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- [00:06]
Brad Lander
Okay.
- [00:14]
Joy Reid
Well, hello, hello, hello everyone. Happy Monday and welcome to the Joy Reacho. As you can see, I'm back in the laboratory, back in the main studio with Jason Reed. Big ups to all the chats and to Everybody watching on YouTube, on subsec, on Facebook, our adorable twitchies on Twitch, as well as all of those people listening on audio podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, we appreciate each and every one of you. Before you do anything else, please stop, take a moment and hit that like and that share button. Also please click the little notification bell thingy and hit all to train the algorithm to tell you whenever we are live and to help spread the word about this channel and help us grow to our midway our mid season goal of 500000 subscribers on the YouTubes and 225000 subscribers. Thank you very much on subsec.
- [01:05]
Harry Dunn
Hey Jason, did you get those mailers?
- [01:07]
Joy Reid
Okay, I got them.
- [01:08]
Brad Lander
Yeah, I got them. All right.
- [01:09]
Joy Reid
Did you miss me, Jason? I was gone for a minute.
- [01:11]
Harry Dunn
Well, put it this way, you're back now and the only problem that we have tonight, just to let you guys know, if we go black all of a sudden, like disappear, we have a major thunderstorm outside. So we're gonna basically pray.
- [01:24]
Joy Reid
Yes. But if we do go black, we'll
- [01:26]
Harry Dunn
be on our right back as soon as reboot. But happy Monday and joy, back to you.
- [01:31]
Joy Reid
Yes. Happy post Juneteenth everybody. Some hey, Jason's Jason. Getting a lot of love in the chat. I see the hearts going up. Want to remind you guys it's still our birthday. It's our birthday all month. We're like, you know, we're like all of the people who have June, June birthdays, all the Geminis who just celebrate their birthday the entire month, we're Geminis. The show is a Gemini. And so we celebrate all month long. In fact, our birthday is the same as my sister's birthday. Well, it's one day difference. My sister's June 10th, the show is June 9th. So we celebrate like a Gemini all month long. So if you want to get any of our fabulous merch, including this cute, super cute shirt on the back, it says truthful, not neutral. Super cute. You can get that@shop.jordyshow.com and if you use the code birthday, you get 15 off. Whatever's in the store, anything you like. I like little signature sneakers. I think they're super cute. But whatever you like. 15% off, just use birthday. Also, don't forget to sign up for RunMe. My slushmoney.com a good idea to do that because we're going to talk a little bit about some of the slush money issues that are still going on. This president is still trying to loot the country and we want to make sure that they cannot do it. They should not be able to do that. The presidency is not supposed to be a money making job. It's not supposed to be a thing to enrich your family, which is what he's doing. And then trying to give out money to his goons, his January Sixers and and other assorted sundry villains. And we're not going to let them do that. So we want you to be able to send an email direct to your member of Congress and to your United States Senators telling them, hey, pay attention to this. Do not give money to J6ers. And if you're giving out reparations, start with the blacks, start with the descendants of slaves, and work your way out from there. The Joy Read show is brought to you tonight by one of our favorite sponsors. Because you know, we're readers. It's a double entendre. We love reading. It's brought to you by bookshop.org now would you be surprised to learn that we are living in a resurgence of independent bookstores? No, seriously. I was talking to somebody over the weekend was talking about the fact that books are back. Like young people are reading again. They're getting sick of all the AI and all the tech stuff and they're starting to open books again, which is an amazing thing. More than a thousand new bookstores have opened just in the last five years. People are looking for something non stressful to do with their time and reading is fundamental. Independent bookstores though, are a great place to do it. Forget Amazon, forget it. Because independent bookstores do more than just sell you books and fill your house with boxes they take care of and pour back into their communities, creating safe spaces that foster culture, curiosity and a love of reading. When you purchase from bookshop.org you are supporting more than 3,000 local independent bookstores so that they can continue their essential work. Talk about a book that you, that you love. You know, if you let's say you're reading a romance novel or you want to read a history book or you want to read whatever it is, you can get it from a local bookstore. And it's a different experience than just getting it from Amazon, which is completely impersonal. Bookshop.org makes it personal. And what's even better about that is that you're supporting these local businesses that actually grow the community and care for them. Use the Code Joy if you want to go on bookshop.org to get 10% off your next order at bookshop.org that is 10% off at bookshop.org with the code Joy. So Clive Davis passed away on today at the ripe young age of 94. That's a really beautiful life. We're going to talk about him at the end of the show with our good friend Chris Witherspoon. Rest in peace to Clive Davis. We're going to have a lot to say about that. Chris has interviewed him back when we were at the Griot. We have a clip of that too. So stick around for hour two. And to come back to our present nightmare, constant nightmare. If there is one clip that kind of summarizes the state of our current administration, I would say it is this one. That is the National Guard deployed to the United States Capitol not to protect the American people or to serve some military purpose, but rather to guard the algae filled green gook. The green gook in the reflecting pool, which is now only reflecting our shame there. They are wasting taxpayer money and their time. He previously had them cleaning up garbage and now they're effectively guarding the pool. Because Donald Trump can't admit that he screwed up and that trying to change the reflecting pool to be swimming pool blue was a mistake. Because the paint or whatever the, whatever they used, they used this sort of weird paint at the bottom. They drained the pool, put these tiles of blue paint down, and instead of making the water beautiful blue, it caused it to fill with algae and now the paint is actually peeling off and it looks disgusting. And now they've got to probably drain it again and start over again. They're trying to treat it with all sorts of chlorinated chemicals and that's not working. It's literally a complete waste of $16 million of your tax money. And rather than just take the L and say, you know what, I screwed up. I picked the wrong people, Trump is claiming that it is vandals who messed up the pool. I promise you, he's saying vandals did it and he deployed those poor National Guard folks to guard the pool from the pretend vandals that he made up in his head to make sure they don't come back and put more algae in the pool and rip up the birds again. It's insane. And in case you're wondering just who is the vandal responsible for the pool debacle, it's this guy. His name is John J. Carfaro. And yes, he does look like a DC Comics villain. That's it. With the mustache, the hair, he looks like a DC Comic villain. John J. Carfaro. I'm going to read from Newsweek about who he is, because you can't make it up. John J. Carfaro, a businessman who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the President. Donald Trump is coming under scrutiny over alleged ties to the company contracted to install a water purification system in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after algae blooms have returned. The renovation of the Reflecting Pool, the latest Washington, D.C. landmark to undergo a transformation during Trump's tenure, has drawn criticism after algae spread across its surface, turning the water green. Federal contract records show that a $1.7 million contract was given to Greenwater Services. Interesting name. Greenwater Services, a business based in Brookfield, Ohio, to install a nanobubble device to kill algae. The New York Times reported that the business is owned by. Drum Roll JJ Carfaro Investment Trust, which is led by Carfaro. Carfaro has donated. Drumroll. Hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump over the years, including a $250,000 donation in 2020 and a $150,000 donation in 2024, according to federal Election Commission records reviewed by Newsweek. Katie Martin, a spokesman for the Department of the Interior, told the Times that the company was, quote, selected because they had the expertise, workforce and materials and the White House was not involved. Bullshit. Just absolute horseshit. Of course they were involved. The fact that this guy is a donor is bad enough. Oh, but there's more. Who is John J. Carfaro? Back to Newsweek. Carfaro's LinkedIn profile describes him as a longtime Ohio retail and manufacturing executive who has guided major development projects including the South Hill Mall and Meadowbrook Mall. He's also overseen assets in Florida and West Virginia. In 2021. Now, here's where it gets Trumpy. He pleaded guilty to bribing former Congressman James Trafficant Jr. Ohio Democrat, and was expected to testify against him. The Times responded, reported. Sorry. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to a campaign finance crime, according to cleveland.com so he's a criminal like Donald Trump. Perfect. So basically, he's Trump's kind of guy. Carile's family business has developed more than a dozen malls. But anyway, anyway, I'm going to leave it there. But he and his brother, he's been retired. The company was actually founded by their father. Of course, he's a Nepo baby on top of it. So the Car Faro family business has developed more than a dozen malls across the country. It was founded in 1949 by William M. Caro and his brother. He's been retired from the company for about 17 years, according to a company spokesperson. So you know how there's this saying that a, a cab driver, an Uber driver in New Orleans once told me, which I, I find so true, that in this country there are. I think he said, I think he said four really, you know, premier city, city. And no offense to anyone who lives anywhere else but New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco, and I think he said Chicago or the four cities that are just so unique you got to visit them. And he said everything else is Cleveland. And that saying, which apparently he didn't make up, he said it because any city you go to, no matter what the name of the city is, it all has the same mall. Got a Macy's and it's got a, it used to have a JC Penney's on the other end. And all the malls kind of look alike and make a lot of American cities look al.
- [10:26]
Brad Lander
Right.
- [10:27]
Joy Reid
There's that sameness to the cities because all the. Well, I guess this guy's family is one of the companies that have been making America look like one giant mall town. And he's also a admitted criminal who pleaded guilty to a crime. And he donated a lot of money to Trump. Apparently. Those are all the qualifications you need. Those are his qualifications. To destroy the reflecting pool with blooms of algae. Perfect. And that is just the start of Donald Trump's problems. He is wrecking D.C. to make it Trumpy for the 250th U.S. birthday. And part of the celebration was supposed to be this like, Great American, American State Fair. Except that a bunch of Democratic governors are like, yeah, it's a no for me dog. We don't want to go bunch of states. At least seven states led by Democratic governors have opted not to send officials representative to the Great American State Fair, with some raising concerns that the event is shaping up to be more partisan than it has been built. I wonder why they would think that. Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's because the last time there was supposedly an event for America's 250th birthday, a goon drooling, spitting on himself, weirdo with no shirt on, who looked like a giant baby in a diaper called, called Michelle Obama, a man, the former first lady on the grounds of the White House. Maybe that is why lots of Democratic states are like, ooh, not interested. Not interested in hanging out with you, Donald Trump for The birthday of you, which is what all of this is about. It's not even about America. And so the Democratic governors are like, no, man, I'm not sending nobody to that. The 16 days of festivities. Let me read. Let me read a little bit of this. This is the hill. The 16 days of festivities on the National Mall kick off Thursday, and each day will be centered on a different facet of American history. Massachusetts, North Carolina, Washington, Illinois, Oregon and Connecticut all cited budget constraints, their reasons for not attending. I mean, it is actually a recession. Maine's tourism office told a local ABC news station it declined the invitation because of scheduling demands at a busy summer season. Additionally, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania's tourism board told the Hill on Wednesday that the state is still making a determination about participate. If Pennsylvania does not participate, that means no Liberty Bell presentation. You almost cannot do a great American national sort of celebration of America without Philadelphia, without Pennsylvania. If they don't participate, what is the celebration gonna be about? You won't have the Minutemen of Massachusetts. You won't have North Carolina, which was, of course, one of the states that broke away during the Confederacy. What will you have? You wanna have Chicago, you wanna have Illinois, meaning no representation of Chicago. Hot dogs. Like the things that are the most American. These are some of the states that provide the most Americana, and they won't be there. And the reason they won't be there is Trump. We were talking over the weekend, fam about the fact that Trump was not at the Obama opening. But really, could he have been? How could he have been there? He has talked so much shit about the Obamas, he reposted a picture of Michelle and Barack Obama as monkeys. How could he even sit there next to those people? He has said all kinds of awful things about Joe Biden. Took the portrait of Joe Biden down from inside the White House and replaced it with a pen to mock him at every every turn, mocking him constantly. How could he sit there next to former President Biden? He's talked a lot of shit about the Bushes. He's probably the least about them. But he has now done an even dumber war than George W. Bush. He said George W. Bush's war against Iraq was stupid, and now he's done even worse because he couldn't stand that the black president got an Iran deal, so he had to go and undo it to do his own, which is far worse. Like, there's no way he actually physically could have sat with those men, Right? Could Melania have taken a picture with the other