending, what, a billion dollars on lobster and steak and like, grand pianos and things. Are they really going to give them another $200 billion? Is the White House confident in that?

[Lev Parnas]

The folks you talk to, absolutely not. The opposite. They're concerned that they're not getting it. That's why they're starting to put the pressure again campaign. But you also, you're starting, you see, you know, you can't trust anybody. Just like you saw how, you know, Fetterman sold out our nation by voting to allow mul. I mean, that was, I mean, that's what I'm saying, Joy. So it's, it's crazy to watch, you know, the loyalties that are being played out and Congress that. And honestly, that's one of the main reasons why I chose to run for Congress, because I have no loyalties on either one side or the other side. You know, I'm going there to f f up, you know, what I'm saying to you, on both sides to get the truth out. They don't have the support for the 200 billion. Nobody, not, not the Republicans want it. But remember, Trump hijacked the party. Trump has the doj. He threatens them with doj. I mean, he threatens his own people in the party with investigation. Just think about Cash Patel using, you know, how much information he has on every congressperson sitting there, you know, with, from insider trading to family members to where a, you know, a phone call. We are right now in the middle of the most corrupt the, you know, government. I mean, even people like Putin probably are not. You can't imagine the corruption that's going on here in the United States, the way Donald Trump is handling it. But the biggest news I would say to you, Joy, right now that's happening is with all of this craziness, there is absolute chaos in the White House. You have people that are trying to like Susie Wiles, that are. That have any sense that are trying to leave. You have people like Stephen Miller that are proceeding. Pat Bondi might be a scapegoat, and Alina Haba, I'm hearing, might be coming in to take her place if she has to go. And just think about you got even the crazier, getting the crazier in there. And if Mueller gets convicted, I mean, convict into the. This DHS position, I mean, I don't even know what to say. I mean, if we thought Christy Naom was bad, she was running around taking pictures. Think about what this maniac, he wants to fight and be and go to, you know, literally fight with everybody. I mean, he has mental issues. So the fact that what Federman did is, I think, you know, it's unforgivable. I mean, it's something he, you know, I don't know what to say, Joy, but it's just crazy to watch some of the decisions playing out.

[Joy Reid]

So let me play one more piece of sound. This. This is Donald Trump. To your point, there is a civil war almost going on in Maga at the same time that you're talking about chaos in the White House. I want y' all to listen to Donald Trump blaming everyone and everyone except the man in the mirror for the mess we found ourselves in Iran. Just to see three, Jason, if you could.

[Joe Kent]

The situation was very quickly approaching the

[Joy Reid]

point of no return, and the United States found it intolerable, in my opinion, based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me, Marco so involved that I thought that they were going to attack us. I thought they would if we didn't do this at the time we did it. I think they had in mind to attack us and.

[Afroman]

Not.

[Joy Reid]

I'm sorry, I'm not hearing anything through these headphones. Sorry, guys, we're having a little technical issue over here. But Levi, who is to blame? Donald Trump has effectively thrown Jared under the bus. Witkoff under the bus. J.D. vance under the bus. I mean, he's saying everybody told him to do it. Hegseth told him to do it. The one person who seems to be AWOL in this whole thing is J.D. vance, who seems to be hiding in Hungary to escape blame.

[Lev Parnas]

Well, the interesting part, though, if you heard out of all the people he said told them to do it, none of those people are military. None of Those people are generals. None of those people are secret. I mean, none of those people have the, the qualifications to say, to say. And that's why we're in this position. The reason why. And this is important. I'm really glad you asked this question, Joy, because a lot of people miss the fact that. Think about who told them to do a Woodcoff and Kushner. Woodcoff and Kushner are the key to everything. Because, like, just like you said right before we started this, you have Professor Johnston, that you were talking about, that Iran actually gave. They were negotiating with Witkoff and Kushner, giving them the deal of a century, saying we're going to give up our uranium. At the same time with Witkoff and Kushner are negotiating with who? Vladimir Putin. They've been there for the past several days. At the same time these conversations are happening, you have Vladimir Putin's Kirill Dimitri here in Florida meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, talking about opening up Nordstrom 2, a gas pipeline from Russia into Germany while you got these gases fields being blown up all over the world. So I'm saying to you, this is not coincidence. I keep screaming and sounding the alarm. None of this is coincidence. This is being played out by Jerry Kushner, Steven Witkoff, run by Vladimir Putin with his assistant, Bibi Netanyahu, and the theatrics. And the star of the show is Donald Trump, because that's what he wants to be. He wants to be the star. The real people that are maneuvering. Because just think about what happened in the past two weeks, Joy. Russia right now doesn't need anybody's help. They're now becoming a monster powerhouse. As oil goes up, as gas goes up, they're. They're getting more stronger and more powerful. Israel right now is trying to destroy all of their enemies again. And when I say Russia, Israel, America, I want to also make it clear it's not the people, it's the leadership. Because just like we as Americans right now are getting abused all over the country because of Donald Trump. It's not because people hate Americans. People hate Donald Trump. So I want to be careful when I say Russians or Israelis or Palestinians or Americans, it's the leadership. It's the people like Trump, Putin, Bibi, Netanyahu, the. That are causing the destruction and causing this chaos and axis of evil around the world. But the relationship, and I'm going to be breaking in the next two weeks. A lot of news about this, Joy. We're going to be doing it on your show. I promise you the what happened in the 90s and early 2000 and 2010 between Putin and some of the oligarchy and Bibi Netanyahu and the Kushner family is going to open up all of this, why Donald Trump has bombed Iran. What's happening. And it's all going to come together because I'm going to connect all the dots to everybody. I promise you that. And it's coming, coming soon.

[Joy Reid]

Left Parnas, always bringing the tea. We appreciate you. And I will know for all of you who are listening, that that Wall Street Journal breaking news in February, February said that the hidden information that this leaker, this whistleblower, I should say not leaker, but whistleblower, was trying to bring out did have to do with Jared Kushner and Iran. Lev Parnas, I appreciate you, my friend. Have a great weekend. And if people want to support you, everybody, please go to levparnas.org which is where you can support Lev's campaign. Or you can go to Lev Remembers, which is on substack left. Thank you, man.

