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- [00:06]
Joy Reid
Okay. Well, well, well. If it's 6pm, you know what time that means it is. Welcome to the Joy Reid show. Big up to everyone in the chats. I see Karen Stooks early to class. She's gonna get an A. I saw her. Karen Stooks always in the house greeting everyone as they come in the door. Please greet the Lemonheads on their way in as well. We know they are heading on over from Lemon Nation. Greeting everybody that's also on Sub Stack. Big up to our stackers. Big up to everyone who's also paying attention to us on Facebook. Don't get news off there except for us, though. Just be careful. The news you're getting on Facebook, you can get it from us, but just be careful. Don't get it from everywhere. Also big up to everybody that's watching on LinkedIn. I'm still down with LinkedIn is. I don't care what anyone says. I like the word LinkedIn is. I think it's cute. But we're working on it. And big up to everyone on Stitch. I'm also paying attention to the Stitch twitch. The Twitch. I said Stitch. The Twitch chat. The Twitchies on Twitch. They have their own little emotes now. So they can make emotional. They can like make a little. Little happy emotions and stuff. We love that. So we appreciate everybody that's watching. Do not forget. I'm gonna remind you one more time. I see people already talking about which glasses they love. People think people loving the hair. I went into Coco today. I went into. I went into coiled and coiffed today to make sure that Coco could get me all set for the weekend. So I'm all, I'm all laid and. And ready to go. My hair's looking laid and fly. So thank you for the compliments on that. Coco does an excellent job always. So I'll be ready for the weekend. Want to remind you guys, don't forget to vote in our Vontel glasses specs contest. Let's put the QR code up so that you can vote on what which of the three pairs you like the best. And that means just how they look on my face. The shape, the color. Y' all decide which one you want. We're going to let you guys vote all the way through right before Mother's Day, I think that's when we're going to call it, because we want to make sure that you guys have time to think about it. Ask a friend. Make sure also that you're hitting like and subscribe and telling a friend QR
- [02:09]
Co-host/Producer
Code real quick so I can take it off screen.
- [02:10]
Joy Reid
Oh, yeah, grab the QR code. Everybody take a moment. Grab the QR code. Make sure you can vote. You can also just go to shop. Joann reid.com or shop. The joyreadshow.com it's right at the top, and you can just go ahead and click. You can vote. So if we want to decide what kind of readers. There we go. That you guys want us to create. Lots of different shapes, lots of different colors, lots of different styles and vibes. We're trying to figure out what vibe we like the best. I want to introduce a wonderful new sponsor of the Joy Read show, and this one is cool. The Joy Read show is brought to you by our new friends at Blissey. Okay, let me show you guys. This. This is what I sleep in every night. You all can see it. I used it because I literally pop this on my face. I don't want to get makeup on it. This is my go to, and this is my other little piece of go to. Look, I am an insomniac, y'. All. So I rely on the remedies that help me sleep. You know, we. We got to get the right stuff. And Blissy has this fabulous little thing here.
- [03:01]
Co-host/Producer
I was about to say turn that bottle around. What does it say?
- [03:03]
Joy Reid
I'm gonna take it out. I'm gonna show it to you guys. And this is the spray. And this spray, first of all, it smells. Smells amazing. If I spray it now, I might fall asleep. Just kidding. Makes you sleepy.
- [03:13]
Co-host/Producer
Maybe that's what they're spraying. Donald Trump's in. But let us finish this ad before I make jokes.
- [03:16]
Joy Reid
Yeah, absolutely. But it. You know, it's a game changer, because here's the thing. If you have trouble sleeping, it's kind of torture, right? And anything that improves my sleep, I'm gonna be down with it. And Blissy is that thing. Listen, it's not only that, but y' all see my fabulous laid hair. And Coco, my hairstylist, has always been telling me cotton pillowcases will cause your hair to look frizzed out and dry. They dry your hair out, and people think that they can go with satin instead. But satin also dries your hair out and also can dry your skin out. It's actually silk that you should be using to keep your hair laid and keep your hair moisturized and also anti aging. Silk is also anti aging and hydrating and antibacterial. So Blissy offers all of these amazing products, not just this little Blissy that Goes over your eyes and it's a dark. It looks real dainty and cute. But when I tell you this thing, make the room dark, dark. Keep them nice and dark. A little spritz and go on your pillow case and you can spray around to try to get yourself a little bit of a beautiful scent. To try to help you drift off into sleep. They also make an incredible silk pillowcase which is a must if you are sleeping wild and you're not putting a head wrap on. You need to get yourself a silk pillowcase. Blissy has the best ever and they offer. When you use this, you're going to get healthier skin, reduce those fine lines and wrinkles and those little sleep creases in your face. It helps prevent breakouts. It gives you better looking hair, reducing the frizz, the breakage. It preserves your style, your color much better than satin. Silk is natural, cooling, gentler on your skin and hair. And Blissy uses the highest quality silk. It's something called 22 mm m o m m e. It's 6A grade and it's 100% pure mulberry silk. It's also naturally breathable and cooling and hydrating all the beautiful things. And it's hypoallergenic. Also easy to care for. You can pop it, pop it in the machine. It's fully machine washable. Pops out of the dryer looking just as amazing as it went in. It comes in more than 100 colors. I chose this silver because it's soothing. I'm trying to do everything to make myself sleep. I feel like this color is soothing. But they offer lots of different colors. They have a Harry Potter one, they have a Zodiac collection one whatever you want. They've got all these different types. There's over 3 million blissies have been sold. It's found in Vogue, Oprah Daily, Good Morning America. It's one award like 13 times. You get the idea. It's also a great gift. Mother's Day is coming. It is a fabulous gift. Get your mom a good night's sleep. Okay? I'm definitely a Blissy girl. My little silk pillowcase, my go to I even travel with these. I make sure that I never leave this out of my suitcase because I need to sleep even when I'm on the road. Okay? That little spritz, throw them a little mask sleep on my silk pillowcase and I'm good to go. If you guys want to give it a try because you are a reader, Blissey is offering a 60 night risk free, risk free trial plus an additional 30 off when you shop@blissey.com joypod j o y p o d joypod that's b l I s s y.com joypod use the code joypod to get an additional 30% off your skin and hair. Well, thank you. Okay, so let's get to the news of the day. Now, y' all know Donald Trump is not well, right? He fell asleep again at a press conference. Here he is, our work on negotiating international trade agreements. 59 days after we stood in this office and President Trump standing with Albert Bourla from Pfizer, announced the first of the 17 MFN deals, together with our colleagues from the Department of Commerce under Secretary Lutnick's leadership and from the US Trade represent his office. Under the leadership of Ambassador Greer, we negotiated a landmark agreement with the government of the United Kingdom. It don't even matter what the person's saying. He's leaving. And I can tell you a little insider too. Back in the mainstream media, this happened. We had issues where he was clearly asleep and we were told we couldn't say he was asleep. If the White House said he was resting, we had to say the White House said he was resting. Even though that man asleep. I know an old sleeping man when I see when everybody got a grandpa or an old uncle when they fall asleep. That's what it looks like. He's 79. He's fell asleep. Now it could be he's fallen asleep because he was up all night again. Posting on his financially bankrupt fake Twitter, Harry Sisson, a youngin young, very popular podcaster who is actually the right age to be able to stay up all night and then still function during daylight like we all used to do when we were in our twenties. Look at this. He posted all of the posts on Trump's fake. We have to call it lie social. I think we should call it lie social. I hate calling it truth social because it's lies. He demands Chuck Schumer resigns. At 12:18, 12:19, he posts a tweet calling Obama saying Obama tried to overthrow the government in 2016. He then reposts a statement by Senator Mike Lee at 12:22am calling for the filibuster to remove. Then at 12:27, he posts a conspiracy video alleging Obama and Hillary Clinton committed treason. Then 12:27, another tweet from a MAGA account, he repost calling for Obama and Clinton to be arrested for treason. Then at 12:28, literally a minute later, another post calling for treason charges against Obama and Clinton. 12:28 Again, another post, More Treason charges an AI image at 12:29 of a man holding a sign. Then at 1:13, the truly unhinged post, the most unhinged of all, he posts a demand that the 2020 election be, quote, wiped from the books and of no further force or effect. What does that mean? What does that mean? Then he posts about Clint Eastwood complimenting him at 2:43am Then 2:44am About Elon Musk calling the Southern Poverty Law Center a scam. Then he posts from a far right podcast at 2:45. That's when he finally ends his fusillade of posts. This dude is not sleeping at night. So that's why he's sleeping in his presidential meetings. Because he's unhinged. And he needs both medical, physical and mental health. He needs help. This dude needs to be in a hospital, not in the White House. He needs to be at Bethesda, like in a gurney. He ain't well, y'. All. So now Trump was awake enough Thursday night to enjoy a fancy schmancy oligarch dinner with the Ellison Nepo baby who will soon control HBO, CNN, TBS, Comedy Central, the Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, TBS, Showtime and Warner Brothers if the $111 billion merger goes through, which the Warner shareholders have now approved, in addition to what he already is doing to ruin CBS and Paramount. Plus, so the depo baby David Ellison throws this fabulous dinner. And by the way, that deal, which cost $111 billion, that's the deal. It will put $887 million directly into the bank account of Warner CEO David Zaslav. That's why he's for it. So the fancy schmancy Ellison dinner took place at the Institute of peace in D.C. which Trump has stuck his name on just like he did to the Kennedy Center. A guy called Norm Eisen, who we should have on he's really good. He's the co founder of Democracy Defenders Action. He read Paramount's so the invitation came from Paramount to this event and the Status newsletter had a copy of the invitation and they posted it. So Norm Eisen read it. Here is the way it read it read that it is an intimate gathering in celebration of the First Amendment honoring the Trump White House and CBS House correspondence celebrating the First Amendment. Norm Hynesom put it very well. He said this resembles the First Amendment in the same way that a book burning is a celebration of the written word, unquote. Now, speaking of Nepo Grifter Sons, did y' all see the Koussay AKA Eric the dim was gloating on Fox that he scored a massive defense contract so that he can profit off his dad's failed and apparently endless war in Iran. Company's chief strategy advisor, Eric Trump, President Trump's son.
- [11:03]
Katie Fang
Congratulations to you both.
- [11:05]
Joy Reid
Thank you so much for being here. Thanks Maria.
- [11:08]
Jim Acosta
Thanks for having us.
- [11:08]
Joy Reid
Maria. I've never seen a so called journalist congratulate anyone on getting a defense contract. That's a first. So that is your journalism out of Fox. Maria Bartiromo congratulating Eric Trump and his business partner on winning a defense contract for which they will directly profit from Donald Trump's war, which he has said is never going to end. Now hopefully Diaper Donnie will be awake enough to enjoy the other celebration of the First Amendment at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Now Trump has not attended since the following happened to him back in 2011 when he was still just a TV actor pretending to be a successful businessman on the Apprentice.
- [11:50]
Marc Shaiman
My.
- [12:02]
Keisha Lance Bottoms
Hollow as some of you heard, the state of Hawaii released my official long form birth certificate. Hopefully this puts all doubts to rest. But just in case there are any lingering questions tonight, I'm prepared to go a step further. Tonight, for the first time, I am releasing my official birthday birth video. I want to make clear to the Fox News table that was a joke. That was not my real birth video. That was a children's cartoon. Yes, I think it is fair to say that when it comes to my presidency, the honeymoon is over. For example, some people now suggest that I'm too professorial and I'd like to address that head on by assigning all of you some reading that will help you draw your own conclusions. Others say that I'm arrogant. But I found a really great self help tool for this, my poll numbers. I've even let down my key core constituency, movie stars. Just the other day, Matt Damon, I love Matt Damon. Love the guy. Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance. Well, Matt, I just saw the adjustment bureau, so right back at you, buddy. Michele Bachmann is here though. I understand. And she is thinking about running for president, which is weird because I hear she was born in Canada. Yes, Michelle, this is how it starts. Donald Trump is here tonight. Now I know that he's taken some flak lately, but, but no one is happier. No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie And Tupac, say what you will about Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House. All kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example. No, seriously, just recently in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice at the Stage Steakhouse, the men's cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didn't blame Little John or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night.
