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Republicans Declare War on Black Voters, Health & Sanity | The Joy Reid Show LIVE!
02:08:20
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- [00:05]
D.L. Hughley
Okay,
- [00:14]
Joy Reid
The train has left the station and has arrived at the Joy Retro, everybody. Welcome to the Joy Reacho tgif. We were bringing up the early, early readers, the early adopters who jump in early into the chat, but also everyone who's coming in. We know that the Lemon readers will be here shortly. They're popping on over from their lemonhead world. We appreciate everybody that's watching, whether it's on YouTube, on Substack. We love our stackers. Big up to our mighty twitch army. 509 people strong. It is small but mighty. Our little Twitch mini army, but they're super chill. We love them. Big up to those who are listening on most people listening on Facebook. Hello, our Facebook fam. Hello to you guys. Big ups to you guys as well. As well as those of you who are on LinkedIn who still don't have a name. What is happening here? We got to get the name for the LinkedIn people because we love and appreciate them as well. So, you know, today is very packed. We got a lot to. A lot happening. I will remind you guys that it's dwindling, but there's still a small number of tickets left if you are want to go to that live show featuring the hilarious Godfrey. If you want to go to that, you're kind of running out of ticket space. If a lot of people reach out saying they want to go, but you know, it's kind of running out of space. But if you, you can still get a few more tickets, there's a little bit left. So if you want to go, please jump on that as soon as you can. Go to live.thejewelryreadshow.com if you want to get in on that. Let's get right into our topic. So, surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise. Elon Musk, it turns out, blatantly used race, gender and other protected characteristics to execute the largest mass termination of federal grants in the history of history of the National Endowment for the Humanities. A federal judge ruled on Thursday that according to ABC News. Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second.
- [01:58]
Dr. Freda Fisher
Not.
- [01:58]
Joy Reid
Not a fake agency.
- [01:59]
D.L. Hughley
Led.
- [02:00]
Joy Reid
Led. Led by this guy. No, no. No way. No way. No, no. Not. Not possible. Not him. Not the guy who did the up arms. You can't be right. By the way. That clip was from January 20, 2025, at a rally celebrating the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump. I mean, Elon Musk invested more than $200 million jamming back into the White House, including dangling money in front of Pennsylvania voters and maybe some shenanigans with his Magic cyber machine, who knows? But he and the other tech oligarchs had, not long before that wave, or whatever we want to call it, had enjoyed a warm indoor inaugural while the little people of MAGA froze more than a mile away at the poor's rally. And we should have taken that gesture as a sign, right? Because the system that Elon Musk grew up with, apartheid, the fascist, racist, neo Nazi style system that ruled South Africa when he and Peter Thiel grew up there, is literally being rolled out rapid fire style, right here in America. And of course, remember, we called our version of apartheid Jim Crow. But in their version of Jim Crow called apartheid, black people had zero representation in the government despite being the overwhelming majority of the population and in fact the indigenous population. Now, in American apartheid, AKA Jim Crow, even in states where there were substantial numbers of black people, black people had no access to the polls. And according to the updated version, which I called John Crow after one Chief Justice John Roberts, who has been working to create this new version of Jim Crow since He was a 26 year old Reagan Department of Injustice employee, under John Crow and his racist hitman Sam the scam Alito Jr under their system, Republicans can gerrymander black Americans into zero representation here as long as they call it partisanship and don't openly use the N word. Well now the Virginia Supreme Court has entered the chat. By a 4 to 3 vote, the Republicans on that court overturned the redistricting plan that was vetoed, that was voted for, I should say, by 3 million Virginians. Four people overturned the will of 3 million voters. And that gerrymandering plan had been, had been to match the Republicans energy by redistricting Virginia the same way that Republicans redistricted Texas. And it was a tit for tat. But According to the four Republicans on that court, those 3 million voters can basically go to hell. Because all the Republicans got to work together in the party of Epstein to make sure that Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate. So nobody can stop the grift, right? And the judiciary. And these legislators are clearly colluding. That's the latest substack that I wrote by the way, if you guys want to check out my substack, enjoy and read.com that is the point of it. If it's not open collusion or illegal collusion, they're really doing a good imitation of colluding. I will say that some of the responses to this gerrymander basically saying that you can gerrymander in a Republican state if you're a Republican Legislature, you can do it, but Democrats can't do it. Only Republicans apparently are allowed to gerrymander. When Democrats do it. It's unconstitutional. Now the state, the Attorney general of the state, Attorney General Johnson has said this is an outrage and you can't have four people, over 3 million people, and they're considering their options. Tim K. Condemned it. But overall the Democratic Party in Virginia said something like, we respect the decision of the court. I don't know why, because they don't respect the voters of Virginia. It's basically very clear to me, not to mince words, that the Republican Party has said f the party of Lincoln stuff. We about to be the neo Confederacy and f them black Americans because you can't pick your own leaders, you cannot pick your own members of Congress at all. At this point, the Republican Party is literally waging war on black Americans full stop. Black workers, black contractors, black people in the military, black voters, even as they also wage war against women, women who don't want kids, women in the military, women in college. They're also waging war against non white immigrants, trans people, workers who need to buy groceries, people who have high rent. The Republican Party has basically launched a war against Americans and as always happens when conservatives go to war against Americans, whether they call themselves the Democratic Dixiecrat Party in the past or, or whether they call themselves Republicans now, black people are always the first ones to take incoming fire. But people are not just taking it laying down. Let me show you guys how this is playing out across the South. Take a look at this video.
- [07:34]
Justin Jones
Hands off our maps. Hands off our maps. No new maps. No new maps. Black voters matter. Hands off Memphis. Hands off Memphis.
- [07:47]
Joy Reid
Turn me around and gonna let race. Turn me around. Turn me around. Meanwhile, inside of the state of Tennessee, State Representative Justin Jones literally burned a Confederate flag to make the point that if they think the south is going to rise again, his answer to them, if you show this, Jason, was yeah, we're going to burn your Confederate flag. I love this moment. State Representative Justin Jones literally taking it directly to them, burning their flag and then stomping on it as the Confederates he unfortunately has to serve with in the state house walked on by ducking under their burning flag. Meanwhile, State Representative Justin J. Pearson, who happens to be running for the Memphis congressional seat that the modern day Confederates in the Tennessee legislature voted to eliminate by chopping it into three pieces based both the neoconfederates and out of town law enforcement that they brought in to intimidate the resistance. Take a look at this. Is Wrong with you
- [10:15]
D.L. Hughley
is wrong with you.
- [10:18]
Justin Jones
Stupid mother is fighting right now to stop this racing, redistricting. And the people are fighting with them because this is the moment. This is the time when we fight for our democracy. We fight for our right to be heard. We make sure that they know this racism is not going to happen and persist in silence. This is the moment, this is the time where we fight for what we believe. If you believe in democracy, you have to fight for it. You have to speak up for it. You have to believe in it. In this time, we cannot be silent. And our Democratic colleagues are standing up right now in the Tennessee Senate to demand that black representation matters. Black voices matter, black people matter. And we've got a community fighting with us. We will not be moved. We will not be moved.
- [11:55]
Joy Reid
And joining me now is State Representative Justin Pearson. He's joining me from Memphis where he is meeting with members of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. Good evening, young representative. People in the chats are saying they felt every minute of what you've done in their whole chest area and in their whole spirit. Talk to me, where are we at in Tennessee?
- [12:19]
Justin Pearson
Yeah, we're still in the fight in Tennessee. We filed a lawsuit today, I'm one of the plaintiffs, saying that this needs to be stopped. The naacp, with the leadership of Derek Johnson, Kristen Clark, they have also filed a lawsuit to stop this and put an injunction on it. But the fight is still going. I'm still running for Congress. We aren't going to yield and bow down to these authoritarian white supremacist actions of the Tennessee General Assembly. We've been here before and we know that we cannot bend and we cannot break because that's what they want to happen.
- [12:50]
Joy Reid
Let me show these new maps so that everybody can see what they've done. This is the new Tennessee map. New York Times and NBC News are both posting this map that the state legislature put out. They basically taken District 9, which was Steve Cohen's. The seat Steve Cohen was in, that's the seat you are running in a primary for. And cut it in thirds, cut it in three. And essentially they cut black Shelby county in three pieces as well as a five way split in the Nashville metro area. That gives them a 90 Republican split instead of an 81 split. Those three districts, is it that you're now going to have to run in one of the three. Tell me, how does this work for you pragmatically?
- [13:30]
Justin Pearson
Exactly. Yeah. I got to choose which one to run in and notify the Secretary of State of that. But you can see our district was compact and it represented most of Memphis and Shelby County. It was a very intentional community because it's a community of interest. But what they have decided is to have more Republican power. At the behest of Donald Trump, he, after the Khalid decision, called Governor Bill Lee to take away the only black majority district in the entire state of Tennessee. It's the consolidation of power. And you articulate this so well. It's the neo Confederates, right? This is these, these. This is the Klan. That hatred at the bottom of lynching trees, it didn't disappear. It dissipated into institutions of power that are now codifying their abuses of power through legislation and through policy, like we're seeing right now with the theft and the stealing of black representation and the possibility of black representation across the South. It's Congress now, but State House and state Senate's next.
- [14:29]
Joy Reid
Absolutely. And, you know, to just prove, as if they are letting us know that they know that they are cosplaying as the Klan, that this is the modern day Neo Confederacy, they even arrested your brother. Your brother Keyshawn was at least detained. Talk to me about that. You were also manhandled by these Tennessee officers. Jason. We have that up with no sound, but we'll do both of those. Talk to me about this moment, what was happening.
- [14:57]
Justin Pearson
Cameron Sexton, who's the speaker of the House, he always tries to silence the voices of people in the gallery. You can't whisper, you can't hiss, you can't do anything because white supremacy doesn't want for you to watch. It doesn't want for you to be a witness. And too many people were witnessing what was going on. My brother, Allison, Lori, who are also community members of ours, they stood firm and they sat in their seats. They said, we weren't making any noise. We hadn't heard anybody. We're not doing anything. And so, in an act of civil disobedience, they refused to be moved. Ultimately, the troopers grabbed my brother and forced him to walk out. And I ran upstairs, as you can see there, to check in on him. And one of the officers, troopers I have known for three years, and he ultimately told them, you know, let Representative Pearson go and it's okay, they can walk down, they can walk down, because he was going to be detained and they were going to do what they're going to do, but one of them just refused. He just continued to grab me, continued
- [15:49]
D.L. Hughley
to grab my brother.
- [15:50]
Justin Pearson
And that's where we got into a really intense altercation because, you know, black folks interactions with law enforcement particularly, these heightened moments don't typically end well.
- [15:59]
Dr. Freda Fisher
But.
- [15:59]
Justin Pearson
But the reality is they're trying to abuse their power over us, trying to continue to lord over us, whether it be legislatively or quite literally, with grabbing our bodies and controlling our bodies. And I'm a state representative, and my brother, he knows how to walk down a set of steps without being carried by some state troopers. And I wanted his dignity to be respected. And the supervisor agreed, but one of these troopers just refused to listen.
- [16:24]
Joy Reid
Are these local officers? Because you would think that local sheriffs would know who the state representatives are.
- [16:31]
D.L. Hughley
Exactly.
- [16:31]
Justin Pearson (speech)
No.
- [16:32]
Justin Pearson
These troopers are coming from all other types of places. The trooper who was the supervisor actually worked at the Capitol, the one who I had the altercation with, I'd never seen before. And we typically do have decent relationships with the troopers who serve in the Capitol because we see them almost every single day for several months. But this was not one of those.
- [16:50]
Joy Reid
You all were expelled before they attempted to steal the seats of yourself, of Justin Johnson as well as. I'm sorry, Gloria Johnson as well, Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson. And I was listening to one of the white members, one of the neo Confederate members, threatening to sanction you all again. Do you expect that to happen?