First Ladies when she literally plagiarized Michelle Obama almost word for word. Could she have? I mean, the problem is Trump couldn't have been at that event because of the way he's behaved toward the other presidents. It's a small club. Notice that they don't criticize each other. Barack Obama became president by repudiating George W. Bush's war in Iraq. It's why he became president. He stood against Bill and Hillary Clinton's aggression toward the Middle East. Repudiated that too, beat Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton carped about it and made a crack about him winning South Carolina. Joe Biden was basically dissed by Obama because he desperately wanted to be president and Obama instead chose to back Hillary instead. Then she lost to Trump. You can think of a million reasons why these four presidents could literally have beef. Bill Clinton denied George W. Bush's father a second term in office and then became closer to the dad than Bill Clinton. The dad who got beat by Bill Clinton came to see him as a son. And George W. Bush used to joke that he liked him better than George, that he liked Bill Clinton better than George. There's so many reasons why these four presidents could have beef. But instead of having beef, they're all united across the aisle, across huge ideological differences. Huge idea. But they could sit together and joke together and be friends, each other. Notice that you've never heard any of them go out. Only former president, because he's Trump, is the 45th president and the 47th. The only ex president who ever criticized fellow ex presidents is him. And now that he's president again, he tries to humiliate his predecessors every chance he gets. Only fewer than 50 people have ever had that job. It's a club. He couldn't have gone. He couldn't have gone because he's such an asshole. So that's why he wasn't there. And now he's shocked that Democratic led states want nothing to do with his stupid celebration, which everyone knows is not about America. It's a celebration of Trump. Trump is turning America's 250th birthday into his own 80th birthday party. He could give a damn about the United States. He only cares about himself. And he's ruined DC to turn it into Mar a Lago 2.0. It's horrible. And that's just some of it. Here's what's happening on the legal front. A federal judge has now blocked an attempt by this same goon, Donald Trump, to subpoena Minnesota Governor Tim Walls. And Jacob Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis and other state officials. And this judge has accused the Justice Department of using its investigatory powers to retaliate against state officials for not cooperating with ice, not cooperating with federal efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. judge Patrick Schultz found the, quote, dominant purpose of the subpoenas was to, quote, coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so, unquote. They saw right through it. And they said, absolutely not. Tensions between the Trump administration and Minnesota's Democratic leaders, per the ap, escalated in January. Officers clashed with protesters in the Minneapolis St. Paul after officers murdered Renee Goode and Alex Brady. And yet Donald Trump's regime. J.D. vance. I'm sorry, J.D. vance. Their injustice department, under Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, is trying to subpoena the governor of Minnesota and the mayor of Minneapolis. For what? To punish them and make them spend money on legal fees because they refuse to let ICE run rampant through their cities and kill more people. And then it gets worse, y'. All this dude. My premise on today's show is that Donald Trump and Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu are the biggest losers in the world right now. If you go through the entire planet, the biggest losers are Donald Trump, Bibi Netanyahu. That is the case I'm making. So I'm going to make that big case throughout the show tonight. They are the biggest losers. Here's another piece of evidence that Donald Trump is the biggest loser. Another federal judge today rejected the Trump Injustice Department, their attempt to force Maryland election officials to turn over the state's complete voter registration list. They're trying to bully states into turning over their voter registration list so they can lie and pretend that the voter registration lists are full of undocumented people. Because this is their conspiracy theory. It's the way they're going to try to steal the November election by lying that California and Maryland and blue states are letting undocumented people vote, which is illegal and stupid. Why would you reveal yourself to be an undocumented immigrant by trying to vote? If you want to get caught, here's how you get caught. Show up. Show up in a polling place and write your name and address down. Well, that would be a dumb idea. What makes idiot MAGA people think anyone would do that? If you're undocumented, by definition, you're trying not to get caught. You know how you get caught? Show up and try to vote because you have to give your address and you have to sign something. You'll go to jail. So no one's doing that. But they're like, there's only. That's the only way that our people lose. Just because we put up idiots, why can't they win because they're idiots. There's more for the great Scott McFarlane, who we got to try to get back on the show this week. I love Scott McFarland. Per Scott McFarland, a group of federal tax officials, including a former commissioner of the irs. This is beautiful. Are asking a federal judge to intervene and stop Donald Trump's sweet immunity deal with the irs. The sweet our deal was spawned by, of course, Trump's lawsuit in January against the irs, which he runs through Scott Bessant. The irs. The lawsuit raised, of course, questions about how John Trump could be literally filing a lawsuit against an agency he controls. So he's suing his own federal government. Then he had his own federal government settle with him. And you'll recall that that is where the $1.7 billion slush fund came from, because he settled with himself. He had his justice, his injustice department settle with him to settle his lawsuit against his own irs. And then he was like, you know what I'll settle for? Give me $1.7 billion to hand out to my January six friends and whoever else I want. Just give me a slush fund. 1.7 billion. Which is why, again, run me my slush. Funny. Run me my slushmoney.com people. They're giving out money. So that's another thing. So this lawsuit is saying, you can't do that. You can't cut a deal, that you will never be audited, you and your family. That's what the deal is. He will never be audited ever in life as long as he lives. That is crazy. There's no one who could get a deal like that. Except Donald Trump did. And so now a former IRS commissioner and others are suing for that next one. A new book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman has now laid the blame directly at Trump's feet. Not his aides, not his vp, nobody but him. Not even Pamela Joe, him. All his aides were trying to figure out what to do when the Epstein file emerged. Many of them had been advocates of releasing it. And. And it was Trump who said, don't release none of it. That's just the domestic side. There's more when it comes to foreign policy, Israeli newspapers and pro U.S. u.S. Papers, including the one owned by Trump's uber allies the late Sheldon Adelson and his very much alive wife. You know, the lady who sold Paramount to the Ellisons. They are now slamming Donald Trump's Iran deal as the Great Surrender, because it is the Great Surrender. Donald Trump started a war with Iran, promptly lost the war because he didn't understand that Iran can withstand whatever military bombardment the United States lays on them. And killing 160 schoolgirls made them double down on standing up for themselves and their people. Took a very unpopular regime and entrenched it maybe forever. Got rid of by killing one Ayatollah, only to replace him with his son who's in his 30s. And now there's going to be an Ayatollah Khamenei on the throne of Iran maybe for the rest of any of our lifetime because of Trump. And now the deal involves essentially bribing Iran with $300 billion to pay them to please keep the Strait of Hormuz open. By the way, it's closed again. They get to maintain their nuclear material. They get to charge all the tolls they want to charge. They never had that before. And the strait was already open. And now we did a whole war to reopen the strait Donald Trump caused to be closed, plus leaving Khomeini in place, no regime change making the regime more entrenched. Even late to the game, MAGA stalwarts like Mark Levin, this like very pro Israel radio host, are screaming that this is the great Surrender. They're slamming him. And then on the Israel side, all the papers there, I was reading Haaretz and other, the Israel Post, they're all slamming Bibi for this, saying, what are you doing? You put all your eggs in the Trump basket. This erratic weirdo. I even read in one of the Israeli papers over the weekend, they're now admitting they would have, that Kamala would have been better.
- [23:05]
JD Vance
Really?
- [23:06]
Jason Reed
Really.
- [23:06]
Joy Reid
Israel, you did all that work to get your boy Trump in and it turns out he's worse. So both countries now, after having started a war with Iran that Israel has now expanded to include a fresh genocide in Lebanon, has left the United States and Israel more isolated and more hated around the world than they've ever been and left Iran stronger than it has ever been since. Since it was the Persian Empire. Let me listen to you guys. Let me let you listen. I'm not going to let you hear Trump tonight. You're welcome. But I want you to hear Trump's latest attempts to make himself look like something other than a loser, and a weak loser at that. As Interpreted by his babysitters at Fox.
- [23:47]
Jason Reed
Hey guys, good morning. I just spoke with President Trump for more than 20 minutes and he gave some new insight and reaction about the ongoing talk talks that are taking place in Switzerland and the threats coming from the Iranian regime. President Trump telling Fox News that the US May take over the strait. They have to and collect tolls. The President describes the United States being the guardian angel of the Strait of Hormuz, Middle East.
- [24:15]
Joy Reid
And the President. Come on now. Come on now, Fox. Do you really think, do you honestly think that the United States which could not force this mid level power, this small relative to US country to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, which would not put our full navy to work to do that you need air power, navy and an invasion to hold the Strait of Hormuz. We couldn't even keep the Strait of Hormuz open. The whole of Europe said, you're on your own, buddy. Italy wouldn't let us have landing rights. No one would help us. You think that a country that can barely feed ourselves, we can barely afford gas, people here can barely afford to survive. We somehow going to control the Strait of Hormuz and charged tolls ourselves?
- [24:58]
Jamel Hill
Really?
- [24:59]
Joy Reid
Okay, go on.
- [25:00]
Jason Reed
And said ultimately that would involve the US taking 20% of the oil that passes through the strait. Remember this comes in reaction to the Iranians saying they will close the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. President Trump tells Fox News he spoke with Iranian officials overnight and said you close it and you won't have a country. He went on to tell these officials, you won't even make it back to your effing country. Now earlier today, Iran's President Massoud Possession said this about Iranian enrichment of uranium. The president also reacting to that. Take a listen.
- [25:38]
Joy Reid
We will not give up our right to enrich enrichment and they too will be forced to accept it. You all know what the so called President of the United States was saying. He had made a complete 100 degree turn. He was saying that Iran must surrender unconditionally. Iran has no right to do this. It has no right to do that.
- [26:02]
Jason Reed
President Trump during our call responded directly to those comments by Iranian President Massoud Possesskian. President Trump told Fox News he better watch his mouth. He better shape up or we'll take over.
- [26:13]
Joy Reid
Okay, that's enough. Yeah, okay. No, he better not do nothing but stay Iranian and run his damn country. You ain't going to do nothing. Somebody make a lego about this. That is dumb. You're not going to do that. You're doing nothing. Trump. You can't do anything to them. They're a sovereign country. They control the strait. It's their strait. It's in their region. You are not going to say. How many hundreds of thousands of American troops are you going to send over there to die trying to hold the Strait of Hormuz and take 20% of their oil? Bullshit. You're not going to do none of. You've already lost, buddy. You lost. Let me let y' all hear somebody who's a terrible human being, who I cannot stand. But it is wild note that Marco Rubio is absent without official lead. You do not see him. He is not out here defending this crap. And J.D. vance, who's the flunky, who they've deced to set over there, and they're going to make him fix it. Here is him doing an interview with New York Times religion writer Russ Douthat for his book. Listen to what he said. Take a listen to this. Oh, sorry. All right, pause for a second. That actually is. Sorry. I did the wrong one. We're gonna play that, though. This is how JD Vance was treated when he went over there to try to mitigate, to. To try to create a peace deal that would be durable. This is how he was treated by the head of the Qatari government. Take a look. He's like, hey, I'm here, too. Don't ignore me, please. I'm also here. Hey, it's me, J.D. james Donald.
- [27:52]
Harry Dunn
David.
- [27:53]
Joy Reid
David. Donald. He got snubbed.
- [27:55]
Harry Dunn
Okay.
- [27:56]
Joy Reid
Now let's hear El Snubbo say what Israel can and should not do.
- [28:01]
Brad Lander
Yeah.
- [28:02]
JD Vance
You've seen people in their system, Ben GVIR and Smotrich, who've attacked the deal. And I guess my response to them would be, what is your exact proposal? And, you know, you're a country of 9 million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.
- [28:21]
Joy Reid
Look at what even a broken clock is right once a day. J.D. vance is a complete horse's ass. Twice a day. I'm sorry, it's twice a day. You're right. It's twice a day. Well, that was once. Let's see the second time that he's right, because he was. That was once a day. He's right twice a day. The broken clock was right once. Broken, snubbed clock was right once. Here's the second time. Broken, snubbed clock was right. Here is JD Vance having a little message for Israel.
- [28:48]
JD Vance
What I will say. And this does bother me is that you've seen people within Bibi's cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways, very personally attacked the President of the United States. And I guess my message to them would be twofold. Number one, Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.