[Lev Parnas]

Thank you. God bless you, Joy. Have a wonderful week.

[Joy Reid]

God you bless. Thank you very much.

[Afroman]

All right.

[Joy Reid]

Welcome to hour two of the Joy Reid Show. Note that we will have Afroman in this hour. We're very excited. He is going to be our big show closer. So we got a lot to talk about before we even get there. But before we get to our next set of news that we want to bring to you, I want to note that the Joy Reid show is also brought to you by our friends at Remy. And this is something that, you know, I think I have now really gotten to understand and can identify with people who deal with teeth clenching and grinding. It's literally a thing that people deal with that drives them absolutely off the wall. It happens at night. And everybody's had, you know, sort of nightmare dentist stories, right? Needing dental repairs or having frustrations with billing the wait time, all the dental things, it makes you kind of stay away. You're like, I don't even want to deal with it. But, but having your teeth be healthy and attractive is actually really important. I mean, I'm in the sort of proto TV business now that we're online, but it's so important to have your teeth looking great and being healthy. That's why I trust Remy to protect my teeth. And they make something that I think is so important if you do deal with grinding your teeth. And that is their custom night guard. And over 350,000Americans trust them for that product. Remy night guards are clinically tested and FDA cleared to prevent teeth damage from grinding, to reduce jaw tension and facial muscle strain, and to improve your sleep quality. You get the same professional quality and comfort as a night guard from your dentist or 80 at 80% of the cost by taking your own impression from the convenience of your home. So here's how it works. After you make your purchase, your cute little green Remy box comes in. The mail comes straight to your door. Then you follow Remy's step by step instructions to get your perfect impression. Remy then crafts and ships your custom fit nightguard right to your home. You get your right guard right night guard right back. You start protecting your teeth. Voila. It's easy. It's simple. It's quick. Quick. You can protect your teeth with Remy by using the Code Joy to get 50 off your new night card. That's 50 off at shopremy.com joy and use the Code Joy at checkout. They also have a lot of other great products, including a great cleaning product. If you're using Invisalign like I am, they have this amazing cleaner that is fabulous for that. So you've got lots of great products there. Just go right to shopremy.com use the code joy shop shopremi.com joy and use the Code Joy. Thank you, Remy, for sponsoring this episode. Okay, a couple quick headlines. I want to note that federal prosecutors are looking to dismiss the charges against the the remaining officers who were charged in the Breonna Taylor case. You remember this case of Breonna Taylor in the state of Kentucky who was had the police busted into her door, shot her after midnight while she's sleeping in her bed. Well, federal prosecutors in the department of injustice, Pam Bondi's operation are looking to dismiss the charges against the officers who filed false reports in order to get the warrant to kick in her door. So that is happening. And that is a really troubling development in what's going on in our department of injustice. We no longer have a DOJ and meaning a Department of justice. Of justice that will protect innocent lives from police brutality. So that's one piece I want to let you all know, another element of the sort of the bad news that's going on right now. This is from NBC News. A guy named Richard Kahn, who's Jeffrey Epstein's longtime accountant, he actually went and testified before the House Oversight Committee as part of their Epstein probe. He claimed during that testimony that he never saw nor did he know about any wrongdoing. In roughly six hours of testimony that happened on Wednesday here's the quote from him. In the years that I provided outside accounting and bookkeeping services for Jeffrey Epstein, I was not aware of the terrible and unforgivable things that he did to women and girls. It seems like a strange thing to say for somebody who worked for him for so long. Now, James Comer, who is the chair of that committee whose main goal is to protect Donald Trump at all times, he named five people who the committee has determined paid Epstein money. And those five people were Les Wexner, who we know was the man who owned Victoria's Secret and other companies, and who gave. Who gave Jeffrey Epstein his house for a dollar in Manhattan. A guy named Glenn Dubin, whose representative denied that he gave him money. A guy named Steven Sinofsky. The Rothschild family. Yes, those Rothschilds. One of the oldest banking families in Europe, those Rothschilds. And a guy named Leon Black, who you should Google. He's one of the sort of top financiers in the country. Shouldn't be giving money to this former math teacher, but apparently he was. In his opening statement, Mr. Kahn told the committee that he was aware of Epstein's 2006 arrest for soliciting a minor, but said Epstein had told him that it was a mistake and that he did not know that the woman was underage, even though the woman, the underage woman was a child, was 15, and that nothing like that would ever happen again. He says, quote, I believed him at the time and never saw what appeared to be a minor in his presence. A representative named Suha Subramanian from Virginia described Khan as a fixer and said Epstein's crimes were deeply intertwined with his own finances. He said Khan's name appeared on shell companies that were used to move money around, including payments tied to tuition payments and victims. There was a private school that Jeffrey Epstein was funneling money to, and he was probably using that money for other sort of tuition related things, which is gross because he was abusing girls. Mr. Khan did not provide any details of the allegations. Representative James Walkinshaw of Virginia, also of Virginia, said that Epstein's trafficking operation would not have been possible without Richard Kahn. Walkinshaw said that he does not find it credible that Khan had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes, arguing that Khan was unaware. If he was unaware, he was willfully ignorant. Khan also said that he saw no red flags that would indicate that episode. Epstein was trafficking women, which is crazy, given that he had homes in the Virgin Islands, New York, Palm Beach, Paris and New Mexico, and he had several planes and a helicopter. So it's kind of hard to explain how he saw no evidence of trafficking. Khan also said that he did not see the large number of companies that Epstein was involved with as a red flag because that is standard practice for the rich. He said he agreed to serve as co executive of Epstein's estate because he thought his knowledge of his finances left him in a strong position to help the victims. He said he and his ex co executive Darren Indike, whom the committee is scheduled to depose next week, he says they set up a fund for victims that has resolved claims for more than 130 women and settled another