Mitch, Please | The Joy Reid Show Live!

Summary

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The Joy Reid Show

Episode: Mitch, Please | The Joy Reid Show Live!
Host: Joy-Ann Reid
Date: July 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Joy Reid Show delivers a sweeping analysis of contemporary U.S. politics and culture, blending urgent coverage of political intrigue (centered on Mitch McConnell’s health and legacy), shifting Senate races, racial justice issues, and ongoing voter intimidation. Joy-Ann Reid welcomes Scott McFarland and Areva Martin for expert insight, interviews ACLU and LDF leaders about election protection, and explores several recent suspicious deaths of Black Americans, tying all themes to American history. The show retains Joy’s signature blend of sharp political critique, historical context, and emphatic commentary.

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Main Segments & Key Insights

1. Mitch McConnell: The Vanishing Senate Lion

[00:13 – 13:03]

Discussion Points & Insights

• McConnell’s Health and Disappearance:
  Joy opens by highlighting the mystery around Senator Mitch McConnell’s current condition post-retirement. Despite identical Republican talking points about his well-being—“There literally is no proof of life for America’s wicked Mitch of the South”—there’s little real information or transparency. ([01:57])

• Legacy of Obstruction:
  Audio montages and commentary detail McConnell’s philosophies and tactics, especially his role in blocking President Obama’s judiciary picks and rushing through Trump’s.

  • Quote (McConnell, 03:01):
    “Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.”

  • Quote (McConnell covers his blockade, 03:51):
    “I was in charge of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration.”

  • Judicial Legacy:
    McConnell’s own words celebrate stacking courts:
    “If you want to have a long lasting positive impact on the country … what can’t be undone is a lifetime appointment to a young man or woman.” ([03:56])

• Hypocrisy on Display:
  Discussing the Merrick Garland block and Amy Coney Barrett confirmation, Joy and Scott McFarland call it “the hypocrisy of our lifetimes.” (11:36)

• Trump’s Impeachment Fallout:
  McConnell admitted Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for Jan 6 but refused to convict him.
  “He lost influence even within his conference.” (13:03)

Notable Moment:

Joy Reid: “Mitch, please. Just put out the statement that your ass is incapacitated and go rest yourself, because you got to meet your maker at some point in probably the near future.” ([16:02])

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2. Senate Shake-up: Maine and the Graham Platner Mess

[13:03 – 16:02/62:00]

Discussion Points

• Who Will Replace Platner?
  With Platner’s exit imminent, the show breaks down a scramble of possible Democratic replacements—Troy Jackson to Paige Loud—with strong emphasis on ideological continuity (“Progressives picked Platner, so you need to replace him with somebody who is ideologically the same…” [61:16]).

• Party Gatekeeping:
  Joy warns the party: “If they put another APAC sellout moderate in place of Graham Platner and they do not put somebody in who is his same ideology, you have my permission to stay your ass home.” ([62:13])

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3. Suspicious Deaths of Black Americans: Racism and Law Enforcement

[17:00 – 28:09, 94:27 – 120:47]

Case Focus: Nolan Xavier Wells

• Nolan Wells, 18, disappears on a July 4th trip to Horn Island, Mississippi, with white friends, reappears deceased, with gaps and oddities in friends’ behavior (friends leave with his phone, go silent, parents/lawyers delete social media).

  • “Why would you let your friends leave and take your phone?” ([19:10])
  • “Normally when there's a case that's potentially got legal ramifications, the idea is to say nothing. She's saying a lot here.” ([23:08])
  • “All of it very strange. Just all of it very, very weird…” ([28:09])

• Historical/Contemporary Lynching Context:
  Joy outlines the American lynching tradition, connecting current events to past violence and systemic denial of Black humanity.

  • Quote (27:28):
    “It was perfectly legal to kill black people in this country up until about the 1960s...it was a property crime, not a crime against a human.”

• Areva Martin Segment:
  Areva (101:00) voices community distrust: “I think we should be asking really, really critical questions. I don’t think we should assume that these are just coincidental deaths.”

• Parallels to Tamla Horsford:
  Black people’s safety in white-dominated social contexts questioned; authorities often swiftly rule out foul play.

Other Cases Listed

• Series of suspicious hangings and deaths of Black youth (Delta State, North Carolina, Cobb County, Miami, Henderson, IL, etc.) often ruled ‘suicide’ with little transparency.

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4. Voter Intimidation, Election Protection, and the 2026 Midterms

[43:23 – 93:38]

Threats & Responses

• Rise of Intimidation:
  Joy and Scott McFarland describe tactics seen in 2020 and anticipated escalation—armed vigilantes, interference at ballot dropboxes, harassment of election workers like Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.

• ACLU & LDF Mobilizing:
  Yasmine Khadr (ACLU) details plans to spend $50M on election protection—3,000+ volunteers, 100+ staffers for voter support and litigation.

  • “You can be intimidating without committing a crime. Doesn’t make it okay.” ([43:42])

• Strategic Advice:

  • “Vote in numbers that they cannot steal, because only close elections can be stolen.” ([56:25])

• LDF’s Janae Nelson:
  Details hands-on legal, legislative, and direct action to preserve mail-in balloting and fight new laws threatening access:

  • “We’ve used mail-in balloting for 160 years. Why are we playing games now? I can tell you why. It’s because now Black people are using mail-in balloting…” ([84:23])
  • Advocacy for “early voting” as both protective and empowering.

• Community Defense:

  • “Make voting joyful, do line dancing at the polls…We can make something really special out of it.” (Janae Nelson, [90:48])
  • “No one can steal our joy. That’s the one thing nobody can ever take from us.” ([91:28])

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5. Carmelo Anthony Case: Justice and Race in Texas Courts

[112:13 – 120:47]

• Joy and Areva discuss the prosecution of Carmelo Anthony, a Black teenager convicted for killing a white peer in self-defense, raising serious questions about judicial bias (judge’s post-trial interview, all-white jury, closure of courtroom).
  • “So much about that interview is unusual…Maybe he will step aside…and allow someone more objective to rule on this motion for a new trial. But this is very troubling behavior on the part of a judge." (Areva, [116:00])

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6. International Racism and Sports

[66:53 – 74:37]

• The episode covers the international fallout from Trump’s interference in the soccer World Cup, racist controversies involving Argentina and Paraguay’s national teams, and how FIFA is responding.
  • “Everything Trump touches dies, including team victories and reputations...” (Joy, [70:11])
  • Mbappé’s takedown of a racist Paraguayan senator: “Madame Celeste Amarillo, you are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position…” ([73:20])

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7. Closing & Joyful Moments

[121:47 – End]

• Shift from heavy topics to a “moment of joy” featuring a heartwarming Instagram exchange between a toddler and his dad.

  • “Cats and babies. Those are the things that are always going to make you smile.” ([121:48])

• Joy’s parting notes:
  “Hug your loved ones, hug your family, hug your children close and make sure that you know who their friends are and where they’re going…stay woke…not all friends are good friends, make sure that you vet…” ([124:12])

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Memorable Quotes

• “Mitch, please…just put out the statement that your ass is incapacitated and go rest yourself…”
  — Joy Reid ([16:02])

• “If they put another APAC sellout moderate in place of Graham Platner…you have my permission to stay your ass home.”
  — Joy Reid ([62:13])

• “No one can steal our joy. That’s the one thing nobody can ever take from us.”
  — Janae Nelson ([91:28])

• “Everything Trump touches dies, including team victories and reputations…”
  — Joy Reid ([70:11])

• “It was perfectly legal to kill black people in this country up until about the 1960s.”
  — Joy Reid ([27:28])

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Key Timestamps

• Mitch McConnell coverage: [00:13–13:03]
• Platner/Maine Senate discussion: [13:03–16:02, 60:54–62:15]
• Nolan Wells investigation: [17:00–28:09], revisited [94:27–120:47]
• Voter intimidation, ACLU action: [43:23–56:24]
• LDF/NAACP and voting rights: [80:54–93:38]
• International World Cup scandal & racism: [66:53–74:37]
• Areva Martin: suspicious deaths/lynching: [101:00–112:13]
• Carmelo Anthony case/Judge Roach: [112:13–120:47]
• Moment of Joy: [121:47–123:12]

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Tone and Language

Joy delivers sharp-witted, unapologetically direct political critique, informed by deep historical knowledge and unfiltered empathy. The episode combines hard-hitting policy discussion, fierce advocacy, humor, cultural insight, and community uplift, all within Joy’s candid and animated broadcast style.

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This episode is a must-listen for those seeking not just the news, but the political and cultural meaning behind the headlines, and for listeners who value unvarnished truth-telling in the face of adversity.

Transcript

[Joy Reid]

Okay.

Happy midweek, everybody. Welcome to the Joy Reid Show. Big ups to everybody that's in the chat. We see everybody that's already jumped in. Hello to our lemon readers, all the folks who have popped in to talk with us. Big up whether you're listening on Substack on Facebook, our adorable Twitchies on Twitch, those who are listening on an audio podcast platform. Did I say substack? YouTube, everybody. We just appreciate you guys being here. I'm actually going to jump right into it because we got a guest coming up really right at the top of the hour. And of course, our top story tonight, you can see it in the thumbnail. It's not easy being green. Big up to winsome, our designer of that. Mitch, please. Thumbnail. We have an artist in the house, but Mitch McConnell's condition remains a mystery. Now we know he retired as Senate Majority Leader last year after a couple of incidents like this.

[Scott McFarland]

Well, good afternoon, everyone. We're on a path to finishing the ndaa. This week has been good bipartisan cooperation and a string of.

[Judge John Roach]

Wait a minute.

[Areva Martin]

Are you good, Mitch?

[Scott McFarland]

Okay, Mitch, anything else you want to say should just go back to your. Do you want to say anything else to the press?

[Joy Reid]

He's like, nope, go ahead, John. And of course, he was 81 at the time. He's two years older than Donald Trump who just turned 80. And he did announce at that point not, I mean, he, there was another incident like that. After a while, he announced he was going to not run for reelection at 81 years old. Senate Majority leader or his previous deputy, John Th. Who's the South Dakota senator, took over and became the Senate Majority leader, South Dakota Senator John Th and while Scott Jennings and other Republicans are now issuing identical talking points claiming that they have talked to him on the phone, Scott Jennings would not give any details about this supposed conversation. And all these Republicans are all claiming that that they've all spoken to him. There literally is no proof of life for America's wicked. Mitch of the south, who is best known for stacking the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary by blocking President Obama's nominees and rushing through Donald Trump. Here's a preview of ole Mitch.

[Scott McFarland]

Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term. Over the past week, some have said it was indelicate of me to suggest that our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term. But the fact is, if our primary legislative goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill to end the bailouts cut spending and shrink the size and scope of government. The only way to do all of those things is to put someone in the White House who won't veto any of these things. I was shocked that former President Obama

[Joy Reid]

left so many vacancies and didn't try

[Scott McFarland]

to fill those positions. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. I was in charge of the. Of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration.

[Joy Reid]

I give, and I will give you full credit for that. And by the way, take a bow.

[Scott McFarland]

All right.

[Joy Reid]

That was a good life.

[Scott McFarland]

The decision the Senate announced weeks ago remains about a principle and not a person. About a principle and not a person. It seems clear that President Obama made this nomination not. Not with the intent of seeing the nominee confirmed, but in order to politicize it for purposes of the election. Oh, we'd fill it. Yeah. You know, the reason I started with the judges, as important as all these other things are that we're talking about, I mean, if you want to have a long lasting positive impact on the country, everything else changes. You know, I remember during the tax bill, there were people agonizing over whether one part of the tax bill was permanent or not. What can't be undone is a lifetime appointment to a young man or woman who believes in the quaint notion that the job of the judge is to follow the law. So that's the most important thing we've done.

[Janae Nelson]

But do you understand why many Americans

[Yasmine Khadr]

view this as a double standard?

[Scott McFarland]

I can only repeat that we have an obligation under the Constitution, should we choose to take advantage of it, to fill the vacancy. And I assure you, that's very likely to happen.

[Joy Reid]

Highly of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Why not listen to her dying wish? Apparently to allow the next president to make this decision.

[Scott McFarland]

Well, as Senator Barrasso pointed out, I prefer another thing she said recently, which was she thought the number of the Supreme Court ought to be 9 mm.

[Joy Reid]

And lastly, the other thing he's most remembered for is voting to not impeach Donald Trump after admitting Donald Trump was responsible for the January 6th insurrection.

[Scott McFarland]

There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole, which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet. Earth. Earth. As Justice Story explained the Senate upon conviction is bound in all cases to enter a judgment of removal from office. Removal is mandatory upon conviction. Clearly, he explained that mandatory sentence cannot be applied to someone who's left office. The entire process revolves around removal. If removal becomes impossible, conviction becomes insensible.

[Joy Reid]

Joining me now to discuss the latest on Mitch's health and also other political news is Scott McFarland, author of Scott McFarland, Scott McFarland Reports and Chief Washington correspondent for Midas Touch Network. Scott, it's always good to see you. So Kentucky, the governor of Kentucky, Annie Beshear, is asking for an update from Senator McConnell and his quote is, as governor, I request that you fully update Kentuckians regarding the current status of your health. Do you have any updated reporting on whether Mitch McConnell is still with us in on this plane?