- [29:27]
Joy Reid
I mean, the only lie that I could detect in that is world's only superpower. The world's superpower. We're not the world's superpower anymore. That that day has passed. Donald Trump has ended the United States status as the world's superpower. We not super no more. And that is why I think my thesis is strong that Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu are the world's biggest losers. Let us know that tonight's show, the Joy Reid show, is brought to you by our friends at the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Very important as America's approach its 250th anniversary. We are having a bigger argument than ever about what this country is and who it is for. Because the United States began as a rejection of monarchy and divine rule. The founders created a secular constitution with no religious tests and a government accountable to the people, at least supposed to be. That framework helped make expanding freedom possible. But today, we are seeing a growing effort to blur the line between church and state in education, in public policy, and in the broader culture. And those shifts do not affect everyone equally. The Freedom from Religion foundation is working to protect the First Amendment because it protects everyone's freedom of conscience, including the right to believe differently or not to believe at all. You want to support them? Go to FFRF US. Joy or text JOY my first name to 511511 to join them or to learn more, go to FFRF US. Slash us and then slash JOY or text JOY to 511511. Now let me do that one more time. FFRF US JOY or text JOY to 511511. Now as we move to America 250, this is not just about celebrating the past. It's about deciding what kind of future we are building. Text JOY to 511-511 to learn more and join. Tax fees may apply. So, as you all hopefully know, it's primary season in the biggest midterm election maybe in our history. And let us start by checking some of the advanced wins. Republican attempts to implement John Crow maps in South Carolina and Georgia utterly failed, at least for now, after Republican state officials backed off of stealing black Democratic seats after huge protests across the south made it clear that they would jeopardize not only college acceptances by top college football recruits and tourism boycotts, but also in Georgia. Basically, had Georgia passed those maps, they would have basically guaranteed that Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms would get elected governor. Like that's, that's clear. So that's a win, and we need to take the wins. And while Georgia is expected to come back for a second bite next year, for now the good guys won. We should celebrate all our efforts to push back. And this is a big season, by the way, for one part of the Democratic coalition, and that is the Democratic left. Democratic socialists are like winning. The next mayor of D.C. is likely to be this lady Democratic socialist, Janice Lewis George. Denise Lewis George. She won the Democratic primary to replace pro business Mayor Muriel Bowser, who's been accused by many in the District for being too accommodating to the Trump regime, including having the Black Lives Matter mural on Pennsylvania Avenue painted over. And Janice, who could be mayor. Janice follows the trend of Zorhan Mamdani last November in New York City and Katie Wilson, the new mayor of Seattle. And earlier this month, Los Angeles Councilwoman Nitya Rahman, who's also a DSA member. She is going to go to that runoff in the general election against Mayor Karen Bass, who we actually love Karen Bass. So that's going to be an interesting one to watch. But she did defeat the Republican reality show Spencer Pratt. So that's setting up a and I would call Karen Bass a liberal mayor versus a DSA candidate. So that is what's happening there. Now. Here's what's coming up tomorrow. There are there are June primaries in Maryland, New York, South Carolina and Utah. The runoffs are in South Carolina. But I want to focus on Maryland and New York real quick. Maryland and New York are up to bat. I just want to show you the some of what folks are receiving in Maryland. It's just a huge stackerella which we're going to get into a little bit that more. But in New York, Zorhan Mamdani has endorsed three progressive candidates in primaries against incumbents. Dan Goldsman, the former prosecutor and popular commentator on the ACT formerly known as msnbc Adriano Espayat in Harlem, who's very, very pro Israel and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso Who. Who's the chosen successor of retiring Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez? So those are the. Those are the sort of incumbents and incumbent picks. Here are Mamdani's selections.
- [33:56]
Chris Witherspoon
The Jewish community, including Democratic.
- [33:58]
Joy Reid
Oh, no, it's B4. Sorry, B4. That's okay. That's all right.
- [34:06]
Zorhan Mamdani
We know anything's possible with a great team.
- [34:09]
JD Vance
I'm Brad Lander, and I'll block billionaires from.
- [34:12]
Chris Witherspoon
From buying our elections.
- [34:14]
Joy Reid
I'm Marielisa Avila Chevalier and I'll defend New York by abolishing ice. I'm Claire Valdez and I'll stand up against bad landlords and greedy corporations.
- [34:23]
Zorhan Mamdani
Get out and vote. This is the team. This is our year.
- [34:28]
Joy Reid
I'm Brad Lander. I'm Claire Valdez.
- [34:30]
Jamel Hill
I'm Darielisa Avila Chevalier and we approve this message.
- [34:35]
Joy Reid
And Brad Lander and Darialisa Avila Chevalier join me now, I believe. Oh, okay. We're going to see if they are here. I think they might be here. Okay. Who's Brad? Brad. Let's get Brad on and then we'll wait for Dariel Lisa to come on. Brad, who I just saw at the Knicks ring ceremony. Literally, it feels like yesterday. How are you? Have you recovered?
- [34:59]
Brad Lander
Well, I feel the same way. I feel like it's just been one long day since Thursday morning. The spirit that's moving in New York City right now is amazing. We had the Knicks ceremony that morning. Then Bernie came for a rally with. With Mayor Mamdani and Claire and Dariel and me. And now we're headed into election day. So it's been one good day.
- [35:20]
Joy Reid
So our goal today was to get all three of you on. I just will note that Claire Valdez did make an effort to come on, but she is at something she couldn't move. I mean, it's like down to the Wire, Brad. Like, this is it. And we're waiting for Daddy Elisa to join us, talk about this because, you know, I. I only know Dan Goldman as a person that was often on MSNBC with me. And you know, he's a smart guy. People. People like him, at least in the liberal TV world. What is your case for not simply leaving him in office, Reelecting him?
- [35:48]
Brad Lander
I mean, this is just not a time for corporate Democrats. I mean, Dan Bowman is a quarter billionaire who's backed by Wall street and crypto and a PAC who voted for every standalone aid package to fund Netanyahu's wars, who voted with the crypto industry for. With Republicans for the crypto industry bills. It's Time for change. We need folks who are going to fight every day against bullies and billionaires and for working people and who aren't going to compromise on anyone's humanity.
- [36:20]
Joy Reid
Gotcha. And you know, I'm actually. So now I have to take a responsibility for having mixed the two segments up. Can you stay with us? I'm going to have you stay through this segment because we're going to mix, we're going to mix up Maryland and New York and mix them together because our friend Harry Dunn is here. I pulled the wrong card. Let me get Harry Dunn in on this conversation because Harry Dunn is also running for Congress. Harry Dunn, there you are. Okay. Yes, I got, I got everybody mixed up. We're going to mix it all together because the two of you guys are really kind of on one of the same accord, which is this issue of APEC funding, which Dan Goldman takes a lot of it. You've been very clear, Brad Lander, that you do not take that money and that super PAC money and so is Harry Dunn. Why do you think, does that matter to people that you're talking to? Because it matters to me. And I wonder how much you're hearing that that's something that people really want in New York.
- [37:08]
Brad Lander
Oh, it really does matter. Actually, it was interesting in both debates. The, you know, the, the moderators brought it up and Rep. Goldman said, I don't know if this was people asking are asking about, but then the moderators were like, look, this was the number one question that people from your district are asking about. And look, of course that's because there's compassion for Palestinian kids in Gaza, but it's also because there just is a deep hypocrisy here. You cannot be the party that says we care about human rights and international law and then ask American taxpayers to fund genocide. And you can't say we're against corporate pacts and dark money and then just keep taking it.
- [37:52]
Joy Reid
Yeah, and you know, the same thing with you, Harry Dunn. I mean, some pro Israel groups are distributing lots and lots of attack ads against you. They're starting to see them popping up around, but they're not like, they're not directly saying it's because of your position against taking APAC money or your position on genocide, but the implication is that you would not be a reliable vote, I guess. What do you make of the way that AIPAC and also AIPAC affiliated groups are playing in the Maryland primaries?
- [38:18]
Harry Dunn
Well, Joy, thanks for having me. Brad. Good luck tomorrow, my friend. Joy, this, this isn't Even about the issues. They don't know where I stand because they haven't had a conversation with me and, and that, but they do know one thing's for certain, that I don't won't answer to them. I answer to the people. Period. Full stop. We, we didn't even have an issue. And you know, whether this is about crypto or about AI, whether it's about Israel, whether it's about Ukraine, it doesn't matter. I don't care if, if the super PAC was Walmart or, you know, everybody knows that I like bourbon or the, the biggest bourbon distributor in the world. I don't want your money because I am not going to be accountable to you. I'm going to be accountable to the people. And that's what we've lost so much. You know, Joy being at the Capitol for 15 plus years. I saw so many people come to the Capitol, newly elected members every, every two years with, they had the purest intentions and they would be taking pictures on the steps of the Capitol with school groups, with the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts and suddenly over the years, the Boy Scouts, the school groups, those, those people turned into lobbyists, those pictures turned into lobbyists and presidents and CEOs of corporations and they just forgot about the people. One thing that I won't do is, is forget about the people. I'm bringing them to Congress with me because that's how we get through this. No one person is going to get through it by themselves. And it's going to take the people to, to make us more prosperous and put people first, give the power back to the people. And, and we can do that in Congress by getting rid of Citizens United States.
- [39:48]
Joy Reid
I, I think everyone who's paid attention to how politics has deteriorated since Citizens United would agree with that. I want to come back to you, Brad. I want to play something that Zorhan Mamdani said because of course everything he does attracts extra scrutiny. If he doesn't go to a parade. If he, you know, if he, everything he does is, is, is wrong for a lot of media people and a lot of mainstream Democrats. And I will note Dan Goldman has never endorsed him up to now. He is not endorsed that. He refuses to add his endorsement to the sitting mayor of New York City, which is weird. But Jason, Whenever you have B5, let me know when you have it because I want to play what Zorham Mamdani actually said in reaction to some groups who were angry about him making these endorsements of yourself and two other candidates against Incumbents. Jason, let me know when you've got B5. You got it. Okay, here we go.
- [40:34]
Chris Witherspoon
The Jewish community, including Democratic Congressman Josh
- [40:37]
Brad Lander
Gottheimer, were alarmed by the language you
- [40:39]
Chris Witherspoon
used at the rally last week calling
- [40:42]
Joy Reid
AIPAC monsters who move dark money. These are phrases that invoke old anti Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories. What do you say to those who
- [40:52]
Chris Witherspoon
are concerned that the language you used is dangerous?
- [40:55]
Zorhan Mamdani
Now, I want to be very clear. We're talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis. More than a thousand pounds, Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the so called ceasefire. Even an Al Jazeera journalist, Ahmed Wishah, was killed this past Saturday by an Israeli strike. And when I am speaking about aipac, I'm speaking about an organization that has been supportive of the status quo, that has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people, not just in Palestine, but frankly through much of the region. And it is a status quo for immorality. It is one that I will not accept. And when it comes to the way in which they defend the status quo, oftentimes they defend it through direct contributions, as we are seeing right now in New York. 13 Oftentimes they also support the status quo through dark money by filtering money that would have previously been directly from aipac, now through other shell organizations whose identities of their contributors are only made clear after an election. And I think that it is important that when we ask ourselves how such death and destruction is happening overseas, we also name those who allow it to take place.
- [42:14]
Joy Reid
All right, we're going to go. And of course, Brad, it's not just AIPAC. I mean, we have this AIPAC list on Jason. B6, whenever you have it. I kind of just went through and just sort of scrolled through the track AIPAC list and it's a lot of candidates. I think it would say it's the majority of Democratic candidates. So it's not even just Dan Goldman, it's kind of all of them. It is B6. And so the challenge is you're up against so much money and the Democratic establishment takes the money. So for you, what has been the challenge of running really with them against you?
- [42:50]
Brad Lander
Well, look, Democratic voters are speaking up loud and clear. Clear. They don't want to be complicit in genocide and they don't like the role AIPAC is playing in Democratic politics. That doesn't mean there's not lots of room to fight anti Semitism and stand up for the dignity of American Jews. I'm a Proud Jewish New Yorker. I'm going to fight like hell for, you know, my people to be safe. I look, I believe in the vision of a, of a Jewish and democratic Israel, but there's no democratic democracy with occupation and Judaism is inconsistent with genocide. And I don't know what to do other than say that out loud. So, you know, I, I don't like the role APAC is playing in our politics. Now I've admitted sometimes it makes me queasy to talk about the role because there are a set of stereotypes around Jews and wealth and power and I'm going to fight against them and say, don't confuse, you know, you know, say Zionist when you mean J. Don't attack a synagogue in Michigan because you're angry about the actions of the Israeli government. You know, it is possible to criticize Israel without being anti Semitic. It is important for our party to stand up against anti Semitism and all forms of hate. But it is also important for our party to reckon with the fact that Democratic voters don't want to be complicit in genocide. They don't understand why there's money to send for Netanyahu's wars when there's not money for their health care or childcare or affordable housing. And I believe we need more Democrats willing to say so.
- [44:30]
Joy Reid
You know what's so, so, so interesting, Brad, is that, you know, you shouldn't even have to defend Judaism because of, of a foreign country's foreign in their policies. What's so crazy is to me, it's such a slander to equate a late 19th and 20th century political movement, Zionism, to and say that is the exact same thing as a 4,000 year old religion. They are not the same thing. This is a political ideology that came from Europe. And so for people to say, but that is all Jewish people, that is not like, not Judaism and Zionism are two completely different things. And it, to me, it would drive me crazy if I was Jewish for people to say, you know what I mean, like these are not the same thing. A political ideology and a 4000 year old beautiful religion. For people to equate whatever Netanyahu and freaking Ben GVIR and Smotrich do to you, to me is nuts. It's slanderous.
- [45:26]
Brad Lander
Yeah, look, you know, I agree with you and I think over equating Zionism and Judaism, which is what Netanyahu wants people to do, poses real harms and risks. You know, at the same time, that's a state that claims to be acting in my name. And so feel compelled to speak up when I disagree with it. But look American taxpayers are the ones who have paid for the 2,000 pound bombs that destroyed every hospital in Gaza. So you don't have to be Jewish to be uncomfortable with that. You don't have to be Jewish oppose it. You don't have to be Jewish to not like what AIPAC is doing. And look, you don't have to be Jewish to stand up against anti Semitism. So those are things.