- [15:45]
Joy Reid
First of all, Obama is hilarious. And it's because he's so. First of all, he laughs at his own jokes, and that is hilarious in and of itself. But also he's so dry that it's so funny. Trump was seething. And so Omarosa Manigold was on my show back in the day. This was in 2016, when I had AM Joel. We had her on, and she said, she told me on set that that moment is when Donald Trump determined he was gonna run for president. Cause remember? And then he kind of fainted that he was gonna do it in 2012. But then he backed down because all the disclosure he would've had to do, including his tax returns, he ended up backing down. But that is when she said he decided he's gonna run for president to show the black man that he could do a better job. Now, what's hilarious about that among all, among the just do the jokes themselves is the fact that that big name on the White House is literally what he's doing, doing to every building in D.C. now, Trump has not attended a White House Correspondents Dinner since then, nor did he ever attend it as president. And he didn't do it the first time because he clearly can't take a joke at his own expense, as you saw. And Trump is so known to be bitchy that in 2019, the White House Correspondents association opted not to invite a comedian at all in hopes of getting him to come. Because a roast by MC Michelle Wolf, who I promise you, I thought was black. And I'm shocked that she's not. I still don't believe her that she's not. Anyway, her rose was considered to be too harsh. Then in 2020, 25, as you recall, the White House Correspondents association, when Trump is now back in, initially had lined up Amber Ruffin, comedian Amber Ruffin, to do the roast, only to fire her soon after when a Trump official slammed her past criticism of the administration. And like a podcast host, she did. So we invited her on our show. That is how she wound up being our first sort of official guest. Right. Because of that. Because she got fired by the White House correspondent. Like, her getting fired kind of was part of what launched our show. Well, this year, the organization supposedly designed to celebrate and protect the First Amendment is protecting our demented president's precious by not hiring a comedian at all and instead having TV mentalist Oz Perlman as the dinner's entertainment. And just days after learning that he would not have to stomach a live roast, Trump broke his boycott and publicly agreed to attend the dinner where he plans, get this, to roast the sycophant press corps that will be assembled before him. I guess he's going to call them piggy and everything to their face again, which he does all the time. But they're not going to get to roast him back. Let me give you his quote from People magazine. Quote, the White House Correspondents association has asked me very nicely to be the honoree at this year's dinner. A long and storied tradition since it began in 1924 under then President Calvin Coolidge, probably his favorite president because he ruined the economy. Trump, 79, said in a tooth social post on March 2 in honor of our nation's 250th birthday. And the fact that these correspondents, which he put in quotes, now admit. These correspondents now admit that I am truly one of the greatest presidents in the history of our country. The goat. According to many. It will be my honor with a capital H to accept their invitation and work to make it. And then this part is, in all quotes, the greatest, hottest and most spectacular dinner of any kind ever. Trump is such a little bitch. I'm sorry, it's just, it's bitch behavior. Meanwhile, CBS under Bari Weiss, who is destroying that place, is continuing to be clown themselves. Get this. They have invited Secretary of War Crimes Pete Hegseth to sit at one of their many tables despite him having replaced most of the Pentagon press corps. He with pro Trump bloggers and podcasters and banning photographers for making him look fat. And just as I prophesied and my team had to acknowledge I was right about this, neither had to say I was right. Newly minted MAGA fading star Nicki Minaj will attend the dinner while Nelly will provide the old soft shoe. I mean, sorry, the entertainment at the after party at Uday. Sorry, Don Jr's private club in dc. Just hope the leash and collar aren't too tight. Oh yeah, and Israel killed another journalist, this time a Lebanese journalist. I wonder if that's going to come up at the dinner that's going to come up at all. Is the White House correspondents dinner. Like are they concerned about that at all? I don't know. Joining me now are we have a couple of journalists who, like myself, will not be at the dumb dinner. I believe that Jim Acosta is here with us right now. We are waiting on Katie Thang to come a little later. Jim. Jim Acosta, hi, Joy. And there is Katie.
- [20:14]
Katie Fang
I've been waiting on Katie Thang.
- [20:16]
Joy Reid
Great journalists who like myself, will not be there. Katie Fang, who recently testified before Congress about the dying freedom of the press and former CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta, both now stars, stars of independent media with Katie Fang News and the Jim Acosta show on YouTube and Substack. Hello, friends.
- [20:33]
Katie Fang
Hi, Jim.
- [20:34]
Joy Reid
Great to see you.
- [20:35]
Katie Fang
You clean up so well. Jim, you're looking dashing.
- [20:37]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
Dashing.
- [20:38]
Jim Acosta
Jim, I'm going to some of these parties. I ain't going to that dinner. Screw that. But I'm going to go to some of these parties because I have a lot of friends in town. And you know, there is something about the First Amendment that we should acknowledge, you know, while we still have it, you know, the free press while we still have it. So I will toast that before he roasts it tomorrow night.
- [20:57]
Joy Reid
You know, and Katie, you know, you testified, you know, before Congress about this and you did talk about how much of the, you know, mainstream media is bending the knee. Say more about what you said in your testimony. And, you know, what are your concerns for the First Amendment, particularly the fact that it's being celebrated now with Pete Hegseth in the room and Donald Trump.
- [21:15]
Katie Fang
Oh, joy, I'd even go a step farther. It's Brendan Carr, the FCC chair, being invited to sit at the CBS News table. The guy who is the Trump lackey who was like, you know, he's the guy who's running around putting all the pressure on all of these media outlets to put up or shut up. Right. I mean, that in my mind is the rank hypocrisy of what is going on in D.C. tomorrow night. My hat off to everyone who is there in independent media and in new media that is breaking bread together and building us a stronger media ecosystem. But the importance of the testimony that I provided, that Jim also provided out on the west coast similarly, Joy, is that, you know, this is happening in broad daylight. They've decided that being on the down lower, insidious about it is not the way they have to go. Why? Because they have rigged the system that they have made it an official platform of this administration to silence opposition. And what better way to do it? By doing mega merger consolidations where all of these companies are then below only one controlling person or persons like the Ellisons, who are clearly in the pocket and a pay to play, you know, energy with Donald Trump or. And why not let somebody like Brendan Carr create us a scheme or an infrastructure that operates only to be able to create a state run propaganda arm through mainstream legacy media. That is why what we do here together is so important. I did a conversation with young Adam Mochler today who's also one of our bright young independent media stars. And I will tell you, they're going to come for us next. So we gotta be ready and we have to be standing strong right now.
- [22:59]
Joy Reid
Yeah, I mean, Jim, this is, this, this weekend to me is roughly at least the official dinner. It is roughly like inviting an arsonist to a firefighters convention. Right? I mean like what they're really going to do inside of that official ballroom is celebrate the Project 2025 total defeat of the mainstream media. They have cowed them entirely. The fact that CBS News, which paid Trump, ABC News, which paid Trump, they're gonna sit there. Journalists who've probably been called piggy and fat and stupid by Trump are gonna sit there and having to applaud in front of their bosses while these same people literally rub their nose in the fact that they own them, that they know it. Katie is absolutely right. Brendan Carr knows he can just tweet and cow any media company.
- [23:50]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. No, that's why I've called this the White House capitulation dinner. And you know, I think that, you know, to some extent, you know, we have to give the reporters and journalists a little bit of a break for going to the dinner because it's their bosses, it's these media companies. You know, can you imagine being a reporter at a certain network and you say, well, I'm going out of, I'm not going out of protest. You might not keep your job for very long, you know, that kind of a thing.
- [24:14]
Joy Reid
So.
- [24:14]
Jim Acosta
But my concern is, and it's exactly what Katie was saying a few moments ago. I mean, when you talk about the Paramount WBD merger, we have the potential in this country for seeing a propaganda. Sorry guys, that was Duke.
- [24:26]
Joy Reid
Duke, Duke, Duke.
- [24:29]
Jim Acosta
Duke just came in. Sorry. We have the potential. I'm heading off to a party, so I'm just doing this on the fly. But no, we have the potential for a propaganda giant emerging in this country. Paramount and WBD coming together under the Ellisons, under an oligarchal family, to control what people see and what they read on these digital platforms as well and in what they hear as well. And it's just not American. I've been saying this all week long. This is un American, what they're trying to do in this country. And what's stopping a Paramount WBD giant from gobbling up ABC or NBC next? I mean, this is. It's right out of Project 2012, 2025. You're absolutely right, Joy. And I think Donald Trump is going to come in there tomorrow night, he's going to spike the football. He's going to try to rub it in everybody's faces and say, look what I've done. I forced out these anchors and these hosts and Stephen Colbert and so on. And my sense of it is, is that when he starts trashing the press in that moment, what people ought to do, and I've called on the journalist to do this, is to get up and walk out. Don't give him the. Don't give him that satisfaction. Now, the bosses there may not like it very much, but we got to stand on principle. And the free press means something in this country, and he's just trashing it each and every day.
- [25:39]
Joy Reid
Yeah, to your point. And just. Look, I can speak for myself, but, Katie, you and I both work for the same company. The way that the White House Correspondents Dinner. Just give y' all some tea. Let me take y' all inside. The way these. There we go. A small number of people get the invitation. So back when I was at the grio, everyone wanted to go because it was nerd prom, especially when Obama was president, everyone wanted to go, but only a small number of select people would get the tickets. And the network would have like 10 or 12 or 30, 10 seats or whatever, 20 seats, maybe two tables. And it was like, coveted. And so it's like you're so happy when you get the chance to go. Now, you generally don't get to bring your spouse, so your spouse has to go and, like, sit at the bar while you're in there. It's like being dressed up but still at work because you're just with your work friends, at least the way it was at our network. I don't know if it was like that for you, Jim, but the idea. And usually when you go, you are sitting at the table with your boss because the bosses get to go. And so you're at one of the bosses, someone at your table is a network president or a network vice president. So you would have to get up Katie in front of them and walk out. And they're trying to salvage their access to the White House. So that's like a huge amount of pressure.
- [26:53]
Katie Fang
Yeah. And listen, I mean, it's. It is an unenviable position to be in. And I think, you know, you're. But you're not under an obligation to go. Cough, cough. I don't feel well. I'm not going to go. I mean, I don't know what to tell you. It's a very difficult thing to do. But I will say this in maybe in our collective defense. Joy and Jim, when we went, it was different. Donald Trump wasn't there. Right. Like, he was not there, and Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller not there. I mean, I want to underscore something right now. This is an entirely different fucking time. Like, that is part of the reason why, you know, to Jim's point, you know, it will be hard to do it, but when he sits there and he starts doing that rambling, brain addled, you know, dementia laden, like, you know, the weed read.
- [27:45]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [27:46]
Katie Fang
What are you going to do? You know, Like, I mean, you just got to get up and get the hell out of there. I mean, I just. What did I hear, too? Maybe you guys can correct me if I wrong, but the version of protest and opposition tonight is wearing a handkerchief. Or tomorrow night.
- [28:01]
Joy Reid
That's your boy, Jim. Jake Tapper posted a picture of a handkerchief people could wear, and people were like, dude, how about not going? Like, I found that very embarrassing. Nothing against Jake Tapper, but seriously, a handkerchief, that seems so.
- [28:16]
Jim Acosta
I mean, Donald Trump laughs at handkerchiefs and lapel pins. I mean, and this is a guy who says, I'm going to wipe out your civilization. I will say one thing about the dinner tomorrow night and the fact that he's speaking there is at least he'll be awake.
- [28:28]
Joy Reid
At least he'll be.
- [28:28]
Katie Fang
You know, I don't know about that.
- [28:30]
Jim Acosta
I think all those naps that we saw on camera this week were so he could rest up for the speech on Saturday night because he's so sleepy,
- [28:37]
Joy Reid
he's going to be up the whole night before tweeting, oh, my God, Jim Acosta's not going to be there because
- [28:42]
Doug Jones
I got him fired.
- [28:44]
Joy Reid
He's going to do that at, like, 4 in the morning. Like, I got Don Lemon fired and everybody's fired by. And he's going to go nuts. And, like, oh, yeah, they're not. This is the other thing. I mean, his approval rating. I just, we have these disapproval ratings. He is the most unpopular president since Donald Trump.
- [28:59]
Guest/Interviewer
Yes.
- [29:00]
Joy Reid
Popular president. And if you look at. This is a 8. And if you just look at where the trajectory is going, his unpopularity just going up, up, up. He's in the 30s. And this is in polling average. This is, this is bad, right? It doesn't get better. You can go across this little line. Gender, rage, age, it doesn't matter. It's getting worse. And then if you do the comparisons, Jason, this is a 9. If you compare him to the first time that he was president, it's far worse. He's literally at the bottom. And yet he is. It's impossible for us to imagine journalists covering him the way journalists used to say on a routine basis when President Obama was in the 40s. He's a deeply unpopular president. Deeply unpopular president. I would hear this every day. He's never really gotten the full brunt of this. Jim, CNN does a pretty decent job of reporting on his poll numbers. Harry Enton does his like, excited Harry Enton thing. But it's very rare for people to really lean in to just how hated this guy is.