- [17:12]
Justin Pearson
I don't care if they do. I mean, do it. We are at a inflection point in our nation's history, and I'm here right now with Turk, folks who do so much for our immigrant community. And we've seen what this administration has done to destroy our communities, to separate families, to deport families, to kill American citizens. They are doing their worst, and we need to do our best to fight against this. And so if that risk being expelled, then expel us. If it risks censoring us, then censure us. But what we cannot do is allow anyone to think that what is happening is okay. We are at a terribly terrifying moment in our nation's history. And if anybody is sitting on the sidelines, you are silently complicit to an authoritarian playbook and to a white supremacist ideology that is being supported by white Christian nationalism that is destroying the very fabric of this country. And so we have an urgency in this moment to work, to fight, to organize, to mobilize, to vote, and also to resist.
- [18:14]
Joy Reid
Before I let you go, and this is not in your state, this is actually the speaker of the House of the state of Alabama, where there was just mayhem today as they tried to also enact their Alito maps. I'm calling them Alito maps now. And I call it John Crow after John Roberts, because the Supreme Court is making this possible. Let me let you listen very quickly to Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter. And this is related to the people that you're standing in the room with right now. Take a listen.
- [18:42]
Verbal B Rapping
This opportunity to look at those congressional districts again gives us a chance at all of them if we get some reprieve from courts and so give us a. We'll see how that goes and certainly hope that the Supreme Court will overturn Amendment 14, gives us a shot to revisit those Republican Party had that seat in, I guess in Mobile, number two seat, congressional seat two. So the district two. And so that was one of the things, you know, there's been a push through the courts to try to overtake some of these red state seats. And that's certainly what happened in that one. And with the ruling that happened in Louisiana, we felt like it gave us a chance to maybe regain that seat, but also opened up 7 district 7. So I think that's happened. You know, all we need now is the courts to overturn 14 and we can look at a new election.
- [19:32]
Joy Reid
He said it not once but twice. Overturn Amendment 14. That's the 14th Amendment, which allows immigrants in this country to have birthright citizenship. That's definitely gonna impact the people you're in the room with right now. And it's the only reason you and I are citizens at all. Because African Americans were not considered citizens until the 14th amendment due process also. 14th amendment. What do you make of an Alabama speaker of the House just admitting they wanna get rid of the 14th Amendment
- [19:56]
Justin Pearson
because they're not hiding who they are. And we need to see them for exactly who they are. They are their clan sisters, wildest dreams. They are seeking to fulfill an ideology that we have been fighting against for a very, very, very long time in Alabama, Mississippi is trying to do a similar thing and they're going to the old capitol where the last time they were there, they were taking away black people's rights in a similar way of citizenship and trying to deprive us of our dignity. So to see this lawmaker saying that we, we need to recognize that again, the racism and the hatred of the lynching tree did not disappear. It dissipated. And now those same folks, descendants, they wear suits and ties, they wear black robes, they wear badges and they are doing everything that they possibly can to take us back. And we have to fight that at every turn. And the good news that I do still have is that we are still here despite everything that they have done and everything that they have tried to destroy our immigrant community, to kill and destroy black people, to tell women their second and third class citizens. We continue to persevere and it is painful, it is difficult, it is dangerous. But we have to continue to persist,
- [21:07]
Joy Reid
even now, especially now, State Representative and hopefully soon, Congressman Justin J. Pierson, one of the strongest fighters not just in Tennessee, but in this country. Thank you very much, young brother. I appreciate you making the time. We literally were coming at you very, very late. I knew you had a lot. So thank you for making the time.
- [21:25]
Justin Pearson
God bless you. Let's keep fighting together.
- [21:27]
Joy Reid
Let's do it. Thank you very much. All right, y', all. So this is what it is. This is the clan sisters wildest dreams. I'm gonna use that one and keep it. Now, look, we're gonna get to more of this. Straight up Neo Confederate rebirth. These guys think they can make the south rise again by essentially eliminating black representation in the South. We got much more on that coming up. D.L. hughley has an idea of something we can do to fight back that's coming up in the next hour. We also have a writer who's going to talk about the racist way John Roberts grew up, which is going to be very telling for the way that he is acting right now with his little John Crow. But before we get to that, I want to take a little shift real quick. I want to play you this Instagram post that completely terrified me.
- [22:08]
Dr. Freda Fisher
Take a look exactly why I told y' all that I was exceptionally concerned about this specific haunted virus outbreak. The World Health Organization has confirmed that the hantavirus strain in this cruise ship outbreak is the one, one that is spread from human to human contact. The Andes variant. As I mentioned in my initial video, the Andes variant is the only strain of hantavirus known to be spread from human to human contact. It is a strain found in South America, specifically Argentina. This cruise ship departed from South America, specifically Argentina. The Andes variant typically only spreads from human to human when there is prolonged close contact. On a cruise ship, you have prolonged close contact. I'm Dr. Freda. I'm going to give you some more details about this, Andy's variant of the hantavirus. And I'll answer the question, should we be scared? Is this likely to be another big lockdown like we saw with C19 in 2023?
- [23:13]
Joy Reid
Okay, let's leave it there. Let's leave it there because we want to get that answer from her live. Because guess what? Dr. Freda joins me now. Joining me now is the creator of that terrifying post, Dr. Freda Fisher, a quadruple board certified physician, nephrologist and host of Dr. Freda Live right here on these YouTube streets. She is known for breaking down trending medical headlines, celebrity health news and more in a way that is clear and easy for viewers to follow, which is very good news for us. Dr. Freda, hello.
- [23:42]
Dr. Freda Fisher
Hello, Joy. How are you doing?
- [23:44]
Joy Reid
I am doing well, except for you terrifying me. When I watched that, I had to send that TikTok to my entire team. It is like all over our slack because Lord have mercy, please do what you said you were going to do in that video. How terrified should we be of this hantavirus?
- [23:59]
Dr. Freda Fisher
I don't want us to be terrified, Joy. I don't want us to be panicked. But we do need to be realistic. When I did my initial post, even though I was a little microbiology nerd, I won my microbiology award in medical school. And the hantavirus has 40 strains in almost all of them are spread only from rodent saliva feces to humans. No human to human spread except for one variant. And I remembered that. And so at the time that, you know, the World Health Organization was talking about the fact that it was being spread on the cruise ship, I remember thinking that that doesn't fit, you know, for a non human to human spread. And then after I made my initial post that very next day, it was confirmed that it was that one variant from Andy's South America, which is where the MV Hondius took off. So now we have human to human spread. But I don't want people to be terrified because even though, yes, we have now nine suspected and confirmed cases, yes, now we know that even people who have left the boat already who are hanging out have been exposed. The hantavirus is different from viruses like COVID 19 or even like the measles because it does not spread as easily. For some of these, these other viruses like measles, measles, you can cough, leave the room, two hours later, someone can walk in, they can get the measles. That's contagious. But hantavirus is not like that. For hantavirus, you really do have to have close contact. Sharing forks, sharing drinks, kissing, being just right there, talking in each other's faces. It really does take close contact. And so all the infectious disease specialists, World Health Organization, cdc, we don't fear right now that it could be the next pandemic. But to be honest, we cannot speak in absolutes because we know viruses do mutate. But it's not likely to be the next pandemic.
- [25:52]
Joy Reid
Well, so you said sharing forks. We have a country where the entire federal system of caring for our food safety, where we have the cdc, where we have the entire federal health infrastructure in the hands of a man who snorted cocaine off of public toilet seats and ate or consumed the penis of a raccoon. And a doctor From Oprah's show, Dr. Oz, who I'm not even sure is a doctor. For real. For real. And the FDA is in control of some other mediocre white man who only got the job because he's white and male. So we don't have a system. I'm not even so sure we can trust. If you go in a MAGA restaurant that they are properly cleaning the forks that you're eating off of after the last MAGA person was sitting in front of you. So if you can get it from a fork or eating off of. Should we just basically say, if, you know, the person voted for Trump, don't eat in their restaurant? Like, I don't trust the infrastructure, ma'. Am.
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Dr. Freda Fisher
Doctor, I don't think that's quite how we should interpret it, but you are right with our new head of HHS, RFK Jr. He's not a doctor, he's not a nurse, he's not a custodian in the hospital. No medical background, misinformation everywhere.
- [27:15]
Joy Reid
And he has a worm eating his brain.
- [27:18]
Dr. Freda Fisher
He does have a history of that as well. Okay, so the confidence is down. He turned the food pyramid upside down. We can go on and on and on. He's telling us to eat saturated fats, beef tallow. Oh, my gosh. Oh, and please don't forget that he says that all black children should be sent off to wellness.
- [27:34]
Joy Reid
We should be on fire. Can you all just back over? He wants to take all black children and take them from their parents and raise them on a farm or on some sort of public farms, which sounds a lot like slavery. And what are they going to do? All eat the penises of raccoons together and not be vaccinated and die from COVID and measles? Like, what kind of farm is this? Is this a farm where they only eat supplements sold by RFK Jr like, what's happening here?
- [28:04]
Dr. Freda Fisher
Well, according to him, he didn't say it, even though we have it on verified. So point taken. Our leadership is. Is not one. That's very sobering. And again, we're not. We're no longer involved with World Health Organization. And on day one, RFK Jr. Fired all of the people who were exactly experts in immunization practices, replaced them with his own people who were vaccine skeptics. And so you are correct and to your point, again, I don't want to fear monger, I'm operating in facts. We do know that there are at least five states where people who were on that cruise ship, the MV Hondias, are now here in the States. Reportedly they have not tested positive for hantavirus. Reportedly we don't have any suspected cases. But I will say with our system, all of them are not being quarantined. All of them are not being isolated. And it's important to understand that after you're exposed to the hantavirus, it could take anywhere from one to six weeks, one to eight weeks per some studies, before you even have symptoms. And so if they were on that boat even six, seven weeks ago, and they're walking around, then it is possible that they could still have developed hantavirus. We know that there was one Swiss man who had already left. He was off of the cruise ship, he was in Switzerland living his best life. He found out what happened, he got tested. He has hantavirus. And so to be realistic, without creating a panic, it still is out here. And we still do have people now who are not contained, who are off of the boat and who are in the United States who could still develop hantavirus. That is a very real possibility and without us having super confidence in our leadership. I do understand people having fears, but all we can do is to. When you're in tight public spaces, please wear a mask, make sure you do good hand washing and avoid rodents. And listen, if you're trying to clean up all of whatever rodents are in your, your attic, don't sweep, don't vacuum, because you're just going to aerosolize the rodent feces particles. What you want to do is use a bleach solution and let it sit for five minutes and then wipe it up with paper towels. And I did not see that in my tarot cards that I'll be talking about how to clean up poop. But this is a public health situation.
- [30:17]
Joy Reid
But I mean, it's a couple of things on that. Number one, who's tracking the, the, the people who got off that ship in this country?
- [30:26]
Dr. Freda Fisher
Well, all of those details aren't clear. I can tell you that as far as, at least as of today, what was shared is that these individual state governments are in charge. Some of this, like at least as of this morning, California had not revealed the exact number of people who were identified from the MV Hombits Arizona shared that the person who was on that cruise ship and now in Arizona is not being required to be isolated or quarantined. And then even though there's a recommendation, we have two here in Georgia, where I am, there are not, there's not one single force that is making sure that they're being tracked. And that goes to your point about a bit of a disarray in our leadership. I will say that it's been recorded reported that the CDC as for the 17 or 18 passengers who still are on that cruise ship, the plan is for them to be escorted to Nebraska from last reports and for them to be placed together in an isolation. And so that is the plan. But there is no one solidified plan. And quite honestly it would be safest to make, to require that everyone who was on that ship to make, to stay away from everyone else until that full weeks has run out. That would just be, you know, the safest for all of us. But I can't stand here and tell you in good faith that that's what's happening. And I can't tell you, I cannot tell you in good faith that we have great solid leadership as far as our infectious disease protocols.
- [31:50]
Joy Reid
Right. And not just infectious disease protocols. At the federal level. If these people got off of a cruise ship with hantavirus in Florida, the governor is called Ron DeSantis, who's attorney, who's surgeon general, doesn't believe in germ theory and goes unmasked in front of cancer patients even during COVID If they land in Nebraska, that's a Republican run state. If they're in Georgia, also a Republican run state that has a six week abortion ban and where black women are disproportionately dying in childbirth because they can't get abortion care. Texas, same way, if they land in Texas, that's a state that is essentially in the 19th century when it comes to healthcare and has almost no doctors left because they're all leaving. So the other concern is not just at the federal level, at the state, state level. If you live in a red state, if you're in Mississippi, if you're in Tennessee, if you're in Alabama, I don't know how you survive if a hantavirus outbreak takes place in your state because your state governor will not do mandates after Covid. They will not do any kind of mandated protocols, they won't do masks, they won't do anything except pray to Donald Trump, I guess.