nearly 60 claims by Epstein victims that apparently he knew nothing about out in advance. The victims fund, which has since shuttered, paid out over $120 million and the people who accepted the money from it were barred from filing separate lawsuits against the estate, but were not prevented from sharing information with law enforcement or sharing their stories publicly. Representative Subramanian also told reporters that a person who was an accuser of Donald Trump was given a settlement by Jeffrey Epstein's estate, citing testimony from Mr. Khan. Mr. Khan declined to comment to the media. But since then we have learned that the accuser who was paid was the same woman who as a girl of 13 to 15 years old, was struck in the face by Donald Trump because she was being forced to perform fellatio on him and bit him in his privates. Why would Jeffrey Epstein pay that victim who accused both him, Jeffrey Epstein and Trump of sexually abusing her? It's weird, right? Why would the Epstein estate settle with her? Moving on to other similar claims, Josh Duggar of the Duggar family, what are they, like 15, 14 of them? Well, he is the second one in the family to face charges of sexual abuse of a minority. Josh Duggar, who is one of the Duggar family that was in that reality show that they did where they showed all of their various exploits. Here's D3. Here's a picture of him with Mike Huckabee. I wonder if Mike could be saw or knew anything. There's a lot of sexual abuse going on in the right wing mega world, is there not? It's weird, right? A lot of people connected to Jeffrey Epstein, a lot of people connected to the far right, and nobody seems to ever see anything. It's weird. Just a strange thing that I'll just know one more ad for tonight because we are brought to you by so many great sponsors, including one who is really important, the Freedom From Religion Foundation. So let's talk about who pays the price when church and state merge? Well, for one thing, victims of abuse who are silenced, but also women, LGBTQ people. It's religious minority. It's really anyone who doesn't fit a narrow white Christian nationalist vision of America. The First Amendment exists to stop that. And the Freedom from Religion foundation is fighting in courts and in communities to keep public institutions strictly secular so that no one is forced to live under someone else's theology. This is a literal civil rights issue. If you'd like to support the very critical work that they're doing, please visit FFRF US Joy or text My First Name Joy to 511511 to learn more about their work and to join, go to FFRF US Joy or text JOY to 511-511 to help protect a country that belongs to all of us, go to FFRF us joy or text joy to 511-511-today message and data rates may apply so speaking of freedom from we have a really big problem in this country with a white Christian nationalist oligarchy that is doing a couple of things simultaneously. Thing one, they are attempting to force the country to live under their particular version of right wing Christianity, which elevates men and takes women and people of color and puts them in a second class position. But the other thing they're doing is they're racking up a lot of money. There seems to be a lot of a parallel between their financial interests and their need to accumulate lots of wealth and their attempts to effectively isolate only white Christian, rich conservative white men to a position of status with everyone else below them. It's a weird thing, but they're also doing something where they are going very aggressively after public education and attempting to change the way it operates in a way that would force children From K through 12 and in college to learn only their theology, rather than normal history, rather than normal information about what's happened in this country in its past. They want all of that to go away and have it replaced with this theological education that would effectively create a next generation of people who are already primed to believe that what right Christian nationalists are doing is right. That even when they're taking, even when they're stealing, even when they're doing the things Trump is doing, it's okay and it's right because they were God's elect. It is tied very closely to this Christian Zionism that is looking the other way at genocide in Gaza. And it is tied to this war because you have people like Pete Hegset saying this is a holy war to effectively try to destroy Islam for the benefit of their particular kind of Christianity. This is an incredibly dangerous thing, no matter how you look at it. It's incredibly dangerous thing. And it's being very aggressively implanted throughout this country. And the question of what to do about that is actually a thing that we have to grapple with as a country. And we have to grapple with it both at the state level and at the national level. At the national level, you're seeing the Department of Education dismantled. Donald Trump signed an executive order last year dismantling the Department of Education and returning the education system to the states. Well, just know that nationally, the Department of Education didn't do curriculum, it didn't assign books, it didn't assign, you know, things to study, but it did fund things like education for special education, people who have children with developmental disabilities and who need extra support. That was a federal program that gets eliminated if you get rid of the Department of Education. The programs that ensure that girls get equal access to things like athletics and also to fair treatment in schools. That gets eliminated if you get rid of the Department of Education. They're also scaling back the federal implementation of attempts to reduce sexual abuse and assault against girls. They're supposedly being protect women party and they're not doing that at the federal level. Getting rid of the Department of Education messes with what you call Title nine, these systems at the federal level to try to protect girls from discrimination and even from abuse. All of that is going away. And it's, it's all happening at a time when these far right wing evangelical churches and institutions are beset with sexual scandals of the Epstein variety, meaning young girls and in some cases young boys who are being sexually abused systematically inside of these institutions. You keep seeing famous right wing pastor and youth leader after famous right wing pastor and youth leader being accused of sexual predation against children. It's not just the Duggars. This is like a thing that's happening. And so you have to ask yourself, if they can't protect girls and children inside their own institutions, why would we trust them to take over the whole country? Why would we want them to take over the whole country? It's a strange thing. We have a guest coming up that is going to talk about one of the places where we're seeing this kind of sort of imposition of religion inside of public spaces and inside of public schools in a way that is making it very difficult for children in, in this case the state of Tennessee to try to learn in a way that's fair and equitable and free from religious indoctrination. Let's go ahead and play E1, Jason, and then we'll talk about it on the other side.