- [29:59]
Jim Acosta
No, it's so true. And if you want to, hey, I'll take you on the ride with me down to this first part. I'm going to the Australian embassy because they actually support us here in the press. But I think that Donald Trump is heading into Jeffrey Epstein tier. He's about as popular as Jeffrey Epstein right now. And, you know, I think that's part of the reason why we're seeing him lash out. And back during the first term, I used to describe it as the three M's, the Mexicans, the Muslims, and the media. And when he gets backed into a corner, when his pants are on fire and he can't get out of the situation he's gotten himself into, he starts to attack the press. And it works with his base. And to some extent, I'm glad that the American people, that the world is gonna see Trump acting in this fashion tomorrow night because people need to see what this looks like unedited. And of course, he's going off the, off the script. So unscripted, to some extent, he is going to be, he's going to be totally nuts is my guess. And people need to see that because what's happening in the media right now, and I, Katie and I, you and I, we've all talked about this. There's so much sane Washing and normalizing of Donald Trump's behavior right now in the mainstream and legacy press that people don't get to see it unvarnished, you know, the Vegas act, as it were. And so, you know, this is going to be him unhinged. And it might be, it might not be full blown truth social Donald Trump, but it's going to be pretty darn close. And it ain't a pretty sight. And this is, this is where we are. This is where we are right now as a country. We are trapped with somebody who is totally out of control and probably out of his mind.
- [31:29]
Joy Reid
Yeah, he's Kim Jong Un, basically. I mean, and the other piece of it, just to kind of bring this to a close. I know you guys got to run, but.
- [31:37]
Keisha Lance Bottoms
Yeah.
- [31:38]
Joy Reid
Ash Patel, Katie, literally had an. Had the FBI under his control investigate a reporter because they did a story about his girlfriend. Like, this is where we're at. And now he's suing the Atlantic. And the Atlantic reporter is doubling down and trying to.
- [31:53]
Katie Fang
Basically, she's publicly doubling down. She has been very clear, she has gone on different outlets to make it very clear that she has well sourced this. And she, she's like, we got good lawyers. Bring it. And this is going to be a fascinating, fascinating battle royale, Joy. Because as we all know, assuming Cash's lawsuit survives the motion to dismiss stage, which there's Duke. Duke's not going with you, Jim.
- [32:16]
Jim Acosta
Duke's not coming with me. No dog, apparently. No dogs.
- [32:19]
Joy Reid
We need Duke on camera. Before you go, Jim, we're gonna let you know if you show us. Dude, tell him you want to go. He wants to go.
- [32:30]
Jim Acosta
He says, this black tie I got, I got my tuxedo in the, in the back.
- [32:33]
Marc Shaiman
No problem.
- [32:34]
Jim Acosta
I know there's a little.
- [32:35]
Joy Reid
Dude, go ahead. Go on and go to your party. Have a great time.
- [32:38]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
Bye.
- [32:38]
Jim Acosta
Thanks, guys. My date's leaving me, so I have to go.
- [32:42]
Joy Reid
No, don't date. Duke should be the date, too, but go on. Bye. Love you, man. But before I let you go, Katie, if you could finish your thought. And I also do want to very quickly take advantage of you being a fabulous attorney and ask you what you make of this SPLC lawsuit.
- [33:00]
Katie Fang
But I was just about to say really quickly on the Cash thing, Joy, you know what's really important is the following. So. So you know Frank Fugliesi. Remember, he's this national security, you know, FBI counterterrorism guy.
- [33:12]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [33:12]
Katie Fang
So he got sued by Cash for defamation. He moved to dismiss, and the motion to dismiss is granted. So Cash lost. So it's amazing because the Frank Figluzzi stuff was referenced in Cash's lawsuit against the Atlantic and against Sarah Fitzgerald. And so assuming it even gets past the motion to dismiss stage, we all know what that discovery is going to be like, right? That discovery process is going to be delicious. And so I, but, but what do we see, honestly? And we're kind of. And it's the perfect dovetail to the SPLC lawsuit or, excuse me, indictment. The weaponization of our judicial system. Right, the weaponization of the legal system. That is a tried and true Trump move. Let me just sue your ass. Let me sue cbs, let me sue abc. Let me sue the Wall Street Journal. Let me sue the Times. Let me sue everybody.
- [34:03]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
Right?
- [34:03]
Katie Fang
That's his jam. And seeing Cash Patel mimic that is just another way of him trying to basically kowtow and do what he thinks his cult leader does. But this SPLC indictment is so alarming because it really is the real life now, real time version of them trying to go after the nonprofits and the organizations that are, that are there to be able to fight for the oppressed, the infringe, the disenfranchised. And the SPLC as we know, has been around for decades fighting against white supremacists. And this indictment that's been returned is fatally flawed. I mean, the motions to dismiss. Abby Lowell, our good friend Abby Lowell is going to be representing the splc. But they're to trying traveling under these charges of wire fraud and bank fraud. But there are critical elements of it that are missing. Specifically when you allege fraud, Joy, you got to have some specifics, right? You can't just be like, I was defrauded. Well, how well I'll eventually get to it. You can't do that. Which makes me wonder, Joy, what was the presentation by the prosecutor in the grand jury room to get that grand jury to return a true, true bill, meaning to return an indictment on those charges. I love the fact that the Trump DOJ wants to continue to step in it and going to toe to toe with somebody like Abby Lowell is a bad idea.
- [35:29]
Joy Reid
It's a bad look. It would be like going to toe, toe to toe with a Katie Fang who would take them apart in court. And I would live to see it. Katie Fang, thank you very much, my friend. I will see you tomorrow morning. I'm letting you guys know that tomorrow morning Katie and Jim and I will be back together again. We are promo. This is our soft promo for joining us at 10am to roast the roast. Please tell Us what that's going to be like.
- [35:51]
Katie Fang
Katie, listen, I couldn't think of better people with whom to spend some time on Saturday morning, which is the actual day of the White House Correspondent's dinner. We'll get a little bit more into that tea that you shared a little bit ago, Joy. We're also going to be joined by a special guest, our good friend Wajhat Ali. It's going to be spicy. Let's get our Saturday morning started. But it's also going to be showing some support for independent media. We'll be doing it on Substack Live together. But also to really just call out the hypocrisy because it's pretty damn rank. And you know what? I'm over it. I'm honestly over it, Joy. I am.
- [36:23]
Joy Reid
Girl, girlfriend, listen, we need to talk about this over drinks. I'm gonna have a mimosa ready and I will be right there with you. Katie Fang. Appreciate you good says thank you. I will see you at 10am tomorrow morning. Bye. Bye. All right, y', all, please subs. We're going to do it on subject substacks doing a party this weekend. YouTube are doing parties. The independent media are here. We out here, we outside like the kids say. All right, let's take a little quick ad break. The Joy Read show is brought to you by our friends at 120Life. Okay, now listen, here's the thing. You have to keep, you have to be real about this. There is a quiet health problem that damages your body every single day. Most people do not know what's happening. And it is high blood pressure. You don't feel it. You can't tell you it happens. You don't know it's happening to you. But it is the number one risk factor for mortality. Okay? Half of all adults, that's one in two people have high blood pressure. And here's the thing. If you don't know your blood pressure, you have a challenge because you won't see it coming when it impacts you and sometimes in a very severe way. So stop guessing. I highly recommend that everybody have a blood pressure machine in your house. If you are over 40, you got to have one because you should know your numbers, right? And the other thing you can do is to start to adjust your lifestyle, do things that take in healthy things into your body that can help bring that blood pressure down. 120 Life is one of those things. So 120 Life is an incredible functional beverage. They offer a 14 day experiment, right? And they say just try it for 14 days and see if it brings your blood pressure down. If it doesn't, they'll give you your money back. It's just a once a day functional drink. It's got ingredients that help support healthy blood pressure. It's not a pill or a stimulant or like a trendy wellness gimmick. It's a drink. It's a drink that tastes great, it's refreshing. It's made from a blend of super fruit juices, and it fits into your real life. It's great if you're a gym. If a gym rat, or you're just getting up in the morning and doing tai chi, which is my new thing, and it's just incredible. And if you do the powder version, which is here, it actually is very super low sugar. It's only got one gram of sugar, which means you can also support that low blood, that blood sugar as well, which is also another issue. It's a great natural tool. It's used in clinical settings. You're gonna love it. If you want to try it, go to 120life.com, that's 120life.com, use my code joy or the code reed R, E, I D and they'll give you 20% off. So just try it for two weeks, risk free. If your blood pressure doesn't come down, they'll give you a full refund. So just go to120life.com, use the code joy or read to save 20%. Don't wait till next month. There's nothing to lose except your blood pressure. High blood pressure. Okay. Use the code joy reid, 20% off at 1twentylife.com. All right. These statements have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure or prevent any disease. All right, now let me remind you guys. Do you guys remember when this happened? County elections officials are reeling after the FBI seized 700 boxes of data, including 2020 election ballots, at a Fulton county elections warehouse in Union City.
- [39:09]
Keisha Lance Bottoms
All I know is that as long as those boxes had been in the control of the county in this facility, that they were safe and that they were secure. And all the votes and everything contained therein were safe and secure. The fact that now they have been removed from this facility after out of our control, we don't know where they're being taken. We don't know what's going to happen to them. So we can no longer, and I can no longer as chair of this board, satisfy not only the citizens of Atlanta, but the citizens of the world that those ballots are still secure.
- [39:47]
Joy Reid
The FBI obtained a warrant signed by a judge before conducting the search. The search and seizure was top of mind for lawmakers at the state Capitol on Thursday. It has been more than five years
- [39:59]
Katie Fang
since Trump lost Georgia, a fact that
- [40:03]
Joy Reid
has been verified time and time again. And let me speak directly to the
- [40:06]
Katie Fang
voters of Georgia who need to understand the significance of this moment. Yesterday's raid on Fulton county is not
- [40:14]
Joy Reid
about the 2020 election. It was never about the 2020 election. This is all about the 2026 election and beyond.
- [40:23]
Guest/Interviewer
I have faith in our justice system.
- [40:26]
Joy Reid
I have faith in the process that we put together and put in place in this nation and in this state to make sure that judicial matters are handled in the proper way. What we saw yesterday was the lawful execution of a lawfully obtained federal search warrant that was signed by a US Magistrate court judge. FBI agents have not said what they plan to do with the materials they got from the warehouse. And while Trump has questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election after losing Georgia, multiple audits have found results to be accurate. On Thursday, Pitts did not disclose the next steps for the county, but says that Fulton will fight with every resource they have.
- [41:08]
Keisha Lance Bottoms
This is by no means over. This is by no means over. And we're grateful for everyone around the country who is in this fight with us.
- [41:19]
Joy Reid
Do you guys mind me asking what these are? We're senators who represent Fulton County. I'm just curious. Do you know what evidence you're collecting?
- [41:28]
Co-host/Producer
I don't.
- [41:28]
Guest/Interviewer
I haven't read any of these yet.
- [41:30]
Marc Shaiman
Okay.
- [41:30]
Joy Reid
What's. What's the point of the search, do you know? Can you tell us what types of documents you're trying to get? We can send over. You can refer any of our questions to the public affairs officer, sir. Okay. She should be on the front side of the building. Okay. At least she was. All right. Okay. Thank you, Pao. Thank you. And that was just the beginning. Georgia now finds itself in the middle of another set of Trump tomfoolery, as he did seize those ballots there, but then also went to Arizona, then went to Michigan. And this is a sort of state by state drive to, as you heard in that video, to impact the future elections. That's the only thing that makes sense. This. While in the state of Georgia, you've got one of the senators, John Ossoff, up for reelection. This is a pivotal state going into the midterms. So we decided to turn to somebody that's got a nation, a nation, a national, and a statewide and a Fulton county perspective. So let's turn to somebody who knows Georgia well, former senior advisor to President Joe Biden, former mayor of Atlanta, now running for governor of the great state of Georgia, Keisha Lance, Bottom she is the author of a new memoir, Let Me hold it up. Here it is. It is called the Rough side of the Mountain. We're going to ask her about that in just a moment. But Keisha Lynn's Bottom Let me start by asking you. There you go. Do we, do we have any idea, do y' all in Georgia have any idea what happened to those ballots?
- [42:48]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
No. Joy, thank you for having me. We have absolutely no idea. And early voting begins in Georgia, Monday, April 27. So we we've got quite a mess going on right now. We've got a rogue elections board. We had a law or a law was passed by Republicans a couple of years ago removing QR codes from voting. The legislature has not resolved that issue. So that's still up in the air. Just even the, besides the integrity, the legality of the upcoming election. And it is, it is just beyond comprehension that we are still talking about 2020 in 2026. And in 2026, there are going to be questions about this election because there are so many issues that haven't been resolved and so many questions that haven't been answered.