- [32:53]
Dr. Freda Fisher
And I guess you Know, we're talking about like comparing Covid to hantavirus. At least with COVID for a while we did have mask mandates until people started saying my body, my choice for masks. Yet they take away choices for women and their reproductive rights. Make that make sense. And with COVID the chance of passing away from it, at least it had a lower percentage. With this hantavirus, it's at least 40% for this Andy strain. And even up to 50%, you have a 50% chance of passing away. No treatment, no cure. And you can think about it. Administrations in the past very likely would have been actively working to come up with a vaccine. There's no globally approved vaccine for hantavirus. And if I were a betting woman, I bet that Your good old RFK Jr. Is not exactly planning to come up with a vaccine. And so I hate to be gloom and doom, but every point that you raise is so crystal clear, so valid, and so all we can do is what we can do. For me, I share the evidence based medical information and I make sure that I don't allow my viewers to be in a la la land. No, I don't believe it'll be the next pandemic for the reasons I described. But I cannot sit here and promise that this virus won't mutate. And I can promise that our administration at this point is not giving us the protection that we deserve.
- [34:11]
Joy Reid
Right. And because ideologically they're opposed. I mean, what RFK Jr thought we should have done with COVID was due natural immunity. Meaning that it's the same thing he seems to believe about measles. Let as many people as possible get it so that your body will develop natural antibodies. Would that work with hantavirus?
- [34:31]
Dr. Freda Fisher
Well, if you survive. But if you're, if you roll the dice, or I'm sorry, don't even roll the dice, flip a coin. And if your coin lands on the side where you pass away, if you're with the 30 to 50% of the people who pass away, then no, it won't work. And it's very interesting because my grandma always told me, watch what people do. Don't listen to what people say. Reportedly RFK Jr. And his family, they've gotten vaccines. I know has shared that. And we see, you know, our leader, Donald Trump, who sits there and allows his people to be anti vax. Oh, protect your body. But when we see his annual exams, and you know, apparently he has several annual exams, we see that he's had his COVID vaccine, he's had his flu vaccine, and you know, even back when the vaccines for Covid were being available, you will see places where you have section 8 and predominantly low income communities. Everybody from Buckhead, Beverly Hills, all the high income people would be there. And so while RFK Jr has these theories about only the strongest surviving, I'd be very curious to see what his record is. Watch what people do and not what they say. These folks.
- [35:40]
Joy Reid
Oh, and, and if they can finish that bunker that we're going to pay for as the American people, they'll all be in the White House bunker under the ballroom while everyone else is dying of antivirus. What should we do if we're traveling in assuming that not all of the airlines shut down like spirit airlines and we still are able to use international travel or national travel. I mean, whenever I ride Amtrak or travel in any way, I mean, people are on these trains and planes power sneezing. Like power coughing and I mean they're sneezing with authority, not covering their mouths. No masks. Power sneeze. What do we do other than wearing a mask? Does that even protect you? Is it. Should we double mask? What should we do?
- [36:24]
Dr. Freda Fisher
The cake. Not power sneezing. You know what? Power sneezing from Clancestors to John Crow.
- [36:30]
Joy Reid
That's like when you sneeze with an exclamation point. That's like when you sneeze because you want everyone to catch what you have. That's what they're doing on Amtrak and on these planes.
- [36:38]
Justin Pearson (speech)
It's true.
- [36:38]
Dr. Freda Fisher
It's true. The masks do help, especially the N95s. KN95s. So I would definitely wear a mask when you're in close quarters, in an airplane, on a train, sitting next to that person who looks like they might have something. Even if they look like they don't have anything. Take your little.
- [36:55]
Joy Reid
If they have a MAGA hat on, I promise you, put a mask. Double mask. Because they, when they sneeze, papi and mommy Chulo and mommy Chula, they're going to power. They're going to sneeze a cloud at you. And they mean to do it because they don't believe in germs. They don't think it hurts anyone. They're like the old colonial colonizers of the Americas who were like hachu, Native Americans. Why are you falling on the ground seeming to die? Sorry.
- [37:22]
Dr. Freda Fisher
Oh my God. So. So the ones you're describing are the ones who really are low income, voting against their own benefits. The ones who really need the snap. The ones who really need the Medicaid. That's what you're talking about. But the MAGA in the White House, the billionaires, the ones on yachts will never see, oh, those ones are vaccinated so you're probably with them. But just think just regular common sense because it's all we can do. So wearing a mask KN95 and you know, go online, order your mask, making sure you take hand sanitizer, have your little bleach wipes to wipe down certain surfaces like the, the seat belt buckle on an airplane just and making sure you, each time you get ready to eat something, just kind of put your little mask down, slip it in your mouth, put it back up and that's really all that you can do. When you cover your mouth, use the elbow, that old fashioned dab they used to say and make sure you're not sneezing on your hand and then going and shaking people's hand. Don't be afraid to go back to the fist bump.
- [38:19]
Joy Reid
Come on, come on.
- [38:21]
Dr. Freda Fisher
The lockdown. And make sure that you pay attention to the updates with World Health Organization and trying to just live in a world where you're not completely paranoid but where you are careful.
- [38:35]
Joy Reid
Dr. Freda Fisher. I'm going to subscribe to everything that you do because I do love to go into the dark wormholes of fear because I feel like somehow that makes me feel better. I'm not sure why. Please tell us how we can all join you in learning all of the fact based information that will terrify me and keep me up at night. But I'm going to listen to it anyway.
- [38:55]
Dr. Freda Fisher
Oh my goodness. You can't look away. So please join me at doctor.frieda on all social media platforms. That's F R I T as in take care of yourself a on YouTube. I'm very excited to say that we're up to over 982,000 subscribers. We're trying to march to 1 million every Monday. I have a Dr. Freda live at noon Eastern standard time where I talk about the latest trending medical headlines and celebrity health news. I'm sure we'll be talking more about this hantavirus. I talk about different celebrities, ones who have had heart transplants. I talked about Gene Hackman's wife back when she had hantavirus up to date on everything that's going on. So joining me every Monday at noon Eastern standard time is where you can get your healthy dose of medical here with fats. And please don't listen to Marjorie Taylor Greene. There's no cure for hantavirus, no IVERMECTIN no vitamin D, no zinc.
- [39:44]
Joy Reid
That is a myth, and the Jews did not create it with a laser. They don't have a laser. If they did, they need to give it to the blacks because we clearly need it more. Dr. Farida, thank you. Don't have a laser that controls the weather. Thank you.
- [40:04]
Dr. Freda Fisher
This is too much. Thank you so much.
- [40:07]
Joy Reid
Bye. Thank you, sis. Appreciate you. Y' all, please support Dr. Freda. Go ahead and get her to a million subscribers. We, by the way, would love to get to our 500, 000 on our march to a million. So go ahead and subscribe to Dr. Freda, please, and make sure that you get her to a million. Get us to 500,000. Send it to a friend. Tell a friend, tell a foe if. If it. If you know, if you just want to piss them off, go ahead and hit like and subscribe, because that. The algorithm does love it. It's like, it eats like and subscribe. It's what they love. But, yes. Y' all be careful out there, okay? So sorry. What on earth is this? Can you please see one real quick?
- [40:41]
David Daley
Pentagon bureaucracy was doing the same thing for decades. When our warfighters needed more weapons, aircraft, and ships, the Department of Defense allowed contrast contractors to double dip at your expense. But today, President Trump's War Department is flipping this rigged system on its head. We're not tolerating delays in production or cost overruns anymore. We've pushed out the bureaucrats who made these deals in the past and replaced them with the most talented negotiators in the private sector, a group of businessmen so elite, they've been rightly dubbed Deal Team.
- [41:25]
Joy Reid
Deal team 6. Lethal effect. Not politically correct. I'm a cartoon standing in front of an illustration. And I am also your Department of War, baby. What's wrong? Secretary of War Crimes? Lame video about the deal. Team Six is designed to distract from the war disaster in Iran, which has destroyed more of our military infrastructure than your government is telling you. While Iranians and US Warships are now shooting at each other, despite Donald Trump claiming that hostilities between the US And Iran are, quote, terminated. It makes no sense. So why aren't oil prices coming down? If they're terminated, why is Spirit Airlines still doa and, you know, sorry, if you're saving so much money, Drunky Pete, why do you need $1.5 trillion for your new Pentagon budget? Why are you still lying and saying it's Department of War? I think more relevant is this video of Whiskey Pete getting owned by New York Congressman Pat Ryan. Let's play that recognized gentleman from New York, Mr. Ryan.
- [42:27]
Congressman Pat Ryan
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Head wounds, heavy bleeding and then just shrapnel all over. So folks are bleeding from their abdomen, bleeding from arms, bleeding from legs. Secretary Hegseth, do you know who said that?
- [42:45]
David Daley
I'm not sure I do.
- [42:46]
Congressman Pat Ryan
Is one of our soldiers describing the devastating Iranian drone strike at Port Shoiba March 1st in Kuwait? As you know, six of our soldiers killed, over 30 wounded. Secretary, do you know the range of the Shahed 136 one way attack drone? Approximately.
- [43:04]
David Daley
It depends on the variant, but it's
- [43:06]
Congressman Pat Ryan
got serious several hundred miles. Do you know how far Port Shoeba is from Iran?
- [43:13]
Joy Reid
There's a reason why we took it's. It's extreme measures because we understand the proximity challenges.
- [43:19]
Congressman Pat Ryan
Mr. Chair, I'm going to reclaim my time. It's well under 100 miles. Before the war started, there was clear intelligence that Shuiba was high on Iran's target list. Internal analysis had said the site was indefensible from aerial attack and should not be used. Yet you sent our soldiers from the 103rd Sustainment Command there anyway. Is that true or false? True or false? Straightforward question.
- [43:44]
Joy Reid
Are you going to give me a
- [43:45]
David Daley
chance to answer or just play? Gotcha.
- [43:47]
Congressman Pat Ryan
Did you send them there or not?
- [43:50]
Joy Reid
I always.
- [43:51]
David Daley
We have.
- [43:51]
Joy Reid
We took proactive measures from the beginning to ensure more protection and defensive maximized across the theater.
- [43:58]
Congressman Pat Ryan
Let's talk about what defenses they had prior to the attack. Officers on the ground knew our troops were vulnerable. In fact they requested additional force protection. Did they receive it?
- [44:10]
David Daley
Wherever humanly possible force protection encounter, UAS
- [44:13]
Joy Reid
was always made available.
- [44:15]
Congressman Pat Ryan
They did not. In fact, when asked to describe the base's defense, one survivor who's come forward from the unit said, quote, I mean, I would put it in the none category from a drone defense capability. None,
- [44:32]
Joy Reid
None. No defenses for the troops that they've sent to Iran for no reason that they can articulate at all. Joining me now is peace activist Susan Schnall of Veterans for Peace. She's been active in peace social justice movements for more than 50 years. She was an active duty Navy nurse during the Vietnam war and in 1969 was court martialed for dropping anti war flyers over military bases in the San Francisco Bay area and wearing her uniform in the GI and Veterans March for Peace demonstration in San Francisco. She's the only woman officer to ever be court martialed for anti war activities during the conflict in Southeast Asia. It's great to meet you, Susan Schnaller.
- [45:19]
Susan Schnall
Thank you so much. Joy. And it's wonderful to meet you.
- [45:23]
Joy Reid
Let's talk about this. It appears that this war which is killed an unknown number of US Troops and an unknown number of Iranians, including, we do know, 161 little girls that were bombed in a school. But we don't know how many Americans have died. We do know they're eating crap food and that they have no force protection. What do you make of that?