[I]

Representative Renault, thank you for the question. As far as our founding fathers and those that owned slavery, it is important not to dilute history. We need to understand and know what that is so that we don't repeat those mistakes. But the Bible also says that we will be judged in the time of our culture. And at that time it was a common practice, not saying that's right or wrong. The Bible actually does instruct those who do own slaves on how to treat them and to treat them fairly and kindly. But our founding fathers definitely believe that all men were created equal. And it was those beliefs that moved us from the position of slavery to where we are today. So this particular legislation does not advocate to teach those things. I think we have many other pieces of civic education that likely does include that, but this intention for this legislation is for that to not necessarily be included.

[Justin Pearson (continued)]

Representative Pearson, it is nearly unconscionable, nearly unconscionable to believe that you just articulated the theological vision of enslavers in this capital in the year 2026 as though it was okay, because here's your problem. The Bible, which was written in many different iterations, but is articulating a time of thousands of years ago, was used as justification for enslavement that happened thousands of years later, 400 years ago in our country. And so even if you're trying to articulate, as you are incorrectly, that the Bible was somehow giving permission to slavery, that would have been in the era in which it was happening. It wouldn't be used as a theological justification just 400 years ago in our nation's history. But what is worse, and what is deeply disturbing by what you have just said is not how you are saying, and that was wrong or immoral. There is no question that slavery was immoral, and you shouldn't need a Bible to know that. And there were always people who were antithetical to the antebellum South's iteration of chattel slavery. The people who were enslaved, who were kidnapped from the continent of Africa and brought here against their will. And I am a Christian and I am a seventh generation Tennesseean. I have read the Bible from front to back. And the stories about love, about who Christ is, about loving thy neighbor and loving God is what we are told to profess. So anyone who misused the Bible to enslave people misused the Bible to keep people in Bondage. They were wrong then, as you are wrong now. I refuse to support this legislation because the lens by which you are viewing the world is toxic, is damning, is wrong and is immoral. And you, my fellow colleagues, should do much more work in understanding the history of this country and understanding the history of enslavement and the consequences that it continues to wreak and the barriers it continues to create in this state and around the country. No one should ever be able to use Christianity as justification for the enslavement of people, especially not someone who has the audacity to call themselves a legislator.

[Joy Reid]

Now, the first speaker that you heard was State Representative Michelle Renaud. The second you of course will recognize as State Representative Justin Pearson. Let me read you the law that Ms. Renau has introduced, the bill she's introduced, it's called the Tennessee Founders Faith Bill. They're discussing this legislation, which is again she has proposed that would require public public schools to incorporate lessons on the faith and belief in God that the Founding Fathers had. They would incorporate that into the civics curriculum. Opponents like Representative Pearson argue that the bill offers a one sided perspective on history and it focuses on religion, while failing to address the fact that some of the Founding Fathers were slave owners. The issue was raised after a conversation in the legislature because as you heard, Representative Pearson referred to slavery as a common practice during the founding of the United States and saying that some slaves were treated fine. This completely comports with and matches what Doug Wilson, the right wing evangelical white Christian nationalist leader who preached at the Pentagon. It's the same thing. He says that you have to look at slavery in the historical context and that it was normal at the time. And so you really can't judge the Founders for having slaves. But what they would do if this bill was to go through is they would force every student in the state of Tennessee in public schools that all Tennesseans pay for, including black Tennesseans, some of whom are the descendants of enslaved people. They would have to learn that these Founders were good Christian men who believed in God and believed in Jesus. And that is the extent of what they would learn. They would not only not learn about their history as slave owners, but they would not even be able to learn that slavery is bad. Because the way that this white Christian Nationalist Project 2025 Heritage Foundation System works is that you can't demean in any way the Founders, their experiences or their practices. Much like the don't say gay law in Florida and the anti WOKE bill, it was a Stop Woke act In Florida, the goal of these laws is to make sure that students learn a kind of history that sets them up to be more conservative. That is actually what's most important to the people who are creating these bills. And I want to note that the Founders Faith bill in some ways also matches some of the things you've seen done in Florida and Texas. Right now the bill is under consideration. It's being discussed in the state House. If it passes, it would then have to obviously go to the Senate. It is not close to becoming law as yet, but it does have a match in the state of Florida, where they've also pushed through a bill that says that it is not allowable in public schools to disparage anyone based on past practices by people of their race, such that the person would feel bad if they share the same race as, for instance, a slaveholder. It's a weird thing. It's a strange situation, but it is something that is playing out not just in Tennessee, not just in Florida, but really throughout the country. So it's something that we really want to. Want you all to pay attention to, because this is something that if it passes in a state like Tennessee, if it passes in a state like Florida, if it passes in a state like Texas, you're suddenly going to see these kinds of laws pop up all over the country because they test them out in places like Tennessee and Florida and Texas so that they can make sure that they are. That they will survive court cases, that they will survive court scrutiny. And if they do, then they believe that they can then roll them out as national law. And the fact that they are attempting to get rid of and gut our public school system altogether is a bad sign. It's a bad sign because it appears that that is something that they're doing on purpose and that they're doing not just in Tennessee and not just in Florida, but all over the country. We were waiting on Representative Justin Pearson to jump on. Not sure that he going to make it on. We know we have a little bit of a change. They're on different time, they're on Central time, and we are on Eastern time. So we're waiting for them to come in. But one of the things I think you need to understand is that laws like this are a testing. And they're going to test them in states like Tennessee because they do intend to roll them out nationally. I pulled up the other day a speech by the Heritage foundation, one of the Heritage foundation leaders who's also sitting on the board of the New College now in Florida. Thanks to Ron DeSantis who said that we have to stop pushing women into STEM and we have to stop considering it good news when more women go into STEM careers. And that really, the only really good news would be if more men went into STEM careers and that if more women go into STEM careers, we're actually, we should consider that a failure. I see him now. Let's bring in state Representative Justin Pearson of the great state of Tennessee. Representative Pearson, thank you so much for joining us. We've described this law that your colleague would like to introduce. Where does the law stand now?

[Justin Pearson]

So the law has passed through the House. It didn't pass completely on partisanship lines. There were some Republicans who crossed over and supported what I was saying, what we were saying. And now it's headed to the Senate before and if it passes there, it'll pass over to the governor's desk. But this type of legislation is harmful. And what it continues to do is erase the voices of communities, black communities in particular, who suffered as this country was talking about, you know, life, living, the pursuit of happiness that was exclusive. They weren't thinking about black women, they weren't thinking about black men, they weren't thinking about women, they weren't thinking about poor folks. And it isn't that we don't talk about the Fourth of July or the Declaration of Independence of the Constitution. It's putting everything in its proper context and using the Bible as justification for this is sickening and, and shouldn't be tolerated or accepted even in the 20 in, in 2026, but not ever is

[Joy Reid]

the Bible required in Tennessee public schools as of now?