- [43:42]
Joy Reid
I mean, Donald Trump, you know, in his overnight tweeting fusillade, in which, I mean, I swear that meant he needs to be in a hospital, one of his many, many, many tweets was to say that he wants the 2020 election to be declared null and void and of no further effect, which I don't even know what he means by that. I mean, he's literally attempting to erase the fact that the 2020 election happened at all. He wants it to be somehow noted for the record that he did not ever lose any election ever. I mean, this is unhinged, right? You worked for a president, President Biden, who journalists like Jake Tapper and others hounded about his mental health, hounded about his cognitive health. When you look at Donald Trump, which of the two of them do you think had worse cognitive health?
- [44:24]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
Well, Donald Trump's baseline is not sane. So that creates its own set of issues. And on top of that, you know, I was, I was mayor of Atlanta during the Trump 1.0 administration. So there were at least reasonable people somewhere in the room. Our politics may have differed, but they were reasonable people. By all accounts, the biggest concern that should be for all of us across America is there are no checks and balances, not just with Congress and with the Supreme Court, but also with the people who surround him. These are all yes men and women who don't care anything about the Constitution. They don't care about normalcy in this country. And it seems to be that their goal is to take us back centuries, just even in the way that they allow this man to govern on a daily basis.
- [45:20]
Joy Reid
You know, I would and I would say the same thing about your the current governor of the state of Georgia. He gets a lot of credit for not committing crimes for Donald Trump. That's a sort of low bar that he wasn't willing to commit felonies for Donald Trump and try to snatch back the election in 2020. But he seems to have taken Georgia backwards when it comes to the right to vote. Georgia was always known as the state too great to hate or too busy to hate. And the sort of the milder southern state that was a little bit more progressive. Black people are actually successful and allowed to sort of thrive and flourish in Atlanta. But the governor of Georgia has been a hardcore anti voter governor like he's been very ostentatiously anti voter. Do you think that that makes it challenging with the election that you're now in, you're running for governor? Has the state been set up to try to force a Republican victory across the board?
- [46:13]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
You know, it's really disappointing because there have been some things that Governor Camp has been more moderate on, some things that we've even had the opportunity to work together on. So it has been really disappointing on this issue that he has been so far right. And even before this raid in Fulton County, a lot of people didn't realize that a couple of years ago we had motor vote. We do have motorcycle motor voter registration in Georgia, meaning that when you go and get your driver's license, you can automatically register to vote. It was turned off for a year and a half and they blamed it on a computer glitch. And we know the the stories of what he did as secretary of state. So when it comes to voting rights, he's not been the leader that we need him to be in this moment. And this is why in this election season, Joy, I'm telling people we don't want to have just over 11,000 votes separating us this go round these midterm elections. We got to show up in record numbers and we've got to make sure that our voices are heard because and even when we talk about Fulton County, a Republican president has not won Fulton county since Nixon. So Trump lost Fulton county by over 200,000 votes, but that's still not deterring him.
- [47:33]
Joy Reid
Yeah. What would you do differently as governor?
- [47:36]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
What I would do differently as governor is make sure that there is an independent, a truly independent election board of integrity. The election board shouldn't be a rogue election board that's just off doing its own thing to do the bidding of Donald Trump. We need an independent agency. There's an opportunity. The appointees to the election board happen ever to, you know, ever so often in, in terms of their terms. But the governor does have an opportunity to appoint. And to the extent that those appointments are coming from the legislature, if they are extreme election deniers, then as governor, I won't sign off on those appointments. You know, to be the number one state in business in this country and then to have this embarrassment, this election cycle really is a travesty. And I'll, I'll just say this. Even when Delta Airlines a few years ago stood up and issued a statement regarding voting rights, the Republican controlled legislature threatened to take away its gas tax credit. This is a major employer in our state. So they're not honest brokers.
- [48:48]
Joy Reid
Yeah, you also. Georgia is also the home for the center, the home to the Centers for Disease Control. And I'm sure that you saw the really insane testimony by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In which he brushed off the idea of maternal mortality, of black maternal mortality being at very high rates, like higher than countries that are not considered developed nations in some parts of this country. And in Georgia, black maternal mortality, it's gotten worse since the passage of that six week abortion ban. What do you make of the way that healthcare is now proceeding in the state of Georgia? I know that it's been a challenge keeping rural hospitals open and black women have died because they can no longer access abortion care.
- [49:34]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
They have. We've had nine rural hospitals to close in this state. In more than half our counties, we've had more deaths than births. And because Governor Kemp didn't like the resort, the results of the maternal mortality review board, he disbanded the board. So rather than continue to receive information that could help us, he's made it even worse. It's like he didn't want to hear any bad news. And you're right, there are women in this state who have died. We've heard these horror stories of care and questions regarding the care. Was it related to the six week abortion ban? With doctors being afraid to proceed as they normally would for fear of a prosecution? This literally is life and death in this state.
- [50:24]
Joy Reid
Yeah, let's talk about this book. So here it is. I'm going to hold it up again. Tell me about it. And why did you title it the Rough side of the Mountain A Memoir? So I'm assuming this is you on
- [50:35]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
the COVID That is me. That six or seven year old me?
- [50:40]
Joy Reid
Yes. I love the pigtails. Talk about your life and what will we learn about it in this book?
- [50:47]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
So Joy, this was really a love letter to my family, to the people who raised me. And when I started writing this book, it didn't have a title. In fact, I envisioned this book as something completely different. I wanted to write about these one liners. My mother always gives full of wisdom and I was going to write a series of essays. And then in working with my book agent, when I began to tell our story, they felt that it was a compelling story to share. And I'm so glad that I was able to write it. I started off writing talking about my dad, Major Lance, who was a big R B singer. As he used to tell me, baby, I was a really big deal. He gave Elton John his professional start in music. Open for the Beatles, influenced a lot of artists. Charlie Wilson has said he was one of his biggest influences. So I started off talking about his arrest when I was 8 years old. So that little girl on the COVID was a very happy, privileged, sassy little girl. And when my dad went to prison, I came home from school watching him being led away. It changed everything about our lives. I've talked about that publicly before, but I've never told our story in its totality, what it meant for us, how we, you know, went from this privileged life to my mother struggling, working three jobs. I write about bringing the buckets of water home from her hair salon when the water was turned off to flush the toilet. I talk about my eating disorders, being molested by a neighbor. I talk about this all. All of these things that at various moments I thought would break me. And as my grandmother used to say, you just keep living. And for me it was realizing that Saretha Franklin said, the smooth side of the mountain doesn't give you anything to hold on to. It's the rough side that lets you climb. And I talk about hiding parts of myself, thinking if I presented my whole self that people wouldn't think I was enough, that I was good enough to have a seat at the table. So I'm so grateful. When I wrote this book, Joy, I said if nobody else but my family read it and it made them proud, then it that would be enough. But I'm finding that people are finding their stories in my story. And a woman said to me last night at our book signing in Atlanta that she wept the entire time she read it. And she said for the first time she felt seen. It is exceeded all of my expectations.
- [53:24]
Joy Reid
You know, the thing about writing a book right, is it's a very painful and difficult process. And for you, especially a memoir where you're telling painful truths, it's very difficult. But that is the reward, isn't it? Is that there are other people who see themselves in your story. You know, as you were speaking, I was thinking about, you know, back in the day, I interviewed Stacey Abrams about her memoir, her first one, first book, where she talked about where her desire to run for governor came from. Being that little girl who was turned away at the governor's mansion and told she was not supposed to be there. Do you have a similar kind of something that says to you that that little girl in pigtails who had so many challenges and, as you said, went from the smooth side to the rough side of the mountain, was there something in your growing up that said, you know what? That's the job I think I want and that I think I can have?
- [54:10]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
You know, I always remember when I was a little girl, my grandmother never learned to drive. She worked at Lenox Square Mall. And the treat would be on the day she didn't ride the bus when we would go and pick her up and we would take the street way all the way into Buckhead, if you're familiar with Atlanta, coming from the west side of Atlanta, passing all the mansions in Buckhead, the very wealthy area of town. And I would. I remember, I would look at that governor's mansion in awe and just wonder, like, who. Who got to go inside of those gates? And so to think that I'm now presenting myself as a candidate for governor. And I write about my family's history in this state, being able to trace my family back five generations to a plantation in Crawfordville, Georgia. And our family history says that my grandmother's grandparents, who were once enslaved, that my grandfather once served during Reconstruction. I've never confirmed that, but that's. I have a nice picture of him in the book in a suit and tie. So I've got to think that he was of some prominence because I've actually seen his signature as an X on a document that I pulled from the Georgia archives. So when I think about their story, is that him? That's him, yeah. When I think about their story and I think about my grandparents who Never finished high school. And I think about that little girl who went from ballet lessons to visiting her dad in prisons across Georgia just reminds me of what's possible and the obligation that we have in the work that we do today to open these doors and create these possibilities for children not yet born. And I. I think about how at some point, because of all this shame and what I felt was just the most awful circumstances, that I began to pack my ambition away. I didn't want to do too much. I didn't want to be seen too much. And I write about just this evolution to unpacking myself in all my fullness, in all the ways that God created,
- [56:32]
Joy Reid
created and intended me to be. Well, we are glad that you. You got past trying to be small and unseen, because, sister, you've done quite the opposite. Being the mayor of the great city of Atlanta now, aspiring to be the governor of the state, working for a president as a senior advisor. I think you've done pretty well. And it would be such a sea change, I think, just emotionally, for Americans, for little girls and little boys, to see the governorship pass from somebody like Jack Kemp, with his long history and his family's long history when it comes to enslavement on the other side to you, I think it would be such an incredible, positive and joyful moment, I think, for America. So I am rooting for you, and I wish you well. Remind everybody again, when does the voting begin in terms of the primary vote and also, where can people support you? What's the name of your website?
- [57:27]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
Thank you, Joy. My website is keshaforgouvernor k e I s h a f o r governor.com and also early voting is April 27th through May 15th, and then election day is May 19th. But I'm asking people to please do not wait until election Day. Go and vote early.
- [57:51]
Joy Reid
Amen. Especially in these times. Go vote early, y', all, because it's a way you can also make sure that you're on the ballot, that you're on the rolls. If they're going to do anything to your. To your. Your ballot, to your vote, your right to vote. You want to know that early so you can fix it to make sure you're not disenfranchised. So everybody, please, please, please election. The primary starts on the 27th. That is Monday. Please vote. Thank you, Keisha. Lance Bottoms, congratulations on the book. We're going to pop it into the store so people can support you. Thank you.
- [58:17]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
Thank you, Joy.