- [45:47]
Susan Schnall
As a veteran, As a veteran and as a member of Veterans for Peace, I should start by saying we are an organization of veterans that have been to war and seen what war does and we are against wars. And I know our focus today is on Iran, but we also need to talk about all the other countries in the world where the United States has military forces. I don't think it's well known to the American people that in fact we have over 350 bases across the world, that we have troops that are right now in Venezuela. That seems to be another focus, that we're taking a look at killing people in fishing boats who are out on the waters, that we also are involved in the Sudan, that we are involved in many, many areas across the world. And we have bases in countries that are supposed to be neutral countries because we want to send our troops and our armaments across countries and through countries like Ireland. So again, getting back to the concern that we have Iran, it is a major focus right now. And it's obvious to me that one of the reasons that the president is talking about peace and that Hegseth is talking about peace is that they are trying to avoid the requirement that Congress, in fact, a mandate to declare war when it is longer than 30 days. So all that we have heard lately is, yes, there's peace, there's active firing going on, there are people being killed. And it's more and more of the lies, and I have to say this of the bone spur man who avoided military entering into the military because he was so afraid. And now he is sending our troops all over the world and they're put in harm's way. And it's for the benefit of those corporate interests that are making a fortune out of sending arms to Israel and sending arms to anybody that will pay for them. And I would say again that what we are doing, what the president is doing, is illegal because Congress is supposed to have a role both in the declaration of war and the action of war and in the amount of military supplies that are sold to countries like Israel to decimate and commit genocide in Gaza.
- [48:07]
Joy Reid
So you've said so much. Yeah, no, you've said so much. And I want to unpack a few of them because you made so many brilliant points here on the point of our presence around the world militarily. That is why our troops are dying. Most of our troops that have died as a result of this Iran war have not as we, to, to the, to our knowledge, died fighting Iranians. They've died because they are based in these bases in UAE or in Kuwait. All of these places that accepted our presence in these military bases, they're now getting bombed by Iran. That's what Iran is bombing in our, for friendly countries, that presence. As a military veteran, do you have any idea like what's the purpose of that presence? Who are we protecting by having bases in uae?
- [48:52]
Susan Schnall
Are we just protecting oil and money interests? And I would say it's also to the benefit of the corporate arms industry that is making a fortune. It's extraordinary. If you go to look at any of the TV business stations and you have the armament people on, they will tell you that within a week, within two weeks, they can get the fastest drones, they can get the best killing machine into another country. And that's why you should invest in those corporate killing machines. It's just extraordinary. And Joy you mentioned, we are all over the world killing people all over the world. I don't see that we have any Iranians in this country that are coming to the United States. I don't see any air force that's coming over or drones. But we, the United States is the largest killing structure in the world. And that should make all of us take a step back and say what are we doing as we move into Memorial Day and we're moving in a celebration of what, what is this country? What was it? What do we want it to believe? What do we want it to be? And how can we get that done? And how can we change the values and the politics of the people in this country 100%?
- [50:17]
Joy Reid
And the second piece that you said that cannot go unremarked upon is that you yourself are a veteran who was punished for being a peace activist during the Vietnam conflict. And yet you as a woman, the kind of person that Pete Hegseth wants to run out of the military, run out of the Pentagon, expel from military service. You as a woman were a Vietnam veteran. You were what he calls a war fighter. And yet Donald Trump, the commander in chief, was a, a full on physical coward whose family got him out of service in Vietnam, who refused to serve his country at the time that he and in your generation were serving, he did not. What do you make of the fact that he seems so gleeful about now using the military like a toy, where he can just bomb anywhere he wants? And he seems to deeply enjoy the idea of killing, but not killing himself because he's a coward, but having the military that he now controls just kill, kill fishermen, kill Iranian children, kill Palestinians, kill Lebanese people in their own apartment buildings, et cetera.
- [51:27]
Susan Schnall
It's as though he's sitting at a desk and doing video games because that's when he knows. I just need to correct one thing. I did not serve in Vietnam. I took care of the men who were injured in Vietnam and saw the service.
- [51:42]
Joy Reid
I still think that's service, Susan, to me. Oh, it is service. That is service. Absolutely.
- [51:45]
Susan Schnall
So I saw what war does to human beings. I saw the young men who I cared for, tried to save their lives. There were many who came back with terrible infections whose lives we couldn't save. So we saw the impact of war. And I also saw the impact of how we train troops and we train our troops and to hate the other and the other is who becomes our enemy. And how that relates to what is going on in this administration today, which is the ongoing impact of racism on this country and how this is. I know this has been going on for years, but it's become almost it's okay because the government says it's okay to do that. That is terrifying to me. That is bringing the war home to this country and saying, now we're going to pit people against each other right here. It's extraordinary. We have. We who want peace and social justice have a lot.
- [52:46]
Joy Reid
And what do you, when you talk to other people that are in Veterans for Peace, you know, your fellow veterans, what do they think of Pete Hegseth? What do people think of him?
- [52:57]
Susan Schnall
Oh, my goodness. That he is a cartoon character. And I, in my mind, that's what I see when I see him and see the way that he dresses and wears the shoes the president wants him to wear. These are people who are terrified of their own shadow, and yet they get up there and they send our young people to war to face danger and lose their lives. How dare they. So just along with that, I just would like to mention that Veterans for Peace has put billboards up near.
- [53:32]
Joy Reid
Oh, can we show those? Yes, let's show the billboards. Yes, we've got them. We've got them. Please talk over this. This clip. Go for it.
- [53:39]
Susan Schnall
These are wonderful. So we were, in fact, inspired by Senator Kelly, who talked to the troops and talked to people about not obeying illegal orders. Rory Fanning, who you just saw there, is also a veteran and Veterans for Peace. So we put these signs up again. They're near military bases all around the country and the most active of the military bases. And they say to our troops, you need to understand what your orders are. And if you identify those orders are illegal, you have the right and the responsibility to refuse them. And important to understand that those orders are not just the direct orders that you get from your commanding officer. They are also orders that might be related to illegal wars. And we feel in Veterans for Peace that these illegal wars that we are perpetrating all over the world, in fact are illegal. And therefore the orders that the troops receive are illegal. Important to think about all of that. So our signs are set up to say we are veterans, we have been to war, we know what war does. And we're saying you need to think before you go out there and participate in these illegal wars and illegal actions.
- [55:04]
Joy Reid
I love that. Exit question to you, Susan. The new rules from the Trump regime are that every 18 year old male will automatically be registered for the draft. They won't be able to do it proactively. It's going to be automatic. And they've included in that undocumented citizens, people who are undocumented, people who they are actively persecuting and attacking, but they're still willing to make them cannon fodder. What do you make of this change?
- [55:33]
Susan Schnall
It's extraordinary and important to understand that in fact Congress voted for this change in the Selective Service. It used to be that when young people, young men reach the age of 18, they would have to sign up. As you mentioned, Joy, that's no longer true. Now they're automatically enrolled. And my understanding is that with what DOGE has done with all of these, based these databases, that in fact now there's the identification of immigrants in this country. And I think it's so important for people watching your show to understand that our immigrants, and they are immigrants, they are not aliens, they are human beings, participate in this country, in the workforce in this country. That's why there is information about them that is available nationally. So they are participating in this society and putting money into this government. So we need to understand exactly who they are. That database, as you mentioned, will now be available to Selective Service and they will automatically be then put into, could be put into the draft. We also have a project called Deported Veterans and we are actively involved in working with veterans who have been deported over the past 40 years to bring them back and to work with people to be able, if you serve this country in war, you actually have a right to be able to come back into this country. So for all of those reasons important to educate, educate, educate the American people about what is being done in their name and get the information out there. And that's what we're hoping to do with our billboards.
- [57:19]
Joy Reid
Susan Schnall, Legend, thank you so much. I appreciate you. It is wonderful to be your sister in the struggle. I appreciate you so much. Thank you for being here and thank you to Veterans for Peace. We appreciate y'.
- [57:29]
D.L. Hughley
All.
- [57:30]
Susan Schnall
Thank you so much. Joy. It's a pleasure to work with you and to meet with you.
- [57:34]
Joy Reid
All right, let's roll. Thank you very much. Susan Schnall, legend. I appreciate her so much. What they're doing is, is super important. Thank you all for tuning in for that. And I love all the love that Susan was getting in the chat. Hopefully she felt the love coming across the Internet airwaves. I want to really quickly thank another entity that is making it possible for us to be here and bring you all of this great content. Independent media is really the only place you're going to get an interview with Susan Schnall. We're going to bring you Dr. Freda, who's going to tell you the God's honest, terrifying truth about this hantavirus. And we're going to immediately make sure that we reach out when Justin Pearson is on the front lines of this battle in Tennessee. He's going to be on here on this independent media network. So we really hope that you guys will continue to support it, that you'll hit like and subscribe. You'll keep commenting because that's also great for us. We just want to hear from you and know what you think. We also want to thank our advertisers because it's really important to thank them as well. And the Joy Reach show is brought to you by one of our great advertisers, Hexclad. If you want the performance of stainless
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David Daley
steel, the versatility of cast iron, and
- [58:37]
Joy Reid
the convenience of non stick, then you want Hexclad. Yes. One thing that I really, truly hate about cookware, I don't know if you guys hate this as well, is trying to scrape an old pot clean and like, making your arms sore, scrubbing right to try to get it looking like new again after you've cooked with it a few times or a few hundred times. You know, we all inherit those Pots from grandma or from our moms and they're old and you're trying to like scrape, scrape, scrape because they get stuff stuck on them. Absolutely hate that. Which is one of the reasons that I'm obsessed with Xclad. Xclad combines the performance of stainless steel with the convenience of non sticks. You do not have to choose. You get incredible heat control, a proper sear and easy cleanup every time. No more food sticking, burning or scrubbing forever after dinner. It is nonstick and nonstick wears out fast if you just do the normal one and scratches so easily. 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Celebrate Mother's Day with cookware that is as exceptional as she is with Hexclab. Thank you for supporting us. Hexclab want to welcome you guys to our two right on time of the Joy Reach show. Do be sure to hit that like and subscribe button again. If you've bought merch, please go ahead and tag us. Tag me at Joy Ann Reid, you can tag the show at Joy Reed show on ig. You can also do the hashtag wearing Joy if you bought some cute stuff or readers. Always good to tag readers so we know you're out there. If you're a Team TJRS member, you can throw in a hashtag Team TJRS as well. Why not do it all? Also want to thank another one of our great sponsors, the Joy Retail also brought to you by our friends at Remy. Okay, so where my teeth grinders at? Teeth Grinders anywhere. I know that I have this really annoying tendency of clenching and grinding my teeth and it can drive you crazy. And you know my smile is important to me. You gotta have it. My name is Joy after all. 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You follow the step by step instructions, you get your perfect impression. Remy crafts and ships you your custom fit night guard. You get your night guard back and you start protecting your teeth. Boom. That is all you have to do. Easy peasy. If you want to go ahead and protect your teeth with Remy, just do so by using code Joy at checkout to get 50% off your new night guard with Remy Club. Subscribe and Save. That is 50% off@shopremi.com Joy with CodeJoy. Thank you, Remy for sponsoring this episode. All right, so I want you guys to take a moment because we're going to circle back and talk about this mess that we're seeing in every state. As you heard Justin Pearson say, in Mississippi, they are going to be voting to eliminate the one black held seat in that state as well. They're going to get rid of that seat as well, but they're going to do their vote in the old Confederate courthouse state house, I promise you. It sounds crazy to say it, but this is Benny Johnson's seat. He's the only Democrat and the only black congressman from Mississippi. And I think he might be the first black congressman from Mississippi and you know, since Reconstruction. They're going to eliminate his seat too, but they're going to do it in the old Confederate state house. That is where they're going to go. They were, because they're doing repairs on the current state house. They were going to do it in a schoolhouse, but instead they said, now we're just going to go, we're just going to go open. We're going to go open clan. We're just going to put the hoods right on with the pointy tops and just do it there. So that's what they're doing in that state. They're redistricting and removing the seats in Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana as well as Mississippi, Florida. They're going to cut black representation down to two seats. And of course, they already did Texas where they tried to take five seats, three black and two Latino. So they're coming for black voting rights primarily, but also brown voting rights as well. And really just progressive voting rights. One of the really important points to make on that is these are the most progressive Congress members in these states as well as the only ones who give a damn about black people in the state. If you think a right wing Republican congressman gives two shits about their black constituents in these seats that are now only 20 or 30% African American, you don't know the Republican Party that I do. So let's go back to Tennessee. I want you all to take a few minutes and listen to Representative Justin Pearson's full floor speech that he made before the people who he called their clan sisters wildest dreams voted to eliminate the seat he's running for in Congress. That's D1. Jason, please.