[Justin Pearson]

So it is not required. But there's legislation being passed now to force all schools to have the Ten Commandments posted in all of the schools, which is its own form of idolatry. And again, these are not the things that are actually going to improve the quality of kids education. It's not going to make life more affordable for people who are struggling and who are suffering right now in our country by the decisions of this administration. All of it is really just trying to treat our kids, our communities and our schools as props in this right wing conservative game. While we all deal with the real consequences of the dereliction of duty by people in positions of power and in our state where billions of dollars have been taken because of the big ugly bill that got passed by the federal government, when we're living in our state where kids are going hungry because we're not going to have the summer EBT food program because our Governor has opted us out. We got real problems that need to be addressed. But they want to continue to foment the culture wars because they believe that's what's going to help them to win election instead of addressing the root causes

[Joy Reid]

of problems in Tennessee. Because I know that they're right. There was a turndown of school lunch money. They didn't want that. I mean, the last time I checked, one of the ten commandments is thou shalt not kill. You haven't been able to get them to pass legislation to restrict access to firearms. They're not interested in doing that at all. Have you seen any legislation pass through, be able to pass through the house and make it to the senate and to the governor's desk that would, you know, since they care about Jesus, help the poor, the sick, the immigrant.

[Justin Pearson]

I talk about Matthew 25:35 all the time because a lot of these people claim Christianity but they don't want to do the work of Christianity. Right. I was hungry and you fed me that. That doesn't matter. You know, we're fighting for the expansion of access to Medicaid because our state is one of the few states, 13 states that haven't expanded access. And you know, I'm out here advocating for medicare for all as part of our run for U. S. Congress because we have to make sure that we meet people's needs. Our state is not doing it. You're still seeing this year in particular a slate of hate from the White House. Stephen Miller, who's the deputy White House chief of staff, has been in our state on several occasions meeting with Republican leaders to pass and to write the anti immigrant legislation that supports the Trump administration as a test for what Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas will be trying in the upcoming year. And so we have to be eyes wide open to what is going on. The e verification things that they're saying, all of these are tools that they're trying to see if they endure in court and if so they're going to pass it out to be used all across the country. And so our focus again is not on people. It's still the profits of corporations, data centers like Elon Musk. And it's about making our lives, regular folks, working class folks lives more difficult while their lives continue to improve.

[Joy Reid]

You mentioned the data centers and you're at the center of attempting to fight one of those data centers that is attempting to locate itself not far from Memphis. What is the status of that?

[Justin Pearson]

Yeah, so we were able to force Elon Musk and Xai to get apartments for 15 gas turbines with selective catalytic reduction technology on them in Memphis. They moved down across the border to Mississippi and DeSoto County. And there is where we are having a problem. They have 27 illegal gas turbines being used. And we know it's illegal because even Trump's Environmental Protection Agency agree with our community that they can't operate these turbines without permits. They have not had permits up until about a week ago when the Mississippi Department of Environmental quality granted them 41 gas turbines. These turbines are going to increase the levels of pollution so much that we're anticipating hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damages. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damages per year from the particulate matter 2.5. And that is including premature deaths of people in Mississippi as well as Memphis and Shelby County. There's going to be, we hope, an appeal process that we're going to be able to do. To share more of this research and information that I've been posting about. I know I can share with you and all of your many viewers as well because we had two Harvard researchers thanks to the Southern Environmental Law center who studied these consequences. But the mayors aren't reading it. The governors aren't reading it. They're not seeing that these consequences and the health burdens are real. And DeSoto County, Joy, is a majority a white county. Right. It's not just black folks who are going to be hurt. And that's why we have to pay attention as white people, as black people, as Latino folks. It's lower income people who are being hurt when decisions are made for the profit of billionaires to the detriment of everybody else. That's where our democratic institutions are failing us.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah. Indeed. One last question before, while I still have you speaking of death and misery. You know, it appears that Donald Trump has found himself mired in a war he can't seem to back out of. He tried to make an announcement on Truth Social today that they put the White House insignia on that. Maybe we're almost done, but it doesn't appear that Iran is done with us. I'm sure gas prices are quite high in Tennessee as they are all over the country. Are your constituents and your future constituents should you be able to be elected to Congress. Are they enthusiastic about the idea of boots on the ground going to war in Iran?

[Justin Pearson]

They are not enthusiastic at all. No constituent of mine wants us to be in war with Iran at this point in time. No one was talking about Iran until the President United States decided to bomb an all girls school killing over 150 people, most of them middle school age girls, because his name appeared in the Epstein files more the day before. Like this is sickening. It is in his horrifying abuse of power. And now Donald Trump is planning to come to Memphis, Tennessee on Monday because he has started this war that is unpopular. He's in the Epstein files, his popularity is the lowest it's ever been. And he's trying to distract away from the fact that none of our lives are getting better by his decisions, as you can see at the pump, as you can see in the grocery store, which is why we have to be persistent and focused on the elections that are coming up. I'm focused on our congressional election, but it's also recognizing we got a lot of people who are going to be on the ballot and we need to make sure that they and we are engaged in making sure we elect the right folks this November.

[Joy Reid]

And when is the primary?

[Justin Pearson]

The primary is August 6th. Early voting starts July 17th, July 17th through August 1st.

[Joy Reid]

And remind us where people can support you. What is your website for your congressional campaign?

[Justin Pearson]

Please go to votejustinjay.com votejustinjay.com and on all social media, Ustinj Pearson, we need your help. Come volunteer with us, donate and let's win this thing because it's time for some new energies. It's time for a new direction in our country and it's totally possible.

[Joy Reid]

And the great thing about moral leadership is that it doesn't have to be tied to a religion. We want to take the religion out of it. But, but at least as people of faith, we still want to act in a way that is moral and morally right that we can live with. Thank you very much, Representative Pearson. It's always a pleasure.

[Justin Pearson]

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I appreciate you, Joy.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you very much. All right, y'.

[Joe Kent]

All.

[Joy Reid]

So we have come to Friday at the end of the show and our moment of joy is a hit compilation of the parody songs from a guy named Afroman, who you may remember is the Grammy nominated talent behind the hit song Because I Got I, which wildly Enough came out 26 years ago. Well, now Afroman is churning out hits based on a very real incident that happened in his home, namely a 2022 raid wherein a half a dozen gun wielding Adams County, Ohio sheriff's deputies kicked in his door, rifled through his CD collection, went through his suit pockets, flipped through a wad of cash which he said, some of which went missing, and in the case of one particularly hungry sheriff, getting briefly distracted by A delicious looking pound cake on the kitchen counter. Well, the deputy sued Afroman over the series of hits, just one of which pound cake garnered more than 4.7 million views on YouTube plus even more on TikTok and Instagram. They cited defamation. The case went to court and Afroman emerged victorious. But before we move on, you must hear our little mashup of Afroman's hit songs. Roll them, Jason.