- [58:18]
Joy Reid
Thank you very much. All right, y'. All. So that's it. You have your March orders, and we have to. We have a pretty good track record when it comes to candidates, so I hope you guys will vote. If you're in Georgia, please vote. Don't leave it to someone else. I gotta make sure my hair is laying down right. Don't leave it to others. Make sure that you vote. Okay, so I want to welcome everybody. We're a little bit. We're actually a little ahead of schedule to hour two of the Joy Reid Show. I please want to also ask you all to hit that like and subscribe button because it does help us with the algorithm. Now, we talk a lot about the algorithm and because we are in our sort of First Amendment Weekend, where we're celebrating the real First Amendment, not the one that is being destroyed by this regime. Independent media is what is fighting for the First Amendment. I mean, we are the ones who are out here telling you the truth without a filter. We're giving you the inside scoop on what happens behind the scenes in mainstream media, because we came from there, and so we can offer a view of it that I think is unique. And in order to do this, we have to make sure that we are actually visible to the media. I cannot tell you how many times I have people come up to me in the public and go, oh, my God, I miss you so much. On msnbc, they still call it MSNBC Ball, by the way. You can't just change brands like that. And they'll say that, and I'll say, no, I have a new podcast that's the Joy Beach. And they go, oh, my God, where can I find it? People still don't know. Not everybody knows everything. People don't know all things. So that is why growing requires us to beat that algorithm, so that people will find us when they go on YouTube. We will be a part of their algorithmic journey. So if you hit like and subscribe, you can help us do that. So we're going to humbly ask that you please do not lurk. Most people who watch these streaming podcasts just watch them, and they don't ever hit like and subscribe. So please hit like and subscribe. If you're watching on substack, you can also hit subscribe and just become a subscriber, become a part of the family. Also, if you're on Facebook, wherever you're watching, even if you're on Facebook or you're on Twitch, pop on over to YouTube and just hit subscribe. Why not? It don't cost you nothing. Just go Ahead and do it. Also, don't forget to vote in our Vontel poll. Want to make sure that you do that as well because we got to pick some readers and this is a viewer generated idea. It was the chats who said, hey, why don't you create some readers? And they were like putting the little glasses emoji and saying, you, since you wear glasses, your glasses, girl, you should have readers. R E I D E R S. So we're like, oh. So we reached out to our friends at Vontel. They're going to help us do it. But when they asked, well, what kind of glasses do you want? What do you want them to look like? I was like, I'm indecisive, I don't know. So they were like, okay, we will just send you a few pairs, try a few of them on, see what you like and see what kind of colors and styles like. So they sent us these pairs of glasses and then we were like, why should I make the decision? We'll just ask the people that watch the show. We'll let them help because we need the help. All right, so take a look at these glasses. The 7th Avenue Merlot are kind of, they have not as much of a cat eye. They're sort of a little more straight across the Amina Tiffany black. They had that beautiful tortoise shell inside. And then of course the block, which is the Romare Bearden. That is a takeoff on his art that's on the front. So you do like art in the front, art in the back, what kind of shape, cat's eye, you know, you tell us what you want and you guys are going to help us. All right, let's welcome yet another sponsor. We're not welcoming them. They've been here with us before. But I want to thank the great folks at Planned Parenthood Federation of America who are sponsoring this program. Planned Parenthood Health Centers are Planned Heritage Centers are the nation's leading provider of sexual and reproductive health care. Raise your hand if you use Planned Parenthood as your main healthcare provider. I did when I graduated from college and didn't have healthcare yet. They provide cancer screenings, wellness exams, STI testing and treatments, birth control, abortion and more. Now, today and every day, Planned Parenthood is committed to providing access to the care, information and resources that people need to make their own decisions about their bodies and futures. But the Trump administration and Congress want to take away that freedom, enforce their personal beliefs on everyone as part of a year long strategy to ban abortion care and shut down the most trusted name in sexual and reproductive care. They have defunded Planned Parenthood health centers. It is a dangerous attempt to cut off affordable access for millions, especially those with low incomes who rely on Medicaid, women, black and Latino communities, LGBTQ people, and those in our rural and medically underserved areas where Planned Parenthood health centers are often the only place people can go for care. People across the country are struggling right now, as everybody knows, trying to just afford the basics, right? The groceries, the utilities, just the basics. Well, while health care costs are skyrocketing on top of that, stripping people of quality affordable health care is yet another cruelty, cruelty that's inflicted by this out of touch administration. Planned Parenthood has never and will never stop fighting for everyone's fundamental right to quality healthcare, regardless of who you are or where you live, no matter what. But they need support. They need supporters like you to be in the fight with them. So Please donate to plannedparenthood.org defend that is planned parenthood.org defend and help them to continue to provide healthcare to those who need it most. Okay, so we're in hour two, and I gotta tell y' all that it is so strange that right in the middle of.
- [63:36]
Guest/Interviewer
In my head just looked out.
- [63:39]
Joy Reid
It's my favorite song. I, I sing it all day. Blockade, blockade Please let some ships go through as you come on at least a few in the middle of Blockade, Blockade. The Department of War Crimes has ousted. Let me check here, my notes. The Secretary of the Navy. Did I mention it's a naval blockade? Blockade. Midas Touch had the scoop early. Navy Secretary John Phelan has been fired, effective immediately. So out is the unqualified Naval Secretary, John Cartwright Phelan. John Cartwright Phelan, who happens to be Trump's Palm beach neighbor and an investment banker who raised tons of money for Trump's presidential campaigns to get the job. He has no known actual association to the military, let alone the Navy. But he got the job because he's a big Trump donor. So he's out. Here's how Fox explained Phelan's ouster. Phelan reportedly butted heads when Phelan refused
- [64:35]
Katie Fang
to ignore a recent federal judge's ruling
- [64:38]
Joy Reid
that said punishing Senator Mark Kelly for
- [64:40]
Katie Fang
making a video in which he reminded
- [64:42]
Joy Reid
military officers of their constitutional duty to not follow illegal orders would violate his First Amendment rights. Okay, so he's out because he would not act against Senator John Kelly. Not that he would even know how to do that because he had no experience being said to be secondary. But in so out is failing in is the new guy. His name is Hong Kong. He is a former failed United States Senate candidate who ran against Tim Kaine and got beat badly and who made a name for himself by claiming to have been blown up a lot in combat despite never having actually been awarded any medals for, you know, being blown up in combat or injured in any way. Meaning he probably made that up. Oh, and he also believes that witches are taking over part of California. And he makes dumb racist jokes on alt right podcast place in Monterey, California called Lovers Point. Yeah, the original name was Lovers of Christ Point, but now it's become they took out the Christ, it's Lovers Point. And it's really. Monterey is a very dark place now. Yeah, a lot of witchcraft and the, the, the, the Wiccan community has really taken over there and we can't let that happen in Virginia. Virginia is, I mean, especially down, down in, in Roanoke. They're God loving people. Right. Richmond too. And, and Virginia Beach. And we just need to mobilize Christians across the nation. I mean, this is great. I know I'll be attacked by left and call me white supremacist, but I have one asked for them. It's just when you give me my hood, make sure it's got the little slits and not the circles so I can see better.
- [66:12]
Guest/Interviewer
Captain Hung Kao, thank you very much
- [66:13]
Joy Reid
for joining us in war room. And you're conservative and you love God
- [66:19]
Doug Jones
and you love America, like all the things.
- [66:21]
Joy Reid
And I'm African American because I grew up in Africa too, so. Oh, really? And African American, Vietnamese, Here we go. So. Oh my God. So he makes racist jokes about Asian people in front of a guy who made Breitbart the home of the alt right. The alt right being Richard Spencer's renaming of the word white nationalist. The term white nationalist. The term alt right, which Steve Bannon says he made anyway. It's just another name for white nationalists, but Ha ha ha. Meanwhile, the riot has been trying to rewrite, speaking of Richard Spencer, the 2017 Charlottesville riot, just like they have tried to rewrite the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection. They can't seem to handle history, so they just try to delete it or rewrite it. Now, y' all remember Charlottesville, right?
- [67:20]
Marc Shaiman
And soil, Blood and soil one and soil.
- [67:26]
Joy Reid
I think you get the idea. Remember that? And of course, Donald Trump's reaction to it. And we're going to play it in full with the context about three minutes so that no one can accuse us of editing him. Here is Donald Trump's reaction to that, what you're calling the alt left and white supremacists on the same moral plane?
- [67:42]
Guest/Interviewer
I'm not putting anybody on a moral plane. What I'm saying is this. You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs, and it was vicious and it was horrible, and it was a horrible thing to watch. But there is another side. There was a group on this side. You can call them the left. You've just called them the left that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want, but that's the way it is
- [68:08]
Joy Reid
on both sides. So you said there was hatred, there was violence.
- [68:12]
Guest/Interviewer
Well, I do think there's blame, yes. I think there's blame on both sides. You look at. You look at both sides. I think there's blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it. And you don't have any doubt about it either. And if you reported it accurately, you would say. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest.
- [68:35]
Joy Reid
Excuse me.
- [68:36]
Guest/Interviewer
They didn't let themselves down as you. And you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group. Excuse me, Excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name. George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down. Excuse me. Are we going to take down. Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him? Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now we're going to take down his statue. So you know what? It's fine. You're changing history, you're changing culture. And you had people, and I'm not talking about the neo Nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally, but you had many people in that group other than neo Nazis and white nationalists, okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people, but you also had troublemakers. And you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats you got. You had a lot of bad. You had a lot of bad people in the other group, too.
- [70:08]
Joy Reid
I'm sorry, I Just understand what you were saying. You were were saying the press has treated white nationalists unfairly.
- [70:11]
Dr. Wes Bellamy
I just don't understand what you were saying.
- [70:12]
Guest/Interviewer
There were people in that rally. And I looked the night before, if you look, they were people protesting very quietly, the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. I'm sure in that group there were some bad ones. The following day it looked like they had some rough bad people, Neo Nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them. But you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest and very legally protest because, you know, I don't know if you know, they had a permit. The other group didn't have a permit. So I only tell you there are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country, a horrible moment. But there are two sides to the country. Does anybody have a final. Does anybody have. You have an infrastructure?
- [71:05]
Joy Reid
He then moved on to an infrastructure question. He said there were fine people who were just there to innocently protest the statue and they had a permit. Now the only thing true about what he said is that they did have a permit. Let me tell you who were the groups who organized this? You tell me which were the fine people. You're not at the right rally. Okay. The people who were there were neo confederates, neo fascists, white nationalists, white supremacists, neo Nazis, members of the Ku Klux Klan and far right militias. That is the entirety of the group that were organizing that rally. Those are the groups. So tell me. We're talking about the Daily Stormer, the Right Stuff, the League of the South, Identity Dixie, the neo Nazi group's traditionalist worker party Vanguard America, which is also a neo Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement. You know National Socialism means Nazi. The loyal White Knights of the Confederate White Knights branches, Ku Klux Klan, the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights, Ku Klux Klan, the neo Nazi white supremacist group, Identity Europa. They spelled with a V. Ropa, the Southern California based fight club Rise Above Movement. The American Guard, the Detroit Right Wings who are condemned by the Detroit Red Wings for having a similar name. I could go on. There's something called the Canada based alt Right, Montreal, the Hammer Brothers. There's no group that's not a white nationalist group. Nick Fuentes was at that. That's the guy who says, I don't know, I'm not a real hater on Hitler. He was at that. So I'm sorry, who were the nice, who were the good people on that side? Because you know, people on the right try to say that we're lying when we say that he was saying that white nationalists had good people among them. That's who was there. Richard Spence, who organized it, is literally a self described proud white nationalist. What are you talking about? Now recall, though, that when Joe Biden said that Charlottesville is what made him run for president, and then Kamala Harris cited that violent riot as the reason not to let Trump back into office. Remember Heather Heyer, A young white woman who was a member of Black Lives Matter was killed. A neo Nazi who's been convicted of it hit her with his car when he rammed a crowd of white. Of Black Lives Matter activists, some of whom were white, and she was white. She was killed. But erasing that history and replacing it with one in which the anti Klan Southern Poverty Law center is the real villain, and the Klan and white supremacists are just, you know, tools of the radical left, man. It's a great way, I guess, to get the right wing base to refocus on something other than Trump's second failed presidency, his burying of the Epstein files, and likely soon pardon of little pedophile helper Ghislaine Maxwell and his Iran War debacle that's even angering his base. All of that, they need something else for their base to focus on, so this seems like a good way to go. Better for the gullibles to refocus on pretending that racists are not racists at all. Rather, they're just a bunch of feds. Which is why the cash app, FBI and the Department of Injustice have indicted the Southern Poverty Law center, claiming that they defrauded their donors and the banks that they banked at by just pretending that they were infiltrating and exposing the Klan and other neo Nazi organizations while secretly funding them. Including funding the Unite the Right rally and the riots in Charlottesville in 2017 over the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue. By the way, that statue has since been melted down and turned into amazing public art, which I'm happy about. But those riots, which left, again, one young woman dead. I was in the media at that time. Part of it played out, literally while I was on the air on MSNBC that Saturday. Take a look. To me now is the Reverend Tracy Blackman of the United Church of Christ. And Reverend Blackman, thank you so much for being here. Now, I know you were inside of a church last night when these white nationalist marchers began converging on that church of the University of Virginia campus. I want to Play for you a little bit of sound of what they did last night and then I want you to describe for us what you saw. So let's listen to that, that a little bit. Now for those who can't really understand what they're saying. They're saying blood and soil, which happens to have been the slogan of the Nazi party's Department of, of agriculture in 1930s Germany. The actual Nazis of Germany, that was their agricultural department slogan. Tell me your impressions being inside that church last night. Well, thank you for having me on, Joy. The service last night was intended to be a moment of motivation, a moment of prayer