[Scott McFarland]

What a terrible sign. I mean, what a terrible sign that the governor had to publicly release a letter he sent to Mitch McConnell's team asking for a proof of life. I mean, this is the type of thing that a back channel conversation should easily satisfy. When the governor is asking about a senator's health and well being that he had to go public with, it gives you some indication of the response or the lack of response from Team McConnell. I've been asking them for four weeks now for updates. The latest response they gave to me was about 24 hours ago and they said McConnell is improving. They don't characterize what that means, Joy. They don't give a sense of from where to where he's improving. And this string of MAGA and McConnell surrogates who say they've each had 20 minute phone calls with McConnell does not satisfy the many questions that exist out there. This is an open ended question and I think Team McConnell could easily answer it and they're choosing not to.

[Joy Reid]

And the thing about it is one wonders why. I mean, it's clear it's a relatively narrow majority. But even if he were to immediately step down or step aside, is it because in Kentucky law the Democratic governor would get to replace him? Is that what this sort of charade is about?

[Scott McFarland]

Well, you can expect a dispute over that. Whether the legislature has taken powers from the governor in this unique case of Kentucky so that it may be a disputed issue as to how a successor is appointed. But that's somewhat beyond the point right now because let me tell you, Joy, the Congress is peaced out for the year. They're not doing a damn thing of consequence legislatively before the elections, before Mitch McConnell's retirement. So put that aside for just a moment. I think the bigger problem here is when you talk about a legislative office, a senator, a member of Congress, if there is. If there is an incapacitation, there's nobody to check with to get clearance to announce his condition. He's the boss. The staff may not feel empowered enough to give transparent updates to the public because they can't clear it with him. That's if there's an incapacitation. But that's why a lot of this is knotted up. And it's not the first time. Joy. We've seen a senator's health be so opaque. We saw it in Mississippi with then Senator Thad Cochran as his health was failing. We've seen it before with West Virginia Democrat, the late Robert Byrd when his health was failing. This is not the first time, but this time is clearly pronounced because we're in a midterm election cycle and Mitch McConnell is the character that he is.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah. I mean, I can recall with Dianne Feinstein, it was clear, it was almost elder abuse making her attempt to take votes. She could barely understand what she was doing or what she was voting for. And this gerontocracy has gotten to the point where people, people seem to just be resistant to ever retiring, ever. Even when it's clear. I mean, he's. How many times has he had to have what definitely looked like a stroke to people before he finally agreed that he will retire? And even then, he lingers on in office. Let's talk just a minute about, like, the power that he's wielded, though. I mean, the fact that he strategically, as he said, blockaded, blocked more than 100 judicial nominations that President Obama was supposed to be able to fill and then flooded the judiciary with Trump nominees that he said, on the one hand, you can't have Merrick Garland even get meetings with members of the Republican conference when he was nominated to the court. But you could rush in Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement, even though there was an election coming, a complete hypocrite. But he. I think he's got to be argued as probably one of the one or two most powerful Senate majority leaders in history. Right.

[Scott McFarland]

I mean, American politics is saturated with hypocrisy. Has been long before we came along. It's been here for generations. I think, though, and I'm pretty confident I'm right, that may be the hypocrisy of our lifetimes. The way Mitch McConnell forced a blockade of Merrick Garland's nomination and then expedited Amy Coney Barrett. We May never see something like that again. That was rife hypocrisy. And you, as you showed in his clips, didn't seem to hide from it. He seemed to embrace it. His legacy, though, is beyond the judicial confirmations. I mean, his legacy to me still begins with January 6th. He was the gateway to an impeachment conviction. He was the blockade of an impeachment conviction. And he could have opened the door to it. We know that. He knows that. His colleagues know that he felt it was imperative to close the door to an impeachment conviction. And he's the one who's paid the price inside his party. He has no love lost for Trump, and I don't think anybody in MAGA world has any love lost for Mitch McConnell. This is a price he's paid politically for his decision. And it wasn't just that one decision from January 2021. It was Mitch McConnell who voted yes. Joy, on Pam Bondi's confirmation. Pam Bondi supportive of January 6th defendants. It was Mitch McConnell who was there ushering through Cash Patel and others who have been supportive of January 6th insurrectionist. It is a stain on his legacy that will never be erased.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, that and being Moscow, Mitch. And in fact, allowing, you know, Russia to invest in his state, including people who were on the sanctions lift, lifting them off the sanctions list so they could invest in his state. His state that remains incredibly poor. But you're absolutely right. I think the instant that he did that speech where he acknowledged Trump was responsible, but then said we should not convict him, he lost influence even within his. His conference. All of his platitudinous complaints about Donald Trump grifting and the slush fund, they fall on deaf ears, even among Republicans. But let's move on to Graham Platner. The other big story on the other side of the aisle. What reporting have you got on the status of this? Because the question is, how long does Graham Platner linger? And who gets to choose his replacement? Does he, if to effectively choose his own successor, or does Chuck Schumer swoop in and replace him with a moderate?

[Scott McFarland]

That's Grant Platner's concern, according to my latest reporting. Who and what is the process for succeeding him on the ballot? Here's the thing, and there's really no way around this. This problem has metastasized from Graham Platner being a flawed, failed, and very fragile candidate to the longer he waits, Joy, to get out of here, the harder it is for Democrats to stand up a new candidacy to raise tens of millions of Dollars to prepare a campaign and to win against Susan Collins. We have some recent memory with this, don't we? The longer President Biden waited to exit the race, the shorter the Runway he allowed for Vice President Harris, and she was impacted by the truncated Runway. We know the same's going to be true in Maine, which is still the epicenter of the battle for the U.S. senate. It remains in Maine. It's clear to everybody here in Washington that this is like the freaking SS Minnow. This boat has crashed and Ginger Marianne, everybody's off the boat. Everybody has found a rowboat. It's just Graham Platner with behind the wheel. No skipper, no howls. He's got to find a way to get off the boat and to have some apparatus come in and repair it. Democratic Party's pulled its money, not going to back him anymore. They pulled out the infrastructural support. There's nothing there for him to campaign with. And he's going to have to do battle with Susan Collins. It's a matter of when, not if.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, I mean, he only has till Monday. Legally, he can pull out by Monday and he can be replaced. The New York Times is reporting there's a guy named Troy Jackson who is the sort of closest to him ideologically and who he himself listed as his top pick for governor before the Democratic Party in primary in June in which Mr. Jackson came in third place. So there's. That's one guy, but there's a bunch of people maybe up to bat, but absolutely. And you know what we love about you, Scott? You're always going to bring a 90s TV reference or an 80s TV reference. So I feel like every time I talk to you, I'm going back to my junior high and high school childhood of the stuff I watched on TV or listen to on the radio. So we always appreciate that, man. Thank you very much for being here.

[Scott McFarland]

Right back at you, Joy.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you so much. Listen, if we want to talk politics, it doesn't get much better than hanging out with Scott McFarland. We had to get him out of here because he had some stuff to do. But, yeah, thank you very much to Scott. So I'll just tell you all really quickly. Troy Jackson is the person. He's a progressive. He was president of Maine's State Senate from 2018 to 2024. He seemed as ideologically aligned with Graham Platner. There's a guy named Nirav Shah, who's the former director of Maine's public health agency. He demo. He campaigned as an outsider, he moved to Maine from the Mideast in 2019. He was Janet Mills, Governor Janet Mills, Health Director. There's a woman named Shanna Bellows who is Maine's current Secretary of State and she was elected in 2020. She broke into the national news when she fought to bar Donald Trump from Maine's presidential primary ballot over his role in the insurrection. She's a populist, she's more of a platner, ideological mold sort of candidate. She often spoke on the campaign trail about her upbringing as a working class in a working class family in rural Hancock County. She was the former executive director of the ACLU of Maine. As a state senator, she won the Democratic nomination for the US Senate in 2014, but lost in a landslide to Susan Collins. There's a guy named Jordan Wood, he's also a progressive, served as chief of staff to Katie Porter of California, Congresswoman there. He came in third in the Democratic primary, Jordan Wood. So he is another person that he's co founder of a nonprofit dedicated to opposing efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He briefly entered the Democratic primary for Senate in Maine before pivoting to the congressional race. So that's another person who's in conversation. Then there's a woman named Valli Geiger, a registered nurse, former mayor of Rockland, Maine who was elected to the State House in 2020. A woman named Paige Loud, a 29 year old social worker who came in last in a four way Democratic primary to replace Democratic Representative Jared golden in Maine's 2nd congressional district. She's a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a progressive. Her platform is universal health care, free higher education and federal housing subsidies. And I think there's, there's two more. Oh my God. Dan Cleveland, co founder of the Main Beer Company which is a Freeport based brewery. Then you've got a guy named David Costello, a Bangor native and environmental policy consultant, got 8% of the vote in the primary for Senate against Platinum in June. It's a mess. It's a basically a mess. And they got to pick one of these people and one of these people is going to have to be the next nominee. God help us and Mitch McConnell. Man, Mitch, please just put out the statement that your ass is incapacitated and go rest yourself because you got to meet your maker at some point in probably the near future. 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That's Q U I n c e.com joyread for free shipping in 365 days returns. Quince.com joyread okay, so I think we all now know by now that on July 4, 2026, Nolan Xavier Wells, an 18 year old boy, was reported missing after going on a weekend trip with friends to Horn Island, Mississippi where they were out on boats. The Ocean Springs young man, the Ocean Springs native was last seen shirtless, wearing blue swim trunks and black sunglasses on a boat on the island with friends. He was the only African American among those friends. Now the friends who are on the trip with him and their families, they, those friends were on the trip with him, allegedly left and claimed that he decided to stay behind by himself, that they left and he decided to stay behind, which kind of doesn't make any sense because the friends who left had his phone, which is a strange thing to do. Number one, to leave your friend behind. When our kid alts have gone on vacation with friends, you go with the friends, you come back. Everybody goes. Everybody comes back. You don't leave one person behind when you all went on a trip together. That's weird. And kids are so attached to their phone. The idea that you would let your friends leave you among strangers out somewhere in some rural boat trip out in Mississippi where you're the only black kid, you would let them leave and take your phone. Phone, that's weird, too. And the friends who are with them and their families, they release these formal statements in response to allegations that their involvement is somehow suspicious. But they've also said pretty much collectively that they're not sure where Nolan went after saying that they're the ones who notified the police that he was missing. It's weird, right? And so lots of things about this situation are strange. His mom immediately started posting on social media, saying, where is my son posting about him now? His mother is actually a beauty influencer. She's a registered nurse, and she does a lot of beauty influencer work. So you can still follow her. She was posting up until yesterday on threads, including in memorial, in memory of her son. And she used to post, like, sort of beauty influencer stuff. She's very much online. And so she started going online to her growing community of followers, saying, hey. Describing what her son was wearing and asking for any help to find her baby. And so she's posting like crazy trying to find him. But the friends seem to be very silent. In fact, and this is where it gets a little weird. The friends and some of their parents have deleted their social media. If you can throw up B2, Jason. I went through and verified the social media accounts of the friends who are identified in that picture and tried to see what was on their social media. And yeah, all of their threads accounts, as well as their Instagram accounts have been made private. Or their threads accounts say there are no posts, meaning they haven't posted at all. So there are just no posts at all. And then there's a woman named Ashley Cole who's actually a judge and who's the stepmother of one of the boys. And she too has deleted her social media. All of her social media has been deleted. She posted on Facebook explaining why she deleted her social media. I'm going to read you what you probably can't read on the screen, so I'm going to read it to you. This is Ashley Cole, who's the stepmother of one of the boys who were with Nolan and who claimed they left him behind. She says our family, along with the community, grieves the loss of Nolan Wells. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nolan's family. Our son Warren, loved Nolan dearly. Unfortunately, I feel that it is appropriate for our family to dispel some rumors with facts based on the social media attention that is being diverted away from the Wells family and their loss. Yes, I deactivated my Facebook. Given the very heightened emotional state of social media right now, I fear for the safety of my child and my children. My husband and I have six children and we covet their privacy. We do not believe it is appropriate for our minor children's photographs to be circulated throughout the Internet, presenting potential threats to their safety. I graduated high school with Christine Wells Wansley. That's the mom. We are from this. That's Nolan's mom. We are from the same community. I have the utmost respect for her and all the Wells family. We mourn the loss of Nolan with them. Our prayers have been and continue to be with them. My husband and I were not at Horn island at any point on the 4th of July, so that's interesting. She makes that very important legal point. No one in our family is trying in any way to impede with the investigation by law enforcement or or to otherwise hamper the family and law enforcement's quest for answers. Warren, her son, was interviewed by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department and cooperated fully. He saw Nolan last at around 3pm on July 4. They left around 4:30pm when the boat was taking on water and they had an issue with the bilge pump. Nolan made a decision to stay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends. Now, normally when there's a case that's potentially got legal ramifications, the idea is to say nothing. She's saying a lot here. She says more. Yes, I am a judge. I also value transparency. I apologize if anyone was offended that I deleted my social media. There were no nefarious motivations in my deleting my social media. Social media has a lot of positives, but a whole lot of negatives. We live in a world of clickbaiting. Sad, but true. My family is hopeful that this information will help to redirect the attention to the Wells family, their grief, and their need for the community support. So note that at first, this was a missing person's case. But then the body was actually found. Nolan's body was found and identified by his family a couple of days after he disappeared. And everyone went dark. Everyone took their social media down, including Ms. Cole, who has now explained from her point of view, and she says she wasn't there, but she's now explaining on her son's behalf what she says happened, which maybe not on purpose, maybe on purpose kind of provides him with kind of a exculpatory information about himself. Right. It kind of excuses her son and the other boys in her statement. And she's a judge, so she knows the law looks weird. And now, with all of that said, new information has emerged, including a video that appears to show an argument taking place potentially involving Nolan. Let's play that video,

[Areva Martin]

Jason.