- [46:13]
Joy Reid
Amen. And I want to say in Maryland Harry Adrian Boaffo there's a lot of people who are noticing that the people who are supporting him are sort of their apac but they're not apec. And that's another thing I think for black voters that are, they're getting concerned that they're not always sure who is an APAC candidate because the organizations that are like spin offs of AIPAC aren't saying who they are. Let me play you the end of a recent ad in favor of Adrian Bawafa who is the real sort of APAC type candidate. This is C1 Jason. Whenever you've got it that's the courage to stand up to any special interest.
- [46:49]
Harry Dunn
I trust him.
- [46:50]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
You can too vote Adrian for Congress.
- [46:54]
Harry Dunn
UDP is responsible for the continent to
- [46:56]
Joy Reid
say so so UDP is, is, is an APEC adjacent group and like a lot of these group United Democracy Projects. If you just heard United Democracy Project you really wouldn't know what you were looking at. But that's what it is. And so that's not to me being very straightforward. Right. There are a bunch of these groups and they're just not saying who they are. Well why?
- [47:16]
Harry Dunn
Because they're wildly unpopular. I mean like wildly. We polled and I think over 70% plus high 70s of the District Maryland's District 5 is has a negative view of APAC. And I think what happens a lot is like Brad was saying people conflate the issues about anti Semitism and funding an illegal war and what people call a genocide. So we, I try to use it in simple terms like we condition aid to we were just doing it in the with the last shutdown whether to fund ICE or not. ICE is not playing by the rules. You know what you don't get funded period. So if we're going to condition a ton organizations or or departments in the in the entire United States then we absolutely should with our allies if you will be conditioning aid. It makes no sense that these people Israel gets, gets a blank checkbook to do whatever they want to do. When it's a humanitarian crisis in Palestine and innocent people, innocent kids, innocent civilians are. And like Mandani said, journalists are being killed with because they're not playing by the rules. There are no rules. And we cannot continue to support that. We are just as complicit as we. If we continue to send them arms where they create, they are. Excuse me, they are carrying out these. These strikes against Palestine. We cannot support that because we are just as complicit by allowing them to do so.
- [48:45]
Joy Reid
So you mentioned ice, Brad, I want to go to you because you have been one of those people who's put your body on the line to try to defend people in courtrooms where they're being dragged out by ice. What, beyond that? Like, what could. Well, let's start with that in Congress. What would you do differently than what's being done now when it comes to immigration?
- [49:04]
Brad Lander
Look, I've been calling to abolish ICE since 2018 in the first Trump term, when it was clear to me what they were becoming. And that's what I'll work to do in Congress now. I will keep showing up with my neighbors. I've been arrested by ICE and federal agents twice. And I just got my case. Just, you know, I got found not guilty two weeks ago by a federal judge. That means I'll probably be back again, because there's a movement of thousands of people in New York and all across the country. And I really think the movement that grew up in Minneapolis to push ICE and Bobino out of their city is in many ways the most instructive lesson we have for how to fight Trump's fascism and the rogue ICE agents in our streets. So when I'm a member of Congress, one of the things I want to do is start the upper ICE oversight hearings in Minneapolis. We should insist on accountability for the murders of Alex Preddy and Renee Nicole. Good. And use that to springboard to accountability, you know, for the folks ISIS killed in custody whose names we don't even know, but also for all the corruption in this administration as well.
- [50:13]
Joy Reid
Indeed. And, Harry Dunn, what are some of the main issues that you would like to tackle in Congress?
- [50:18]
Harry Dunn
Well, I want to talk about ICE real quick, because think about this. A former law enforcement officer, somebody you know, I was a police officer. I want to abolish ICE and just think about what that says as me as a police officer, wanting to get rid of ICE because of how rogue and unchecked and out of control that they are. What they were created for is not what they're being used for. Now you got Mark Wayne Mullen saying that he's going to deploy them to the voting booths to, to election sites to intimidate voters. Well, he didn't say intimidate voters, but that's exactly what they're going to do because he's claiming that there's fraud. We're still waiting on the proof. We're still waiting on the evidence that there's fraud because why there isn't any. So they're cheating and intimidating people to win. So that's one of the things I will do, is elected a vote to defund ICE and abolish ice. They have to go full stop. But one of the things, Joy, that I really, really want to tackle that's near and dear to me is the George Floyd justice and Policing Act. That's one. As a law enforcement officer, I think it is very common and I would challenge anybody that is not supportive of that. The judge flag, go read it. And I guarantee you this, Joy, if we change the name to the Donald Trump justice and Policing act with no other changes, just the name of it, Republicans would absolutely pass it because it's common sense, police reform. They just don't like the fact that it's George Floyd's name attached to it. Another thing that I want to do is the John Lewis Voting Rights act because we see the voting rights that are under attack right now. There are so many people, so many marginalized communities. That is happening. Look at just what happened just down south. That's not their, that's not where they're going to stop. They're going to try to do it all across the country and they're starting in Republican led states. So strengthening our Voting Rights act, passing the George Floyd justice and Policing act and strengthen our democracy by getting big money out of politics are the three biggest things that I want to do and that I will fight my ass off to do.
- [52:12]
Brad Lander
So, Harry, I really like this idea. I think we're going to call it the Donald Trump Medicare for All bill.
- [52:19]
Harry Dunn
We call it the doctor it would absolutely pass. It would absolutely pass because Donald Trump don't care about nobody but himself. But also if they read the actual language of the bill, they'd be like, wait, this is good. Make crimes, hold him accountable. Yeah, period.
- [52:34]
Joy Reid
What's so interesting is Donald Trump only cares about his name being on things. I think everything that you guys proposed, just call it the Donald Trump. Put the word Donald Trump in front
- [52:41]
Harry Dunn
of it and guarantee will pass.
- [52:43]
Joy Reid
Yeah, same thing to you, Brad Lander. What are the big things that you want to do in addition, obviously, to pushing to abolish ice. What's on your menu as a freshman member of Congress?
- [52:53]
Brad Lander
Yeah, boy. Where I am, affordable housing is just the biggest issue people are facing. It's a beautiful set of neighborhoods, but no, you know, nobody can afford to live here. Nobody's kids think they'll be able to buy a home. Tenants are getting pushed out. So we need a lot more federal investment in affordable housing. I'm enthusiastic about Senator Elizabeth Warren's 21st century road to Housing Act. When I was New York City controller, I issued the city's first municipal bonds exclusively dedicated to affordable and low income housing. Like to see the federal government do that as well. We call them social bonds. It could be hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for affordable housing. And when the federal government helps invest in housing, whether that's Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or hud, there ought to be strong tenant protections and also protections against private equity buying up all the homes.
- [53:44]
Joy Reid
That is so key because having lived in New York back in the day when you could actually rent an apartment for less than $1,000 a month, it's. And I'm not a thousand years old. Like, I feel like I'm talking about a whole nother era or another generation, but literally in the 90s, you could rent by yourself with no roommates. And it's horrible that, like our Jason and my, you know, our son who lives in, you know, in a part of New York that used to be super affordable. It's crazy. It's crazy. I think both of you guys are terrific. I wish you guys luck and I hope that people will support you. I'm very open about it. You know, like, I'm not on MSNBC anymore, so I can like openly support people. I hope both of you get elected because I think you guys would be great to have in Congress. Fresh voices, fresh ideas. And I've actually just as a journalist, seen you both fight for the people. So that is why I am rooting for you guys. I hope that you do well. Good luck and you give everybody your last minute pitch to get out and vote tomorrow. I'll start with you, Brad.
- [54:42]
Brad Lander
Thank you. Yeah. We've got a fascist in the White House, We've got rogue ICE agents in our streets, and we've got billionaires trying to buy our elections. But around here, neighbors showing up for each other is still how we win. So anybody you know In New York, New York, 10 is Manhattan below 14th street, and a bunch of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, please make sure they get out to the polls and vote tomorrow.
- [55:03]
Joy Reid
Amen.
- [55:03]
Jason Reed
Amen.
- [55:04]
Jamel Hill
Amen.
- [55:04]
Brad Lander
Give your website, bradlanderforcongress.com There we go.
- [55:08]
Joy Reid
All right, same to you, Harry Dunn. Give your elevator pitch for the folks in Maryland.
- [55:11]
Harry Dunn
Yeah, you know, Joy, when you mentioned udp, United Democracy Project, the sound of that sounds great because I literally shed blood on the steps of the United States Capitol defending our democracy. And when they're talking about democracy and fighting for it, there's nobody respecting you, Brad, in the entire country that's fought harder against this administration over the last five and a half years as a citizen, private citizen. Harry Dunn has two lawsuits against, one against Donald Trump, one against the Department of Justice. Because I, as a citizen, and showing up and fighting for the people doing the work, and I guarantee you put the constitutional authority of a congressman behind me and watch what gets done.
- [55:50]
Joy Reid
Amen. Give your website, Harry.
- [55:52]
Harry Dunn
Done for4md.com thank you so much, Joy. Good luck.
- [55:57]
Brad Lander
All right, good luck to you.
- [55:59]
Joy Reid
Hopefully y' all be in the freshman class picture. Thank you guys very much. We were waiting for Dariel, but she had an incident that apparently took place at an event where she was confronted by God knows who. So we're going to make sure that she is okay. And she is obviously another very worthy candidate for Congress. She's somebody who has worked as a teacher, regular working class young woman, Dominican American, and somebody who I think would be great. And again, it's not that all of the incumbents are bad people. Some of them are terrific. They're lovely, nice people. But the thing is, the Democratic Party needs a shakeup. The Democratic Party needs what the Republican Party had during the Tea Party movement. When the Tea Party movement effectively operated within the primaries. They didn't wait for the general and then say, vote Red, no matter who. Democrats tend to lay back during the primaries and not make choices. And then you're sort of stuck with what you get in November. And then people say it's the worst. You're asking me to pick the lesser of two evils. Jason, do you have that C2 if you can put that up. I don't know if you have C2. If you can throw that up. And organizations like these are hiding the ball. Like they're not being open about being aipac. The APAC is aipac, but all these other groups, UDP and Democratic Majority for Israel, they're like, hiding the ball. They're not telling you that that's what they really want. And the problem with the people who are Taking that money. And some of them are people we really like. Right? There are people like Cory Booker. We like Cory Booker. He's a lovely person. He's a nice guy. There are lots of congressmen and members of the United States Senate who are likable, nice people. But the problem is, is that AIPAC doesn't give you that money for free. They want something. They want your votes to be consistently in favor of a foreign country that does not operate always in our interest. If Israel always operated in our interest, that'd be one thing. But they don't. They spy on us. They drag our sundowning president into a war that is destroying our economy, that is making it impossible for people to live here and afford gas and food. They drag our, our country down into a war that they want. It's not what we want, it's what they want. They're living and getting free health care and access to free education while our young people can't afford to go to college. College debt is drowning Americans. They're living great and we're living worse and worse and worse, and they're making things worse. And yet they demand that the Dan Goldman's the word. Vote accordingly. Vote whatever they say. Do whatever they say. They're not like, they're not like, open to you voting your conscience. They're not open to you voting the way that your conscience or your constituents tell you. Adriano Espallad is a very nice guy, very good guy. Nothing wrong with him as a person. But the problem is, once you take all that money, you're beholden to them. And the only way to teach the Democratic Party a lesson is they need a shock to the system. They must have a shock to the system or they're never going to change. The very nice people that we keep electing to the United States House and Senate are going to still be nice. And then when it comes time to vote for more money, for more bombs to kill more Palestinian little kids and for Israel to slaughter more people in South Lebanon for doing nothing other than living on land that Ben GVIR and Smotrich want, that they covet, which is a sin in the Bible, they covet the land and so they're killing the entire towns to get it. And saying it's about Hezbollah, it's not a Hezbollah. They just want the land. And if that is the way this country that doesn't listen to us, that doesn't obey us, even though we're paying for everything, this is like dating somebody who you pay for everything and they Just don't listen to anything you say. Oh, you're paying very. And so they're being a bad friend. And so we just have to teach the Democratic Party that they can't keep following them. And the only way to teach them is to remove some of them from office, even the nice ones. The derby show is brought to you, by the way. Let me before I get to that, before I get to our sponsor, we are also, I want to show you guys some of the summer primaries. You have C3 because just so that you guys know, these primaries are about to go on and on and on to the break it on. These go all the way through August. So we still haven't had all the primaries. We got Maryland, New York and Utah happening. We still got a lot more. We got Louisiana, Colorado, Arizona, South Dakota, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri. That is where yet another APAC candidate, Wesley Bell is up against Cori Bush. That's a rematch. I hope Cori Bush wins that one. I'm really hoping she wins that. When you still got Virginia, Washington state, Tennessee, Hawaii, Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, Wisconsin, Alaska, of course, Florida. That's the mess that we see in Florida District 20 and now Florida District 24, where you got 20 billion people running and Debbie Wassem and Schultz carpet, carpet bagging her way into a black district. She did a whole Juneteenth picture that was super awkward. Over the weekend as well as Wyoming, we go on and on, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, and then we get to election day. So we got a lot of road to cover. And just so you know, we're going to be covering these races all the way through because these establishment Democrats got to learn a lesson. Okay. The show is brought to you tonight by this book, Bullies, Parasites and Slaves. And and this is actually a really great book. I've been reading through it and it gives you a good sort of primer on all of the things that we're going through right now. It talks about the history of slavery throughout the world, the particulars of exploitation of the little guy by big moneyed interest, and that it happens all over the country and that it's happened everywhere, not just here in the United States. I'm reverbing to myself. And it goes through that history and sort of walks us through how a community of care is the answer to constant and continual