and a moment of encouragement for people who wanted to provide a faithful witness of love anticipating today's march. The schedule for the Nazi and the fascist example was supposed to be today and not last night. So we gathered in a standing room only, maximum capacity crowd to give a word of encouragement. I was invited in to give a speech to that regard. And as we were closing down. I've got to go, I gotta go, I gotta go. Oh my goodness. I don't know what is happening here. I don't know what just happened there. That was Reverend Tracy Blackmon who was trapped inside of a church when the tiki torch marchers were going by. And she grew up in the south and said it reminded her of the Klan rally she would hear when she was a kid. Right. So that happened. She was fine, but it was a scary moment. Right. But two years before that, before that 2017 riot, back in 2015, the Obama administration's Department of Homeland Security and Congress were already focused on the dangers of white supremacy and potential domestic terrorism, in part because of the record number of racist threats that the Obamas received upon entering office and while they were there. So this is the a little screenshot of this House hearing. It was actually held by the Republican held Republican led House Financial Services Committee. And at this hearing they discussed how hate groups were using shell companies to hide their activities. Now during the hearing they used and they posted a hate map which I'm going to show you an example of here. This is C9 for us, Jason. They posted a version of this hate map. You can see it scrolling there to give people an idea of some of the groups that might be doing that. Right. Hiding their money in shell companies and using it to fund hate activities and violent activities. Well, you know who made that map? The Southern Property Law center, which has been tracking hate groups since they were founded in the 1970s, including by using paid informants to infiltrate hate groups. And then Wrecking them from within, including basically bankrupting the Klan. And often they did this working hand in hand with the FBI. But you see, banks were not required to investigate the kinds of financial setups that domestic terrorists were utilizing until 2018, a year after Charlottesville, when Trump rather than Obama was now president. And the law that went into effect in 2018 to finally rein in hate groups misuse of the banking system, that had been introduced in 2016. The law had been introduced in 2016 as a result of that hearing in which the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate maps were used. Then Fast forward to 2019. FBI Director Chris Wray, a Republican who had been held over as FBI director from the Obama administration, testified before Congress about the threat of white supremacist domestic terrorism, saying it was the top bucket of terroristic activity that the government was focused on. Take a look. And I think the thing that we're all struggling with is, you know, there are these homegrown terrorists of every flavor and type, but just in the number of either cases or arrests, how many of them are white supremacist? What is the, if not the exact number? Is it the same as other types of domestic terrorism? Is it higher? Just give us a level of approximate numbers. Well, what I can tell you is that within the domestic terrorism bucket category as a whole, racially motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people ascribing to some kind of white supremacist type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that. Okay, I don't have numbers for you. That's very helpful. So the white supremacists are the largest chunk of the racially motivated domestic terrorists. But let me also say, and I would also add to that, that racially motivated violent extremists over recent years have been responsible for the most lethal activity in the U.S. now, this year, the lethal attacks, domestic terrorism, lethal attacks we have have, I think, all fit in the category of anti government, anti authority, which covers everything from anarchist violent extremists to militia types. We don't really think in terms of left. Right. Just we have. Yep. I understand. That's not the way we look at the world. We don't look at it left. Right. They look at who's the danger. And it is racially motivated violent extremists of the white supremacist variety. He's just being clinical and saying it. Right. And he's a Republican. And the Southern Poverty Law center and people Went crazy, by the way, when he said that. They went absolutely batshit when he said that, just as they had in 2015 or 2011, actually, when the Department of Homeland Security under Janet Napolitano requested and a report on the domestic threats to the country that focused on white nationalist extremism, again, because there's a black president. And they were trying to see how much more intense that kind of domestic terrorism threat was gonna get within there. They actually had to withdraw the report because the right went so crazy, and the man who did the report was black. Made it even more crazy on their side. Right. And the. And now you've got the Southern Property Law center, which has also really pissed off the right by focusing on exactly the kinds of extremism that the groups affiliated with them and therefore with Republicans engage in. They need those far right wingers in their voting base, and they don't want to alienate them, and they're pissed off when they get called out. The SPLC has also produced reports which have pissed off Republicans because they have pointed out how many people in Donald Trump's orbit were tying themselves to white supremacists. People like, I don't know, Tom Homan, who was meeting up with the proud boys and associates of them about deportations, or people like Stephen Miller, somebody who, since college has been associated with Richard Spencer, the guy who organized the Unite the Right rally. Though they claim that he wasn't his mentor, he sure did seem like his mentor. Richard Spencer claimed to be his mentor. And of course, there's Trump himself, whose racist statements and his racist policies excited the far right even before he went down that escalator in 2015. His birtherism, all of his attacks on Obama is what made him. David Duke supported him. There's a reason that a person like a David Duke would support you. Right. But when the FBI, out of nowhere, cut ties with the SPLC last fall, with the Southern Poverty Law center last fall, it was a signal of what was to come. And then came this very strange indictment, naming no donors and no banks that were supposedly defrauded, but charging something that is absolutely insane. Charlottesville and the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, were they involved in that?
- [82:47]
Prosecutor
Yes. So what we allege in the indictment and what the grand jury found is that one of the individuals that they paid was one of the folks who helped organize that terrible event. And so imagine what we're talking about, Laura. We're talking about an organization that actively came out and just screamed it from the top of their lungs.
- [83:06]
Joy Reid
So just so people Understand, watching this. Did these informants, in some cases, given the evidence you've seen, actually initiate what would ultimately be these activities? And obviously Charlottesville ended with a tragedy.
- [83:21]
Prosecutor
Well, we know that they were part of those. They were part of it, whether they were the leaders or the initiators, that, that'll come out, I think, eventually. But what we do know is that the very, the very entities that this group was raising money to go against are the very entities that they were taking the money in and paying to these entities and these individuals associated with those groups.
- [83:41]
Joy Reid
What was the money used to for?
- [83:43]
Prosecutor
Well, it was. We don't know because again, all we know is that they set up these fictitious bank accounts, fake names like the
- [83:49]
Joy Reid
Constitution Group or whatever it was called. Then they had one called Fox Photography, Right.
- [83:53]
Prosecutor
Completely fictitious as far as the investigation has shown. And they were using it simply to funnel money to these individuals. The indictment talks about a situation where they paid an individual to steal documents from the organization and then return the documents. Documents. And then when somebody else took the hit for it, they paid that person too, to take the hit for that.
- [84:13]
Joy Reid
And so do you hear what you're saying? Paid somebody, a paid informant to steal documents. That is what paid informants are supposed to do. Joining me now is Dr. Wes Bellamy, who was vice mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia during the White Nationalist riots. He currently serves as a professor and executive director of the John Mercer Langston Institute for African American Leadership at Virginia State University, chief executive officer of the Black College Invitational Championship, the nation's first HBCU post season basketball attorney and national public policy chair of the 100 Black Men of America. He's the author of a book called Nobody's Coming to Save the Black Print for Leadership, which I have read and which is quite good. I also want to introduce former Alabama Senator Doug Jones, who as prosecutor won convictions against the Klan members who blew up the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963 and who has spent his entire career fighting for. For justice. He is currently a Democratic candidate for governor of Alabama. With the primary coming up May 19th. You know, we want y' all to make sure that you know these dates and vote. I'm also going to add that he should have been Biden's Attorney General instead of Merrick Garland. That's my own personal thing. We'd be in a much better place. I'm just going to say that he won't say it, but I will. Doug Jones, I do want to start with you because this thing that Fox said, I just want to very quickly read to you guys what Onyx Impact said. There's a lot of strong statements from civil rights groups. I thought this was one of the strongest. The SPLC worked with confidential informants embedded inside the most dangerous hate groups in America, gaining critical intelligence to identify and prevent deadly attacks on communities still living in the shadow of church bombings, state sponsored violence and the murders of civil rights leaders. That work saved lives. Now the same administration that pardoned insurrectionists is calling SPLC's work fraudulent and standing 10 toes down on protecting, protecting hate groups. This is part of their ongoing effort to criminalize civil rights work, rewrite history and silence the organizations that have the receipts. Your thoughts, Doug Jones?
- [86:10]
Doug Jones
100% agreement with that. I mean, that was as strong and as good a statement and comprehensive. Because what this indictment does is clearly an act of political opposition attacks. This is not justice. This is not anything close to something that the Department of Justice ought to be involved in. The tactics that the SPLC used have been the same tactics that had been used by the FBI for years and years. You know, Joy, when I prosecuted that church bombing case, okay, remember there, Remember the famous civil rights incident in Birmingham when the Freedom Riders got beaten at the Greyhound bus station? Well, there was one photograph that made it out of there. And in the middle of that photograph, swinging his fist, squeezing club or something, was a paid FBI informant. Gary Thomas Rowe. The FBI was never seen as promoting racism by infiltrating they pro. They have never seen as promoting the mob by infiltrating the mob or promoting drug trafficking by infiltrating drug cartels with paid informants. This is absurd on its face. And it is stunning to me to listen to a lawyer like Todd Blanche try to justify the unjustifiable.
- [87:25]
Joy Reid
Well, and he's not just a lawyer, he's a former prosecutor. I mean, to your very good point, that would be like saying when police run an operation to infiltrate a drug gang because they're paying the informant, they're actually funding the drug gang. Right. And to your point, isn't it common for prosecutors and the FBI to pay informants to infiltrate things like the Klan? That's common, right? Isn't that how they broke up United Klans of America?
- [87:52]
Doug Jones
Absolutely. There's no question about that. There is. In many instances, it's the only way that you can do that. You use that to get more information, you use that to get wiretaps, you use that to get other recordings. In many, many instances, it's the only way to infiltrate and to dismantle Those organizations, it's law enforcement, private entities, it's always done this way. And you cannot set one standard for the government with taxpayer money. And then when it's private money, set a different standard. Because even as a non profit, you do not have to disclose every minute detail of the tactics that you're using. And the other thing I want to add real quick, Joy, if you don't mind, we're focused with the SPLC on their work fighting hate and fighting extremist organizations like, you know, the Klan and others. But the SPLC has also done amazing work representing those that are victims of discrimination, representing those that are in communities that are suffering from environmental injustices. They have been there for a segment of society that cannot speak for themselves and stand up. And they have been just an incredible organization fighting those battles for civil rights and human rights over their last 55 years.
- [89:20]
Joy Reid
Well, Dr. West Bellby, isn't that why they're being targeted? Right, because that is what this regime wants to stop.
- [89:27]
Co-host/Producer
That's exactly why they're being targeted. And I mean to. It's absolutely absurd. As an individual who was literally the one that the white supremacist groups were targeting and the individual who was leading the the efforts on August 12th in 2017, Jason Kessler, like I was their main enemy number one. They had signs walking around with West Bellamy, go be an N word somewhere else. Letters and bomb threats to my children's school. All kind of stuff. The SPLC had literally absolutely nothing to do with that. It is, it is beyond, beyond mind boggling that this administration has gone to such great lengths to not only try to discredit an entity like the sblc, but furthermore to try and self further division. I mean, when you look at the, the absolute, I don't know if you can get to two further extremes from the example in which you laid out pardoning the individuals who literally led an insurrection on the capitol in, in January 6th. But then coming after a civil rights organization like the SCLC who's there literally representing and protecting people, it just shows honestly the buffoonery and the ridiculousness of this administration. And I'm hoping that when we have elections like the midterms coming up, we continue to do our part, just like Virginia did their part on Tuesday and in the upcoming presidential election, people go out and do the right thing and vote this administration out.
- [90:48]
Joy Reid
Yeah, let me play a little bit. We're going to post the whole of their response, but they had a pretty good response. This is C15, Jason. This is a part of the SPLC's response.
- [90:57]
Keisha Lance Bottoms
55 years, the Southern Poverty Law center has stood as a beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy, supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive. We are therefore unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration. They have made no secret of who they want to protect and who they
- [91:20]
Joy Reid
want to destroy, who they want to protect and who they want to destroy. Dr. Westfeld, it seems to me that when you put it all together, they actually are siding, just as Trump did with the Unite the right people. And they're saying that because the Southern Poverty Law center was infiltrating groups that did that, they're the ones who must be punished for trying to stop the people who are. Who are threatening to kill you. Yeah.
- [91:47]
Co-host/Producer
There's literally no other way around it. There's no other way to describe it. When Trump came to, when he went on press conference and said that there are good people on both sides after everything that happened in Charlottesville, I think he made it very clear with whose side he was standing on. And it's clearly the white supremacist. I mean, look, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it's a duck. We know very plainly where this administration stands when it turns in terms of siding with white supremacy. And this is just again, another example of this administration showing is white supremacist patterns. It's showing his white supremacist feathers and it's showing that it is embedded with white supremacy, which is again, another reason why we can't just continue to talk about it. We all have to do our part and go out and vote, use our voice and our First Amendment right to speak up and speak out and be the change, because this can continue. This can no longer continue to be. And I mean, like we talked about in the book, if nobody's coming to save us, let's go save ourselves and do what's right to ensure that democracy is saved here in America.
- [92:45]
Joy Reid
Really quick, before I come back to Doug Jones, if you had discovered, Dr. Bellamy, that within that group of people who were rioting, you know, walking with tiki torches like they were doing an old fashioned Klan rally, if you had discovered that maybe one or two of them were paid FBI informant, or not paid FBI informants, but paid informants for the SPLC or the FBI, what would you have made of that? Would you have thought, oh, that means that the FBI and the SPLC actually did the riot?