[Joy Reid]

You can pull it all the way down because that sound is going to sound weird because it's. It's just a slow version. And you can see there's Nolan in a group of other young people. If you really sort of squint and look at the video, you'll see that it's not like this is a very racially mixed group of people on Horn Island. He was essentially the only black person there. And so that is raising a lot of suspicions. People are getting very, very worried that there's something. That something happened to him, that something was done to him. And again, why would he allow his friends that he came there with to leave and give them his phone? Why would he be there with no phone, no way to contact anyone? Others on social media have pointed out that some of the other boys initially were posting things like, see you soon. But how would you see him soon if you have his phone and he doesn't? Why would you post a message to someone who cannot possibly reply because you have their phone? That's weird. If that is true, then that is very strange because you wouldn't post on social media at someone whose phone you have in your possession. It's odd, right? Let's put up Nolan Wells, mom. This post was, again, she is a very online social media influencer. She's a beauty influencer. So this was her initial post on July 4th. And she says, this is Nolan Wells, aka no, no. 1 of the sweetest and kindest souls you could ever meet. He went missing on horn island on July 4th. I'm looking for any pics or videos that were taken on the northwest tip of Horn. Please help us find our sunshine. And again, she posted this on July 4th. If the other boys had pictures of him or video of him, that Would have been a great place to respond. They know her. These are people who are known to the family. One of their moms says she went to high school with this woman, Christine. So why are there no replies? I went and went on that account. I don't see replies from any of the friends saying, hey, here's pictures of our friend who we were with. Here's what he was wearing. Here's what we were doing. There was no response. There are no replies. And again, now they can't reply to her because they've effectively deleted the content of their threads accounts. That post was on threads. All of it very strange. Just all of it very, very weird and hard to explain later on in the show. In our second hour, Areva Martin, who's a pretty great civil rights attorney, is going to join us. We're going to walk through the strange aspects of this case and some other cases that are raising a lot of questions about the safety of young black men in this country at a time when the far right is trying to claim and proclaim that it is black people, particularly young black men, who are the hyperviolent, the hyper violent demographic in American society. Which is weird in a country in which violence against young black men and against black people is so common that it was perfectly legal to kill black people in this country up until about the 1960s. It was effectively not a crime to kill black people up until about the 1960s, because post the Civil War, pre the Civil War, black people weren't even considered human. So if you killed a black person, that was a property crime, not a crime against a human. After the Civil War and Jim Crow, there was a class of white Americans, the working class, who are below the sort of upper class, who effectively could do the purge. They could legally kill any black person, knowing that any jury, if it even went to trial, would be composed only of white men who were the only people who permitted to register to vote and thus be on a jury. Which is one of the reasons that the Klan violently prevented black people from registering to vote, because that would make them eligible to be on juries. And so you knew you were going to face a jury of only fellow white men from your class and that they would never convict you. And in fact, it almost never happened that you were convicted. This is why more than 4,000 black men, women and children were lynched during the Jim Crow era. And one of the most prolific periods in Lynching was 100 years ago, the 1920s, when black men could be lynched for anything from talking to a White woman looking at a white woman, eyeballing, they would call it reckless eyeballing. Not crossing the street when a white family was attempting to walk past them on the sidewalk. Sassing, which was considered also a capital offense. Anything you wanted, you could be lynched for anything. And you knew you were never going to be convicted. In fact, one of the few instances of white men being convicted of killing a black person occurred very much belatedly almost 30 years after Medgar Evers murderer was convicted. But that was in the 1990s. He was. There was a deadlock on the first two trials in the 1990s 60s, Emmett Till's lynchers walked away from it. And it was considered so common and normal that this ethic sort of developed in white America that discounted white violence as non existent, as not real, and created a lure of hyper black violence to replace it. To cover up the fact that this really, truly is the most violent society on earth and is the most dangerous place to be black on earth. Not because of other black people, because of violence against you as a black person. And so black folks have a sort of hypersensitivity to deaths of particularly our young black men in circumstances like these where they are alone among a group of people who at least socially, at least historically, have not really been acculturated to view black life as equally valuable. That's why you had to have a movement calling itself Black Lives Matter. If you have to say it, it means it probably isn't true in this society. And I think that is one of the reasons that people are so worried and concerned something happened here. It's not as if black people are the only people who fall victim to violence. But this sort of potential cross racial violence is very American. It fits right in, unfortunately to the way that America has been acculturated. This is one of the reasons that people will say that slavery did not just harm black Americans, it actually harmed white Americans too. It harmed the society. It created cultural disproportions that are actually harmful to the culture of the United States. It created a culture of extreme violence. Lynching, burning at the stake, shooting a body full of holes and then taking pieces home as souvenirs. Bringing your children to watch hangings and lynchings to watch you burn people alive and then taking them to church the next day to say that this is normal and to then pray to your God. This is a normal part, unfortunately, of American culture. And it wasn't just practiced against black people. Italians were lynched, which is why we have Columbus Day to Get Italy to not be mad at us. Jewish people were lynched for being Jewish in the wrong place at the wrong time. Chinese Americans were lynched in Chinatown. Notorious cases of lynching of Chinese people. Japanese people were stalked and attacked during this sort of mass hysteria about the Japanese auto industry. Very famous cases of Asian people being lynched. Of course, Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. It's just a violent society in which cross racial violence is unfortunately quite common. Although the majority of violence, obviously in the modern era is intraracial. It's people who are committing crimes against people of the same race. But cross racial violence gets a lot more attention because it stands out as potentially part of that acculturation. Which brings me to the Carmelo Anthony case. So in the Carmelo Anthony case, you have the reverse. You have a young man who, according to his defense, was defending himself against aggression by two young white men at a track meet. He is then, in whatever conflict happens, physically, one of the young men who confronted him ends up stabbed, dead. And he is convicted and gets 35 years in prison. He's a teenager. I mean, he won't come out until he's, you know, older than me or, you know, until he's in his 50s. Well, now, his new attorneys, he has. He has new attorneys now and they have filed a motion for the judge to recuse himself. And this is interesting. We're going to get into this with Areva as well in the next hour because this judge did something judges don't normally do. He gave a TV interview, which is odd. We're going to play that interview for you in our next hour. At least we're going to play that interview on a local station in Texas. So he did that and he did some other things, including allowing an all white jury to be seated. That the new attorneys for Carmelo Anthony say means that there was racial bias in this case and there were other issues and he needs to recuse. They've also filed a second motion, which is a motion for a new trial. And they've said that this young man, Carmelo Anthony, deserves a new trial. So we're going to talk about that next hour as well. But before we get to the next hour, I want you guys to listen because now there's a lot of video coming out that's showing the confrontation. It's a little bit of a grainy video. We're going to play it in the next hour where people are saying you can really see that Carmelo Anthony was the victim here. But also a lot of people are now focusing on the father of the victim, Austin Metcalf's father, who went on a conservative program and gave an interview in which he said the following. Take a listen to Austin Metcop's father, Drew Anthony.

You're a.

And a coward, and you raised one. Kayla, he drunk. What you do to that boy to make him stab somebody? My God, what kind of mother are you? Hey, Kevin Hayes, you liar. Day after it happened, how many. How many lies did you sit and type up on your keyboard, you big keyboard warrior? You're a big, tough man. You still live in Baton Rouge.

[Scott McFarland]

Remember?

[Joy Reid]

You said you'd come to Frisco, buddy. You're supposed to find me. I told you we could sit down and talk. That's all you do, talk. Mr. Squeaky Clean. He's the only one in your family without a damn record. I guess that's something to brag about in your culture. Y' all can make. Let me make something racist up so y' all can go viral. I got a new name for mellow, okay? Because he was such as little boy y' all were trying to portray. How about Watermelon Felon? How's that one strike you, Watermelon Felon? And so some local Texas residents are saying that he also behaved that way in court, that he's a bully, and that according to at least some local witnesses, he raised his twin sons to be bullies like him, and that he transferred that kind of open racism that you just heard him very casually espouse, knowing he's on camera. And he did it quite openly and proudly. And again, he is a grieving father. He's angry that his son is deceased. That could be pain speaking. But whatever pain it was, that there was some racism mixed in there, too, because he was very easy to go to that place. And so there are some folks locally who are saying that's the man who created the attitudes of the sons, the twin sons who confronted Carmelo Anthony for sitting under the tent where the white team was sheltering from the rain. So we're going to get into that in the next hours. That's a very long tease. Hope you'll stick around to hear from Areba Martin on that. Now, before we go to our next block here, next segment, I want to acknowledge that one of our sponsors tonight who is bringing this show to you, one of our favorites, our friends at Mud Water. Now, if you're a coffee girl like me, you need to perk up in the morning with a cup of coffee. But you're also concerned about you know, being a little healthier. And that is kind of a theme of what we're doing in this moment. MUDWTR is a wonderful and fantastic and delicious option. So if you need your coffee, but you want to have something that is going to give you the vibe of being in a coffee shop and having like a cute little seasonal drink, but without the actual coffee jittery and all of the issues. Mud Water is fabulous. Same morning ritual coffee, Chai or matcha with functional mushrooms and adaptogens instead of that full caffeine hit. So you get the steady energy and no spiral. Absolutely love their original blend. It's cacao, chai, turmeric and functional mushrooms. Now it's like a spicy hot cocoa. It's warm, it's like grounding. It's very satisfying. If you're a coffee shop lover and you just cannot handle the full caffeine load anymore, Mud Water is a fantastic option. It's the version of your morning drink that you didn't know existed. Because loving coffee should not mean negotiating with it every single morning. And so what we love about it is you get the energy, you get the focus without the jitters, the crash or the anxiety. So give them a try. Start with your starter kit. Okay. It's designed to set you up with everything that you need to actually build the habit. You, when you order, you get the full size tin of your chosen brand, your chosen blend, plus a free rechargeable frother, which is fabulous. Little frother helps you make it like, like you're literally getting it from a barista. You get free gifts and free shipping. There are four flavors. There's og, which is the original Kai chocolate Chai chocolate blend. There's coffee, matcha and turmeric. So if you're a coffee person, a matcha person, a chai person or something in between, there's something definitely for you. But. But the OG is where most people start. Because you know what? It's chocolatey, it's chai and it's like chocolate and chai had a really healthy, cute little baby. If you want to try it and you're ready to make the switch to cleaner energy, go to mudwt.com that's M u d w t r.com joy and grab the starter kit. Just use codes, Joy, and you'll get 43% off. The frother alone is worth the whole thing. That's right up to 43% off with the code J O Y JOY at MUD WTR after your purchase, they're Going to ask, how did you find us? And please show your support and tell them you found them from Detroit. Reacho. Okay, so remember all the voter intimidation that we saw during the 2020 election? Sheriff's deputies in Maricopa County, Arizona, are monitoring outdoor drop boxes as voter intimidation complaints continue to pour in. This comes after complaints that two people with guns dressed in tactical gear. We're at a voter Dropbox in Mesa.

[Scott McFarland]

If your intentions are to draw, focus on who you are and what you're doing and try to passively intimidate others

[Joy Reid]

trying to just cast a vote, then

[Scott McFarland]

shame on you because they have as

[Joy Reid]

much right to get to that polling

[Scott McFarland]

site and drop a ballot as you do.

[Joy Reid]

Officials say it's not a state crime, but the activity they say is making voters uncomfortable.

[Scott McFarland]

You can be intimidating without committing a crime. You can make people uncomfortable without committing a crime.

[Joy Reid]

Doesn't make it okay just because it's not a crime. Voter intimidation can constitute a variety of activities, including displaying weapons, aggressively taunting voters, questioning or confronting voters. Deputies can't interfere with ballot Dropbox watchers on public sidewalks, even if there are, says Sheriff Pinzone. If we know unequivocally what you've done

[Scott McFarland]

is criminal, then we will act on it.

