On Saturday's AM Joy, recurring MSNBC guest Kurt Bardella hyperbolically claimed that the white racist rally taking place in Charlottesville, Virginia, "is the Republican party on display," and declared that "a lot of" Republican policies are "racist." He also took aim at the right-leaning Breitbart News as he alleged that the rally -- which by that point had turned violent -- "is exactly the kind of stuff that they want to have happen and they hope to spread elsewhere."
Bardella -- a Republican known for distancing himself from Breitbart News after departing as its spokesman last year -- has made a name for himself appearing on both CNN and MSNBC bashing both President Donald Trump and his former business client. In this appearance on AM Joy, his over the top attacks on fellow Republicans made him fit quite well into the caricature of an MSNBC Republican who shows up mainly to agree with liberal guests without contributing any right-leaning analysis.
Before President Trump released a statement concerning the Charlottesville rally, the MSNBC program's group of panelists were calling on the President and other Republicans to condemn the white racist groups involved in the demonstration. After reading a statement from RNC chair Ronna McDaniel that had just been released, Bardella called for "more leadership" from Republicans and then added:
This is the Republican party right now that's on display -- Donald Trump's Republican party. And if they don't want to be tied to it, if they don't want to be associated to it -- people like Mitch McConnell, you know, Speaker Paul Ryan, John Thune, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz. Anybody who proclaims to be a leader who doesn't want to be associated with this type of hatred and racism, bigotry and ignorance, they need to speak out right now loud and clear.
A bit later, host Joy Reid asked if Breitbart News would try to "distance themselves" from Alt-Right groups, leading Bardella to take aim at his former business client as he accused them of condoning the racist activity:
Well, they haven't yet. There's not a single bit of content right now on their homepages about what's going on right now -- the largest, the biggest story right now in American today -- and there are crickets on it. So that tells me that this is exactly the kind of stuff they want to have happen and that they hope to spread elsewhere.
He then took aim again at the Republican party with a typically liberal argument about it being racist to put criminals in jail as he added:
And, frankly, you know, the Republican party needs to change its philosophy on a lot of things to prevent this type of stuff from happening. A lot of their policies like that are racist. When they talk about incarceration over drug treatment, that targets minorities pure and simple.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Saturday, August 12, AM Joy on MSNBC:
11:54 a.m. ET
KURT BARDELLA, FORMER BREITBART SPOKESPERSON: The chairwoman of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, did just tweet: "The hate and bigotry on display in Charlottesville is dangerous and cowardly." So we have at least one person at the national level now who has spoken out. I agree with Joan (Walsh) that we need a lot more leadership right now -- vocal leadership -- from Republicans, from Republican leaders, elected leaders in Congress and in Washington.
This is the Republican party right now that's on display -- Donald Trump's Republican party. And if they don't want to be tied to it, if they don't want to be associated to it -- people like Mitch McConnell, you know, Speaker Paul Ryan, John Thune, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz. Anybody who proclaims to be a leader who doesn't want to be associated with this type of hatred and racism, bigotry and ignorance, they need to speak out right now loud and clear.
(...)
JOY REID: And, Kurt Bardella, you know, Breitbart, there has been inklings that they want to expand, they want to expand into Europe, they want to expand as a business. At some point, are they going to, in your view, start to distance themselves from this, what they call the "Alt-Right," this white nationalist movement.
BARDELLA: Well, they haven't yet. There's not a single bit of content right now on their homepages about what's going on right now -- the largest, the biggest story right now in American today -- and there are crickets on it. So that tells me that this is exactly the kind of stuff they want to have happen and that they hope to spread elsewhere.
And, frankly, you know, the Republican party needs to change its philosophy on a lot of things to prevent this type of stuff from happening. A lot of their policies like that are racist. When they talk about incarceration over drug treatment, that targets minorities pure and simple.