- [93:12]
Co-host/Producer
No, I would have felt a lot better Knowing that we have some people on the inside who are ensuring that they can let us know what's going on. I mean, candidly, that would have made me feel a whole lot better with the attacks in which they were spewing in our city. I mean, I want people to Remember, I know 2017 is. We're coming up on 10 years. That's a very long time ago for some people. But these individuals literally came to our community in our city and unalive someone. And it wasn't just during the Unite the Right rally. Literally a month before that, on my one year wedding anniversary, we had a Klan rally. The Klan sent me a letter and saying, you have a one year wedding anniversary that you will never forget. The Mother's Day prior to that, that's when they had their original tiki torch rally around our Robert Elite statue in Lee Park. At the time, I mean, these persons were. Were. They were trying to terrorize our community for months. And then the culminating event was them unaliving Heather higher rest in power to her and traumatizing our community. So to your question, if we knew somebody from the SBLC had infiltrated that group and they had intel and they could help us out, I would have felt a lot better. But rest assured, these individuals weren't just bad actors, they were killers. These individuals weren't just people who were walking around with signs. They were intent with destroying our community. And they very well tried to do everything in their power to do so. It didn't work, but nonetheless, they made valiant efforts.
- [94:29]
Joy Reid
Doug Jones, how much will it cripple attempts to dismantle groups like the Klan and these neo Nazi organizations if the federal government is now making it very clear that if you fight these organizations, the FBI and the DOJ will come for you?
- [94:48]
Doug Jones
Yeah, no, I think it's a real problem. And I think that, you know, at the end of the day, Joy, you can only provide information. And it's the DOJ who should be dismantling these organizations instead of promoting them. And in fact, I want to make the point that this is not new information about this program that the Southern Poverty Law center had. They assisted the FBI. They gave information to the FBI. This is goes back to the Nixon administration. So you've seen Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush. Everyone had some idea what was going on, and the FBI knew about this program. There's nothing new here. But yes, my biggest concern is twofold. One, they're gonna come after other civil rights organizations. This is just the first shoe to drop. And second of all they are clearly sending the message to these white supremacist organizations. Have at it, guys. Run them up. Do what you want to do, because we're gonna do everything we can to give you free reins on America.
- [95:57]
Joy Reid
I think that is very clear. Before I let you go, I still want to call you Senator Jones. I would love to be calling you Attorney General Jones. I'm just telling you it is literally the biggest mistake that Joe Biden made. Honestly, he should have picked you. Tell me, what would you change in Alabama as governor?
- [96:14]
Doug Jones
Oh, I'm going to. I'm going to give people health care. That's the biggest thing. We're going to expand Medicaid. We're going to keep rural hospitals open. We're going to do the things necessary to keep our people healthy and keep the economy healthy. The other thing that I can got to tell you, we're going to do, we're going to put a spotlight on this. We're going to put some transparency into state government. There's too much that goes on behind closed doors. There are too many data centers that are getting approved, too many solar farms getting approved without any public comment whatsoever. And we're going to shine a spotlight on that.
- [96:47]
Joy Reid
What's your website? If people want to Support you, it's
- [96:50]
Doug Jones
dougjones.com I appreciate you asking, keeping it simple.
- [96:53]
Joy Reid
That is the way to make sure that you are successful in politics. Doug Jones would be future governor of the great state of Alabama. Dr. Wes Bellamy. We're going to put that book picture up, Jason, if you could. We're going to make sure that we get folks to that book. Get a copy. I've read it. It's very good. The black print for leadership. Nobody's coming to save us, and that's a fact. Thank you, Dr. West Bellamy and Senator Doug Jones. Thank you both.
- [97:16]
Marc Shaiman
Thank you.
- [97:17]
Joy Reid
Thank you very much. It's serious business, y'. All. You cannot fight these organizations without intel. And I think it's very clear that Kashyat Patel and them don't want the intel because they're fighting for the other side. Let's just be very clear. They're making it very clear. And then Fox, of course, is gleefully going along with it, saying, yeah, let's dismantle all the civil rights organizations. Whose side are they on? I think they've made that very clear. They, if you try to stop the Klan or white supremacist groups because they need them in November, they're losing a lot of them over the Iran war. People like Nick Fuentes Nicola Fuentes is turning on them, and he's one of them. He was at Unite the Right. Those people are turning on them. And so now they're like, shit, we need to get those people back on side. They're on their side. Let's dig up one of our other wonderful sponsors. The Jordan Reed show is brought to you by our friends at the climate initiatives. Speaking of data centers, right, the people hit first and worst by climate change and the climate crisis are normally the ones with the fewest resources to fight back. That includes our kids who are living it every day, but are not getting the education to understand it or the tools to do anything about it. The Climate initiative is changing that. TCR provides free climate education to schools across all 50 states so students can learn about what's happening in their own communities and take real local action. We are talking like, solar panels and composting programs and coastal restoration students doing real things right where they live, and your donation makes that possible. Resilient communities are not built by accident. They are built by informed young people who know their neighborhoods, understand the challenges, and have the confidence to lead. And real change happens when we stop talking at the next generation and start working with them. 750,000 students are already learning with TCI that there are millions more waiting, especially in the communities that need it most this Earth Month. Be part of that work. Visit TheClimateInitiative.org joy to donate today the climate initiative, because every kid deserves the tools to fight for their future. So that's the climateinitiative.org joy to make it really simple. Thank y' all for listening. Okay, so I would say, perhaps second only maybe to the wizard, hands down, the movie that Jason and I have watched the most or the best of that together ever, ever, ever, is Sister act and Sister Act 2. Like, I mean, I feel like we've watched that film like 470,000 times. It's one of our favorites. We'll play a little bit without the sound. This is the scene where the nuns in Sister act are getting schooled on how to have some soul by Whoopi Goldberg, who's the faux nun who's in there. It's one of the greatest movies ever. It is just such a fun and fantastic movie. It just gave all the feel of things, right? And the genius behind the music in Sister act and so many other incredible projects, film projects and stage plays, et cetera, is a guy named Mark Shaiman. There he is. He looks so happy. He is a renowned American composer, lyricist, arranger, and Music producer known for his work across film, television and theater, Shaman began his career as a musical director and arranger for the Bette Midler Honey before expanding into film school scoring. He gained prominence with his work on films such as When Harry Met Sally, the Addams Family of the aforementioned sister Act, City Slickers, A Few Good Men, Sleepless in Seattle, the American President and South Park. Also SNL on NBC and on recordings with Harry Connick Jr. And Mariah Carey. He produced like that, one of them amazing Christmas albums that y' all love. That Mariah Carey, I Don't Need a Lot for Christmas, all that. He is a multiple award winner and he has a new book out called Nevermind the Happy Show Business Stories From a Winner for which he is on a wonderful and fabulous world tour. And Marc Shaiman is with us now. It's like an early moment of joy. There's his tour, which looks really cool. It looks like all kind of great people on it. Marc Shaman joins me now. There he is. Hey.
- [101:23]
Marc Shaiman
Hi, Joy.
- [101:24]
Joy Reid
Hi, Mark. It's good to see you again.
- [101:25]
Marc Shaiman
Thank you for that intro. My God, I'm exhausted just listening to it.
- [101:29]
Joy Reid
I'm your publicist now. I would like a check, please. Just. I'll bill you. I'll bill you. Don't worry about it. So let's talk about you, because I just recently saw your interview on the View, which you had a piano there. I'm sorry, I don't have a piano yet to have you play music, but I do. Oh, there you go. Fabulous. Talk about how you got started and got in this business.
- [101:50]
Marc Shaiman
Well, I was a Bette Midler fanatic when I hit puberty. I don't know if one thing had to do with the other, but anyway, that's when her first two records came out, and I was just obsessed with her. And then by sheer being in the right place at the right time, the first people I met when I was in New York, when I was still only 16, I got a state diploma, the GED, you know, good enough diploma. And I moved to New York when I was 16. And the first people I met lived across the hall from one of Bette Midler's backup singers.
- [102:21]
Joy Reid
Wow.
- [102:21]
Marc Shaiman
And so there I was. And they wanted to do their own act when they weren't working with bet. They're called the Harletts. And I became their musical director. And to make a long story short, I was flown to LA to teach Bette Midler's band, the Harlots, material when they were going to open her show. In her next tour. And I suddenly was working with Bette Midler, and I wasn't even 19 yet. So my ultimate dream came true right away. And it's been one dream after another.
- [102:47]
Joy Reid
That is amazing. It is. And you have worked with just some of the best people. One of my favorites, of course, Rob Reiner. The late, great and wonderful Rob Reiner. You've worked with Whoopi Goldberg a bunch. Like, you have a special relationship with Whoopi, and that was one of the fun things about your interview on the View. Talk about this relationship with Whoopi and give us all the tea about Sister Act. How much fun was it? Who was the craziest person on set? Who was the funniest? Like, give us all the Sister act tea.
- [103:09]
Marc Shaiman
Well, you know, it was written for Bette Midler. It was written specifically for Bette Midler. Paul Rudnick, great playwright and screenwriter, he wrote it for Bette Midler. And in the script, it even used some of her songs like she does. Did great versions of the sixties. Chapel of Love and your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher, which perfectly fit into the plot. But she said. She famously said. She now admits that. She said, my fans don't want to see me in a wimple. And I jokingly say in my book. Then Whoopi said, bring on the wimple.
- [103:43]
Joy Reid
She said, I'll take it, too. And then they made a second one. I mean, that is so amazing. And there's so many films like that, right, where the person that it was written for says no, and then the person who takes it turns out to be, like, perfect for it. Because this was Whoopi's thing. It was perfect for her.
- [103:59]
Marc Shaiman
And. But. And strangely enough, I. I expected Whoopi to sing in a more gruff fashion. You know, she's got that kind of low, growly voice. And when she first came over, when we were getting to know each other, I had worked on one, Comic Relief with her and Billy Crystal and Robin Williams. But when we really met, it was for Sister Act. And she came over and I expected her to, you know, sing in a bluesy kind of fashion. And she ended up singing like she sounded like. Like Joan Baez. She sounded like some white folk singer. Like, well, I guess I shouldn't have assumed she'd sound a certain way, but it was really just about her confidence. And even though she would, you would think, exudes confidence, when it came to singing, she was scared. And I had what was one of my most brilliant schemes was my friend Charlot Charlotte Crossley, who was one of Bette Midler's harlots. And Jennifer Lewis, the Jennifer Mother Lewis. I said, if I put Whoopi with Jennifer and Charlot and make them her backup singers in the movie, we will laugh, and we will laugh as we rehearse, and she'll forget about her fear. And that's exactly what happened. We laughed. You can imagine. You know, Charlot was just like Jennifer. And so the three of them together, and me, you know, the white boy, just having the best time of his life, and we just laughed. And when I think of Sister act and Sister Act 2, I just think of laughing, laughter, endlessly laughing.
- [105:29]
Joy Reid
And Sister Act 2 might be my. Actually, one of. One of our. It's like in my top five movies of all time. It was incredible. It was just. You're seeing, like, just young stars in their. Like, you know, their sort of purity of their brilliance. Right. I mean, talk a little bit about that, about that film.
- [105:48]
Marc Shaiman
A brilliant arranger named Mervyn Warren, who. You may not know his name, but you should. He's just the most brilliant guy on earth. And he was the main arranger on Sister Act 2 of the Gospel of the Kids. And I was working because I'd done the first movie, and we. So we became a team on the second movie movie. And they sent up two girls who were up for the lead role. One is named Tanya Blount, who is a brilliant singer still. She's with the Warren Treaty. Yeah, she's a voice of a lifetime. She sang on. On the. The View when we did The Sister Act 2 reunion.
- [106:19]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [106:19]
Marc Shaiman
And then the other girl was Lauryn Hill. So these two girls came up to my studio up in Laurel Canyon, and me and Mervyn were asked to, like, really help decide who's going to get this part. And Tanya Blount sang, and she's, you know, like Whitney Houston was living in her body. I mean, what a voice. But then it came time for Lauren, and I said to Lauren Hill, what song would a. What an old white man like me know? I mean, I was only probably 32 at the time, but, I mean, that's
- [106:49]
Joy Reid
old to a young person.
- [106:50]
Guest/Interviewer
Yeah.
- [106:50]
Marc Shaiman
For her, I knew I was some old white man. So anyway, I said, what song do you know that I would know how to play? And she said, well, my parents always play Bridge Over Troubled Water. So I played Bridge Over Troubled Water. And when she came in and started singing, oh, my God, that old soul that lives in her every syllable so full of emotion and the world weariness and the, you know, the weight of the world that she carries in her voice. Also the joy. But it was clear that this girl had to play the lead role, that she was a star. And I'm just amazed that we had that experience to be the ones to go.