exploitation by people with a lot of money. And it is, you know, illogical. It is logical, I should say. You don't have to be a religious person to believe in the Golden Rule, which is basically Treat others how you want to be treated. Take care of each other. Protect each other's rights and yours will be protected. Meet each other's needs, the ones we all have in common, and your needs will be met. It is just logic, mutual care. Because nothing else has ever worked. Certainly not the exploitation of some for the benefit of the few. Certainly not denying health benefits to preserve executive bonuses. But that is where we are. This book Bullies, Parasites and Slaves exposes it all with stories, history and facts that you can digest easily and then explain expertly. So if you can get you should get it today. Go to BPS online or text B U L L y bully the 511-511-11 and buy it today. It's free. If you need it to be, go to BPS online or text Bully B U L l y to 511-511-1011 it is important that we understand what's happening in the world in order to change the world. Bullies, Parasites and Slaves by George Koch. Get it now. It could change your life. Go to BPS online or just text CARE to 511-511, do read it. It is important reading and definitely worth your time, right? Welcome to hour two of the Joy Reed Show. Do be sure to hit that like and subscribe button. And if you have bought merch, please tag me at Joanne Reed or tag Joy Reed Show. If you want to get some fabulous merch you can use the code birthday for 15% off all month long. We keep it being our birthday because we are a Gemini show and we are just it's our birthday all month. We just decided you can also hit that run me my slush money. Hit the QR code if you want to get on that list so that you can send out emails to hopefully these new members of Congress to tell them what we want done in terms of the slush fund and in terms of oversight over the regime. All right, so apparently Jillian Michaels got all mad at me. She got all mad because I put part of my ouster from the Artist Formerly Known as MSNBC on my outspokenness about Israel during my speech at Rise up and Sing with the great Jane Fonda, who by the way is eight years older than Trump but looks like she could be his daughter. Moving on. Of course, that is yet another subject that Jillian is not an expert at. Like, you know, the history of chattel slavery or museums or US History in general or really anything other than bullying and shaming people who are just trying to lose weight and without being screamed at and publicly shamed on Television. That's what she said. So let me, Let me just tell you why I and so many others are just so dead set against our tax dollars continuing to support Israel. Shall we? Let me just, let me just dig into it. It's. It is because I have this crazy thing against my tax dollars being used to support apartheid and genocide. I know, it's crazy, right? So just this past week, in a TV interview, which I'm just going to ask Jason to put on without sound, the translations are pretty much everywhere. Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben gvir, who I'm sure you've heard me talk about before, he said the following about the ongoing obliteration of southern Lebanon, which Israel is completely destroying, like wiping out entire historic villages and towns that go back thousands of years in what even JD Vance refuses to argue is not a genocide. He said the following Itamar Ben gvir, quote, lebanon, all of Lebanon should become our playground. All of Lebanon should be our target. And they tell me, wait a second, there is Lebanon and there is Hezbollah. I do not accept this artificial approach. And he adds, let a thousand Lebanese mothers weep and not one Israeli mother weep. For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must cry. All of Lebanon must burn. All of Lebanon must burn. That is the Security Minister of Israel. Now, regarding the Iran deal that Trump made over Israeli objections and which is a complete capitulation to Iran, he said this quote, with the Iranians, there is no point in making compromises and no point in signing agreements. The Iranians need to be bombed and then bombed again, and then bombed again. It is the same with Hezbollah. Just keep bombing them and then bomb them again and again. That is how it works. Anyone who wants to condemn me can condemn me. Let people around the world say whatever they want. I truly believe this.
- [65:51]
Chris Witherspoon
Unquote.
- [65:52]
Joy Reid
That is Israel's Minister of National Security, basically the equivalent of our head of the Department of Homeland Security. Can you imagine Mark Wayne Mullen or even his predecessor, Kristi Noem, as bad as they are, saying anything like that. I mean, you can imagine Trump saying things like that, but he's, he's sundowning. He says things like that all the time. We will end your civilization. That is how the Minister of National Security speaks over there. And yet pro Israel commentators are outraged, Outraged. Not at that. Not that he said that. That a member of the Israeli government said that horrible thing on TV, but that another terrible person, J.D. vance, failed to correct a reporter who asked J.D. vance about all of this and used the word Genocide in her question. Take a listen. Are you ready to stop genocide in Lebanon? As you know your alignment, Israel has something like genocide in Lebanon. The main issue is stopping this.
- [66:47]
JD Vance
Well, ma', am, I think that the President, States and the United States of America have done more to stop the conflict in Lebanon than any government anywhere in the world over the last few months. And we're going to keep on working towards it. As I think a lot of you appreciate, peace is never easy. Peace always requires a little bit of work. It always requires a little bit of give and take. But the President, United States is committed, not just a peace between the United States and Iran, the President is committed to a regional peace, which is why we're here working so hard to settle
- [67:16]
Joy Reid
our issues and they're upset about that. So apparently that was not good enough as an answer for the stridently pro Israel commentariat. That is how radical the pro Israel side has become. They cannot or will not admit that a clear genocide as determined by experts on the subject. Not me, but you know, who cares what I can determine with my own two eyes. But the following groups, the UN Commission on in Commission of Inquiry and the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, both concluded that Israel's warfare methods and imposed conditions match the legal characteristics of genocide. Global human rights organizations like Genocide Watch and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention both formally classified what Israel's done in Gaza as a genocide. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, they have meticulously documented war crimes and potential genocidal acts. While organizations like Amnesty International and the Israel based Betsellam have stated that Israel is committing the crime of genocide and there are positions for human rights. Israel, an Israel based group, has also published meticulous legal and medical investigations concluding that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The International association of Genocide Scholars, which happens to be the world's leading professional organization of genocide scholars, passed a resolution determining that Israel's actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide. I could go on, but pro Israel commentators like Mark Levin and Jillian Michaels and you know, white Christian nationalist leaders and more importantly US politicians who are funded by pro Israel groups refuse to acknowledge any of this. They are more fixated on yelling at Zorhan Mamdani for not agreeing to literally march with far right ministers like Ben gvir, Ben Gvir's pal, Israeli Finance Minister Belizel Smotrich when they come to town for a parade, when they actually should be marching to the Hague then acknowledging what all of these organizations say. And I just want to remind you of What? Belle Elazil Smotrich, who marched in a New York City parade for which the Democratic establishment marched with him and the media establishment, criticized Mamdani for not joining him in this march. Here's what Smotrich has said. Here's some of his golden oldies. Nobody will Let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned, unquote. Another quote of his, there are no Palestinians because there isn't a Palestinian people, unquote. He's also responded to rampant settler violence in the occupied west bank by calling for entire Palestinian towns to be, quote, wiped out. So that's the kind of leadership in Israel that our tax dollars fund and support. And just a very, very quick story just to help you understand how bad things are over there and for how long. So back in 2004, a 13 year old girl named Iman Darwish Alhams was walking to school near the Rafah refugee camp in occupied Gaza Strip when she inadvertently walked into what the Israeli Defense Forces designated as a security zone. And despite a fellow officer identifying Iman as a child, a girl who, in his words, was, quote, scared to death, with all of this recorded on radio, an officer identified only as Officer R shot her. Then when she fell to the ground, he walked up to her body and unloaded all 10 rounds of his automatic weapon into her body. According to an audio recording which was later used in court, the soldiers identified the victim as about 10 years old. She was actually 13. And they said through the radio, our forces are attacking her. A lookout says one of the positions has taken her down. They verify her killing and then clarify. The officer R clarifies, this is the commander. This is the officer who killed her saying, this is the commander. Anything that's mobile that moves in the zone, even if it is a 3 year old, needs to be killed. Over. So Israeli soldiers who were interviewed in a documentary film about all of this and whose anonymity was maintained through the documentary, submitted that their commander had knowingly shot the girl in the head at close range and then emptied his magazine of bullets into her body to, quote, confirm the kill. This is one of. One of the soldiers said, we saw her from a distance of 70 meters. She was fired at from the outpost. She fled and was wounded. The soldiers then explained how while Iman was lying wounded about 70 meters from the Israeli guard post, the commander fired two bullets at her head from close range. They added that the commander returned to her body again, put his weapon on the automatic setting and emptied his entire magazine into her body, disregarding their objections over the walkie talkie. This is one of the soldiers quotes in the documentary. We couldn't believe what he had done. Our hearts ached for her. Just a 13 year old. How do you spray a girl from close range? He was hot for a long time to take out terrorists and shot the girl to relieve pressure. Now Captain R went to trial. He was tried for not murderer, not for murder, but for illegally using his firearm. And he was acquitted of all charges. He expressed no regret telling his comrades that he would have shot her and killed her again if she was three years old and any Palestinian entering the security guard should be killed again. The whole thing was recorded and he was still acquitted. After he was acquitted, Captain R was promoted to the rank of major. And as of March 2006 he had received 82,000 new shekels, which is roughly $17,000. To compensate him for the cost of his defense and the time he spent in jail, Captain R also filed a libel suit, a lawsuit against the producers of the documentary about Iman's death. A district court awarded him 300,000 shekels in damages. That decision was overturned in part by the Israeli Supreme Court that ruled not that he shouldn't have gotten paid, but that he got paid too much. So they said only pay him 100,000 instead of 300,000 shekels. Do you see where I'm going here? Now, at the time that this all happened, this is 2004, Hamas was not in control of the Gaza Strip. Israel was. Hamas had not yet been people of Gaza. That would not happen until two years later, in January of 2006. And Hamas would not actually take control of Gaza until three years later, 11 June 2007. So Iman was not murdered to defend Israelis against a Hamas government operating in Gaza, because Israel was in control of Gaza. So that is the country that we're giving unlimited arms sales to and supporting their unlimited territorial ambitions in the region. Mainly because of Christian nationalists here who insist that we do so so that the end times will come and all the Israeli Jews will be incinerated. That is what they actually believe. And because these two biggest losers, Netanyahu and Trump, can't quit each other. And because of them, Jewish people are catching hell the world over, because people keep associating them with Bibi and the insane ministers like Smoltrich and Ben GVIR and the increasingly far right radical culture of a country that aggressively spies on us, that works to interfere in our elections. That goes in our Democratic primaries and plays around not using their own names. And that acts against our interests by bullying our sundowning president into a stupid war that he himself would have opposed and would have called dumb even five years ago when he had more cognitive power. Because they know what's in the Epstein files and he's just finding out. So, Gillian, that is why I am so opposed to our tax dollars going to that country. Because they kill little kids for no other reason than that they want the land the little kid and her family live on because of religious fanaticism. And I'm against religious fanaticism. And the Democratic Party has to stop this because if the Democratic Party thinks we can just don't, you know, vote blue no matter who our way out of this message, I've got another thing coming. They've got another thing coming. You can't vote blue no matter who out of this because it does matter who. It actually does matter who. You need to present us with candidates who won't fund this and that. The reason that we talk about this, even though I am not from there, I've not been there. This is not my country and my people, is that as a black person, I understand that anything evil that happens to any brown person all over the world always reverberates back to black people. It always comes back to us. We are the other group that is consistently experimented upon with violence. And we have to stand with other people who are experiencing state violence because we are them. And so those who are upset that progressives are primary, very nice Democrats, Very nice people and good people in many other ways. But you wouldn't have said this is a good Democrat, except they're for South African apartheid. You wouldn't have said vote blue no matter who. I like everything about this candidate except that they're in favor of apartheid in South Africa. No one would have been able to justify that. And everyone would have said, that's crazy. But this is South African apartheid. You can't make an exception because the people are a little bit lighter skinned than us. They're still being brutalized. It's still genocide, and I'm just not for it, no matter how mad that makes people at me. And I actually don't care if Jillian Michaels is mad at me. I don't respect her anyway. But I know it makes some people upset. And I have been a Democrat my whole life, but I just cannot stand for killing people like Iman. She was just a little kid. If that makes me a bad Democrat, then I guess I'm a bad Democrat. I'm not. Don't vote. Don't. I'm not. Vote blue. No matter who. To me it matters who. Sorry. Let me give you one of our other advertisers. The Joy Reach show is brought to you by our friends because you gotta be healthy, right? Let's clear the air and talk health. It's brought to you by our friends at 120Live. Now, look, this is why June matters. We're halfway through June. It is pride. It is black music month. 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These statements have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Okay, so what else is happening in the world in addition to all of the foreign policy shenanigans? So Jeff Dolan isn't in. Jeff Dolan. I always want to call him James. James Dolan? Yeah. The guy who owns the Knicks. He is not a great guy. James Dawn. I was talking to Jeff Dull, but James Dawn. James Dull. He's the guy who owns the Knicks. So he last week accepted an invitation to the White House. On behalf of these gentlemen, we'll put that picture up. So he. This is, like, a very iconic picture that's all over social media of the starting lineup of the New York Knicks. The New York Knicks has one white player, and everyone else is either black or Latino. Either black, Latino or Latino or black. So it's a very, very, very, very, very, very, very deit. It's a very black team. But he said, yeah, we're going to go to the White House. And it's not clear that he ever asked any of those guys if they
- [79:47]
Jason Reed
really wanted to go.