[Joy Reid]

The Department of Justice has already shown in interest in these complaints stating watchers can still be charged by federal authorities for voter intimidation. The Justice Department has an obligation to prevent, to guarantee a free and fair vote by everyone who's qualified to vote

[Scott McFarland]

and will not permit voters to be

intimidated of Ruby Freeman and Shea Freeman Moss and one other gentleman, quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if

[Joy Reid]

they're vials of heroin or cocaine. I mean, it's obvious to anyone who's a criminal investigator or prosecutor, they are engaged in surreptitious illegal activity again that day and after a week ago, and they're still walking around Georgia lying.

[Areva Martin]

Should have been.

[Joy Reid]

They should have been, should have been questioned already. Their places of work, their homes should have been searched for evidence of ballots, for evidence of USB ports, for evidence of voter fraud.

[Areva Martin]

When.

[Joy Reid]

When I saw the video, of course, the first thing that I said was like, why? What, why is, why are they doing this? What's going on?

[Janae Nelson]

And they, you know, just told me

[Joy Reid]

that

Trump and his allies were not satisfied with the outcome of the election, and they were getting a lot of threats and being harassed online and asked me, you know, have I been receiving anything and I need to check on my mom. And did you end up leaving your position as well?

[Judge John Roach]

Yes.

[Joy Reid]

I left. There is nowhere I feel safe.

[Yasmine Khadr]

Nowhere.

[Joy Reid]

Do you know how it feels to have the President of the United States to target you? The President of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target one. But he targeted me.

[Areva Martin]

Lady Ruby, a small business owner, owner,

[Joy Reid]

a mother, a proud American citizen who stand up to help Fulton county run an election in the middle of the pandemic. Yeah. Well, what do you think it's going to look like when the people doing the voter intimidation look like this? When these guys are potentially demasked and given the job of making sure that Donald Trump and his party succeed in November?

[Judge John Roach]

Or.

[Joy Reid]

Or if they look like these people? What if these.

[Areva Martin]

Multiple capital injuries.

[Joy Reid]

Multiple capital injuries. You can turn it down. What happens if those people who are all pardoned by Donald Trump are empowered to oversee the election and to monitor elections? Well, the ACLU is preparing for that. The American Civil Liberties Union has a new leader whose job it is to protect the upcoming elections. And they're planning to spend more than $50 million on the 2026 midterms, including training and deploying more than 100 paid staffers and more than 3,000 volunteer leaders to encourage people to vote and to ensure voter access while monitoring ballot counting and certification. And joining me now is Yasmine Khadr, Deputy Executive Director for program Strategy and Culture at the aclu. And she's been in that role, and I believe it's Kader. I think I'm pronouncing your name wrong. My bad. You've been there since July 1st. And welcome back.

[Yasmine Khadr]

Thank you. It's really good to see you again, Joy. And I'm so ready and excited to talk about what we're gonna be doing here to protect people.

[Joy Reid]

Tell us what you're gonna do, because I think people are very concerned that those men who march around in masks calling for white, white supremacist America are going to take those masks off and be watching folks at the polls.

[Yasmine Khadr]

Right. And I think that that is something that so many people are concerned with. And I think what we really need to focus on first, what are the biggest threats and then what is the response that's appropriate both to enable people to cast their ballots and participate in our elections, but also to be safe. So the threats are safe of the most dramatic ones that you've shown here that are just horrible, both from election officials themselves as well as from citizens. Voter intimidation, that's something that we're very concerned with. But we're also concerned about shenanigans or, you know, Messing with people's ballots, throwing them out. And then what about certification? Right. We have to ensure that the votes are counted, that there's. And that elections are certified, and that their results are not undermined. So what we're focused on is both litigation and advocacy and then really empowering people to know their rights in order to protect against these scenarios.

[Joy Reid]

So what should people do if they get to their polling place and they're told you're not on the rolls?

[Yasmine Khadr]

Well, if people are told they're not on the rolls, it's really important that they look at the know your rights training ahead of time, that they make sure that they have one, whatever documentation that they need, that they be empowered in advance. And if they're told unjustifiably that they're not on the rolls, then they need to take action, meaning they need to contact people who will be around and they will have information about that are really focusing on this to make sure that if it's a litigation response, that that response is made. If it's an advocacy response, meaning calling and advocating and saying, excuse me, yes, I am on the rolls, that's a mistake that they have people that are partnering with them to be able to engage in that kind of self advocacy.

[Joy Reid]

So we played those clips from Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, her daughter, and they were hounded out of their home. They had to move. They faced death threats because Rudy Giuliani made up a lie that they were passing around a jump drive with fake votes on it. And now what you've seen is this current regime that's back again, the Trump regime, go and raid the Fulton county voter rolls and also Arizona, where people were literally stalking the election count with long guns and threatening the people inside of the room. And they've also now been raided by the feds. How do we guarantee that this midterm election won't be beset by real fraud from the federal government saying you will count this as a Republican victory or else.

[Yasmine Khadr]

Well, I think one of the things that's really important that we look at is first and foremost the honoring of heroes and American patriots, as those two women were and are to this day. And you know the. My heart breaks. I know your heart breaks. I saw you and I were both shaking our head at the memory of what they went. But what we have to remember also is the bravery that they showed in that moment and the way that they stood clear and true. And they were able, very importantly, to be protected ultimately when the truth came to bear. And so what's Important is that we think first and foremost about empowering election workers and the people, all of the people who want to and deserve to be able to cast their votes, to be able to stand strong and firm and know that they are not alone. Okay, that's something that. I just want to just honor those two women, and I want to make sure that we're always honoring our American patriots who are standing strong. You are not alone. But secondly, in terms of what we at the ACLU and many, many other organizations are doing is we are intervening in these attempts by the Department of Justice to go in and purge voter rolls or ask for sensitive data. And we have found success where we have been able to have courts block these efforts. So, you know, the. It. It really takes three important ingredients, Joy. It takes litigation. It takes boots on the ground and advocacy. And it takes American heroes like those ones that you've depicted today to stand firm and, and, and, and strong and know what their rights are.

[Joy Reid]

So. And so I take that to mean that the ACLU is prepared to sue if, for instance, you know, name the congressional candidate that's a Democrat wins in an election, and this regime attempts to seize the voter roll so that they can take them behind closed doors and recount them so the Republican wins.

[Yasmine Khadr]

We are prepared importantly, to ensure that certification is proper. Right. So that if there's a purge of votes, that we will challenge that in court, or if there is a failure to count, we will challenge that in court, or if there's a failure to certify that, we will challenge that in court. But it's not just court where we will be challenging this. It's also through public education and public advocacy. And I don't ever want to minimize the power of the people and the power of our voice. And we have found success that when we are partnering together, when we are involved in these advocacy efforts, we can can bring appropriate shame on election administrators who fail to do what they're supposed to do. And it can be powerful, and it can. If we are not ultimately successful, we are setting a record that can be used later to have justice occur.

[Joy Reid]

Is among these 5,000 volunteers that you all are bringing in, are some of them going to also be election observers so that they can observe the rights? Election observers?

[Areva Martin]

Yes.

[Yasmine Khadr]

Well, we have trained election observers themselves. Right. But we are also ensuring that we are going to be having trained poll monitors that are there as well. So, you know, it's really important that we be involved in all of the aspects and all of the fabric of this extraordinarily important, right, that we have. You know, if liberty and equality are going to mean anything, it means that people need to be able to put participate in their democracy, and that means they need to be able to cast their votes, have their votes counted, and ensure that these elections are certified properly.

[Joy Reid]

Last question to you, Yasmin. Are you concerned, as I am, that even after, if we get through certification, we manage to get through, and Democratic victories are certified when they happen? Are you concerned that Mike Johnson, who will still be speaker, at least until they turn over the Congress, will refuse to swear in Democrats who win?

[Yasmine Khadr]

Well, one of the things we're doing is, you know, we are involved, as I said, and share concerns that everyone has, that people are not abiding by the rules by which they're supposed to. But one of the things, and this is why our advocacy and our fabric of having people from every state be involved and people from our affiliates be involved in, is that we're going to hold a light very, very squarely and strongly shining into everyone's eyes, that if that type of behavior happens, they will have to be held accountable by the American people.

[Joy Reid]

How do people get in touch with the ACLU if they need help?

[Yasmine Khadr]

I love when you ask me that question. Can you ask me that question at the beginning? Middle aclu.org jump on our website and we are easy to contact. And we would love for people to get involved and get your card and join. Join our effort.

[Joy Reid]

Amen. Look, repetition is power. Once you say it enough times, it gets in there. It has to get in a few times. It's how we learn our ABCs. So we like to make sure we learn our ACLU as well, my friend.

[Areva Martin]

Thank you, Joy.

[Yasmine Khadr]

I appreciate that.

[Joy Reid]

I'm taking that now.

[Yasmine Khadr]

Learn your aclus.

[Joy Reid]

It's yours. I have not patented it, nor have I copyrighted it. It is yours. Learn your aclus. I appreciate you. Thank you. Yasmine Cater. Thank you.

[Judge John Roach]

Thank you.

[Joy Reid]

All right, y'.

[Scott McFarland]

All.

[Joy Reid]

So that's it. We're going to make sure that we get into these elections. And I think the point of having Yasmin on and talking about this and what the plan is, is that we don't want people to be afraid. The worst thing is to give up in advance and to concede in advance that we cannot win these elections because Trump is going to cheat. We know he's going to cheat. We know Republicans are going to cheat. We know they're going to try some shenanigans. But we cannot concede that that means we're going to lose because then we lose in advance. What we have to do is we have to fight in every way possible. We have to fight him in the sun and fight him in the shade, fight him in the polling booth. You have to fight them as a volunteer, as a candidate, if you can, as a voter. You have to fight him by registering. You have to fight them by voting in numbers that they cannot steal, because only close elections can be stolen. It's very difficult to steal an election that isn't close. Close. Those who are concerned that maybe Kamala Harris did win after all, it's because that was so damn close that it would even be possible to steal such an election. That's why you couldn't steal the Obama elections. You know, the right would have loved to steal those Obama elections. They couldn't because they weren't even close. You won by 5 and 10 million votes. It's very hard to steal that kind of election. It's just too wide a victory. Very difficult to do anything about it. You get down to 3 million like Hillary Clinton, and you get to the point where, yeah, you can play some games with it. You get under a million, it gets real tight. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was one of the closest elections in history. Very, very, very difficult to protect an election that's that close. All right, everybody. So we appreciate y' all hanging with us because we're going to try to always give some strategy in addition to the scaring and caring. We figure we might as well give you some strategic insight as well. And the aclu, the ldf, we're going to be talking with the leader of the Legal Defense Fund in the next hour because we're just letting you guys know that we do have an army. We are not without troops. We are not without forces. The whole chat, Jason, is saying they stole it. Gore v. Bush. Right. Bush v. Gore was so close that it could be stolen just by flipping some votes in Florida. And that's why the Supreme Court came in and said, yeah, we want the Republican to win. Sorry, go ahead.

Well, like you were saying, that's why everybody should make sure that we get out there and beat these bastards.

Yes.

There's no other way to do it.

And we're working on some more projects to make sure that you guys know when the voter registration deadlines in your state, that you know when the early vote starts in your state. There are a bunch of early votes coming up, bunch of primaries coming up. Florida, you're up. You're coming up soon. Missouri, you're coming up soon. That's that Corey Bush race. There's a lot of really important races coming up. And so it's not just, you shouldn't just focus on the president. You know, the president gets a lot of attention because they're like the quarterback on a football team, so everyone watches them. But, you know, you can't win a football game without really good linebackers. You can't win a football game, you know, without a really good center, without a really good defensive and offensive line. They're not the sexy positions. People don't pay that much attention to the offensive lineman. But good luck having a quarterback not get his ass sacked if you don't have a good offensive line. You got to have all the players on the team. And so focusing so much on the quarterback can kind of distract you and make you forget that that quarterback cannot win without the rest of the team. And so, you know, the reality is we have to make sure that we're focusing on every race, on this democracy team, all the way down to the school board, state Senate, state reps, members of Congress, House and Senate, and try to win them all and try to block MAGA out of every single office. You want to block MAGA out from every aspect of power. Power. Because at this point, you just have to say all of MAGA is racist. All of maga. The whole ideology is white nationalist. It's white supremacist. And anyone who at this point is still calling themselves a Republican, don't trust them, even if they seem nice. Susan Collins, you know, she seems like one of sort of the least egregiously crazy ones, but she voted for Brett Kavanaugh. She voted to. Yeah, she vote for all of it. She tries to make herself seem moderate, but she's not moderate. She votes for everything Trump wants. She votes for every judge. She votes for every Supreme Court justice.

She gets online like everybody else.

She gets a lot like everybody else. She's. She ain't no damn good. And so look at the I, I was prepared to tell y' all to vote for Graham Platner, crazy ass, but now that he's moving aside, whoever replaces him, just get ready to vote for them as long as they're not an openly apac bomb certifying nut.

I don't know how they're going to navigate this one, but again, because you know what this means. Democratic Party, they have to do it. But apparently the leader of the Democratic Party in Maine has been kind of being saucy, saying, you know, you, you don't have any choice in who we pick and who we go with. And I don't think that's cool because Graham Pat got a lot of people who voted for him, so they should have a say in who's big, don't you think?