[Afroman]

Randy Walters is the son of a. That's why I wipe and got filthy r. Mine eyes Seen the corruption of the Adam county cops stealing money, stealing cake when they make they traffic stops first they screw you then they sue you play games and dismiss your claims the proof's on the Internet He's a ass county sheriff he's hungry and he's big ass ill he was sniffing for weed Then he smelled another smell. What was that? Mama's lemon pound cake. It tastes so nice it made the sheriff wanna put down his gun and cut him a slice. Of what? Of off what? Lemon pound cake. He wanna put down his glass. Lemon pound cake trending on TikTok.

[Joy Reid]

Joining me now is the aforementioned Afroman. We tracked him down, y' all trust me. It has been an entire day of Afroman search online. We were prepared to stalk you to get you on my brother. Welcome to the joy reach out man.

[Afroman]

Hey, thank you for having me. Thank you for having me.

[Joy Reid]

So let's tell. Let's start the story from the beginning. I gave my rundown on it 2022. How did you were not home. How did you first learn that your house had been raided?

[Afroman]

I got a phone call. Then I went to a app on my phone that carries my home surveillance cameras and I begin to actively look at them live.

[Joy Reid]

And so when you looked at your home and saw it being invaded, did you have any forewarning that you were on some sort of a list that there was an investigation involving you?

[Afroman]

No. You know, you know sometimes I never got raided by the police. You know, traffic stops all my life, all day long, all night long on the street stopping frisk, you know, but I never had nobody come down. I never had the choo choo train of cars come directly to my address and run up the driveway, you know. So yeah, I was, I was, I was 65 miles away from home when I got the call. The police was at my house. So you know, I'm on my way home all of a sudden I just wasn't in a rush to get home. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I took the. I took the Next exit. I took the next exit and I went in the speedway. I got me a big, big go full of Mountain Dew and I had my flip flops on. I was just sitting in the parking lot sipping that Mountain Dew, watching them cops run through my house checking it out.

[Joy Reid]

And were you. Were your wife and kids home?

[Afroman]

They were like. So, like, I have. I have two houses. This is. This house is. It's my company and it's my house. When me and my ex wife ain't getting along, Imma leave that right there. You know what I'm saying?

[Joy Reid]

It's enough information. Got you.

[Afroman]

Hey, but. But they. They was next door and the cops came to, you know, you know, to my house slash company and they, you know, this and that. You know, they was in here kicking in the doors and running all around the place.

[Joy Reid]

And we're. And so the security footage that we're seeing, that's your footage, that's from your internal security systems, right?

[Afroman]

Yes, ma'. Am.

[Joy Reid]

Okay, so at what point did you go from being, I'm sure, outraged about your house being worded? First of all, did you had. What explanation were you given as to why this happened? Did anyone reach out to you and say, hey, we've got a warrant. This is why we did this?

[Afroman]

He told me after the fact that he had a warrant, you know, like, you know, I'm a run. You know, you know, like I'm, you know, this is not a racial thing, but as a black man, I'm accustomed to police officers being suspicious of me, you know what I'm saying? So if I. If I pick an algebraic white town and I move in, it. It's only a matter of time before the boys come around there and check me out, you know what I'm saying? So, like, you know, like I, you know, it's a little inconvenient, but it wasn't nothing that was gonna blow me out of the water, you know what I'm saying?

[Joy Reid]

At what point did you start writing songs and. Which was the first parody song that you wrote of this?

[Afroman]

I started writing songs after I asked. I asked this officer, Randy Walters, the

[Joy Reid]

son of a. I did.

[Afroman]

You said it first. I was trying to be nice.

[Joy Reid]

Alleged yes man.

[Afroman]

I. I asked he. I asked him if. If there was any charges. He said no. I asked him if I was under arrest. He said no. Then I asked him if he'd helped me put my door back up on the hinges. And he cracked his little grin and he kind of started waddling his head. He goes, we're not required to do that. And something struck through me like lightning when I seen that little grin on his face, and I couldn't, you know, I didn't want to punch him or shoot him. I, I. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I wanted to do something. So it was at that point when I. My wheel started turning for his coming up with something to pay for the damages. And, you know,

[Joy Reid]

it's definitely worked. 4.7 million the last time I checked. My favorite personally of your range of hits is pound cake. It is hysterically funny. Like, all of the songs are terrific, but pound cake stands to be head and shoulders above. Or I should say head and crust above the rest. Did they. Did this man try to. Did he eat some of this pound cake, or did he just eyeball it?

[Afroman]

You know, I'm exaggerate for humorous purposes. You know, I'm mad at him. So, you know, I'mma tell you he ate it. I'm g. Tell you he took it down to the station. I'm gonna tell you. He turned off his camera. You know what I'm saying? I was trying to make all the jokes I could about him just looking at it. He. He didn't eat lunch. He on his third raid. He hungry. He should have stopped. He should have grabbed something at the gas station. And, boy, that cake looking good. You know, I'm a, you know, I'm a big man, too, so I know what he thinking. You know what I'm saying?

[Joy Reid]

Hey, so race can make you hungry. I mean, look, a raid is a lot of work. The guns is heavy. They probably hungry. So were you surprised when they decided to sue you over this? I mean, Randy Walters literally had to be asked on the stand, is he a son of a. And whether or not you are the real father of his son. Like, I mean, this was, to me, the case itself humiliated them. The gentleman who went after the pound cake, he said that people were sending him pound cakes in the mail, and he felt humiliated because everybody understood that he liked pound cake. Like, I feel like the case was so embarrassing. Were you surprised that they found it?

[Afroman]

Yeah. You ever see, you know, like, growing up in the. In the hood or whatever, you. There's a. There's a guy that really knows how to talk smack really good.

[David K. Johnston]

Yeah.