- [65:25]
Justin Pearson (speech)
These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most Powerful white supremacists in the United States of America. Donald J. Trump Memphis is the most beautiful place on the planet. It's the place that raised me, my brothers, my parents, my grandmother's and where my ancestors bones restore. And what you are doing today is eviscerating the only black majority congressional district in our state. Because we are majority black. We are here because this Republican party has to seek to steal elections and seats. Because the president and the party have refused to address the pain, the suffering and the struggling of everyday Tennesseeans. This is about attacking, targeting and cracking District 9 into pieces for more political and racial dominance and white supremacy in the state of Tennessee. And we need to realize that the Calais decision that you all are basing your decisions off of, that gutted the Voting Rights Act. That, that Voting Rights act was paid in blood. It was not just a parchment of paper signed into law. It was paid in blood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Paid in blood by Medgar Evers, paid in blood by Fannie Lou Hamer. It's been paid in blood year over year, time after time, assassination after assassination, lynching after lynching, so that more people might be able to ascertain access to this constitutional democratic republic experiment that is currently being gutted and seeking to be gutted by this chamber, by this house, this Senate and this state. What is happening here is immoral and wrong. I was reading my Bible early this morning asking God why this is happening. Why again does it seem that white supremacy is seeming to gain? Why again does it seem like the pillars of pain that we have felt and experienced for over 400 years in this country continue to rise again? And whispered in the words of this Bible and in the words of those ancestors that have gone before us is just these simple words, we're still here. We are still here. This nation, this state has legislated and legalized the worst things in humanity, including our enslavement. And we are still here. Right in this country where as one black woman said, your clancestors enslaved us, denied us of our rights, called us three fifths of a person and yet we are still here. You put us on cotton plantations and tobacco plantations, you denied our human rights and our right to exist as children of God. And we are still here. You destroyed Tulsa. You killed and lynched black folks on Poplar Tree. Shelby County, Tennessee had the most lynchings of anywhere in this state where you're taking this district and we are still here. You've had three strikes laws, mass incarceration denied us of who we are and we are still here.
- [69:04]
Justin Jones
And today you'll take the only but
- [69:07]
Justin Pearson (speech)
majority black district from us. But I want you to know, and I want my nephew, sons and the future to know, no matter what you do, no matter how much you try and break us and make us bend and make us quit, we will still be here.
- [69:27]
Joy Reid
Leader camper you recognize and can you tell that his father is a preacher? First of all, we, we, we need that energy in the United States Congress. Let's just be clear. We need that energy in the United States Congress. And so that's why we put that link up. If you guys care to support Justin Pearson who is running and he said he's going to look at those three newspapers seats that they have carved out of the sole Memphis seat that Steven Cohen, who is not black, he is a white gentleman who is the congressman that the black majority in that Memphis district elected. They've eliminated his seat again. It doesn't mean if it's a black majority seat that black folks are only going to elect black people because we actually don't get down like that. It means that this is the choice of that majority black district. And now they were going to have a choice whether to keep Representative Cohen or shift to Representative Justin Pearson. But no, the, the, the, the clan sisters spoke through the current Confederate majority in Tennessee and said no, you don't get to choose. We're going to choose, we're going to choose a right wing Republican who is going to rule all of you. And there's really no way. It's no wonder, honestly that Republicans felt so confident about silencing 16% of the voters in the state of Tennessee. They have the Confederate Yankees on the Supreme Court on their side, including Chief Justice John Crow Roberts, about whom journalists David Daly and Lisa Graves wrote the following for Slate this week and I'm going to quote their article, I'm going to read a little bit of it at length. While John Lewis was beaten in Selma, while Freedom Riders died registering voters in Mississippi, and while President Lyndon Johnson muscled the Voting Rights act through Congress, the boy who would grow up to eviscerate it rode bikes through tree lined street steps from the shore and was cosseted in private schools in a town built for white residents. Only now that Chief Justice John Roberts has completed his decades long effort to undo the most successful civil rights legislation in American history, a simple question remains. Why is he a racist? What would lead a privileged graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School to dedicate so much of his life's work to Rolling back the victories of the civil rights movement. Maybe it's as simple as this. Roberts was raised in the 1960s amid lily white affluence in a tiny Indiana beach town where property deeds long forbade selling homes to black or Jewish people. As a kid, he spent little time around black people. From childhood to adulthood. He never lived anywhere or close to anyone who compelled him to feel empathy for the reality that experiencing freedom like voting, wasn't as easy for some Americans as it was for him. The Chief justice has seemingly worn blinders for life. Roberts was also a determined striver. For him, an education was always about getting the best job. The combination of isolation and ambition appears to have made him ready to embrace a trendy revanchist argument. In the early 1970s Republican circles, any effort to combat racial discrimination was itself racial discrimination. The rising Legal Right Wing Battle the rising legal right wing battled civil rights by conjuring and defending a colorblind race neutral constitution. Despite the country's continuing struggle against anti black racism, it posited an America that never existed in place of the one that does. Now that Chief Justice John Roberts has completed completed his decades long effort to undo the most successful civil rights legislation in American history, a simple American question remains. Why? Let's go on to this little bit here. Let me read just a little bit more of it. Back in the 1970s and 80s when this idea of a colorblind Constitution was nothing but the sound of calculated white resentment, a well off young man willing to to embrace such a grievance would could find the doors of power swinging wide open. Thanks to Roberts, this benighted nonsense is now the law of the land. Any effort to understand Roberts dangerous combination of doggedness and blithe indifference must begin in ritzy Long Beach, Indiana, a wealthy enclave on the shores of Lake Michigan, home to some of Chicago, the Chicago area's wealthiest executives. His father, who helped helped manage a new Burns harbor plant for Bethlehem Steel, chose to move his family half an hour northeast along the dunes rather than west. Where most black Midwesterners lived deep into the 20th century, Long beach advertised itself as a vacation land within a highly restricted home community where all residents, and this is a quote, are Caucasian Gentiles, unquote. During his 2005 confirmation hearings to become Chief Justice, Roberts described an idyllic heartland childhood lifted from a John Cougar Mellencamp song. All endless fields that were punctuated by an isolated silo or a barn. That was the same day Roberts unveiled another bit of brilliant pr, claiming that he would be a humble judge comparing the job to that of a baseball umpire. A young man from Indiana could really go places if he appeared right out of central casting and could rebrand colorblind racism as just calling balls and strikes. Maybe Roberts glimpsed farmland from the backseat on a drive to his exclusive prep school, but he wouldn't have seen a barn or John Deere combine next door to his parents lovely 5 bedroom mock Tudor home. There were no silos at La Lumiere, the private Catholic high school Roberts attended, an enclave within an enclave located on a former lakefront estate. That institution was established in the 1960s just after the US Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren began insisting on the enforcement of the desegregation mandate of Brown versus the Board of Education. There would be no black students at La Lumiere until 1970, just three years before Roberts graduated. And here's another quote. No one ever called me the N word. One black alum, Paris Barclay, a classmate of Roberts who went on to direct the TV series Sons of Anarchy, told the New York Times. They were a little too sophisticated for that. The writers also tell of one of John Roberts first jobs clerking for Chief Justice Rehnquist. This is before he was chief justice. And they point out that Rehnquist spent part of his younger career intimidating black voters. And so now that Roberts has achieved his dream of gunning the Voting Rights act, he now gets to watch the chaos unfold across the American south, which apparently he has an affection for and believes is being maligned by saying that its practices were racist. I guess he doesn't realize that colorblind was the way that the south got back into the Constitution and claimed that when they said you can't vote unless you can guess how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. But the answer to how many bubbles was a secret between the white voting registrar and the Klansmen that he hung out with. Or when they said, well, it's just a grandfather clause, you can vote as long as your grandfather could vote. Knowing that all, almost all, black people's grandfathers were enslaved, you're like, well, that's colorblind, though. Anybody who, you know, grandparent wasn't a slave can vote. That's colorblind. That is what colorblind is, is when you say it's just a literacy test. If you can read this passage, you can vote. But then you have the passage so obscure and difficult to read. And also, whether you read it correctly or not was up to the white Klansmen registrar, all of these Things were colorblind. That is the way that the south got around the 15th Amendment is that they said, well, we're not preventing people from voting. We're just saying you can only vote if you pay this poll tax. Then they make the poll tax so expensive that nobody black can afford it. It's colorblind. And John Roberts has now said that is the way our voting should be. That as long as people who are gerrymandering maps in the south don't scream the N word or literally write in their gerrymandering laws, this is to exclude black people. They can do it unless they're a Democrat. If the Democrats do it, it's unconstitutional, at least according to the Virginia Supreme Court. And I would love that case to get litigated. Right back to John Roberts to see if he upholds that one like he upheld Texas. I just want to read one more little piece of this Slate article because it's so good. We're going to link the article in the description here. It says, as those GOP legislators ripped up black districts and the Roberts court's hyper partisan ruling faces a growing backlash, Roberts now has the audacity to give speeches claiming that it is wrong to view justices as political actors. And scene. This person might be one of the most insidious racists in American history. Because what John Roberts does is he does a country club version of the Klan, like the old citizens councils, which call themselves citizens councils but were really white citizens councils. And they were saying, all we want is a safe neighborhood where everyone gets along and has commonality. We're not racist, we're just saying that people of a certain sort can't live here. And it just turned out that the certain sort were all black people or Jewish people. And in John Roberts own growing up neighborhood, that was literally the case. You couldn't live there if you were black or if you were Jewish. And of course they would say, well, we're not racist. We just want to be around people like us. It's an insidious thing that John Roberts is allowed to do because he's one of six members of the Supreme Court who get to decide what laws are constitutional and what laws are not constitutional. And so just like the four Republicans who decided that 3 million Virginia voters were out of line for trying to gerrymander their state the way that Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas are doing, just as they've decided that their view of wanting to increase and maintain Republican control is more important than 3 million people's democratic election, small D that says, no, we don't want that. We want to actually have our representation. Just as those four did that in Virginia, so did John Roberts and his hitman Sam Alito do the exact same thing to us nationally in the Louisiana, in the Calais vs. Louisiana vs. Calais case. I do believe that the author of the piece I just read, David Daly, is here. I believe he's here. Let's see if we can bring him on. There he is. David Daly, welcome.
- [81:13]
David Daley
Thanks for having me.
- [81:14]
Joy Reid
Andre, talk to me about John Roberts. Your piece was excellent. I appreciated it. It gave me new insight into him. I. I've been calling him a Confederate Yankee even before I read your piece. What is the bottom line of what we ought to know about his thinking?
- [81:28]
David Daley
This has been John Roberts life's work going about for 50 years now trying to put an end to the Voting Rights Act. And you can trace this back to his days in Ronald Reagan's Justice Department back in the early 1980s when Roberts was at the forefront of conservative efforts inside the DOJ to put an intent test onto the Voting Rights act that Congress specifically did not want to have. And John Roberts lost that fight in 1982, but he kept at it, once on the Supreme Court, beginning with the Shelby county case back in 2013, moving on to the Brnovich case in 2021. Of course, all the gerrymandering cases mixed in there along the way. And now with Calais, Roberts has achieved it. The Calais case is essentially the intent test that John Roberts lost back in 1982. So what Republicans learned, what conservatives learned, was that which they could not win through the electoral process they could take by capturing the courts.
- [82:47]
Joy Reid
And you've written a few books that I think are pretty salient here. You had a book called Rat why your Vote Doesn't Count. It's been credited with sparking the modern drive to reform redistricting.
- [82:57]
David Daley
And I did a great job there, solved that problem.
- [82:59]
Joy Reid
I know, you really solved it, my friend. Your book was actually the basis of the documentary Slay the Dragon. If anyone saw that you have a new book out. Just need to put that book back up because you have a brand new book out that we're going to put back up here on screen that is called Anti Democratic Inside the far right's 50 year plot to control American Elections. I feel like these all go as a set. Walk me through this plot. Because it's not just John Roberts.