Progressives picked Platner, so you need to replace him with somebody who is ideologically the same, because that is what was decided. The, the, the people of Maine, the vote. The Democratic voters of Maine said we want a progressive. They did not say they want an APAC moderate. So the Democratic Party in Maine ought to pick someone who is ideologically the same or ideologically similar as Platner. If you don't and the DNC shoves an APAC candidate down your throat, you have my permission and I'll vote for them. Because the Democratic Party needs to learn that it is not vote Blue no matter who. It matters who. They sometimes need to lose in order to learn. Sometimes when you lose, you learn. And I'm just telling you right now, if they put a little apac, send Israel all the bombs, give Saudi Arabia all the money, let the UAE run over us and give Trump another plane. If, if they put another APAC sellout moderate in place of Graham Platner and they do not put somebody in who is his same ideology, you have my permission to stay your ass home. Then we'll learn when Susan Collins gets six more years. this point, we have to teach Democrats. We need to instruct them and teach them how to treat us. It's like being in a relationship. You got to teach people how to treat your ass.

You know the good thing about it? Six more years, if she gets in, she might go the way of Mitch McConnell.

She'll be, she'll be glitching and freezing, glitching and freezing because they don't never want to retire. Why that old lady. Still, she needs to retire, too. But you know what? Leave her in there. If you, if she older than Mitch McConnell, probably. I mean, at this point, they're all, they're all 100 years old. But the reality is we're going to focus on the races where the people get to choose the ideology of what they want. People didn't pick Grand Platter because of his stupid tattoos. They picked him because of his ideology. Okay? So, yeah, so, yeah, Mitch, please.

[Scott McFarland]

That is.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, Mitch, please. That was. That's what we voted for. We have a little democracy when we decide what the, what the. The title of the shows are going to be. All right, so welcome to hour two of the Joy. Reacher, do Be sure to hit that like and subscribe button and, you know, avail yourselves of the opportunity to become part of the team tjr. As family, we're trying to grow and expand. We want to get to that Magic Number of 500,000. That's our pick pivot on the way to a million followers. We love it, and we love having so many more people in our family. And we love the way that you guys are growing us here as well as on Substack, which is@joann reid.com hey,

listen, we got literally under 29, 000 to get to 500, 000 marks, people. So let's get it in. Get your friends, get everybody involved. We're marching to 500, 000. Let's let it happen.

We've been growing at a pace of about 10,000 subscribers a month, which is pretty good. We can do better. So keep moving, keep going, keep pushing, keep sharing with your friends. And if you hit the little bell, you'll always be notified when we go live. So you never miss it. The lives are fun. It's fun when you get on when we're live. And so we want to make sure that you're there with that as well. If you want to get some fabulous merch, this is my fabulous I'm a reader cup or anything like that. This is the other cup. I always have to have two glasses of water because I'm trying to drink a lot of water. If you want any merch, please feel free to go on shop joann re.com at the end of the show, we'll show you some of our new merch that we have for Freedom Summer, which is very cute. And big ups to our designer Winsome, who also provided the fabulous thumbnail today, and Sean, who is our fabulous merch guru.

Should I put it up?

Don't put it up.

[Scott McFarland]

Put it up.

[Areva Martin]

Let.

[Joy Reid]

Let them see it. Let him. Let them see the thing. So here we go. We have a nice Freedom Summer collection, which is super colorful and pretty, all of the red, black, and green colors and all of the fabulousness. And so we've got a great collection which you can [e-mail] joyreadshow.com and you can get all of that and all the other cutiepie merch if you want to. So also, let's big up. Our sponsor, this hour of the Joy Reach show is brought to you by one of our absolute favorites, because they give you green, and it's not easy being green, but it also is not that expensive. Fast growing Trees. Now, listen, Fast Growing Trees is one of America's most trusted and largest online nurseries with thousands of trees and plants and more than 2 million happy customers. They have all the fabulous plants for your yard, for your home, including fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and houseplants, all grown with care and guaranteed to arrive healthy and gorgeous. It's like your local nursery, but it's not like Home Depot or something terrible like that. It's such a quality positive company, but it's right there. You don't have to leave your house. They bring it right to you. And they have more plants than you're ever going to find at a home goods store. But they're looking for, like, you know, whatever you're looking for. You go on Fast Growing Trees, you put in your zip code and they tell you what kind of plants and trees will be healthiest and thrive the most specifically where you live. Then they deliver those plants or trees right to your door and you can put them in the ground and know that they're going to thrive because they have been picked for your region. Very important, because you don't want to put stuff where they don't belong. And then you're, you know, you have a great green thumb, but if you get the wrong plant for your region, you're just cooked. So this is what I love about them. We have grown, we've bought beautiful flowering trees from fast growing trees and they were acclimatized to where we live. So they arrived to the yard looking gorgeous. And we bought some beautiful cherry blossom trees. And they fit not only the decor and they fit the style of our property, but they also fit the region. So they're going to grow and they're going to thrive. Fabulous. Right now they have great deals on spring planting essentials, up to half off select plants and listeners and viewers of the Joy reach show get 20% off your first purchase. If you use the code joy at checkout, that's an additional 20 off. Better plants and better growing at fast growingtrees.com using the code joy at checkout fast growingtrees.com code joy now's the perfect time to plant, y'.

[Reporter]

All.

[Joy Reid]

Let's grow together. Use Joy to save today. Offers valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. All right, so let's get. Let's quickly squeeze in some international news. The Trump jinx continues unabated, and this time it sunk the awe. The U.S. soccer team are now out of the World cup after Trump intervened. Wait, don't play it yet. Jason he's so excited they're out. After Trump intervened on behalf of birthright citizen Fin Boan who got a red card in the US victory over Bosnia Herzog on July 1 and Trump called FIFA president Corrupto Inventino. I'm calling, I call him Corrupto Inventino to let Bian play. Anyway. Well, thanks to the Trump jinx which previously caused the Knicks to break a 46 game winning streak losing at home in Madison Square Garden due to Trump's unwanted presence, thank God he then went away and they could win the championship. The US team got throttled like absolutely got their asses kicked by Belgium four to one in their worst performance of the tournament after Trump's intervention. Feeling the shade, the Belgian team promptly mocked Trump by performing his favorite dance to his favorite song, the 1970s gay anthem YMCA. Now you can play it, Jason. It's kind of wild that they have so many African players on. They're probably congales the history of Belgium in the Congo, not cute. So I'm not really rooting for that team even though the Africans on it kind of make it fly. But yeah, I'm glad they be. I'm glad I'm and I'll say it again, I'm glad that the USA did not win the World cup because if they'd had, it would have looked like we were cheating because Trump did cheat and FIFA is so damn corrupt. Jesus. So it's probably better, right? But the pain is not even over. Dozens of European lawmakers gathered this week to launch an investigation in the European Parliament of Corrupto Infantino, who could also face a probe by the International Olympic Committee after a human rights group said on Wednesday that they're going to file a complaint. European Parliament lawmakers Betty Barry Andrews, Laura Volters and Nielsen said in a joint statement that FIFA's decision to change the rule on red card suspensions mid tournament is a disgrace and a perversion of justice. Never has this happened that an American president has humiliated the home country this way. So yeah, everything Trump touches dies, including team victories and reputations. Infantino will probably wind up like Rudy Giuliani who we showed earlier in the show, disgraced and alone and forgotten because he gave Trump a stupid made up award and then he cheated for Trump. Speaking of the World cup, the most racist fans, notoriously are the fans from Argentina and they hurled racist insults at popular Twitch streamer. Ishowspeed. Here's the clip again. That's enough of that. And so now FIFA's investigating.

Were they doing this in the United States?

Yes.

Oh, wow. See, you know.

Yes.

They're lucky they do.

They came to our country to hurl insults, calling him a monkey and all sorts of stuff in the United States of America. F them. I mean, Argentina fans are mad racist anyway, so FIFA is now investigating them. They're now investigating Argentina for those racist insults. It's reportedly the second time that iShowSpeed has dealt with racist behavior at the World Cup. During last week's match between Argentina and Cape Verde, Cape Verie, a different Argentinian fan told him, go cry at the zoo. Your periodic reminder that this is where South African immigrant and Palantir co founder and JD Vance sugar daddy Peter Teal is moving to. I wonder why he likes Argentina so much. FIFA announced on Tuesday that's investigating this incident. And this is the statement they issued. FIFA strongly condemns racism, his hate and discrimination in all forms. Do you know these actions have no place in football, in the FIFA World cup, or anywhere in society? FIFA World cup is a celebration of unity, diversity and respect. It brings together people, culture and communities from around the world. And anyone who acts in a manner that undermines these values is not welcome in our game. Okay, There's a lot of racism in football. I'm just saying that kind of football. According to multiple reports, the Argentine Football association, known as the afa, is under investigation now by the FBI. Cash Patel's investigating them and US Federal prosecutors over allegations involving possible money laundering and financial irregularities connected to its business operations in the United States. The investigation reportedly focuses on how hundreds of millions of dollars flow through the American financial system and whether any transactions may have violated U.S. law. I promise you, if this investigation turns up any evidence that Argentina's football association was giving Donald Trump money, that investigation will vanish.

$330 million. Supposed to, allegedly.

And we know what they're investigating, Jason. They're investigating that Trump didn't get a cut. I bet he didn't get a taste. If he didn't get a taste, the

man gave him a peace prize.

He said, why you give me a peace prize? You give me an ugly gold prize. You didn't give me no money.

Exactly. What am I going to do with this piece of shit?

He said, I don't need this piece of. I need some cash. I bet you he looked at that 330 million and he told Cash, get on it. Investigate these people. I want. I want cut. And as soon as he gets paid, as soon as they slide him some money, that investigation will go away. That is my prediction. Because FIFA is corrupt. And so is Trump and so is Cash and all of them. Meanwhile, in other FIFA news, France's superstar striker Kilan Mbappe, who is to me lowkey, the best player in football. He is firing back at a racist senator from Paraguay, describing her as a despicable, despicable woman on Monday after she launched a whole racist attack on him following Paraguay's elimination from the World Cup. Here is what Reuters reported. Mbappe's penalty proved the difference in a bruising and ill tempered match as France won 10 in Philadelphia on Saturday to advance to the quarterfinals. Celeste Amaria wrote a long racist tirade on X Twitter describing Mbappe as, quote, a colonized Cameroonian desperately trying to pass him off as French and a brute who had not learned to write. Paraguay's players, they try to compete with Argentina for who's the most racist. Paraguay's players should have slapped him after the match, she added. Mbappe, the French captain, responded with a strongly worded statement defending not only himself, but also the Paraguay players. And here's his quote. Madame Celeste Amarillo, you are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position. You do not represent Paraguay, that country which has, which has sweated passion and honor throughout the competition. He wrote, through your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players accomplished during this World cup, making way for an incompetent woman who gives the world the worst possible image of her country. So now she's demanding an apology from a bobby for saying that. And he's like, no. And she's trying to say calling people brutes and animals is like, totally not racist in Paraguay. She's like defending herself. She's at a news conference. She's like, it's not racist for us to call black people monkeys where I come from. So it's like, oh, well, lady, you're not getting it. He, he, he, no, he, he, he took you down.

It probably isn't where she comes from, but you know where she's at you

in America where it's also racist. Yeah, but we, but where people can have freedom of speech.

Well, if that's the. Well, you ain't America to have that kind of freedom of speech. But anyway, the point being is. Yeah, don't play it on our faces.

[Janae Nelson]

No.

[Joy Reid]

And racism, racism gone wild, as one commenter said. Absolutely. Trump, by the way, is on his way home from NATO. Speaking of racists, speaking of racists, of the chief racist of the United States. Donald Trump is on his way home from A NATO summit in Turkey. But not in his brand new $400 million Qatar Jet which has the fake library full of like painted covers. You hear about this in the library, Jason. They in his, in his new car jet, they have what's called a library, but it's just literally fake books with the word library written on it. Yeah, it's not. There's no real books in the library. It's just this is library. He can't read.

[Areva Martin]

Maybe.

[Joy Reid]

I don't know if he can read or not, but library. But anyway, on Wednesday the New York Times asked him, what's up, dude? Why you didn't. Why are you not coming back in the fancy plane? Is it the security concerns that everybody have pointed to? Like you, you got a plane from Qatar, it could be full of bugs. Who put bugs in the plane? Not, not insects, but like the bugs that can listen to you?

No, but they apparently stripped the plane down. It's, it's ready. I'm telling you. It stripped it down.

But you know, it's probably the same people who stripped it down and did it are the same people who did the pool.

It cost like 2 billion something dollars for them to do it. But the plane is ready. They talked about it about two weeks ago.