[Afroman]

And if you don't know how to talk smack good, like, he best leave him alone. He gonna. He gonna. He gonna embarrass you in front of everybody. So, like, they don't understand I'm that brother that really know how to, you know, and, and they don't know what they doing. They don't understand when they sue me, they bring more attention to the situation than what the situation had. They don't understand that they are helping me. When like I tell them, when you go in the wrong direction, you can't turn around too soon because you're going the wrong way. You're gonna have to drive all that way back, you know, the right way. So they're going the wrong way. They started going the wrong way when they first came over here and raided my house. I don't got no kidnapping victim. I'm not a kidnapper. I don't, I don't sell drugs. I don't, you know, none of that. So they was going the wrong. So they was wrong just for coming over here. My dad, I got in a fight when I was a little boy and my dad took off his belt. He said, I'm not gonna whoop you for getting in the fight. I'm gonna give you a whooping because you shouldn't, you shouldn't have been over here in the first place. And I guess, I guess they. Daddy didn't give him that little 8, 9 year old whooping. They shouldn't have been over here in the first place. And that's all I had to do is just hold him to the truth.

[Joy Reid]

You know, there was a part of the trial where you said, I thought it was brilliant. You said. Because one of their attorneys was saying, didn't you see how upset it made the, the woman and the children of these officers? Didn't you see how upset they were? You said it's their fault, they shouldn't have been in my house.

[Afroman]

Yeah, they. Okay, you know what I'm saying? They need to stop making their children upset. You hear what I'm saying?

[David K. Johnston]

Yeah.

[Afroman]

Because I'm not making their children upset. They making the wrong moves. They making mistakes. They being unapologetic and they doubling down in the wrong direction. And they need to stop making their children upset. They need to stop putting their family and they self through terrible things and they need to straighten up and do right. We all do.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, absolutely. Did you ever get restitution for the damage to your house and did you get your 400 back that apparently were missing?

[Afroman]

No and no.

[Joy Reid]

Are you gonna sue? Yes. And more importantly, and this is the question I have been asked him multiple times, are you going to put out these songs as a complete set, like the Kendrick Lamar diss track set against Drake? Like people are literally saying, they need an entire. They need this to be, you know, for the old folks pressed into an album. Because, you know, we do like vinyl again. I mean. Yes, yes, we would take a vinyl of these songs, my friend. Will you, will you, will you do that for us?

[Afroman]

Yes. I'm gonna press it on out. This is, these are. This is my song. This is my Billie Jean album, man. I'm like, I'm like. I'm like Michael Jackson. I think I might pose like Michael Jackson in this suit. Just lay across it because this is it. This is the one right here, man.

[Joy Reid]

I need to know where that suit came from, who made it? Is it, is it available for retail? What is happening with this suit?

[Afroman]

This is my suit. It's custom. It's custom made. I took and picked out and designed the fabric. And there's an old, old lady. Well, she ain't that old. She ain't too old. She. There's an old lady in North Carolina that, that make my suit for me. And I love this suit. You know, I got, I got millions of suits. But I think this might. I done messed up. I think this might be my new Michael Jackson. This might be my new beaded jacket. This might, this might be the new glove, you know what I'm saying? I can't seem to take it off. You can't take it off.

[Joy Reid]

Wearing it in court I think was a. Was a bold move. I'm gonna ask you a couple questions before I let you. Gotta ask you a couple questions from the chat. We have someone in the chat that was asking. The lemon pound cake. Is it a recipe that you will be marketing? Are we ever going to be able to try this delicious pound cake?

[Afroman]

Yes, we are customers. Yes.

[Joy Reid]

Okay, so you're going to market the pound cake and the suit?

[Afroman]

Oh no, I don't. I think I'm a little stingy with the suit. I don't think I want nobody looking as good as me out there.

[Joy Reid]

You don't want nobody out here, man.

[Afroman]

Two suits like this, somebody gonna have to fight.

[Joy Reid]

It's too much. It is too much. People are saying, new Halloween costume 2026. I think there will be a lot of Afro man costumes. But I just want to say to my friends, my spicy white friends, you can do the suit, you could even do the hair. Don't try to do the skin complexion. I want to warn you for the, the wise. I don't want nobody to get jack harlowed out here in these streets. Don't try to put on the face, just do the hair. And do the suit and keep it moving. I'm just, I want to make sure out here for Halloween, people are asking, did you vote? Well, oh, somebody's asking, did you vote for Donald Trump? I don't know where that came from. That is where somebody's asking.

[Afroman]

I couldn't. 100% immunity was a deal breaker with me. Everything else was sounding good. The money was sounding good, the tax breaks were sounding good. But I can't get my tax break if you take my life. So my life was more important than, than all the tax breaks and everything, you know, so I, I couldn't get with, I didn't vote because I couldn't get with the 100 immunity. I'm still dealing with cops. Can you imagine these people having 100 immunity? Pedophile police officers, Officers married to convicted thieves. Officers that lie put their divorce on me, and I had to bring his wife in there and tell the truth, you know what I'm saying? I don't want these type of people, these, I'm not voting for these types of people to have 100% immunity. Pedophile police officers with 100 immunity. Liars, thieves with 100 immunity. No. So I couldn't, I didn't, I didn't vote for Donald Trump. I ran against Donald Trump. I ran as an independent, and I met him and we took a picture because, you know, you know, politically speaking, they call a, a man a politician, you know, and in, in the hood, we call that same man a player, but they say the same thing. So, you know, a player ain't got no enemy. So when I saw the man, I met him and I shook hands, we took pictures. But, you know what I'm saying, You know, I respect him as another American, but I, I didn't vote for him. The 100% immunity was a deal breaker.

[Joy Reid]

Was a deal breaker for you. So is it possible that there could be potential now that you've seen what he's actually done with his second term? Could there be diss tracks potentially against Donald Trump in your future?

[Afroman]

No, you know, I'm, I'm not, I'm not looking for no enemies. I'm, I'm, you know, like, I'm looking to, to go and do some good, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, like, I don't want to waste no time and energy, you know, chopping away at the next man. If I can put some, if I can put some seeds in the ground and get something, you know, get something going. That's what I'm trying to do.

[Joy Reid]

Except Randy Walters, who apparently you don't mind.