- [83:25]
David Daley
No, I think that's right. I think there's lots of pieces and the pieces are coming together in the news. Right now, as we speak. The story I tell in Anti Democratic is, you know, a story of a five decade attempt by Republicans, by conservatives who understood that they could not win the kinds of reforms they wanted to in American life. Whether we're talking about civil rights, voting rights, campaign finance, reproductive rights, the regulatory state, gun control, all of these things, they were going to take them by capturing the courts. But really, the story I'm trying to tell in Rat Fucked and in Anti Democratic is the story of how redistricting and voting rights fit together. And we are watching that collide right now. Republicans, not long after the election of Barack Obama in 2008, they understood that they were on the wrong end of the demographic future of the nation. And they set about a strategy called redmap. It's the redistricting majority project. And the goal was to win swing state legislatures heading into the 2010 midterms. And then once they'd captured those legislatures, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, even Alabama, which in 2008 had a Democratic house, they went about redrawing lines in those states to try to look, lock themselves into power. And John Roberts, in 2019, at exactly the moment that federal courts around the country, federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties, they looked at gerrymanders drawn by both parties, mostly by Republicans, but by Democrats in Maryland, by Republicans in Ohio and Michigan and North Carolina and Wisconsin. And these judges said, we have everything we need to go about and put an end to this. We have the tools. We can tell when this has gone too far. And oh, by the way, if we don't do it, who will? Because we cannot, who have locked themselves in office to actually fix the problem that they themselves benefit from and have created. And when this case gets to John Roberts, John Roberts says no to all of this. He says, this is a political issue. This has to be solved through the political process. He closed the federal courts, and by closing the federal courts to this problem, he unleashes the gerrymandering Armageddon that we have watched ever since. You know, in the Ruccio case, which is the 2019 case, you know, Roberts says, well, you know, gerrymandering is bad, but it's a political issue and we're going to have to let politicians solve it. And what that did was it allowed all of these states, especially across the south, to say, well, we are. They were allowed to disguise their racial gerrymanders as partisan gerrymanders. We're not doing a racial gerrymander here. We're not out to get black Voters, we're just trying to screw Democrats. And all of a sudden that was perfectly legal. And now in the Calais case, essentially the court is saying, well, because we've said partisan gerrymanders are perfectly cool with us, we are going to take away the right to do anything about racial gerrymanders because, you know, lol, whatever. And this is where we are now. And it is so much thanks to this court, which has become a true enemy of democracy.
- [87:18]
Joy Reid
And now they've unshackled the Republicans, have unshackled themselves from even the decennial gerrymander. It used to be that we would. You know, I used to call the 2010 election the Armageddon election because people came out with very low turnout during the election that determined who was going to redistrict these states in 2010. But now it doesn't matter. Now Republicans are free to gerrymander anytime they want, even after people have started voting in the state of Louisiana. So Robert seems to now believe it's a free for all. I wonder what you think would happen if the Virginia. Overturning the Virginia Supreme Court overturning the will of 3 million voters in Virginia to do a partisan gerrymander. They're very clear it's a partisan gerrymander. If that case went to John Roberts, how hard would he twist himself into a pretzel to suddenly say, but that's not right. That's actually unconstitutional.
- [88:10]
David Daley
Oh, I think what you would see is something like the state legislative doctrine, right. That they were trying to sell in the Moore v. Harper case a couple of years ago. Suddenly that would be beyond the pale. I think it's really important to note just how different the two sides are treated and behave. Right. In 2018, voters in Ohio set up a system in which they created a bipartisan independent redistricting commission to draw maps for their state legislature and for Congress. More than 70% of voters went to the polls in the spring of 2018 and approved this. And then when 2021 came along and Ohio had to redraw its districts, suddenly the Republicans in Ohio said, well, we're going to do partisan gerrymanders. And they came up with maps that were just as gerrymandered as ever before. And people took this to Ohio state Supreme Court and Ohio state Supreme Court looked at the state congression, at the state legislative maps and the congressional maps. Not once, not twice, not even three times, seven times they said, these maps are partisan gerrymanders. They are unconstitutional. Governor Mike DeWine came out and said, well, yeah, I guess our Process could have been a little more constitutional right, like being a little more pregnant, you know, it just doesn't work. And they stiff armed Ohio's state Supreme Court and they got away with their gerrymandered map. Their gerrymandered map was in effect for four years and then they went back this spring and they re gerrymandered it and they added an additional two new seats. And so I think Democrats are going to have to understand what it is exactly that they are up against here. Up against a party that does not take no for an answer even when their state Supreme Court says so. Perhaps there's some lessons for Virginia Democrats in what Ohio Republicans managed to get away with time and again.
- [90:20]
Joy Reid
Yeah, I mean, to me, if I were the Secretary of State in that state or I was the legislature, I would just implement the maps anyway and let John Roberts sort it out. Let the Republican Party sue me all the way to John Roberts and make him say out of his mouth that suddenly he's okay with partisan. He's not okay with partisan gerrymandering. You've studied him enough. Am I fair in calling John Roberts Roberts a monarchist? Do you get the sense that he would actually like the United States to have what amounts to a king? Because it sure seems like it.
- [90:47]
David Daley
Well, that was certainly his decision in, in Trump versus United States, wasn't it? I mean, he essentially gave Donald Trump immunity for all of his public acts, anything that could be called a public act. So in many ways he has created this. You know, I mean, I think if you want to look at what the, at what John Roberts has done. John Roberts is less the Chief justice of the U.S. supreme Court than he is most effective Republican political strategist and operative of the last 50 years. Because Roberts, when he came into office in 2005, Republicans never imagined that they would be able to take on the Voting Rights act quite like this, right? In 2006, the Voting Rights act is reauthorized by Congress, a Republican Congress nearly unanimously signed into law by George W. Bush, beaming in the Rose Garden alongside Jesse Jackson. You know, so on gun control, on campaign finance, on reproductive rights, Republicans had no idea that they would ever be able to win any of these victories, pushing the nation and the Constitution this far to the right. John Roberts has given them all of these victories. And when you look at what Trump has been able to get away with in this term, whether it is on racial profiling, whether it's on immigration, so the defanging of the regulatory state, the firing of officers at independent agencies. So much of this can be laid at the doorstep of John Roberts. When we look at what has happened to this nation and the decay of our democracy and the rise of authoritarianism during these years, we are going to point the finger at John Roberts. This is going to be his legacy.
- [92:45]
Joy Reid
It is indeed. It's one of the reasons that I toyed with the idea of sort of coining the term don't John Crow to describe this era. But I'm like, it isn't really Donald Trump, it's really John Roberts. So I settled on, you know, it's
- [92:58]
David Daley
John Crow and it's Robert's Mandarin is what we have to call this.
- [93:02]
Joy Reid
Yes, you're 100% right, it is John Crow. This is the era he dreamed of. He wrote. You even wrote in your piece in Slate that he thought Nixon should have been immune for his crimes. Like he's a monarchist. He is a neo confederate, he's a confederate Yankee. He believes that as long as it's Republicans, they should be able to rule. Absolutely. David Daly. Jason, you can put the book up one more time. Your book is Anti Democratic. Inside the far right's 50 year plot to Control American Elections Chat. We are going to put this into the Joy Read shops. You guys can get your own copy. You should also just buy the whole collection. Really quick. Before you go, you should explain what Rat Fucked means since that's the title. I think about CNN having you on and having to say that and I find that so delightful just to think about it. But go on.
- [93:50]
David Daley
It was really the best. You know, I mean, I sold the book as gerrymandered nation 10 years ago and my publisher said, you know, this is the most boring topic in the world. You can't also give it the most boring title. And we said, well, how about Rat Fucked? And I said, yeah, they'll never go for that. And they focus grouped it in the, in the summer of 2015 and it went off the charts. It was something that they had never seen before. And if I had thought about it at the time when I was running Salon, I would have realized, you know, there's even more anger out there than we thought. I mean, in many you could see the kind of anger that, you know, led to the Sanders and the Trump movements right in, you know, just a few months later. But you know, Red Fucked essentially means a dirty political deed done dirt cheap and I won't sing ACD so for
- [94:40]
Joy Reid
everybody because, you know, I don't want to demonetized. You can't destroy your Ratings, you know, right. Music on YouTube.
- [94:46]
David Daley
So it's fine, you know, that's in the after party. But you know, essentially it comes from, you know, a Nixon era term, you know, around Watergate in which they were trying to do political skullduggery on the cheap. And what Republicans could do through gerrymandering is in many ways a good old fashioned rat because it, it only cost them $30 million, which is, you know, chump change in American politics. Right. All of these swing state legislatures, some of which they still control. Right. In North Carolina and Wisconsin, Ohio, they were able to get away with holding power for years. I mean, you know, the 2012 election in which Democrats win 1.4 million more votes for the U.S. house House, but Republicans take a 33 seat advantage and put an end essentially to Barack Obama's second term on the night he was elected to it. All of this is because of that dirty deed done dirt cheap. We are living in the nation that John Roberts and Republican gerrymandering built.
- [95:53]
Joy Reid
David Daly, thank you very much. Please come back. I appreciate you. And again everybody please take advantage of, of getting a copy of this book and reading the article. We're going to link it in the description. Thank you sir, really appreciate you. Come back anytime.
- [96:03]
David Daley
Thank you, appreciate you. Bye bye.
- [96:05]
Joy Reid
Thank you all very much. And I will note that what this has gotten the south is that they are home to the vast majority of the bottom 15 states by medium income. Before I move on very quickly, let me tell you the wealthiest states, the top 15 by median income. District of Columbia blue. Maryland blue. California blue. Colorado blue. New Jersey blue. Washington state blue. Alaska changing maybe Virginia purple. Massachusetts blue. New Hampshire purple. Utah is one of the few wealthy states in the top 15. Red. Hawaii blue. Connecticut blue. Minnesota blue. New York blue. Those are the top 15 states by median income. You want to know what the bottom are? South Carolina red. Kansas red. Missouri red. Tennessee red. Maine purple. New Mexico blue. But very, very poor and home to a lot of indigenous tribes who are not allowed to really succeed economically. Idaho red. Montana red. Oklahoma red. Kentucky red. Alabama red. Arkansas red. Louisiana red. West Virginia red. Mississippi red. Their states are the poorest. Their states have the lowest rankings on education. Their states are the worst when it comes to your ability to survive economically. And yet they cannot be voted out because they have rigged the system in their favor. And John Crow is why. Let's thank just one more sponsor and you're probably going to need this one on tonight. The jury Read show is brought to you by Willy's Remedy. Are you tired of waking up hungover and worrying about what happened last night? Well, now you can have fun and relax without the regrets with Willy's THC infused social tonic. For anybody trying to be more intentional this year, Willy's gives you the social uplifting buzz without breaking your goals. Kicking off a new year with fewer hangovers. Willy's is the upgrade your your resolutions will actually thank you for. What kind of moment is perfect with Willy's? I don't know. Unwinding after a long day, socializing without alcohol, getting creative or maybe trying to survive the autocracy and Jim Crow or I'm John Crow. Sorry, it's John Crow. How will these make you feel? Well, it just basically gives you the euphoric buzz without any of the negative side effects. And for people who are wanting to take the edge off and relax without alcohol, it's actually a really great wind down low calorie, low sugar alcohol alternative which is 5mg to 10mg doses of best in class favor experienced THC. Willy sold out three times in the first six months with over 50,000 plus happy customers who and they just actually restock so that you can still get it. Willy ships directly to your doorstep in 40/states. You can order now@drinkwillies.com it is the Willie Nelson drink. Are all the girls I've loved before traveled in and out my door that Willie Nelson and use the code Joy Joy for 20 off your first order plus free shipping on orders over 95 and enjoy life in the high country. I love Willie Nelson. I think he's very cool. So we've got one more, one more segment where we want to talk about this mess that we find ourselves in. So I'm going to play you guys one more little clip here that I think is quite representative of what happened. This is Justin Jones, the other Justin in Tennessee and what he did to try to fight these demon modern day confederates in his state. Take a look.