Yeah, okay. You probably use the same contractors who've been doing the East Wing and that up. So it's going to be ugly. So yeah, we know that he embarrassed himself in Turkey. He got ignored when they were doing the family photo of all the non black people who were part of NATO and they were all lining up to do a picture of nobody black being in it. But he did it. And he walked by Georgia Maloney and she looked like, she looked like this George Maloney of Italy. She just pretended he wasn't even there. She ignored him because remember he was trying to say she wanted a picture with me and she's like a you. So that happened. But here he is confusing Iran and Japan.

[Scott McFarland]

I told the story Yesterday.

[Joy Reid]

We had 111 missiles shot by the

[Scott McFarland]

Islamic Republic of Japan.

[Joy Reid]

They were shot at the aircraft. JC poc.

[Scott McFarland]

What a terrible, what a terrible deal.

[Joy Reid]

I call it the Obama nuclear waste deal. Because what, what he did with that

[Scott McFarland]

deal is he caused tremendous hardship in the Middle East. It was a terrible, terrible thing. You have a question for President Putin?

[Joy Reid]

Do you have a question for President Putin?

[Scott McFarland]

Not so much. What would you like to ask him? Because I'm going to ask him that question,

[Joy Reid]

Dude. Donald, Donald. That was Volodymyr Zelensky next to you. That was not Vladimir Putin. I know in your mind you wish it was Vladimir, your sugar daddy, but dementia is a hell of a thing. This dude is clearly gone. He's gonzo. His his brain don't work. His he's gone. Good night. Good night everyone. His brain is cooked. Yeah, he didn't take a nap. He should just fall asleep right there. And you know he does. He just falls asleep all of a sudden spontaneously.

[Scott McFarland]

Dude.

[Joy Reid]

Oh he did it during his the summit while I was having a conversation. He was catching Z's there.

He fell asleep during the fireworks at 1. I mean it was 1am Normally his tweeting time during the fireworks. That by the way, again, looked like World War iii. It didn't. The fireworks didn't even look right. And did I mention, by the way, if you guys check out my sub stack, I have the full list of the performers who were supposed to perform at the concert that wound up getting rained out when all the MAGA had to go and run into the Blacksonian and hide among the black exhibits from the rain. CeeLo Green was on that list and he did a he was going to do a full send up as James Brown. I think I mentioned that. But please read that post and you'll see that the rest of the list the guy from Kiss it was just crazy. But go to Joann Reid.com please subscribe and you'll see the list. It's pretty crazy. Anyway, when Donald Trump does make it back on his normal regular old Air Force One, he will have good news and he will have bad news that he's going to have to face. The bad news is that a federal judge was once again ruled that Eugene Carroll be paid her $5 million that he owes her for defamation and that is the interest for damages from a verdict. That was an $86 million verdict from Donald Trump being civilly liable for sexually abusing her and defaming her. He owes her 86 million total, but a judge has said fork over the 5 million. The order comes hours after Trump's lawyers in a late filing on Tuesday night urged Judge Lewis Kaplan to not disburse nearly $5.8 million to Carol from money Trump deposited with the court to satisfy the May 2023 jury verdict. Trump's lawyer said the money should not be released until and unless the Supreme Court rejects the president's long shot bid for reconsideration again, that he wants to appeal again. It's like, no. The Supreme Court on June 29 denied the petition to they didn't even they didn't even sign it. They just said no. So, dude, pay her. The good news for Donald Trump, though, is on June 30th of this year, the Supreme Court struck down federal limits on the amount of money that political parties can spend in coordination with candidates or federal office. In National Republican Senatorial Committee versus Federal Election Commission, the court ruled 6, 3, and you can guess who the 6 are, that the limits under the Federal Election Campaign act violate the First Amendment. This is as the Republican Party is gearing up to throw the entire book at voters, using voter suppression of many, many types to try to ensure that Republicans maintain control of the United States House and Senate. And I'm sure that we're going to see voter suppression unlike anything we've seen in this country since 100 years ago in the 1920s, which is the mirror of this era. Join me now to discuss the Supreme Court and where we stand in terms of our right to vote is Janae Nelson, the president and director counsel of the NAACP Legal Fund, ldf, the nation's premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. Hello, Janae.

[Janae Nelson]

Hey, Joy. How are you?

[Joy Reid]

I'm good. And welcome back from essence. It looks like you got yourself a cute little brown girl tan.

[Janae Nelson]

Look at it. Yes, I'm bronzed.

[Joy Reid]

Bradley. Glorious. Oh, lovely. So let's talk about where we stand in terms of voting rights. Earlier we spoke last hour, we spoke with the ACLU representative who's going to be fighting in terms of certification of the elections and ensuring that that takes place. Where is the LDF on how we stand in terms of our right to vote and what LDF will be doing to ensure it?

[Janae Nelson]

Yeah, well, you know, the right to vote, as we know, has been challenged. It's been imperiled. It, it has been abused by this court in the latest two decisions, one, Louisiana versus Calais, and then a follow on decision in Allen versus Milligan. We know that across the country, and especially across the south, the votes of black voters in particular has been diluted. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't still have power and strength. And that's pretty precisely why that vote is being targeted. We also know that this administration is trying to limit the ability of all Americans to vote by Trump continually pushing passage of the SAVE act, which doesn't save anybody. In fact, it's a sabotage act. It's an effort to completely undermine our election system and it threatens to disenfranchise, you know, 70 million women who have changed their names and may not have the same name on their birth certificate. It's a show your papers law. It will impact young black voters. It will impact voters across the board. So we know that the right to vote is in the crosshairs of this administration. And one of the other challenges that the Legal Defense Fund has been actively involved in is the preservation of mail in balloting, something that the president and his family enjoys and availed themselves of just, you know, a few months ago, but somehow wants to deny every other American the ability to easily cast a secure ballot by mail and have it counted. So it's a, it's, it's, it's arm to arm combat on the defense of the right to vote. But we're ready for it. We're winning in the courts. We just won a court decision last week out of Massachusetts around mail in balloting. We've been able to beat back the SAVE act with the assistance of so many coalition members and voters who are calling their representatives and saying no on the SAVE Act. We need them to continue to do that. And of course, we are still seeing how we can continue to build political power, even in the aftermath of Calais.

[Joy Reid]

I want to come back to Calais, but I was actually surprised that the Supreme Court for once kind of did the right thing on mail in balloting and whether or not a mail in ballot that is mailed on time but arrives after the election should count. I think that was in Mississippi. So it seems that at least on that, the bad guys, or at least John Roberts plus one, are saying, well, I think it was Robertson. Amy Coney Barrett said that's a bridge too far.

[Scott McFarland]

Far.

[Joy Reid]

Do you expect, despite that, to have to fight, as you said, on hand to hand combat over mail in ballots, particularly cast in Southern states?

[Janae Nelson]

Yeah, because we know, unfortunately, this administration doesn't take no for an answer. They do not want to follow the law. And so we expect that they will continue with their frivolous actions, their lawless attempts to try to limit the ballot, because as Trump said the other day, they want to lock elections up for the next 100 years. They want to make it so that they have gerrymandered, they have disenfranchised, they have undermined the right to vote to such an extent that what we have left are just sham elections that will continue to keep him and people like him in power. But the American people are saying no. Even our courts are saying no when it comes to mail in balloting. And also, if you recall the Watson case this past term, when it comes to counting ballots after they are postmarked and clearly submitted on election day. But roll in a few days later. The court is saying, yeah, those are legitimate balloting processes. They have been part of our electoral system for decades. There have never been any issues. We've used mail in balloting for 160 years. Why are we playing games now? I can tell you why. It's because now black people are using mail in balloting more than they ever have before. Since COVID about 40% of the votes that we cast come in through mail in balloting. And the Trump administration likes to target black voters and is afraid of our vote. It fears our vote quite, quite understandably because of all the hostility that black communities have faced from this administration. And so they want to suppress it. They want to suppress votes from anyone they think might threaten their continued grasp on illegitimate power. And we're saying no. If you really believe in what you stand for, if you really think you have a majority mandate, then let's duke it out at the ballot box and let's see who comes out on top.

[Joy Reid]

So if you live in a state that's been impacted by Calais and you're district lines have been redrawn, and I think the answer to that is that people who live in those districts need to make sure they're voting at full strength to try to still impact both the primary and the general election. Do you recommend, does the LDF officially? Maybe. I don't know if you guys have official recommendations, but at this point, is it the safest bet to vote early? I'm a big promoter of early voting because it's like a test. If there's anything wrong with your voter registration, you can come back. But do you think that at this stage, early voting is in some ways a better bet than voting absentee?

[Janae Nelson]

Absolutely, 100%, for all the reasons that you mentioned. One, get it out the way. Help clear the polls for the rest of the people who may not be able to vote early, but who do have a legal right to leave work for a period of time and in order to vote on election day. So there are some people who may not have that flexibility on a day that isn't election day, but on election day. Our laws require employers to give voters a window in which to vote. So if you're someone who has the ability to vote early, please do so and let those folks who are stuck on election day have an easier time at it. That's number one. Number two, if you vote early, you can actually be a poll monitor. You can take election day and help make sure that our Elections are safe and sound, that voters are comfortably getting into the polls and out without any interference or intimidation. You can link up with black voters on the rise, which is the apparatus that we use at the legal defense fund that links up to a broader election protection program, 1866, our vote. So you have many ways to engage. If you vote or early, you can then be a poll monitor. And then finally, as you said, if you go in to vote early and you find out a, you're at the wrong precinct, B, your registration somehow needs to be cured or there's some other complication, you actually will have some time to figure out how to make sure that you can cast a ballot that will be counted. So absolutely, that is our official recommendation. Vote early only if you are undecided and you need more information and you just don't know what to do should you wait. But I honestly encourage you to figure out who you want to vote for, what you want to vote on, what is most important to you in this critical election. And get out and vote early and bring some people with you.

[Joy Reid]

Amen. I'm a big march to the polls believer. Bishop Barber is a big proponent of do marches to the polls, do bus rides to the polls, do some souls to the poll. Let your church do it. Let your club do it, let your sorority fraternity do it. Go with a group of people because those election what they are calling themselves poll monitors. These right wing poll monitors, some of them are going to be armed in states that it's legal carry. Some of them are going to try to intimidate you. I think you should anticipate some of them will be J6ers or maybe even members of that patriot front group that weren't around in Mass. We don't know who they are. But you don't want to necessarily go alone and you know, just for safety and for confidence and comfort. You know, I'm a big proponent of going of arrive with five. Like Kendrick Meek used to say in Florida, go with a group. Right? I mean I feel like at this point we need to think about it, doing it.

[Janae Nelson]

I think that's absolutely right. I mean this should be a community commitment. So get the folks who live in your building, get the folks who are part of your book club, get the folks who are part of your congregation. Make it a congregation commitment, commitment, whatever it is. I agree with you for safety, but also just for the joy of it. Right? I mean just to exercise our right in community, to make this something that we are doing for ourselves as a group, whatever that group is that you identify with, but make it joyful. Make it. Make it an event. You know, go out to brunch after or. Or, you know, carpool there and back. Whatever it takes to get there and to make it easier and to really feel the power of your vote and the power of participating in democracy. This is a sport. Democracy is an action. And we. If I know how, you know, we do everything. We can do it with joy. We can do it with creativity. So we need to bring that to this process, as dismal as it may feel. You know, we. We can make something really special out of it. And I hope that's what everyone's planning to do.

[Joy Reid]

I'm inspired. We gonna. We need to get some party at the poll merch. We need to make. We should get T shirts and be like, party at the polls. And we should go down the music. We should go, y'.

All.

We should make it fun. That'll make them even angrier, by the way.

[Janae Nelson]

A pole party. Yes.

[Joy Reid]

They hate when we smile. You know, they really hate it when we smile. The happier we are. The manner they get.

[Areva Martin]

They can't.

[Joy Reid]

They can't stand us being happy. They're like these blacks. They just won't stop smiling and being happy. Damn it. We're trying to make them grieve. We're trying to make them upset. And then they've got their friends. Their blue, brown, and little spicy white friends are smiling with them.

[Areva Martin]

Damn it.

[Joy Reid]

The gays are smiling, still happy. They're still gay. What is happening? Make them sad. They're trying. They're just like, damn, we're the only ones who are sad.

[Janae Nelson]

No one can steal our joy. That's the one thing nobody can ever take from us.

[Joy Reid]

So amen.

[Janae Nelson]

I'm looking forward to seeing the line dancing at the polls.

[Joy Reid]

Listen, all of the things y' all do. Boots on the ground at the polls, that'll really. If you want to make mega cry. Your boots on the ground at the polls. They won't know what to do with you. They will not know what to do with you.

[Areva Martin]

Before.

[Joy Reid]

Before I let you go, I have to say that the Chat loves your background. I've been in that office. I'm telling you, it's a beautiful place. People are loving. They're giving you a ten for room rater. Even though room rater doesn't exist anymore.

[Janae Nelson]

Finally.

[Joy Reid]

Finally, you're getting what you deserve.

[Areva Martin]

My sister.

[Joy Reid]

You have earned the 10 for room raider before I let you go. Last question. Are we. It feels to me like as bad as the Kalei decision was, it doesn't seem like the loss of black power will be as extreme as they expected. Am I wrong to think that my being too optimistic, or do we think it's going to be as bad as we thought?