[Afroman]

Hey, you know what? Randy Walters came up to me and apologized after the suit. But I told him, he was telling me how he was a Christian, you know, guy, and you know what? And I. And I was like, okay, my brother, I said, look here, I don't want you to die. I don't want you to burn in hell forever. And I said, I don't want us to fight and shoot each other. And I said, I said, I love you and I ain't got no problems. I said, but I'm singing that song and I ain't gonna stop. Now you, you, you could, you could, you could. You can shoot up a family and you can shoot somebody and you can have a chains on in court around your wrist, going down to your ankles, and you can hobble up to the podium and be like, you know, I'm sorry for what I did. Okay, all right, that's fine. But you still gotta hop your ass on the prison, you know what I'm saying? Okay? So, like, you know, I ain't mad at him because he. When, when he was flipping me off through his shield, I didn't see Jesus right then. You know what I'm saying? And when he kicked down when I asked him to put my door back on the hinges and he cracked his smile and watered his head and grinned at me, I didn't see Jesus. Now I love him. I don't want him to die. I'm just singing that little song, you know what I'm saying? Amen.

[Joy Reid]

All right, last question before I let you go. Afroman. Are you on tour? Where can people see more Afroman and get more of these hits?

[Afroman]

You can go to my. My Instagram, OG Afro man. And I. If you scroll down a little bit, I got. I got to put up some more stuff. I got a tour schedule on it. You can also go to ogafroman.com I should have a tour schedule on there. And you know, now I made this schedule before I went to court, so, you know, these phone calls is coming in. I might have to be. I might have to send some people back. They refund. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. Y' all stay tuned. Y' all stay there. Boredom. Hey, the economy's doing good. Prices going up.

[Joy Reid]

Amen. We thankful it's doing good for somebody because listen, a lot of people are going back and bringing back because I got high, because they're depressed because the

[Afroman]

economy is so bad.

[Joy Reid]

They're playing that song again, too.

[Afroman]

Amen.

[Joy Reid]

Amen. Afro man, thank you so much for letting us pull you in, because we definitely were tracking you down today. So thank you for responding. We appreciate you, and congratulations on winning that lawsuit. It was a dumb lawsuit. They shouldn't have filed it. And thank you for winning one for the First Amendment.

[Afroman]

Yes, ma'. Am. And let me know if you ever need a new boyfriend. You are a beautiful lady. Let. Let me take you. Let's talk about it. Let's go to dinner at least.

[Joy Reid]

My husband is the director of this show, so he's. He's. Jason is right here. He can hear you.

[Afroman]

Okay. I'm sorry, Jason. I didn't know. Hey, I get that question. Hey, if I ask again, I get punched, but I get that first question.

[Joy Reid]

All right. There you go. Thank. Oh, no, thank you, my brother. I appreciate the compliment. Thank you. Have a great weekend, Afroman. All right. There you go. Peace. Afro man in the house. We all want some lemon pound cake. Now. Jason said.

[David K. Johnston]

Look at.

[Joy Reid]

And now Jason is getting all the love in the chat, people defending Jason's honor. Jason, do you have anything you want to pop in and say? He said, no. Somebody said, oh, my God, Joy. Yes, absolutely. So, Jason, we are going to defend your honor. That was our moment of joy. Sometimes we like to do a live moment of joy because the person who gave us so much joy is available for us to talk to. And so there it is. Afroman has won his case. We do love the idea of the First Amendment being defended. As much as the case was silly and goofy, the Daily show did a fantastic piece on it. It's actually kind of important for the First Amendment because what we're seeing right now is the First Amendment is getting decimated all around the country. Between Don Lemon and Georgia Ford being arrested, the Washington Post reporter who had her home raided by the FBI, we just heard lots more people at CBS are being laid off. You're seeing mergers and consolidations among media that are going to leave just dozens and dozens or hundreds or hundreds of people unemployed. It's bad out here, y'. All. The media is having a really, really rough moment. And this is the worst time to be seeing this kind of consolidation. AI threatening to take away media jobs, and with a lot of young people, you know, we have two fantastic interns on this show, Jamiah and Bethany. We think about, like, where will our interns be employed when they graduate from? In this case, from Howard University or from the universities where they're attending. It's scary. And so the Media is, is not producing more opportunity for the young people coming up. And at the same time, the First Amendment is really being dragged. There was, there's video of Donald Trump, Trump bragging about the fact that his FCC chair is punishing stations that don't cover the war on Iran the way he wants. This is a crazy thing, y'.

[Afroman]

All.

[Joy Reid]

We really have to pay attention to it. As much as it is awful that we're at war, we do need to have media that's able to be honest about what we're seeing and not feel threatened that they're going to get prosecuted or put in jail because of what they're saying in terms of coverage of this war. And so we really can't live in that kind of a country. So there are lots of folks in the chat that are saying that they have young family members who are studying journalism and media. It's a scary time to be studying journalism and media. And so any victory for the First Amendment and folk aren't going to be perfect. They're not going to be exactly what you want. They're not going to say exactly what you want. But if you win a case for the First Amendment, you are winning that for each, each and every one of us. So y' all toast some pound cake to Afroman for winning that case, particularly against violent police who claim to be Christian, while busting in his house, taking his 400 and not putting it back, ruining his door and eyeballing his lemon pound cake. That's some reckless eyeballs. Stop reckless eyeballing people pound cake. That's not yo place. It's terrible. All right, y', all, thank you all for tuning in. Don't forget, next Friday is when we are going to do our chat because we want to make sure that we're in the home studio so we get the perfect sort of situation to set up so that we can do a proper chat with our team. TJRS and our readers. Family members are going to do that. If you have not joined it, you have a whole week to do it. Don't forget to hit like and subscribe. Also hit share. Make sure you tell a friend and let folk know that we're out here. Am I missing any other notes? I think we got a lot of notes, but we wanted to get Afroman on. That was our big moment of joy. So thank you all for tuning in. Have a beautiful, blessed weekend and we will see you on Monday. Same back time, same bat channel. Good night and goodbye. Randy Walk.

[Afroman]

Getting back to the basics, grassroots level.

[Joy Reid]

Let me dig a little deeper with

[Afroman]

the shovel Plenty can't tell the force from the dreams that I'm hard to detect it like a black hole in

[Joy Reid]

a dog Injustice anywhere it's a threat

[Afroman]

to justice everywhere Let me make this clear I got a bone to pick

[Justin Pearson (continued)]

and I'll never fear the threat of

[Afroman]

poverty they don't want to talk about it they wrap the party so I'm a real talk about it for show.