MSNBC’s AM Joy host Joy Reid bemoaned in Tuesday’s early hours at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech was unfortunately “the first of the night that didn’t have this subtext...that brown people are dangerous” to the point that Reid felt uncomfortable being around the RNC that she found to be so “not inclusive.”
Reid was joined by three other MSNBC/NBC News correspondents when she diverted the focus away from the topic at hand of plagiarism to fretting how “Melania Trump’s speech was the first of the night that didn’t have this substex — subtext that Avik Roy put on his social media which was that brown people are dangerous which was the kinda substex — subtext of the rest of the night.”
Taking a page from how the major broadcast networks spun the RNC’s first night, Reid complained that “[t]here was a lot of really angry rhetoric, a lot of talk about murder and death and tying it all back to immigrants, tying it all back an illegal migration and there was a really hard-edged theme.”
The MSNBC personality took particular issue with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giulani as he “screamed his entire speech” before suggesting it was repulsive that “[w]e had the audience made to clear the police officers in the Freddy Gray case.”
Returning to the race card, Reid put out in the open how uncomfortable and “weird” she felt being amongst the “hostile” attendees based on what speakers were saying and delegates believed:
There were these surreal moments that felt very base oriented, but also not expansionist, not open, not inclusive, and sort of hostile. If you're a person of color, this is a weird place to be. Then, Melania Trump comes out and gives this warm, effusive speech about inclusiveness and about how Donald Trump wants to be inclusive and then it turns out it’s from the person they most vilify in the world, the Obamas. It’s pretty remarkable.
The relevant portions of the transcript from the 9:00 p.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC’s Republican National Convention coverage on July 19 can be found below.
MSNBC’s The Place for Politics 2016
July 19, 2016
12:50 a.m. Eastern
JOY REID: Not only that, but the speech was very light on personal anecdotes about the marriage, which would have made it more of sort of authentic as a speech that the First Lady was, you know, telling, you know, the potential First Ladies telling you about her husband, but I think it’s not also to be missed too that Melania Trump’s speech was the first of the night that didn’t have this substex — subtext that Avik Roy put on his social media which was that brown people are dangerous which was the kinda substex — subtext of the rest of the night. There was a lot of really angry rhetoric, a lot of talk about murder and death and tying it all back to immigrants, tying it all back an illegal migration and there was a really hard-edged theme. I mean, Rudy Giuliani screamed his entire speech. We had the audience made to clear the police officers in the Freddy Gray case. There were these surreal moments that felt very base oriented, but also not expansionist, not open, not inclusive, and sort of hostile. If you're a person of color, this is a weird place to be. Then, Melania Trump comes out and gives this warm, effusive speech about inclusiveness and about how Donald Trump wants to be inclusive and then it turns out it’s from the person they most vilify in the world, the Obamas. It’s pretty remarkable.