[Janae Nelson]

I think it's going to depend on how we show up at the polls. It really is, because we've already lost some power. That's clear. They've already redrawn lines in places like Memphis and in Florida and Texas and in Alabama, I mean, Louisiana. We know we have already lost some power. That is clear. The question is, are we going to reclaim it? Are we going to rebuild it? Are we going to stop the assault and put a dam up with our votes this November? Are we going to elect a Congress that believes in the Voting Rights act, that believes in the future of our multiracial democracy and that believes in us, that we the people know what's best for us and that we should consent to our governance, not have it manipulated and drawn through gerrymandered lines, through voter suppression laws, that we actually are our own agents in this world, and we deserve a Congress that understands that and will legislate accordingly. So it's up to us.

[Joy Reid]

Amen. Amen. Janae Nelson. That was a mic drop. Janae Nelson, President Director of Council of the NAACP League Fund LDF is what we call it. We gonna party at the polls with today. Listen, listen. We gonna have to start calling her Chocolate. We gonna have to start calling her our chocolate. Our Chocolate Thunder. We gonna have to start calling you Chocolate Thunder. The skin is skin, baby.

[Janae Nelson]

I'll take it. Chocolate anything. I'll take it.

[Joy Reid]

Listen, everybody said they want you to come back and do a beauty influencer segment and come on and just tell me how to get your skin care to our all our skin to glow like yours.

[Janae Nelson]

Thank you.

[Joy Reid]

It's called New Orleans Sunshine. That's what it is. Thank you, sis. Take care.

[Janae Nelson]

Good to see you. Take care, everybody.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you very much. Yes, I know. We all want skin like that. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. She gets a 10 for the room reader. Ample.

The skin.

The skin was skinning, y'.

All.

Thank you, Janae Nelson. All right, so moving on to our last segment. So back in 2015, back when I was in between shows at MSNBC, I became a field reporter and I covered the case of a black man who was found hanging deep in the Mississippi woods. He was found hanging from a bed sheet about 500 yards from the house that he was renting. There had been a skull cap that was pulled over his head and there was no chair or obvious mechanism to get him into the tree. So his name was Otis Byrd. And here is the report, one of the reports that I did for the Artist Formerly Known as msnbc. We're waiting for autopsy results in the mysterious hanging death of an African American man in Mississippi. Sheriff's deputies discovered the man's body hanging

[Scott McFarland]

from a tree in Claiborne County Thursday morning, and they say they're not sure

[Joy Reid]

whether the death was a homicide or suicide. MSNBC Joy Reid joins me now with the very latest.

[Scott McFarland]

Joy, what additional details have you learned this case?

[Joy Reid]

Well, Jose, we've had the FBI now going door to door in rural Claiborne County, Mississippi, questioning and talking with neighbors who may know something about the death of this man. His name is Otis Byrd, and he was last seen by a friend who dropped him off near a casino in Vicksburg, which is about 20 miles from where he was living in Claiborne County. The family then reported him missing on 8th March when he did not return and the body was thenand then it was reported to the FBI, I should say on the 13th of March. So now this has become an investigation that has brought in the FBI. The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is also keeping an eye on the case and monitoring it. It's not known right now whether this was a homicide or a suicide. The federal investigators as well as local authorities are awaiting those automatic autopsy results that you mentioned.

[Scott McFarland]

And Joy, what do we know about

[Joy Reid]

him, about the victim? Well, all that we know about him, he's 54 years old. He did serve time in prison stemming from a conviction for murder back in 1980, but he was free on parole. Now there's some question about when he was paroled. I was told by local officials with the NAACP that he had been out of prison for less than a year and was back living with his family. There are some other news reports that say it was a few years ago that he was released, but he was from Claiborne county, lived there before having served his time. But he did serve that sentence and was now a free man. So that was that case. And it was 2015. Believe it or not, Byrd had been convicted of killing a white woman who owned a store during a robbery in 1980 when he was just 19 years old. And he was, as I mentioned, on parole and after serving a 26 year sentence for that killing. And I can tell you that the black folks that my producer Stephanie and I talked to in Claiborne County, Mississippi, for That reporting definitely believe that Mr. Byrd had been lynched. They believed it. Now, it was one instance we were sitting in a McDonald's talking with some, some brothers, some OG brothers from town. And there was a white gentleman that was a friend of theirs that was in the room. And when they were, when he was there, they were kind of expressing doubt that it was a lynching. But as soon as that man got up and left and left, and it was just us black folks, and they were like, yeah, he was lynch. That's what people believe. But the authorities did not believe it, including the black sheriff, who a lot of folks down there were alleging that his financial donors were related to that family, the family of the woman who was killed. We could not confirm that, but also federal investigators disagreed. They ruled it a suicide. Fast forward to today, and it seems like pretty much every month we have a new strange case involving a dead young black man or woman that gets very quickly ruled as a suicide. Here are some of them you see on your screen. I think his name is Demartra Demartraveon. Trey Reed. His body was found on Monday, September 15, 2025. He was found hanging from a tree on the campus of Delta State University in Mississippi. His initial autopsy report found no evidence of foul play. The official ruling was suicide. They ruled that in September of 2025. You have Juliana Zita. You can see next to her, him. She is 16 years old. Was 16 years old. She was reported missing on April 28, 2026. On May 8, her body was found hanging from a tree on the property of a church called the United House of Prayer for All People in the state of North Carolina. Her death was ruled as a suicide as well. Let's go to the next slide. Here you see on the left end of your screen, Kyle Basinga. He was 21 years old. He was found hanging in a park in Cobb County, GA on February 18, 2026. No evidence of foul play was found. In the middle you have Tanea Nicole Miller. She was 27, just found hanging from a tree in Gwen Cherry park in Miami, Florida on June 18th of this year. On June 24th, her death was ruled a suicide. And then on the end, you see Javion McGee, 21 years old, found dead on September 11, 2025 in a wooded area in Henderson, North Carolina. McGee, who was from Illinois, had been in the area dropping off a shipment at the local Walmart distribution center for his trucking company. He was later found with his back up against a tree and, and a rope around his neck. His Death was ruled as a suicide. Go to the next slide. Nolan Xavier Wells, whose case we're talking about today. This is a young man who went missing while on a boat trip on July 4th this year over the holiday weekend with some friends. He was last seen alive on Horn Island, a barrier island about 10 miles from the Gulf Coast. His friends left him on Horn Island. He's the only black member of this friend group. They left him behind for unknown reasons, took his phone and returned home. He did not return home. According to Sheriff John Ledbetter, quote, from what we understand, he chose to stay there. His death is suspected to be a drowning. Officials at this point do not suspect foul play, but the people, not so much. They're suspecting all kinds of things. Joining me now is Areva Martin, civil rights attorney, legal analyst and host of the Special Report podcast. Areva, good to see you.

[Areva Martin]

Hi, Joy. Good to see you, too.

[Joy Reid]

So let's talk about the fact that I think for a lot of African Americans, it definitely feels like the 2000s are just the 1920s revisited because you're seeing a lot of these cases of hanging deaths. Before we get to the Nolan Wells case, this is not that's obviously not a hanging death. But these previous cases, I think, have really started to get a lot of folks to started a lot of folks to fear that we're kind of back in the lynching era. When you see all these cases, does it concern you or do you think that maybe we're, I don't know, reading too much into it and read. And these are, in fact, suicides?

[Areva Martin]

No, Joy, I think we all have reason to be concerned. I mean, I'm in California. We've had cases involving mysterious deaths of black folks hanging as well. And when you look at what's happening in this country, when you look at the rhetoric coming out of the White House, when you look at what's happening with the maga, Right. And all of the attacks on black folks, and then to have these mysterious deaths happening, I think we should be asking really, really critical questions. I don't think we should assume that these are just kind of coincidental deaths, that these have nothing to do with the tenor in this country and the undermining of black rights all over this country and the dehumanizing of black life. I think that's so important to note how our lives have been so devalued in this moment. And if you are killing someone whose life has no value, then you can see why so many of these cases are closed that they're not investigated properly. And they're never really answers that are provided either to the families or to the community.

[Joy Reid]

And, you know, I think if you think about the 1920s, you know, what was going on in the 1920s. You had, you know, World War I, which is in that sort of, sort of era where you had black men taking up arms and going over to Europe and coming back saying, hey, I want to be treated just like every other heroic soldier that came back. You had a real attempt to squash black voting rights. You had the erection of lots of these Confederate monuments around the country. You had Jim Crow, obviously, going into sort of lynching hyperdrive. Black men being lynched. A lot of World War I soldiers being lynched for being too uppity when they came home with their weapons and their sense of manhood. You had an anti immigrant fervor, a real hatred of immigrants who were considered not white enough from Eastern and Southern Europe and also from Asia. An attempt to exclude Asians from being able to immigrate here. A lot of fear of replacement by what they would consider lower whites and Asians. Like, a lot of the vibe was the same.

[Areva Martin]

Everything you just said could be happy. I mean, it literally could be a book. Is it 1920 or is it 2026?

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, it feels like it was. It's very similar. And it's just a weird, you know, they say I said in the last show that, you know, history kind of happens in 100 year increments. And it does feel like we're kind of in a modern version of the 1920s, including a desire to have very restrictive immigration laws, which is what Stephen Miller wants. He wants the 1924 Immigration act back. And the Klan marching was happening then and now. We just had the version of the Klan that just marched. It's, it's, it's a little eerie. But the Nolan. Let's get to the Nolan Wells case, because this is not a case of a hanging. This is a case of a young man who initially disappeared after being with a group of white friends out in Mississippi on a barrier island. They were boating. He was basically the only black person there. The last person who is allegedly seen with is a young white woman. He. The friends allege he wanted to stay behind and leave his phone, which is weird. And the case is reminding a lot of people of this other case. Just, you could throw up. E5. There was a woman named Tamla Horsford. A lot of people are making this analogy. Back In November of 2018, this woman, Tamla Horsford Was discovered dead in the backyard of the coming Georgia home, where she had been attending a slumber party with other football moms the night before. She was 40 years old. She was a mother of five. The Forsyth county sheriff's department initially ruled the death an accident, stating that multiple blood force injuries that killed her. The multiple blunt force injuries that killed her were related to Horseford's likely falling from the balcony due to acute ethanol intoxication. The second autopsy requested by her family revealed further abrasions to her body. The family's attorney also stated the lack of evidence, the types of injuries, and the mismatched witness account strongly suggested homicide. But the case was set aside. It was ruled a suicide. And people really never talked about it. And a lot of people are bringing this case up again of this black woman who trusted her life to these white friends and ended up dead.

[Areva Martin]

Yeah, we're definitely seeing on social media people drawing a comparison because in both situations, you have African American people who are socializing with an all white group and then the black person mysteriously dies or something happens to them and they're no longer living.

[Yasmine Khadr]

And.

[Areva Martin]

And there's really no explanation. And when I think about Nolan Wells, I mean, think about a group of kids going on a boating trip together, all leaving together, and one kid saying, you know what? I think I'm gonna stay back and I don't even need my phone. How, you know, just how believable is that?

[Joy Reid]

It's not. The phone part is not. You're a parent.

[Areva Martin]

I'm a parent. So, you know, we teach our kids. You go with a group, you leave with a group. So even just the concept that this group would allow him to stay alone, not contact his parents, not do anything like, hey, you know, no one is not coming back with us, anything, that would be just kind of group behavior that happens when people are socializing together. And then for him to turn up dead in this way. My fear, Joy, is that there's not going to be the kind of thorough, in depth investigation that we're not going to ever really get answers to. What happened to this kid? And that is so heartbreaking. My heart goes out to his family, to this entire community. I just can't even imagine getting that call and having more questions than answers. And then what are these kids saying? We haven't heard much from them. I don't know if their families are telling them not to talk. And lawyers have gotten involved with the families of these kids, but they know something more than what's being put out for public consumption.

[Joy Reid]

So what the reporting is, is that the families of the other young men have lawyered up, which is very suspicious. They have. They have obtained attorneys and one of the young men's mom, who is a judge, put out a Facebook post that we read earlier in the show in which she explained why she deleted all of her social media and had her children delete their social media.

[Yasmine Khadr]

So they're all.

[Joy Reid]

And we went and checked earlier today and we posted it earlier in the show. All of them have deleted their social media and there's not even posts. One of the things that I found really odd is that you didn't have. There was one young man that was one of the friends that posted something to the effect of we'll see you soon. Which is an odd thing to post if you know that he doesn't have his phone because he wouldn't be able to respond to that because saying, we'll see you soon, but you guys have his phone. The second thing is that the mom of Nolan Wells is very online. She's a beauty influencer and nurse. She posted a way a trying to get help finding my son post on threads where she has a lot of followers. There were no replies from any of the friend groups saying, hey, this is the last time we saw him. Hey, really concerned about Nolan. Hey, we hope he's okay. Like, there wasn't a response there either. And now all of their threads accounts are also. The content is gone. They've stopped. They've deleted it as if they'd never posted and made all their posts private on Instagram. It is. It's not to say these kids did anything wrong. We have no evidence that they did anything wrong. There is no evidence they did anything to him. It's just the behavior is all weird. And if you had any young people in your life, you know, they don't leave their phone.