- [79:48]
Joy Reid
It seems a little bit plantation to me, because if you're accepting an invitation on behalf of other people, that does not sound. That sounds like you're doing owner in the, like, antebellum sense. And I don't love it, but I'm not an expert, so I decided to bring on an expert. So let me just bring on my machete sister, Jamel Hill, who is an expert contributing writer for the Atlantic, co host of the podcast Flagrant and Funny, and also the host of the YouTube show Spolitex Spot. Pod Spalotics. Pod Spolitexpod. Hey. Hey, Fran. Hey.
- [80:20]
Jamel Hill
What's going on? How are you?
- [80:22]
Joy Reid
You know what? I'm good. It's a strange time because it's like the best of times and the worst of times, right? Like, the Knicks made it the best of times, and the vibe in New York is just so vibesy. New York is feeling good. Like, everyone's feeling, like, happy and feeling like there's change in the mood because the change in the air because of Mamdani and all the good things. Then you just look at the world and you zoom out and you're like, ah, shit, we're still living in hell, you know? And one of the ways we're living in hell is I feel some kind of way about Mr. Dolan saying the Knicks are going to the White House and not asking them do you know whether they were asked?
- [80:58]
Jamel Hill
Okay, so that's the part I've been trying to confirm as well is that did he actually run this by the team before he said it? And I could definitely believe he did not. And because it's not like when he invited Donald Trump to Game 3 of the NBA Finals, he certainly didn't ask the players there. And he seemed to have a real blind spot when it came to reading the room. A lot of people did not want him there, as in Donald Trump and for James Dolan, not even have enough self awareness to understanding the problems it would create. Not just about changing the mood and the vibe around the team, but Knicks fans have been waiting for decades for this kind of opportunity to win a championship. They win their first in 53 years. You know, everybody. The one thing that I noticed because I was in New York before the finals and the community feeling reminded you of the power of sports that was around New York. You know, you have people watching it outside of bodegas, you know, the game being projected on the walls in the neighborhoods like it was this community feeling and it just tapped into the power of sports. And he sort of ruined that because, you know, suddenly it's taking fans three, four hours to get into the games. The watch parties around Madison Square Garden that those aren't happening. So it just was a vibe killer. And given how little self awareness he showed then I could completely believe that he would go ahead and tell the White House, yeah, we're coming. Without ever having a discussion with any of the players about whether this was a good idea, how they felt about it, or even having the self awareness to understand. You do realize man has a historically low approval rating and if we're just using voting numbers, almost 80% of black men did not vote for Donald Trump. So why would you think your pretty black team would want to go see Donald Trump and for that matter, to wear the badge. Joy of being the only NBA team that has been to a Trump White House. No NBA team has been. They would be the first.
- [82:56]
Joy Reid
I don't know.
- [82:57]
Jamel Hill
That's not a flex. And I would not want my team to have that distinction considering how the rest of the league has felt about him. Look, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is a pretty red state and even they didn't go to the White House last year.
- [83:12]
Joy Reid
And what's so I mean it would be bad enough if it was just about Donald Trump being incredibly unpopular African American voters, black voters saying no to him during and New York City, by the way, the home of Madison Square Garden was one of the places Donald Trump got the worst. I think he won, like, 10% of Manhattan. It was horrible. He did poorly in that city. But on top of that, the place where they would have to go, Josh Hart, with his beautiful brown wife, would have to traipse past the place where Michelle Obama was called out of her name by a goon who, I cannot say did not shit himself before his start of his match. And you're saying that that man disparaged her on the grounds of our White House, and these black men and brown men would have to walk across that very threshold to stand with the man who said nothing about it and who allowed that to happen and who posted a picture showing the Obamas, the former president and first lady, as monkeys for them to stand with him. That photo, to me, it would become an infamous image.
- [84:19]
Jamel Hill
Yeah. And he's already done what typically sports teams don't like to do, is created a distraction. So now he's put them in a corner. Because if, let's say now they. Some of them come out and they say, we don't really want to go, or we didn't have any plans of going, then that is going to give MAGA and conservative media, that's going to give them, you know, storylines forever. And then the team will then be branded as anti American because, you know, that's the little game that MAGA likes to play. And they're supposed to be in a period where they're celebrating something that was, you know, monumental. One of the big, biggest stories in this, the history of the city that happened. They're supposed to still be in the honeymoon of celebrating that. And you've immediately brought that moment down by now having them embroiled in a political controversy they did not ask for. So, you know, because if you're Mike Brown and you're the coach of the Knicks, you kind of don't have a choice but to go. Like, a basketball team is very different joy, than a football team. On a football team, there's so many of them that if 10 of them didn't go unless it was a big name, most people aren't going to notice.
- [85:24]
Chris Witherspoon
Right.
- [85:24]
Jamel Hill
But a basketball team kind of has to be. Everybody's in or nobody's in.
- [85:29]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [85:29]
Jamel Hill
It can't be in between because you can't have five people show up because you most are carrying 14 roster spots. So you can't have three people show up to the White House. It's got to be everybody's in. And so much as James Dolan has tended to do. And an NBA championship isn't going to erase the fact that he has one of the worst reputations in all of pro sports because he, much like his good friend Donald Trump, he's vindictive, he's petty. He's also somebody who retaliates. I mean, you know, the beef with him in Oakley, how he's used. He's accused of using his facial recognition, you know, technology at the Garden. He's being sued right now. Like, he's done a lot of really awful things. And this why. That's why it doesn't surprise me that he would not even have the self awareness to have the enough respect for his team to not force them into this position. And I agree with you. I mean, this is very slavey. This is very slavey because he essentially is ordering, you know, ordering them and in a not so subtle way that, oh, yeah, y' all gonna. Y' all gonna go to the White House. And I don't care what anybody says. Especially seeing some remarks that Boomer Siason also made about how he can't. He's excited and can't wait till James Dolan tells this Knicks team they have to go to the White House. Like, why are you excited about that? Like, what? Because there's a perverse thrill that comes with making black athletes, especially black men, look subservient. And that's what this is. At the root of it, he has that. He's going. He's gonna have that syndrome where because they won a championship, he's looking to get all the credit and adulation. He got main character syndrome, and he ain't the main character. And this is all kind of showing up in this moment is that he. He thinks it's a badge of honor. Be like, I'm gonna be the first one to take a team to the White House in the NBA under Trump. Like, that's not a badge honor. That is not a flex.
- [87:19]
Joy Reid
And the reality, I mean, he got booed. He was the only person who got booed at the Keys to the City ceremony. Like, he alone got booed, like, lustily by the crowd there who hate him. And, you know, he's previously invited Trump to do that hate rally at Madison Square Garden because he also owns Madison Square Garden. I don't know if there is another team owner that also owns the venue. I don't know if he's the only. But the fact that he has that kind of dual role and can control the Garden, too, it's like he Definitely comes across as a plantation, a plantation owner character. And the fact that he would want to see these. These proud black men have to be, yes, sirring. A racist president. It's just so. It hurts my heart so much to even think about it. It wouldn't be their fault, but it would be so, to me, demeaning.
- [88:06]
Jamel Hill
Yeah, because he's purposely putting them in the line of fire of a administration that has been openly hostile towards black folks. And it's. It's messed up because the players will get the brunt of it because they're the easy target. And what's even more hypocritical about this, Joy, is that, see, he got to sort of say how he felt about Momdani. Like he didn't play nice. Like he shaded Mandami. Right. He's not giving them that same opportunity. And I. I find that to be the height of hypocrisy. Oh, so you could show up to mayor and you could talk shit about the mayor, but they can't talk shit about the president? You making them go to the White House. And I'm like, you know, that's. That's part of why all of this is so concerning. My general position has always been, if the players want to go or don't go, that's on them. It's a personal decision. There were certainly a lot of athletes who did not go when Obama was president. Fine, if that's what you want to do. What makes this different is that this is an owner seemingly forcing his team to do it. I also. I also am tired of this whole narrative that this is about respecting the office. It's like the person in the office actually matters. And one thing that I think a lot of white people get the benefit of doing is being able to be politically neutral. Black people don't get to be that. We don't get to be politically neutral because our very existence and our presence is political. And for them to. A lot of them to reduce this to, oh, it's just the White House, it's just the office. It's not that this is a different symbol for us, and they need to respect that, respect the feelings of the players, whatever they may be. I could live with whatever decision is made as long as it was what the players wanted to do, not what the owner wants to do. Because immediately when he accepted the invitation or talked about it publicly, he then went into his longstanding relationship with Trump, which leads me to believe he didn't ask them, that this is about him wanting to go to The White House.
- [90:01]
Joy Reid
Yeah. And the office that we're being asked to respect built a cage on the grounds of the White House for people to do a blood sport in. Not a sort of very American sport like boxing that people kind of. All that goes back and it has some history, but a relatively new sport that has a niche audience that is not the American mainstream at all. And had the person again at the end, when a person completely disparaged the former occupant of the White House whose ancestors built the White House. Right. She is an African American woman whose ancestors built the home Donald Trump now lives in temporarily. And the White House has said nothing. They've had no response to the disparagement of the former First Lady. So they don't respect the office. So if Trump doesn't respect the office, I'm not sure why anybody else should.
- [90:50]
Jamel Hill
No. And especially, again, that couple with all the deep levels of anti blackness running through that, you know, administration, and you hit on something important there. Joy, when you talked about that UFC debacle at the White House, is that that's not the representation of America. I mean, that is. That was a Donald Trump rally with a little sports mixed in. What the Knicks did and how they galvanized the city and the country, that's America. When you see different races, genders, kids, old folks, like every possible representation of what this country is all celebrating together. Even if you weren't from New York, you still love seeing the people out in the different boroughs just being with each other and just hugging strangers. That's America. What's going on now with the World cup, that's America. Right. When you're seeing these people from different places, experiencing America through a different set of eyes and sort of tapping into those things that make us feel good about our country. And you didn't watch UFC 250, especially after that clown said that about the former first lady. You didn't watch that and feel good about America. You watch that and you wonder, what is this? And so I think, you know, seeing those juxtapos juxtaposed against each other is very. It's a very startling image to me.
- [92:16]
Joy Reid
Yeah. I mean, seeing all of the, like, young white kids walking around in Brunson jerseys was like a stark image. That was really, you know, it was. It made you feel good. You're like, people are having fandom across race, across all kinds of other divides. No matter who you are, you could be the whitest guy with a Ewing jersey on, you know, throwback you and throwback on, and you were like, this is all us. And it definitely was, it was every kind of person in the street, every language group, every religious group, every political group. I mean, there were white police officers high fiving us in the street, and most of them probably voted for Trump. And so the reality is you had this ecumenism, you had this sense of community, which was only interrupted two times when Trump showed up at the Garden and messed up the vibe and jinxed the team. And then when Dolan announced, no, we're going to the White House, which as you said, is unprecedented. I guess my final question on this would be what would theoretically be the consequence? Because a lot of people have been arguing back and forth about whether they have to go. They have contracts. These people work under contract. This is not slavery anymore. They don't. They are not owned. Even though he's called an owner, which I hate that title. But do their contracts require them to go if they don't want to?