- [99:32]
Justin Jones
It. These white Republicans is going in to remove black boys in the political process. We are not going backwards in history. So I burned the Confederate flag. They want to bring us back to Confederacy. He said absolutely. Now we will fight. We're going to fight together to build multiracial democracy. So the hell was going to happen today. We're going to rise up across the South. They're trying to take the south backwards in 19 before 1965. We're not going back. They're trying to dismantle black representation. We're sick and tired of being sick and tired. So I stood in the speed of f l hammer. The dying na lo said that we must get in good trouble and not have business as usual. Because what's happening in there is a disgrace to all the martyrs of the civil rights movement who are died and killed fighting for voting rights.
- [100:37]
D.L. Hughley
What frustrates you most about how all of this went down?
- [100:40]
Justin Jones
How this process, it was rushed through without any type of deliberation. We had. We had only a few days and less than 24 hours of voting a map that's going to take away black replacement. And black boys were sick and tired of being sick and tired. So we must fight us. We must come together and fight back. And so the people of the house is now the grand prisoner in chief. That was a clan meeting in there. Were sick and tired of it. And so I burned the Confederate flag because we represent a new south that is multi.
- [101:13]
Unknown Activist
Hey, y', all, we just got out of the Capitol. Klan rally where they've taken off the white sheets today was not about political tit for tat, but it was about racial terror and control. Today, an almost entirely white Republican caucus, after getting a call from Donald Trump, voted to break up the last remaining majority black district. Voted to dilute minority voting power. Voted to take away the voice of black Tennesseans. I walked into this capital today in 2026 and I walked out pre1965 pre voting rights act, an act that was bought with days in jail cells and nights of bomb threats that was bought with the blood of civil rights martyrs. And so they're taking us back in history to a time we don't want to go to. And when I walked out, I burned a Confederate flag because that's the time they want to bring us back to. They think the south will rise again by using racism and white supremacist terror to control black people. But we say that we will only use this moment moment to inflame us, to embolden our rebellion that fight like hell against these white supremacist agendas.
- [102:12]
Joy Reid
Now, I can tell you that there are calls happening all over this country where civil rights leaders, people like Latasha Brown and Cliff Albright from black voters matter. Civil rights groups like the naacp, the leadership, the ldf, the ldf, Maya Wiley's organization, all these organizations are right now thinking about and thinking through a plan on how to push back. Because one thing that is not going to happen is black folk just going to quietly give up their right to vote. And so what we have to do Right now is think about how to win and strategies that will actually help us win. And everyone is thinking this through. Lots of people have creative ideas. One of our most creative brothers in the system right now also has come up with some excellent ideas. So let's bring on the great D.L. hughley. He is not just a comedian, but also a. You're literally. You are a strategist, my friend. You are. You're a radio host strategist and my friend DL what we gonna do?
- [103:20]
D.L. Hughley
You know, I was on, I was talking to somebody about this earlier. I don't, I don't even begrudge people for leaning to their own, you know, base instincts. I think that that's, I think nobody lied about that. I think that we weren't misled. People told you exactly what the plan was. I don't think.
- [103:40]
Joy Reid
I don't want to cut you off, man, but yeah, get, get that last. Come on, brother. You do this all the time. Get that right. Okay.
- [103:46]
D.L. Hughley
All right, all right, all right.
- [103:48]
Joy Reid
I know you lounging brother, but, you
- [103:50]
D.L. Hughley
know, but I, I don't, I don't think it's, it's kind of disingenuous to pretend like we didn't know that this was going to happen.
- [104:00]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [104:00]
D.L. Hughley
And I think that there's so many things that could have, we could have done, but to, to not take people at their word was a mistake. And I don't know that voting in any one cycle will change anything. But I do think that there's going to be. I think they're used to us marching. I think they're used to us protecting. I think that's kind of baked in the cake. But I thought that, you know, these are, I think the states that are readily jumping on this, like the Louisiana's and the, the Mississippi's and the, the Seas. I think that if, if five star, three or four or five star athletes refused to go to schools that were in states where they were rolling in the new iteration of Jim Crow, I think people should understand that there's a financial impact to what happens. And I think sometimes, and this is one that I don't even think is that hard, I think those athletes are going to get, you know, offers for nil money from any number of schools. And all they got to do is pick the ones that aren't in these places that have decided that they were going to entree in a new era of Jim Crow.
- [105:18]
Joy Reid
And, you know, we're calling it John Crow. You feel free to take that because I have decided it is John Crow. Because it is John Roberts who has built this system really since he was 26 years old and he's in his 70s now. But this is the system he dreamed of even as a young Reagan administration DOJ employee. So this is Jon Crow. I just called it Jon Crow. Forget Jim, it's John now. But to your point, I went ahead and pulled. Jason, you can put up E2, the college football rankings, right? These are just the schools that are considered the premier schools in college football. Most of them are in red states. Most of them are in places like Texas and Florida. And like you said in Tennessee, people are running to Mississippi, going to Ole Miss and accepting admission to these schools and then making those schools rich. Those college coaches in those red state schools are making millions of dollars coaching. Yeah. And people, culture, people who can't vote in the state and we're being told they can't have representation.
- [106:14]
D.L. Hughley
I think that it's. What's particularly interesting is that they. 92% of black women voted against this, 86 of black men. I would assume they have children. And those children, I think that a large part of the reason that they voted the way they did was for their children. I think the, the thing that is inherent, it should not be a stretch. If you can't run in a state, I think that you can't. A lot of those things, like the Mississippi's and the Alabamas, they're heavily dependent on these college programs to bring in a lot of money. It's not a lot of other reasons to go to the.
- [106:56]
Joy Reid
Oh, we just lost. Oh, we just lost DL we can put it back on. Oh, should I hit that button? Oh, there we go.
- [107:03]
D.L. Hughley
Yeah, it's not.
- [107:04]
Joy Reid
So I think that must be coming for you, man. Elon.
- [107:07]
D.L. Hughley
Yeah, right.
- [107:07]
Joy Reid
It is.
- [107:10]
D.L. Hughley
I don't think it's that hard. I think that if all of a sudden, you know, premier athletes stop and their parents like you go to visit, recruit a kid and the mother and father say, I don't think I can send my child to somewhere that is kind of the new iteration of Jim Crow. And it doesn't even hurt them because it's just a question of who you take the money from. It doesn't matter where you. Because if, and if you're a top tier athlete, they're gonna get you the money. And, and even the very nil money that we're discussing right now came from Progressive State, California, 2019. So even the places that you go that now the money you're arguing over wouldn't. It never came from those, it would never done it because they're interested in keeping the free slave labor that they had in college football. They would have never expanded out to make sure you were paid a fair wage. And now they're kind of bastardizing that system. To read this re leverage you again, it just seems counterintuitive to me.
- [108:06]
Joy Reid
Yeah, I mean in Alabama, I think it was Alabama, where they also just passed a law that says they don't have to notify you when they move your polling place. They passed that as well. They're literally saying in states like Tennessee and Alabama, Mississippi, if you are black, you get no representation, no choice of who represents you. You can barely get a right to vote in our state. But please, please send your sons here to go and play on our college football teams. Please, please send your daughters here to play on our WNBA teams. Because we need the money and we can't get the money any other way because there's nothing else here because we. These are the poorest states in the
- [108:38]
D.L. Hughley
union other than the natural commodity is as in the PN or these corporate interests that aren't getting what they pay for. They already paid for these things. And I just think, you know, if you look at the, if you look at the two bcs, last two BCS championships, they were in the Big Ten. So I think there's so many nice places to go, beautiful places in the country that you can go to. You're a top tier athlete. You don't, you're not relegated to just anywhere. Everywhere they, they everywhere. When those multiple letters you get, pick one that isn't interested in dehumanizing. Ms. Pick one. I mean it's so many states. You go so many parts of this country and you're not, we're not even asking you to, you're not sitting at a lunch counter and getting dogs sit on sick on your water hose. We're just saying you refuse to go and enrich states that are determined, determined to dehumanize you and people that look like you.
- [109:35]
Joy Reid
I mean, the bottom line is these are places where Brett Favre gets to have the money that was meant to feed the poor. So those athletes get to game the system. But you as a young person, if you try to register to vote in that same state, they're going to tell you to off because they don't want you to vote.
- [109:54]
D.L. Hughley
Then what they want you to do is run that ball and shut up.
- [109:57]
Joy Reid
Exactly.
- [109:58]
D.L. Hughley
And I can understand, listen, this is not the NFL where the owners rule the rules. There are hundreds of Schools and you best believe that those schools have a chance to get a top tier athlete. They'll come up with the money. They will. It's a guy going to Brigham Young that ain't not, you know, he's got $7 million. And, and, and, and if it's about you, because we don't want anybody to, to, to, to jeopardize their livelihood. But this is the case where this is the point that you are truly in charge. If a bunch of people, top tier athlete decided not to go to these places, it would have an impact. And I think it would be, I, I don't think it would be all that long. I don't think it would be a couple of recruiting seasons.
- [110:38]
Joy Reid
Right. And ESPN is not going to cover a school. You know, this is, you know, Pete Hegseth's dream that all these schools have only white male athletes and no female athletes and just white men. Is ESPN going to rush down there if that team does not have these top tier black athletes? All of a sudden you're not that attractive of a school.
- [110:57]
D.L. Hughley
If football was left up to white people, that shit would be rugby. It would be scheduled right behind bass fishermen. This is the one time, this is the one time you look, these are young men whose future is in front of them and they, you know they're going to make a lot of money and do, going to do well. But there are very few jobs in the professional level. So obviously it's the money that you get from the college that has the potential to set you up from life, from the innocent nil money. That money is going to come from anywhere. It doesn't make a difference. You can get it from anywhere. If you're a top tier apple, you're a four or five star recruit, trust me, they're going to be people that line up to make sure you get money. I think the idea, and you can't be so short sighted to believe that the thing that you're doing is buttressing up an apparatus that's designed to keep you low. And that does, that seems to be counterintuitive to me.
- [111:49]
Joy Reid
I love this plan. Joe Hulley, thank you very much for sharing it with us. When we get people to finally catch on to this and get people parents to help their young people make decisions to only play in places where you are affirmed and respected. We can please get parents, black parents all over the country to do that, please. Can we then move on to these conventions that all Our organizations, including D9 organizations are running to red states like Florida running to Orlando. There's a Disneyland in California. I don't know why people are running.
- [112:18]
D.L. Hughley
I think that is familiarity. I think that you used to doing them. I think, you know, people don't seem to understand cleats or the absence of cleats make a lot more noise than running shoes. I think. I think people don't seem to understand that saying no to people's not spending your money somewhere and saying it deliberately. We are a nation right now. We're a nation right now that is having whole countries. Canada is refusing to do business with us, is refusing to having an economic impact. You see? You see what happens with corporations? We decide to do this too. I think that we have to understand it's not about what you want in the short term. It's about. And the whole purpose of the D9 is the. The. The evolvement of black people. The. The. The service of black people and. And the forward moving of black people. And so that starts at a very root misery level. Why would you want to spend your money someplace where they only spend that money to damage people that look like you?
- [113:17]
Joy Reid
That's it. That's it. Let's do our conventions in blue states. Let's reward the states that actually respect us and let these governors like Landry know you'll never get another dime. I don't care how much you love New Orleans, as long as Jeff Landry is in charge of Louisiana, they should not get another penny from any major black organization. Starve that state of its athletes, its star athletes, its conventions. We got to start. We have to start draining the swamp, y'. All. We need to. And this is.
- [113:45]
D.L. Hughley
This is not. This is not for us, Art. You know, we're already.
- [113:48]
Susan Schnall
We're.
- [113:48]
D.L. Hughley
We're pretty like. This is for their future. It's not for us.
- [113:51]
Joy Reid
That's right.
- [113:51]
D.L. Hughley
These athletes and these people have. This is a fight for their future. Your parents moved and left and sacrificed so you could have the ability to vote, just to lose it.
- [114:02]
Joy Reid
That's right.