[Areva Martin]

Well, you're right. We have no evidence. And there's nothing to suggest that these young people have done anything that's criminal. But what is clear, they're not acting like friends. Joy. They are not acting like concerned friends who now have discovered that their friend is dead. And even when they left him, not to communicate with his family, not to come forward. And obviously these are kids who are being now guided by parents and as you said, guided by lawyers. So I'm not going to put a lot of responsibility on these young people because we know once the adults get involved, things get really crazy and they probably lost the control even to maintain their social accounts and definitely, probably to reach out to Nolan's family. So these kids are probably victims, too. And I hate that the adults, which, you know, happens frequently in these cases, has now have gotten involved, and we. We don't get to hear from these kids who are. I can imagine if he was their friend, they have to be grieving his death as well. And if they have information, I would imagine that they would want to come forward and provide that information. If they didn't do anything, if they're not in any way implicated any kind of criminal conduct, I'm sure they would want his mother and his family to know what happened, at least what they know in terms of the last time they saw him.

[Joy Reid]

It reminds me very much. And I covered the Natalee Holloway case back in the day in Florida, and also the Stepha Henry case, which is one of the first cases that I covered as a journalist. And when Stefa Henry, who was the black woman who. Who disappeared around the same time as Natalie Holloway, but got none of the attention as a young black woman who came to Florida on vacation, vanished, it turned out that a man that she knew down there had killed her. But that was years later. But the Natalie Holloway case was a sensation nationally, and her disappearance was treated as, you know, as it should have been. This poor woman disappeared, but people stayed on it. They wanted to know what would happen. I feel like this case is developing that kind of energy.

[Yasmine Khadr]

And.

[Joy Reid]

And to your point, about not seeing people grieving him publicly, there are a lot of his friends who are posting on Instagram tributes to Nolan. So you are seeing other people that. Not that were not with this group, posting reels about, we love you, we miss you. And it's like, it's just odd that the people who are the last people who saw him aren't doing that. And if they're doing it, they're doing it in privatized Facebook, privatized Instagram accounts. It's weird.

[Areva Martin]

Yeah. Obviously, the lawyers, I mean, and I'm one of them, the lawyers have told the families, say nothing, do nothing, shut down your accounts, make no statements, and just wait this out until the investigation. And I'm sure, I hope the FBI and the other law enforcement agencies that are involved are going to be taking statements. They have to. These were the last people that saw Nolan. So they know something. Now, if they, you know, they may not know definitively what caused his death, but they do have information that at least should be able to help law enforcement tell us a coherent story about what happened to this.

[Joy Reid]

And the autopsy will tell us a lot too about actually how he died. Or let's go to the Carmelo Anthony case. The judge in that case. The new lawyers for Carmelo Anthony who got 35 years in prison for murder for killing another teenager who was he could had a confrontation with at a track meet. The one of the requests is for the judge to recuse himself. His name is Judge Rhodes. Let me play an interview that he did which I think is very unusual for a judge to do after the case closed in Texas within a network called wfaa.

[Reporter]

You could say it was a trial unlike any other. But it means more coming from the judge who's presided many trials over 20 years.

[Judge John Roach]

I'll take it.

[Reporter]

Judge John Roach every time what he said when assigned this murder trial where a jury convicted Carmelo Anthony and sentenced him 35 years. The judge tells us they prepped for this trial eight months out.

[Judge John Roach]

And I know I made people mad, but I'm not here to make them happy either.

[Reporter]

The decision to not allow cameras or streaming was questioned by journalists, even the public. The fight for a limited public seats turned into lines as early as 2 in the morning.

[Judge John Roach]

Yes, it was an easy decision and I'll tell you why. My primary goal in any case is to make sure that the defendant and the prosecution gets a fair trial. Period.

[Reporter]

We asked Judge Roach if not having cameras fed speculation and the many social media narratives.

[Judge John Roach]

I had to do a balance between the media's right to know and to be able to report what's going on because I think that's extraordinarily important. I think it's important that the general public had access to the courtroom and to see what was going on.

[Reporter]

One of those narratives was that the judge knew the Metcalf family intimately. Do you have a personal relationship with the Metcalfe?

[Judge John Roach]

I would know. Mr. Metcalf, prior to this trial if you walked up me and said hello.

[Reporter]

Judge Roach says he was aware of all the noise outside the courthouse. It was his job to make sure it didn't affect the jury. And what happened inside. Did the jury get it right?

[Joy Reid]

Yeah, they did.

[Judge John Roach]

You know why? Because they were picked based upon the law. They listened to the facts. It happened here in this very courtroom and they got a verdict.

[Reporter]

The judge says Colin county should be the model for handling high profile cases.

[Judge John Roach]

As long as I follow the law, I sleep well at night. I don't think it's my job to feed social media or the media.

[Reporter]

We ended our interview asking about his brief interactions with the now convicted Carmelo Anthony.

[Judge John Roach]

He seems like a nice young man who committed a crime. And he understands today, more than any day before today, the consequences of committing a crime like. Like he did.

[Reporter]

This will be Judge Roach's last big murder trial. His service and ends in six months. But he will preside over one or two more murder trials before then and apply these same standards.

[Judge John Roach]

The parking lot won't be full, the gallery won't be full of people watching the case. But we still have somebody who's died and someone accused of doing the killing.

[Reporter]

In Collin County, I'm Joe.

[Joy Reid]

Ben Partaker. So Areva, this is the sort of ground two for recusal in this recusal request. And they make the point that on the, in this Channel 8 WFAA interview that was two days after imposing the sentence of 35 years is on June 11th. The sentence was June 9th. The judge expressed personal opinions about the propriety and correctness of the jury's verdict, the fairness of the trial, and the correctness of the judge's own rulings during trial. Such conduct implicates in Texas code of judicial conduct and the objective appearance standard. It's unusual, right, for a judge to come out and say, yeah, the jury did the right thing and I did the right thing.

[Areva Martin]

So much about that interview is unusual. Let's start with Joy. The fact that this judge imposed a gag order on the lawyers and on the witnesses and everyone associated with this trial. Then he goes out and gives a television interview two days, as you said, after the sentencing. Also knowing that a notice of appeal had already been filed, knowing that there was going to be a motion for a new trial. So the fact that he would make comments about the trial so shortly after, while there were still pending proceedings is extraordinarily unusual and some would say violative of Texas state statutes. And that's why we see both not only a motion for him to recuse himself, but there's also a motion for a new trial. And one of the basis for that new trial motion is the closure of that courtroom. I believe there was like a 10 minute daily admission window for the trial. And one of the big issues in this motion is the fact that this was not a public trial and that the public did not have access, did not have eyes inside that courtroom. And this is a trial that should have been open to the public. We heard that he's retiring in six months or so. So maybe he will step aside, he will recuse himself and allow someone more objective to rule on this motion for a new trial. But this is very troubling behavior on the Part of a judge.

[Joy Reid]

Yeah. And he claims he does not know the family of the deceased young man, but people don't believe him. They believe that there is at least partiality toward that family. And then the other piece of it are is the question of what was actually introduced at trial. Jason, if you could put up E7, you can pull the sound down from it. There is surveillance video that was released as very grainy video, but apparently this sharper video was available and it's not clear whether it was played in court because again, it wasn't a public trial. And this video, a lot of folks are now analyzing it and you can actually see that the two brothers, the twins, the, the, the, the young man who was killed and his twin brother are the ones who confront a seated Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony, you can see he's in a little white light. There he goes and he sits down to get out of the rain inside of a sort of a tarp, a tent. And other witnesses who were there, who were not called apparently say that they saw the twins go and stand over him and they jumped him. They're saying that they were the aggressors, that he was defending himself. More than one person has said this. A white woman who said she was under the tent and a black man who said he was under the tent with his kids. None of that seemed to have come up at trial. It's questionable whether he had a real defense.

[Areva Martin]

Well, lots of questions and issues about the defense that was presented during the trial. And as you know, there's a new team of lawyers that have been brought on for these post trial motions. The motion for new trial, the motion of recru. Recusal for this judge. And I suspect that these lawyers will be involved in the appeal. But lots of questions about what the defense or I should say what. Yes, the lawyer for Carmelo Anthony did the whole, you know, self defense claim or affirmative claim by the attorney not prosecuted well and it's easy, you know, to Monday morning quarterback and to say what a lawyer should have done. A lot of those decisions are made in the moment, they're made as evidence is being presented. But clearly lots of questions about whether there was a full throated defense of Carmelo Anthony during this trial that led to his conviction and now to this 35 year sentence. I am elated to see that there is a new trial team involved, that everything that happened in that courtroom is being questioned and challenged by this new legal team because it's very difficult to accept the outcome. And joy, let's talk about the jury. I mean we cannot talk about this case without talking about the black jurors that were stricken by the prosecution and upon objection from the defense, you know, overruled by this judge. So you have a young black kid on trial in Texas for killing a white kid and a conviction by an all white jury. Too many, too many issues, too many questions to not warrant a very vigorous, you know, post trial motions and appeal of this case.

[Joy Reid]

Areva Martin, thank you very much. Hopefully you'll come back as this continues to develop. There are definitely going to be hearings and going to be developments. So we'd love to have you back. Thank you for very much. I appreciate your time.

[Areva Martin]

Thanks, Joy.

[Joy Reid]

Thank you very much. All right, y'.

[Areva Martin]

All.

[Joy Reid]

So that's it that we, we had one more case we want to talk about. We're out of time. We'll come back and talk about. There's been a National Guard shooting of a, of a person in Tennessee which we will get into at another time. Fatally shot a 20 year old man, the National Guard did in Tennessee. We'll do some more reporting on that and bring that story to you on our next show. But I think it is before we get to our morning of our, our moment of joy, we one more time if you guys want to see our wonderful Freedom Summer shirts, got to make sure we get that in. I got to make sure that Sean and Winnie see that we are are making sure that we show you guys what we've got there at shop the jewelry show.com if you guys want to avail yourself of that. And of course is there any other church announcements, Jason? I think I've made all the church announcements. Make sure you hit. Yeah, we did everything the little bell and hit all.

Exactly. Tell 10 friends about to subscribe so we can get to 500,000 but that's about it.

All right.

Moment of joy is next.

Time for the moment of joy.

[Judge John Roach]

Okay.

[Joy Reid]

Our moment of joy. I figured we really needed something just absolutely adorable. So I went, we went with cute on this. We did cats last time. We love cats. Cats and babies. Those are the things that are always going to make you smile. So our moment of joy comes from one of my favorite follow sites that I follow or I guess content creators that I follow on Instagram. And his name is hello Dimeji. And he's got a an adorable baby.

[Yasmine Khadr]

Yes,

[Joy Reid]

Yes, Daddy, yes. Present fancy.

[Scott McFarland]

Yes.

[Judge John Roach]

Daddy.

[Joy Reid]

Yes.

Daddy, yes.

[Janae Nelson]

The rat.

[Joy Reid]

Oh, that's okay.

Daddy, yes. Snacks.

[Janae Nelson]

Daddy.

[Scott McFarland]

Daddy,

[Judge John Roach]

yes.

[Joy Reid]

Sauce snacks. I'm coming, Daddy.

[Scott McFarland]

Yes.

[Joy Reid]

I'm coming.

I'm coming.

Another.

[Janae Nelson]

Yeah, this.

[Scott McFarland]

All right.

[Joy Reid]

We'll keep moving. Okay, good. He thought he's daddy's little best friend. They ride around everywhere on the bike. There's one where they cook dinner because the mom is out of town. So they go and they source all the food and. And then they make the food. And he just constantly talks to him, daddy, yes, daddy. And he will only respond if he. He says daddy. Then he'll respond to him. But it's so cute. And they just. They go everywhere on this bike. They even. He even has a thing where the baby can take a nap and he puts the thing out and the baby puts his head down. Then he wakes back up and goes, daddy. And he keeps going. It's so cute. You've got to follow them. It's hello, D I e D I m E J. I give them a follow. It will definitely make your day. Super cute. All right, everybody, thanks. Thanks for watching the joy reed show. Hug your loved ones, hug your family, hug your children close and make sure that you know who their friends are and where they going. And keep a weather eye out even if they seem like they're grown, because we want to make sure we protect our babies.

Basically stay woke.

They woke y'.

[Scott McFarland]

All.

[Joy Reid]

Not all friends are good friends. Make sure that you vet a little Vetting never hurts. And also never give up your phone. Love y'. All. Be well. Be on the next. Enjoy Reed show. Good night. Getting back to the basics Grassroot level Let me dig a little deeper with the shovel plenty can't tell the forest from the trees that I'm hard to detect Like a black hole in a dark injustice anywhere it's a threat to justice everywhere let me make this clear I got a bone to pick and I'll never fear the threat of poverty they don't want to talk about it they rap the party so I'm a real talk about it for sure.