- [93:26]
Jamel Hill
No. And even more so, I think it's spelled out in the collective bargaining agreement that they do not have to do this. So, like, they have, like, legally, they, they don't. Doesn't have any teeth there. He has nothing to stand on. He cannot force them to, to actually go because if he tried to, like, this would be a major, the, the, the players association would be glad to step in and, and make a big deal out of this, but he, he wouldn't do that. But, you know, there's, there's sort of the, the, the other consequences which I mentioned is at, at a time where they're supposed to be celebrating, suddenly all the questions about, are about, well, why, why didn't you go to the White House? Or why did you go to the White House? And that's just like another layer of nonsense that they don't really want to deal with, especially since everything that should be written and said about them should be in celebration and reflecting on the joy that they brought the city. And that kind of takes away from that. Jalen Brunson isn't going to be traded if he decided not to go or anything like that. And, but you know, Dolan is petty. That's the thing. It's like he's a petty dude. And I, while I don't think he could openly, necessarily retaliate, but I think it's one of those things, you got to look ahead and think about next season where they're defending this title. And I can only imagine the bad vibes that's gonna throw around this team if this becomes a wedge issue in that locker room or in that organization where the owner is forcing their hands to do something that they don't wanna do. That's not the spirit and that's not the tone that you wanna take into next season. I mean, and I'm sure they probably plan it, if they did, if they, if it goes through, they probably try to plan it around a time where they were in D.C. maybe playing the Wizards or if it was an off day. But that kind of thing is gonna put a layer of stink over this team that I'm sure they do not want to deal with. And as I said, you know, listen, I know that in New York City it's certainly, you know, they could do whatever and like New Yorkers are gonna love them because of, of the championship that you just brought. But I don't think they want any kind of universe where every night on Fox News they're talking about why the team didn't go or, you know, like they don't want to be used as a photo op optic either to where people can point to the photo and see black people really do like Trump. Like they don't want that part either. So that's why it was dumb of James Dolan to even make that announcement. And presumably what looks like before he had a discussion with his team, because what led me to believe he didn't is when OJ OG Anunoby and Josh Hart, they were asked at the parade, they were talking to some fans about whether or not they plan to go to the White House and they just straight up ignored the question. Which leads me to believe this was not discussed.
- [96:04]
Joy Reid
Was not discussed. Okay, before I let you go, I mean, look, they can't say, well, because New York Trump is from New York. Fox News is from New York. Fox News is literally based in Rockefeller, Florida. So Fox News is from New York. That don't mean black people for Fox News either. That does not mean anything. Exit question. Before I let you go, let's do real, real quick on the World Cup. Has there been a dampening effect that you've been able to see and cover? You know, the Trumpy World cup feels like dangerous to me for brown and black players to come here and try. You know, some have not been able to come, some brown and people coming from the Middle east or from certain African countries. Some goalies have been told you can't come or some officials have been told you can't come. Has there been a dampening effect on the matches?
- [96:44]
Jamel Hill
I think there has been some times I mean, when you look at what happened with the Somalian referee, for example, who found themselves in the crosshairs of this administration for no fault of his own. But if anything, I think the World cup overall has pointed out the hypocrisy of this administration and this hard line immigration stance. Look at the makeup of the American World cup team and who's been the main goal. Goal. Goal scorer, excuse me, is an immigrant. Okay, so there is. And then just seeing again, how people have treated the. The fans and the players from other countries, especially the fans. I mean, you have Bosnians rolling through the heart of Inglewood.
- [97:30]
Joy Reid
Yes.
- [97:30]
Jamel Hill
You know, doing their sort of fan warm up or, you know, their fan rituals, doing that in these major enclaves. You got, you know, folks hanging out in Houston. You know, you had a lot.
- [97:44]
Joy Reid
Kansas City, we're thinking Kansas City the other night. I'm like, at all these black players. Both teams were full of black people and they're rolling through Kansas City.
- [97:51]
Jamel Hill
I mean, it's just. It's been beautiful to see that mixing and melding of culture. And it gives me hope that despite the dangerous and very dehumanizing language that we have used around immigrants, that that isn't taking root just based off how we've been treating the people who have been here. So if anything, it showed the brightness of America. And my hope is that people kind of want that to continue, that that doesn't just have to be around a sporting event, is that Donald Trump doesn't have to define how we act in this country or how we behave or what we consider to be important. He is not the arbiter of that. We are. And so I hope this is a reminder to people that he doesn't define who we are as Americans.
- [98:33]
Joy Reid
Beautifully said. Of course, Jamel Hill. See, you have to talk to an expert, y'.
- [98:38]
Jamel Hill
All.
- [98:38]
Joy Reid
You got to get somebody.
- [98:39]
Jamel Hill
No, I know, I know your inclination, Joy, was to call Tiffany Cross first because that's the.
- [98:44]
Joy Reid
Well, she is a sports expert.
- [98:45]
Jamel Hill
She's a sports expert.
- [98:48]
Joy Reid
I resisted the urge to call Tiffany, but I said, you know what? If it can't be Tiffany, if I can't. Sports expert. Let me go ahead and call Jamel. I love you, Jamel Hill. Thank you so much. Good sister.
- [99:00]
Jamel Hill
I appreciate.
- [99:00]
Joy Reid
Take care. All right. Happy World cup to all. And it is amazing. The World cup teams are so very black. It is. It is interesting because they're all made up of immigrants. Like, even African immigrants are in every country. It's just an interesting thing. All right, so let's talk about. Let's go from the sort of the high of sports to a sad, sad, sad story. It's sad in a way, but he lived a really great life. Clive Davis has passed at the age of 94. Let's play a little bit of Entertainment Tonight's obit. In the 70s, he used his pre Grammy gala to showcase the artists he made.
- [99:33]
Jamel Hill
Great.
- [99:33]
Joy Reid
From Whitney Houston to Alicia Keys, even the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.
- [99:37]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
It's a glittering order. And the bond that they share is that they love music.
- [99:44]
Joy Reid
But becoming one of the industry's most influential record executives was never part of the plan. In the film Clive the Soundtrack of Our Lives, the New York native shared that he originally dreamed of becoming an attorney, graduating from Harvard Law School even after both his parents died just months apart.
- [100:00]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
I got through school on scholarship. My parents both, both independently died when I was 18. I had the sum of $4,000 to my name.
- [100:11]
Joy Reid
In one of his first jobs out of school, he served as general counsel for Columbia Records. Just a few years later, he was promoted to president.
- [100:18]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
I got in music by accident. It became my life's passion. But I didn't know I had a natural gift. But it's the work ethic, too.
- [100:29]
Joy Reid
The first artist he signed, rock icon janis Josh in 1967. And the hits kept on coming with Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Pink Floyd.
- [100:40]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
What I look for in an artist is whether or not they can lift an audience out of their seats, whether or not they can be a headliner. And so that we see all the media writing today of hit records and downloads. And the important thing to concentrate is that are you building an artist whose career can be there many years from now?
- [101:03]
Joy Reid
Clive's magic touch became even more evident when he launched arista Records in 1974, discovering acts like Barry Manilow, the Grateful Dead, David Bowie, and a teen model with a golden voice.
- [101:14]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
This girl is 19 years old. You either got it or you don't have it. She's got it. She got it.
- [101:20]
Harry Dunn
Here's Whitney Houston
- [101:23]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
sitting next to me right now. Everybody in our industry knows it. He's the best singer in the world today.
- [101:29]
Joy Reid
Thank you, Claire. And joining me now is entertainment journalist, producer and entrepreneur known for his signature accessible approach to media culture and storytelling. Chris with the Phoon, who I remind you, is hosting an amazing event called ViewerCon on July 18th in Newark, New Jersey. There it is. Save the date. I hope you guys are going to come hang out with us because I'll be there. Chris, hello.
- [101:54]
Chris Witherspoon
Hello, Joy. Hello. This is sort of a sad day for us, but also kind of like celebrating this man's legacy. And you just can't talk enough about what he accomplished and all the many artists that he helped kind of launch, including the late, great Whitney.
- [102:09]
Joy Reid
Yes. And you know what's so interesting is, you know, there are a couple of these kind of executives that are, you know, foundational to the music industry. And if you had to name like five of them, you know, Queen, you know, people who are either executives or sort of talent creators, you know, people like, you know, he will be one of the five, right? Obviously, Right. It would be the founder of Motown Records. It will be him. It will be Quincy Jones. Like, there'll be a. There'll be like five people you could name. And he's one of them 100.
- [102:39]
Chris Witherspoon
I think that Clive Davis also was brilliant at the business of the music industry. It was a business and so many record labels were here one day, gone tomorrow. Arista is still a force to be reckoned with. It's still one of those labels that is churning out great talent. And also he was brilliant with branding. People like Whitney Houston was a tomboy from Newark, New Jersey. She could sing the house down. But it was Clive Davis who put her in those Bob Mackie gowns and really kind of leaned into this model esque beauty queen. You know, the Whitney Houston hat that became a huge part of her calling card. It was the voice, but it was also those gowns that she'd be sweating and wiping her hair back. But it was. It was this look. Even I will always love you Folks don't know this that Bob Foster, David Foster, who wrote the song, did not want the first 40 seconds acapella. It was Clive Davis who first who pushed and that became Whitney's greatest hit, I will always love you. Those 40 seconds were just so compelling to this day. Gives me goosebumps when I think about it.
- [103:42]
Joy Reid
So you interviewed Clyde. It was back when we were at the Griot. We're going to go back to our olden days. And the thing is going to be amazing about this clip, y', all, is that Chris looks exactly the same. Chris does not age. Chris might be a vampire. I don't know, because I don't know. But we got to show Chris. And you asked her. What I love about the way you interview is you asked the question we all want the answer to and you're not afraid to ask it. So here's when you asked about Whitney's personal life, here it is. Jason F2.
- [104:06]
Chris Witherspoon
Davis, you're responsible for so many of the most iconic careers of musicians, including Whitney Houston, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys. You were out with this new book, the Soundtrack of My Life, and it's getting really good reviews. Did you anticipate that this book would be selling off shelves like this and have everyone talking like it is?
- [104:24]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
Whether it's my book or whether it was the records of artists you never anticipated? I mean, I wait, you know, for the news. I take nothing for granted. So for this book, my autobiography, I have the same attitude, but I'm gratified, I'm thrilled at this weekend's news.
- [104:43]
Chris Witherspoon
And in the book, you touch on rumors about Whitney Houston having, you know, an affair with her assistant, Robin and possibly struggling with her sexuality. Did she ever talk to you about that? Or do you think that. That Whitney was struggling with her sexuality
- [104:56]
Entertainment Tonight Narrator
as I saw Whitney? And you keep your personal life to a separate side. I really saw her in brief relationships with men. I mean, I do write about that. She did have an interim relationship with Jermaine Jackson when he was separated. I know other boyfriends when I saw Without. You know, I know that she went out with Eddie Murphy for a while until she married Bobby Brown. So that I only knew of Robin as her assistant, someone she grew up with when she was a teenager and just knew the heterosexual side of Whitney,
- [105:38]
Joy Reid
the heterosexual side of Whitney, which was an answer in and of itself. Well, I wanted to play the whole start of that just so y' all can see. Chris leads with the kindness and goes immediately to the controversy. Like, literally the first.
- [105:52]
Chris Witherspoon
Can I give you a flower story because you fought so hard. This is back in 2013 when Joy was the griot. You fought so hard to get me a crew for this. You brought in the NBC News PR team because you saw that I made news in that moment. So Clive came out with this book called the Soundtrack of My Life. But if you read that book, there was so much tea in there about the industry, including him coming out in the last five pages as bisexual, talking about, in 1985, after his divorce, he began also sleeping with men, dating men. And he alluded to Whitney possibly being bisexual and that being a part of possibly why she was an addict, because she was kind of like living two lives. But also, one thing that I think is so interesting, as I'm thinking about his legacy is Clive Davis also launched so many hip hop careers. Something Incredible happened in 1989. Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff, they won the first Grammy Award. What Clive did with Arista Records is he invested in LaFace Records. Remember LaFace Record showing? Of course, Baby Face Records, Babyface, L.A. reid, back in 1989, they do a partnership with BMG. But really that Clive Davis money. They launched the careers of Usher, of tlc, Outkast, Kenny Lattimore, Shantay Moore. The list goes on and on. And then he also told me me in that same interview in the Farnsworth Room. He told me also in the Farnsworth. Right, right on the phone from your desk. He also talks about how he met Diddy, then called Puff daddy back in 1993, that he was only 23 years old. Joy, he was fired from Uptown Records. He sat down with Clive Davis and he pitched Clive Davis the idea for Bad Boy. Clive wrote him a check for $15 million. And then he went on to sign notorious big not only sign him, but then really pumped the cash in. That made him huge. And so many other artists, you know, Faith Evans, 112. The list goes on and on, total. But that was all through Clive Davis seeing that hip hop and R and B was going to drive culture for decades to come. And those catalogs that Clive Davis bet on, but those millions, without the money, there'd be no Puff Daddy, there'd be no Maze, there'd be no. That money was not going to come from anywhere but Clive Davis. So to me, he had the foresight to know that our culture was gonna drive the music industry. Now, you go to the clubs, that's all you hear. All you hear are the songs from LaFace and Bad Boy.
- [108:09]
Joy Reid
What's so interesting, too, is that all the way through his 90s, he also was. He remained in the center of culture, right? Like, everyone wanted to go to his Grammy party. Like that was the Grammy party. To get invited to would be Clive's party. Everyone wanted to be around him. How did he maintain relevancy? We're talking about, what, like five decades of relevancy.