- [114:02]
D.L. Hughley
And apathy cost you that. It was apathy. It was people that didn't believe. There were more people that didn't vote that did. And they didn't believe that there would be a difference. And now you should understand this was only the first foray. The things they are planning to do. What you're saying to me is you're going to trust a conservative white man to look out for your interest. And if that were the case itself, wouldn't be in the desperate situation it's in right now.
- [114:27]
Joy Reid
That's right. I just read the top the 15 poorest states and almost all of them other than New Mexico are red states, including some of the states that are redistricting right now. Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, despite having Mitch McConnell be the most powerful Senate leader in history. Dirt poor. These states are poor. They're struggling and in many ways their whole income is these athletes that they're using in these colleges. Come on now.
- [114:52]
D.L. Hughley
Kentucky is basketball and bourbon. You know, that's what it is, you know, so funny.
- [114:58]
Joy Reid
And no one disturbing anymore, DL because
- [115:00]
D.L. Hughley
you know, people are, no, no, no. And I can't cash Patel can't drink it all, baby.
- [115:05]
Dr. Freda Fisher
You can't have all of it.
- [115:07]
D.L. Hughley
You know, they don't like I remember Texas, Louisiana fought to have the Ten Commandments in their schools, but they read that they're what, 50th and 42nd in reading damn the, damn the, damn the Ten Commandments. Try the ABCs, do that. But they never want. This is a, this is really a fight for and it's, it's. I would really understand people's retices if it weren't such a simple thing. You don't have to go where you aren't welcome. You assured a great education and some money. You don't have to go when you're not welcome. We don't have to go and have conventions in places where they, where they despise us. We don't have to do it.
- [115:46]
Joy Reid
That's right. That's right. And by the way, before I let you go, I have to make this point which I think people say, well, those states are poor and they try to blame the black people and their local congressman for it. Congresspeople don't determine how rich or poor your state is. Your state legislature makes the rules that either enrich or impoverish your state. Members of Congress try to bring money home, but at the federal level, Republicans won't. They cut the money Steve Cohen was able to bring to District 9 in Tennessee and then say, see, the black district is poor. It is those state legislatures that are choosing not to maximally educate and maximally utilize their black and brown populations. And Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, they would be rich if they would let their black populations thrive. They would rather be poor. They would rather struggle and be hungry themselves than see their own constituents thrive. If they would let them thrive, those states would be as rich as a New York or California. They're keeping down their own economies because they hate black people and brown people so much. It's true. Especially.
- [116:48]
D.L. Hughley
And if you hate Black and brown people, you hate industry. It really. There's a reason why those states are stagnant in terms of population and economic growth. There's a reason. Those states. When your biggest advantage is that you can live here cheaply, that's not an advantage at all.
- [117:04]
Joy Reid
Come on.
- [117:05]
D.L. Hughley
And so they have to understand that the country. I just think we're a nation of the Flintstones and the Jetsons and the Flintstones have an oversized say in what happens. I think that if you look at the places that are always trying to make us be what we were, they don't do well economically, they don't do well educationally, and they most certainly do not. Do not. No, nobody's moving there. Nobody's moving to those states. And they need to understand that. You know, I was. I was in. Birmingham is a great city. Years ago, the city planners, they could have had the airport that's in Atlanta, in Birmingham, they could have done. That's on short side of there. You know, it's people that, you know, plants that are coming build there. Nobody's going to leave the other parts of the world and come here and live under these repressive regimes. I think when you talk about freedom, the states that yell at the loudest of Southern states only want the freedom to carry a gun wherever they want and to tell a woman to do with their bodies. And that, to me, is their freedom at all.
- [118:01]
Joy Reid
D.L. hughley, I told you. He is not just a brilliant comedian, brilliant performer, but also a great strategist.
- [118:08]
D.L. Hughley
And I'm coming. See you in June at the City Winery. You and. God, I can't wait to see it.
- [118:12]
Joy Reid
It's gonna be. It's gonna be a time.
- [118:14]
D.L. Hughley
And I'm gonna buy my tickets. I'm gonna buy my tickets.
- [118:17]
Joy Reid
Okay. Look at that. See, that's a friend. That's a real friend. He said don't even. I appreciate you. Thank you, D.L. i'll see you.
- [118:24]
D.L. Hughley
All right, baby girl. All right.
- [118:26]
Joy Reid
Thank you very much. All right, listen. A real friend buys the ticket, and that's what I'm saying. He said he's not even gonna ask for to get comped. He's gonna go ahead and buy the ticket. I appreciate y'. All. Listen, this is a strategy. I love this strategy. DL Came up with it. I think we need to think about implementing it. If you are a parent of a college or a high school top athlete who is black, you should not be accepting your child. Going to play for a school in any red state, any state that's gerrymandering. Should lose their top black athletes. They shouldn't get them. Let them figure out how to be top schools in football, basketball and everything else with the Pete Hegseth young people. See if that works for you, make it work. For they should not be able to have our talent if they will not respect our right to vote. And by the way, that Jeff Landry recall, please support that. If you're in Louisiana. Y' all gotta come off this 10% turnout. You need to recall that governor. He is demonic. He is doing devilish things. I'll need to recall him and every governor that signs this Billy in Tennessee. All of them need to be punished. If they're on their way out, they should be replaced by a Democrat. If they're trying to stay in, they should be recalled or defeated. They should not be able to keep their jobs if they will not allow people of color. Black people is who their primary target is. If you say black people don't get to choose their own representation, how about if we choose not to let you represent us? You don't deserve leadership. The south will not rise again. Just as Justin burned that Confederate flag, we're all burning it. Your Confederate flag is trash. It's a loser flag. He lost. The south lost. And y' all are going to lose the exact same way. The Confederacy will not rise again. John Crow will be defeated just like Jim Crow was defeated. That's going to happen. All right, before we go, let's do a turn for something positive. One of our most. One of the most prestigious art exhibitions in the world. There's a complete turn here. It's opening tomorrow, Saturday, May 9, promoting the vision of a black African woman who unfortunately did not live to see it. Koyo Kuo is her name. She was the first African woman ever to be selected to curate the Venice Biennial. It is an international cultural festival held in Venice, Italy, which was established in 1895 to celebrate the work of artists and architect and in recent years, also filmmakers who present at the festival representing their respective countries. Her selection was considered almost revolutionary given the long exclusion of artists of color on the world stage. Sadly, though, she died of cancer last year in 2025, at just 57 years of age. But instead of replacing her, the Biennial preserved her exhibition exactly as she had envisioned it. Her show, Minor Keys is about slowness, intimacy and collective healing. She wrote that the minor keys refuse orchestral bombast and goose step military marches coming alive instead in quiet tones and lower frequencies. That is beautiful. While Kuo's vision moves forward, the American Pavilion Next door, caught is caught in a Trumpian controversy with artists reportedly being pressured to promote, quote, American values and DEI language having been completely stripped out. So there we have it, the contrast that defines our dystopian era. One side of the pavilion represents the art world beyond borders and nationalism. The other is trying to turn art into a Trump flag. Ms. Kuo's counter proposal feels almost subversive by comparison, right? Calling on those experiencing it to slow down, to listen, and to center those without a voice. And then with all of that happening, a fellow incredible artist named Derek Adams installed a monumental portrait of her on a Venetian canal side facade. The piece is entitled Heavy is the head that wears the crown. And above her head is one word, joy radiating in gold. That is not just a tribute. That is a statement. Who gets to decide who culture is for and what culture is for. And a final note, the festival briefly shut down today as several artists closed their exhibitions in protest of Israel's inclusion at the festival. The protesters opposed the normalization of that country's now multi country genocide. A very useful reminder that art is meant to be a message that is disruptive as well as joyful. So big ups to our intern Bella, who produced that segment. And now let's get to our official moment of joy. It comes to us from a hilarious IG creator called Verbal B Rapping.
- [123:23]
Verbal B Rapping
Feel like we got off on the wrong foot. My name's Cole. Not giving me a shirt is diabolical. Yes, I do have three names.
- [123:31]
D.L. Hughley
That's.
- [123:31]
Verbal B Rapping
That's why they got me. You know what I mean? You get it? This guy gets it. I told my mama, you give me three names, I'm shooting somebody. I was. I was running, though. Y' all saw me running, right?
- [123:40]
D.L. Hughley
I was out.
- [123:41]
Verbal B Rapping
I was like, you know what I mean? I can't because my arms are behind my back, but, ah, you know, Is he in there still? Oh, okay. Is this cuz I'm black? It's cuz I'm black because I tried to kill the president. Oh, gosh.
- [123:52]
Joy Reid
I was running. Running.
- [123:54]
Verbal B Rapping
Tell me somebody got that on camera, please, please. I couldn't believe I. I got past all of you. What were y' all doing? Y' all didn't see me coming? I just ran straight through the middle, y'.
- [124:02]
D.L. Hughley
All.
- [124:02]
Verbal B Rapping
I didn't think I was gonna go through there. Okay, now, did you shoot that dude or did I? Because I didn't. I don't even feel like I really got a shot off properly. Don't even hop over a table. You know what? I mean, I went through the metal detector. I zoomed by this one dude. There's one dude. I feel like he almost moved out the way for me. Y' all didn't hit nothing. What did y' all hit? That's crazy. I thought I was. I thought I was gone because I'm black, too. You know what I mean? There's a lot of racial implications stations.
- [124:23]
Joy Reid
I'll be honest.
- [124:24]
Verbal B Rapping
I think I make it this far. I did not think. I thought somebody was going to stop me. You know what I mean? It's the President. You know what I mean? This ain't Kroger's.
- [124:31]
D.L. Hughley
You just take my.
- [124:32]
Verbal B Rapping
You're gonna put my shirt back on. You don't put my shirt back on. You're gonna leave it. It's cold in here. Y' all still look like y' all having a good time. I saw a couple people come out with. With some wine, so I guess they weren't too stressed, you know what I mean?
- [124:46]
Joy Reid
Is he in there?
- [124:48]
Verbal B Rapping
I think I saw a C. Miller. I don't know. There was a woman in front of him. I. I didn't get a good look. Saw JD Hiding behind a couch. The implications. So was he in there still or what? This is not my best angle. I'm not gonna lie to you. I got all types of. I got guns, knives. I brought a shuriken. He was like, can you kill the President? I was like, sure, you can. They'll get it. When I get locked up, they'll get it inside there. But you're just too close to this situation. Are y' all the same Secret for Service from the last one? I thought. I thought so. I thought that's how I knew I had a chance.
- [125:26]
Joy Reid
The situation isn't funny with that. I'm sorry. It took me out. That is so funny. I said, oh, the implications is. It is the man that he keeps talking about. The implications. Sorry. Thank you. He is funny. That is a good one. Thank you all for tuning in to the Joy Reid show. I hope you guys enjoyed the strategy that we try to put out. This is not the end of this fight. I don't see those of us who are on this side standing down. Yeah. Good reminder, if you have not gotten your tickets yet, if you're going to be in New York, you want to see. DL Is going to be there. He's going to show up for it. So you guys please show up as well. You can go to live.thejoyreadshow.com you can also hit that little QR code thing. Just put your QR code phone up and then you can get your tickets. Not a lot of tickets left, but if there are tickets left, you can acquire them so you can be there and be there. Don't be square. Wishing you guys a whole happy Mother's Day weekend. Hope all the moms out there are feeling blessed. Hope you guys are blessing your moms. If you're lucky enough to still have your mom on this earthly plane, please give her a shout out on tomorrow on this weekend. And wishing you guys a fabulous weekend. Deep breaths. We're going to win. We beat Jim Crow and we will also beat John Crow. And yes, we will do it. Laughing, smiling and moisturized. Have a great weekend. See you. On the next the Joy Reid show. Peace.
- [126:55]
D.L. Hughley
Getting back to the basics grassroots level
- [126:58]
Justin Pearson
Let me dig a little deeper with
- [126:59]
D.L. Hughley
the shovel plenty K10 on the force from the trees that I'm hard to detect Like a black hole in a
- [127:05]
Justin Pearson
dark injustice anywhere it's a threat to
- [127:07]
D.L. Hughley
justice everywhere Let me make this clear I got a bone to pick and I'll never fear the threat of poverty they don't want to talk about it they rap the party so I'm a real talk about it for show.