- [107:37]
Co-host/Producer
You.
- [107:37]
Joy Reid
Yeah. I have to tell you that the scene when Tanya Blunt and Lauren sang his eyes on the Sparrow might be the best single moment in a film that I've ever seen. Like, it was. I mean, it's hair stands up, but also the young kid who sings, oh, happy day. Listen. One of the second. My second favorite scene in a film ever. Like, so, so, so good. So you have this amazing book. The title, though. You're so happy. And I just recently met you with Jennifer. With the great. The Jennifer Lewis. Jennifer motherfucking Lewis. And she was. It was incredible because I knew you guys are working together on some projects. On a project. Why would you call the book never mind the happy? Because you're so happy.
- [108:18]
Marc Shaiman
Well, I'm glad you think that. And, you know, I'm happy to be talking to you, but I am a real pessimist. I'm a real glass half empty kind of guy. As a matter of fact, I don't even see the glasses half empty. I don't even like the glass. But anyway, I think I get that.
- [108:34]
Joy Reid
Oh, my God. I totally agree.
- [108:36]
Marc Shaiman
It's in my blood. It's when it was. It's the. The morning that my mother defined Judaism, when my sister called her and said, ma, I want to be the first to wish you a happy and healthy new year. And my mother said, never mind the happy. And that just stuck in my head. And as I was writing the book and kind of analyzing why, Why? I mean, I wrote the book so I could relive all these joyous things that have happened in my life and remind myself I should be happy, but this other thing that is in my blood. And so I ended up calling my book this quote of my mom's to try to figure out.
- [109:14]
Joy Reid
I love it. And you're. Well, the subtitle that a showbiz source. A winner. You are definitely a winner.
- [109:18]
Marc Shaiman
It's showbiz stories from a sore winner.
- [109:21]
Joy Reid
A sore winner.
- [109:23]
Marc Shaiman
I was once complaining to someone and they looked over at my wall like this wall of, you know, of fame I happen to be sitting in front of right now. And they turned to me and said, mark Shaiman, you are a sore winner. And that stuck in my head also. So when we were desperately trying to think of a subtitle that had some humor about it, that, that came back to me.
- [109:45]
Joy Reid
Unbelievable. Okay, so give me your favorite Rob Reiner story.
- [109:49]
Marc Shaiman
Every moment of my, you know, he, you know, from what, you know, Billy Crystal introduced me to Rob for When Harry Met Sally, and that led to 15 more movies. When I think of Rob, I don't think of the music so much as I think of the, the camaraderie, the relationship, the family. That's, you know, it's that way in life also, if you, if you love your job and you're good at it, you don't think about the work as much as just the relationships and the friendship. And me sitting with Rob when he would come over to listen to the music, and we wouldn't get to the music for like 90 minutes, we would just sit and laugh and talk about life. And he was just a constant figure in my life and, you know, gave me such opportunities and the American President, which is such a beautiful romance and also politically what it's about. And it gave me the chance to kind of write that, that ultimate kind
- [110:46]
Joy Reid
of
- [110:48]
Marc Shaiman
movie score that every composer wants to write. You know, that's got stature the way the American President used to have, or at least the way we thought of the American President. And that got me an Oscar nomination where I was, I was nominated in the same category as John Williams.
- [111:03]
Joy Reid
Wow, that is amazing.
- [111:05]
Marc Shaiman
But more even more importantly, you see my wedding ring. Rob and Michelle fought so hard for same sex marriage right up to the, you know, the Supreme Court. They were part of that fight. And I am a very happily married man. And this ring means so much to me. And Rob and Michelle helped me have this in my life.
- [111:25]
Joy Reid
And you got a handsome hubby too, because you brought him on the View. I saw him. I saw him. He's a handsome one. So I have to ask you, as somebody who grew up playing the piano, you play far better than I do. I think I've forgotten how to play it. It's been so long. Where did you learn to play the piano? How old were you when you started? Tell me how you learned.
- [111:42]
Marc Shaiman
The legend in my family is that my sister was taking piano lessons and I was too young for lessons. I was still, I guess, in first grade a little young for piano lessons. So the piano teacher finished the lesson. My sister went out to play and my mother said to the piano teacher, come up upstairs, have a cup of coffee before you go. They were upstairs and they heard my sister's piano lesson being played, but they knew that she had gone outside. So they ran downstairs and looked around the corner. And there I was at the piano playing, you know, by ear and with my little fingers. And so they immediately started me on piano lessons. And thank God that piano was there in my house.
- [112:21]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [112:22]
Marc Shaiman
It was just so important to have music education in schools because, you know, if I hadn't had that piano, what would have happened? And what. So many kids must be out there with the talent and maybe don't have the opportunity to let it, you know, blossom.
- [112:38]
Joy Reid
There's a song that I love that goes, no one knows me like the old piano in My Mama's Own, you know, and it's so true. Wow.
- [112:45]
Marc Shaiman
I gotta look up that song. Cause, yeah, this piano, this is my real love affair.
- [112:50]
Joy Reid
Yeah, it is. It's a special relationship. You know, the piano is. It's a place where you can pour your. Your sadness, your joy. It's like a friend. It is a wonderful thing. That's why I absolutely love it. And I absolutely love you. You are so cool. Marc Shaiman, tell us where we can find you. If people want to jump on this tour and be part of your exciting. I'm going to call it an international world tour. Tell me, where are you going?
- [113:13]
Marc Shaiman
I am schlepping every weekend I go. But, you know, Joan Crawford had a line in a movie called Torch Song where she says, if the talk's about me, I'll buy a ticket. So. So off I go. Go to markshaiman.com and it's all there. It's all there. Michael Buble is going to be a moderator. I'm doing the Grammy museum in LA in two weeks, and that's going to be a fun night because he is a funny guy.
- [113:38]
Joy Reid
That is awesome. This lineup looks so dope. It's going to be so much fun. And I know from having recently seen you in action how much fun people are going to have. They're going to have a ball. They're going to love this book. I need to get my copy signed the next time I see you. Marc Shaiman. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here.
- [113:57]
Marc Shaiman
Thank you. Thanks for having me on and thanks for what you do.
- [114:00]
Joy Reid
Thank you so much. I appreciate you. That is amazing. That is an early moment of joy, you guys. I'm telling you, I just recently saw him with Jennifer Lewis. Jennifer motherfucking Lewis and he. They are a hoot together. And this book is a must read if you want something to cheer yourself up. First of all, what you can do is you can. You can read Keisha, Keisha's book and get your cry on and then you can read Dr. West's book and get your fist up on. And then read Mark's book and get your laugh and your smile on. Because, look, at the end of the day, we have to laugh and having joy and having music and having fun. He also wrote the music for Hairspray Baby. Let me tell you, he has written everything and gotten, like, many, many, many, many awards. First Wise Club, George of the Jungle, like, you name it. This dude is involved in the music for it. Incredible. The score or even some of the songs in it. He's. He's dope. All right, you all. So. So that is our. That's an early moment of joy. But my second moment of joy that I'm adding is a very, very funny post by somebody who calls himself Imposing Trombone. Imposing Trombone on Instagram. And he's doing the best spoof of Whiskey Pete Hegset. Take a look.
- [115:14]
Jim Acosta
Read you my favorite verse.
- [115:17]
Joy Reid
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there's nothing left Because I've been blasting and
- [115:25]
Guest/Interviewer
laughing so long that even my mama thinks that my mind is gone.
- [115:30]
Joy Reid
As I walk through the valley of the shadow with death, I take a look at my life and realize, I promise you he's going to do it eventually. I want to get a. You know, you talk about infiltrating, like, can the SPLC infiltrate Pete Hegseth's staff and particularly the people who are his speech writers, and just slip some Eminem lyrics in there? Somebody said Eminem, like, just put some. Put some lyrics from some. Some ironic rap songs.
- [115:59]
Jim Acosta
Read you my favorite verse.
- [116:03]
Joy Reid
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a
- [116:07]
Guest/Interviewer
look at my life and realize there's nothing left because I've been blasting and laughing so long that even my mama thinks that my mind is gone.
- [116:14]
Joy Reid
Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone. Yes, that's coolio. But I'm saying put some Eminem lyrics in there. Put some Coolio lyrics in there. Get some old. Like, put some lyrics in there. I think it would be so much fun, because he knows nothing about the Bible, but he knows that he wants to sound like a rapper. Remember when he did the thing where, like, Lethal Effect, not politically correct? He wants so badly to be a gangster rapper, y'. All. He either wants to be a gangster rapper or like a twitch streamer. He wants to be a streamer or a rapper. Those are his dreams. And he's. He's. He's so close to his his vision. But someone needs to slip in there and they need to get him some lyrics from various hip hop artists. They should put some Vanilla Ice lyrics in there. So he. And as it says in Matthew 20, verse 17, Ice, ice, baby. Even though that's not really it, he really stole that from. From fraternity. But I think they should just go in there and they should just give him some lyrics, because why not? He doesn't know what the hell he's doing. He has no idea what his actual job is, and all he knows is that he wants to be a famous rapper. Before we go, if you all are planning to watch the White House correspondence dinner, first of all, I wouldn't. But if you do watch it on C Span, do not give. I don't know if any of the networks are gonna cover it, but I think it is an embarrassing, very sad moment for, you know, in all seriousness, for our country that our First Amendment is so degraded and so destroyed and that our mainstream media is so hobbled that so many very good journalists are gonna be forced to sit in that room in fancy dresses and tuxedos and be mocked and ridiculed by the President of the United States. And normally it'll be fine if a president mocks the journalists in the room. That's part of the fun of the White House Correspondent's Dinner. But the fact that he will not be mocked back, that no one can do it back to him, and the fact that he has not just mocked some of these members of the media, he's abused them. He's been abusive, particularly to the women journalists. I can't imagine, as a woman working still in a mainstream media outlet. My boss is encouraging me to go and sit in front of a misogynist who has called me or my colleagues stupid, fat, piggy, idiot. He's called people all sorts of names outside of their names, and he's tried to humiliate them, literally, while they're doing their jobs. He's yelled at members of the media. And you know what's so interesting? When you go back and you look at that 2017 press conference, you see how much more lucid he sounded. Did y' all notice that? Am I the only one that noticed? He actually sounded. I hate these little Harris thing. He actually sounded like he was somewhat lucid. So you can see how quickly he's deteriorated since then. You can see how much his mind has gone since 2017. Because in 2017, when he's given that angry press conference where he's defending the white nationalists and the Nazis and the Klan members who marched in Charlottesville and saying there were good people among them. He actually said it coherently. But now you go forward almost 10 years and he sounds like he can barely put a sentence together. So you can see, you know, age is a real, it is more than just a number number. And you can see he's aging, but you can see his mind is going. And even he can barely stay awake. He can barely stay awake through meetings when he's supposed to be doing something serious. Another soundbite he said is when he was asked, well, how long are we going to be in Iran? He said, well, give me a chance. Other people were in wars for 10 years. We were in Iraq for all these years. We were in Afghanistan for 20 years. So basically he's implying that we're going to be in Iran for what, 10, 20 years and say, give me a chance. Give me a break. Why don't, why can't I be in there long? The other president's got to do it. This dude is gone. He's gonzo. But don't forget that Tomorrow morning at 10am Come back to the channel or go to the substack from substack and we are going to be live streaming our prebuttal of this foolishness, the tomfoolery that Nelly and Nicki Minaj are going to be also a part of. We're going to pre butt the tomfoolery at 10:00am Eastern Standard Time. Come right back to the channel to watch that and we will see you all on Monday. We'll give you a full rundown. We're not going to play clips of the White House. I don't think we're going to see. We'll see what we do. But also don't forget to vote on the glasses on the bondail glasses. And in the meantime, have a There you are. Have a wonderful weekend. Like subscribe, share, do us a solid and we will see you. There's the QR code. We will see you on Monday. Have a great weekend. Be safe out there. Much love and see you on the next the Joy Reid show on Monday. As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death Getting back to
- [121:05]
Guest/Interviewer
the basics grassroots level Let me dig a little deeper with the shovel Plenty
- [121:09]
Joy Reid
can't tell the force from the trees that I'm hard to detect Like a
- [121:12]
Guest/Interviewer
black hole in a dog 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
- [121:20]
Joy Reid
the threat of poverty they don't want
- [121:22]
Guest/Interviewer
to talk about it.
- [121:23]
Joy Reid
They rap the party, so I'm a
- [121:24]
Guest/Interviewer
real talk about it for sure.