- [108:29]
Chris Witherspoon
Joy, you know, I think to your point that you were listing off the folks that are kind of tight to the industry. Clive Davis was that guy. You know, even he discovered Whitney at 51. He wasn't a young man when I interviewed. He was. He was 80. But he still, he. He had the power. He had the capital to back these artists and producers, you know, like Dallas Austin, all these guys. Old Clive Davis, you know, he's the one that kind of poured in their careers. And it's ironic that we started out talking about Whitney Houston. It was at Clive Davis's birthday party. Sorry, his. His Big Grammy party that Whitney Houston died. It was February 7, 2012. Called me and you said, chris, you have to go on TV because we're going to own this story for the Griot. She was in a bathtub in a hotel room getting ready to go down to Clive Davis's Grammy party. She was not performing, but it was one of those things. If you didn't go and kiss the ring, you might not work for the next five years. Because Clive Davis ran the music industry. And every artist, every artist that wanted to thrive that year would go to his party just to be seen and kiss the rings of other executives who were there.
- [109:37]
Joy Reid
He was the White Berry Gordy 100%.
- [109:40]
Chris Witherspoon
And I can't wait as I'm, you know, kind of covering the story for you guys and others. I keep thinking about his biopic and all the artists that can show up in the, in the biopic. Aretha Franklin came to him after she lost her record deal in the 80s. Nobody wanted to work with her anymore. They thought she was too old. She was pushing 50. He poured so much money into her, gave her a new sound and help her come out with those late 80s, early 90s hits.
- [110:05]
Joy Reid
One of my least favorite catalogs of her, I have to admit. I did not like the 80s version.
- [110:10]
Chris Witherspoon
Like one.
- [110:11]
Joy Reid
It's all. It's work.
- [110:14]
Chris Witherspoon
Like who's zooming whom? I. I liked A Rose is still a rose. Remember that little song?
- [110:19]
Joy Reid
A Rose is still a Rose is not bad. I like knew you were waiting for me with George Michael. I think out of all of those, that was my favorite of that era. That was brilliant. Like, and the fact that George Michael was like hanging like you was. He was hanging in there with Aretha Franklin. I was very impressed by him and I already loved him. But that was my favorite at. My mom loved that era, though.
- [110:36]
Jason Reed
My mom.
- [110:36]
Joy Reid
Oh, she loved that era of, of, of, of. Of Ms. Thing. No, she loved it. But talk about, for instance for a moment, some of the controversies, because there are people who love Clive Davis and there are others who feel maybe he was exploitative. I have not heard that. I mean, people who loved him, absolutely loved him. But did he have any controversies or was he one of those guys who's gonna. His biopic is gonna be all positives.
- [110:59]
Chris Witherspoon
I think he had controversies too. I think that the music industry in the 70s and 80s and 90s has riddled with controversy. All those folks that I named from LaFace Records to this day have beef with the fact that they didn't get paid TLC did an entire movie about LaFace. You know, basically they were winning the Grammy of the year and were broke. That was. That was large in part because of Erisa also and Clive Davis. Arista owns all of LaFace Records. Are those folks paid what they're what they're what they deserve for that early body of work, Toni Braxton included, who had to file bankruptcy at the height of her career. No. Even on Puffy and Bad Boy Records, there have been so many stories of these artists who are kind of functionally broke. And they made all this money for. For Arista and for Bad Boy because it was 5050 until Puffy bought him out in 2003. It was a 50, 50 split. So all the great songs in the 90s, Clive Davis is printing money from Maze, Faith Evans. Those artists weren't getting their checks. They weren't getting what they deserve. They weren't getting the equity in their music that they should be getting. And a lot of artists now have learned and they're doing deals very differently because of the cautionary tale of Five Days and others. That's the bittersweet story of the music industry of the 80s and 90s, unfortunately.
- [112:14]
Joy Reid
He reminds me, and, you know, to go back to a sports analogy of like a custom motto, right, who is creating, you know, fighters that are champions, but not necessarily paying attention to their sort of moral development and not making sure that they're not, you know, with him, as much as he clearly loved Whitney, there did. There seemed to be a blind eye to what was happening with her and drugs, what was happening with Diddy, obviously, and predation. Like, there seemed to be a blind eye to some of the things that these people were clearly going through, mental health wise. And it doesn't feel like a lot of that was sort of cared for or maybe he just didn't know, you
- [112:50]
Chris Witherspoon
know, I watched the interview that we did back in 2013, the first fool thing, and he talked about how he'd be at the clubs with Puff Daddy, as he called him, or Puffy. And he was like, I was like Mr. Magoo. Like, literally, he said, I was like Mr. Magoo, you know, And I was around, literally some real gangster stuff that was happening. I was with Notorious B.I.G. i was with Craig Mack. I was there and he was like, I had no security and nothing happened to me. People were getting shot in front of the clubs, you know. Yeah, I was. I was kind of making it out. And I think a lot of it was the fact that people were protecting him because they knew that Clive Davis could Find the money that they needed. He knew how to speak to the purse holders, the purse string holders and the suits and get these folks, especially the powers that be, like Diddy and L A Reid and others, what they wanted so that they could stay, you know, ballin'. Though it might not benefit the artists.
- [113:43]
Joy Reid
Yeah. And then let me close by talking about kind of his social life and we're gonna. Our moment of joy is going to relate to this is that he cultivated friendships and relationships that go through, all through his 94 years of life that I think are actually kind of. It's kind of touching how much people adored this man. And I. Or I don't know if it was purely affection or like you said, he's the guy, you got to be around him. But I, you know, I know some people who have been to his parties and would. Couldn't do without him. Like he, he had these lifelong relationships that were within the industry. That can be a very sometimey industry. People weren't some timey with him.
- [114:22]
Chris Witherspoon
Yeah, no, they weren't. And I feel like, it's funny, when I met with Clive at the Fonz worth at like 8 in the morning on a Tuesday, I should have been nervous and I wasn't. There was something about sitting down with him. We had a full half an hour. He only had one with him. He, in my mind, I'm like, oh my God, the stories that you have, the artists that you've worked with. He had this kind of like uncle, Uncle Clive, you know, or like Grandpappy Clyde vibe to him. He was 80 years old and I remember him talking about how Whitney Houston, remember that last album she did I look to you Dollar Bill? She wanted to retire. Whitney told Oprah she had told all anyone that would listen, including Clive, that she was done. She was not coming back to music. She wanted to go open a fruit stand on the road in Jamaica with her daughter Bobby Christina, and just sell fruit, you know, wear bad wigs. No one would even know it was her in sunglasses. Literally, that's what she wanted to do. And Clive, he pulled up at her house, Joy, and he said, Whitney Houston, you are the voice. This industry is in peril without the likes of you. I'm going to invest in you, I'm going to overhaul your look. I learned through the autopsy reports in my deep research. He got her all new teeth. He gave her a breast lift to make her look younger. All this, all this kind of surgery to revive her and give her another chance. A lot of wear and tear from drugs and alcohol, you know, were on her person. But he reinvested in her, put her out on Good Morning America, gave to her, gave her the best producers and said, you're not done yet. And some of those. Those final songs to this day are still these beautiful love letters to her fans, people like me, who still loved her. He even, you know, tried to help her find money for Sparkle, that last film.
- [115:59]
Jamel Hill
She.
- [116:00]
Chris Witherspoon
Yes, I've even helped her find money for that film as an ep and star in that movie. So I think his heart was in the right places when it counted.
- [116:09]
Joy Reid
Yeah. And, you know, that era, the 80s and 90s, I think there's never been another sort of, at least modern era of stars at that level. And I think part of it was how inaccessible stars were. You know, something has changed when people. People can tweet directly at a celebrity. You know what I mean? Like, back then, they were these untouchable, you know, and this. The level of those stars, the Michael Jacksons, the Princes, the Aretha Franklins, the Whitney Houstons, it just feels like it was so different. Right? Like a Michael Jackson. You can't imagine saying anything to Michael Jackson, and now they're just sort of everywhere. But I do think that was an era that was very special, particularly for black music.
- [116:49]
Chris Witherspoon
I mean, your producer, I'm so jealous. She told me on text that she worked for Eris, that she interned back in the year 2000. And like that, in the years before that were the golden era of music. Like, those were the years where those stars, they were our north star. They helped us understand, you know, in many ways. I'll never forget when Prince died, I was on CNN Briefston there, and I read a tweet on the air. It was the day he died, and, like, along with Don Lemon and Black Brooke Baldwin. And this person was. People were crying. We were crying on the air covering Prince. And they said, we're not crying because we knew Prince. We're crying because Prince helped us know ourselves.
- [117:25]
Joy Reid
That's right.
- [117:26]
Chris Witherspoon
You know, so when we played the Whitney albums or any of the artists that Clive touched, we would be holding the album in the little bitty cassette tape with the lyrics on it. Looking at the lyrics, we couldn't go on our Instagram page. We had to wait till they came out.
- [117:39]
Joy Reid
That's right.
- [117:40]
Chris Witherspoon
One Grammy performance or the AMAs, and that was it. We could replay them. But they. People don't realize what's different about film and TV is music. It's.
- [117:51]
Joy Reid
It's.
- [117:51]
Chris Witherspoon
It's a whole other part of your brain that it kind of ignites and it really does become the anthem sphere itself. You know, you can't tell me some of Whitney Houston songs weren't for me. Personally, I believe some of them are for me.
- [118:02]
Joy Reid
Into our lives and wrote those songs. It's like, no, that song is written for me. You felt it. You felt it. It was just so different. It was so different. Chris Witherspoon. Invite everyone to viewercon one more time.
- [118:13]
Chris Witherspoon
You guys head to viewercon Co. Burecon co. It'll be July 18th at NJPAC. It is the cookout for content. Joy Reed will be there. Bevy Smith, Taye Diggs, the entire cast of Raising Canaan. We will debut $0.50 new series for stars called Fightland. Y' all don't want to miss.
- [118:31]
Jamel Hill
Love it.
- [118:32]
Joy Reid
It's going to be amazing. Like the kids say, it's going to be lit. Y' all should come. It's going to be lit.
- [118:37]
Jason Reed
Come on, dad.
- [118:38]
Joy Reid
You gonna be a Chris. Why would you want to come hang out with us?
- [118:42]
Chris Witherspoon
Enjoy guests. So y' all just wait. We got somebody.
- [118:45]
Joy Reid
Just wait.
- [118:45]
Chris Witherspoon
Yeah, just.
- [118:46]
Joy Reid
You don't have to find out by going to Bill. Okay, so go on. There it is. It's on the screen. Viewercon Co. So go ahead and come. Thank you, Chris Witherspoon. Appreciate you. Love you.
- [118:54]
JD Vance
Thank you.
- [118:54]
Joy Reid
Thank you, friend. All right, so there it is. And. And we're gonna go right to our moment of joy. You will not be surprised what it is. Our moment of joy is one more look at Clive Davis. Now, this is from our very own producer Ron, who is so lucky to have been at maybe the final big party hosted by Clive Davis and our wonderful producer, Ron. Letta allowed us to share this picture of Clive. The theme for the Memorial Day party was pink. It was the pink party, and that was the theme. So you saw Clive in his fabulous pink and his blue sneakers, which are so cute. One of the final party images of Clive Davis. And he lived a wonderful life, a life that is hard to describe. How extraordinary it was. So that is our moment of joy. Thank you all for tuning in. And rest in peace to Clive Davis. Condolences. Deepest condolences to his family. Thanks to everyone who tuned in tonight. Please be sure to vote. If you are in New York City or you are in the great state of Maryland. Tomorrow is election day. Please vote because it is very important that you get in on these primaries. Do not wait until the general election comes along. And then you're saying, oh, man, it's going to be the lesser of two evils. Don't leave it to the lesser of two evils, because if you wait, then you're stuck with whatever you get in November. Please vote. If you're in Maryland or if you're in New York City or if you're in South Carolina, your runoffs are tomorrow. Or if you are in Utah, your primaries are tomorrow for the Democratic and Republican Party. Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. Thank y' all for tuning in, and we'll see you guys on Wednesday. We'll give you guys some of the results. We'll tell y' all who won and if our choice is won, and we'll let y' all know on Wednesday. Same bad time, same bad channel. Much love. See y' all in the next Detroit, Reach out peace.
- [120:51]
Harry Dunn
Getting back to the basics, grassroot level,
- [120:54]
Joy Reid
Let me dig a little deeper with the show.
- [120:56]
Harry Dunn
Plenty can't tell the force from the trees that I'm hard to detect Like a black hole in the dark injustice
- [121:02]
Joy Reid
anywhere It's a threat to justice everywhere
- [121:04]
Harry Dunn
Let me make this clear I got a bone to pick and I'll never fear the threat of poverty they don't
- [121:09]
Joy Reid
want to talk about it they rap the party so I'm a real talk
- [121:12]
Harry Dunn
about it for sure.