On Sunday's AM Joy, during a discussion of what presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden should offer to black voters in exchange for their support, race-obsessed MSNBC host Joy Reid twice claimed that President Donald Trump promised white Americans that he would take actions against "brown immigrants."
She also suggested that Italy has done a better job of handling the coronavirus epidemic than President Trump even though the per capita death rate there is substantially higher than in the U.S.
At 10:08 a.m. Eastern, as she spoke with MSNBC contributor and future Biden campaign member Karine Jean-Pierre, Reid declared that Trump made promises to white voters to "keep the brown immigrants out" to win their votes:
JOY REID: When Donald Trump ran for President, he made an implicit and in some cases explicit offer to white America -- a promise to them that he would reduce nonwhite immigration, if not eliminate it, he'd build a wall across the Southern border to keep the brown immigrants out, and that he would change and push back the demographic change that scares them -- that scares white Christian America, to use the Robbie Jones term. That was the promise to white America.
About half an hour later, with a different group of panelists, Reid lamented that Democrats take black voters for granted and, echoing her previous commentary, claimed of Trump's 2016 campaign: "Donald Trump was very clear, 'This is what I'm going to do for you -- I'm going to get rid of these brown immigrants.'"
In reality, the Trump administration has moved to deport illegal immigrants of all racial groups, and pushed for merit-based reforms that would still allow nonwhite immigrants to qualify to enter the country.
Toward the end of the show, during a discussion of the pandemic's death toll in the U.S. officially nearing 100,000, Reid suggested that Italy has done a better job simply because its number of total deaths is lower, even though the U.S. has a lot more residents than Italy:
REID: You know, Jonathan (Capehart), I still am thinking about the Italian mayors cussing at people and telling them to stay home. They took it very seriously in Italy, and they locked that country down -- first part of it and then all of it -- and they have far fewer deaths than we do. And what Donald Trump has done has not worked. Look at this death toll -- it's shocking and horrifying. Your thoughts?
But, in Italy -- a country of 60 million residents and 32,785 deaths officially attributed to coronavirus -- the per capita death rate is 54.6 per 100,000 residents. By contrast, the per capita death rate in the U.S., as of Sunday, stands at 29.6.
Last month, Reid similarly suggested -- also incorrectly -- that the United Kingdom has handled the pandemic better the U.S.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Sunday, May 24, AM Joy on MSNBC:
10:06 a.m. Eastern
JOY REID: When Donald Trump ran for President, he made an implicit and in some cases explicit offer to white America -- a promise to them that he would reduce nonwhite immigration, if not eliminate it, he'd build a wall across the Southern border to keep the brown immigrants out, and that he would change and push back the demographic change that scares them -- that scares white Christian America, to use the Robbie Jones term. That was the promise to white America. To black America he said, you know, "What have you got to lose?" But to white America he made that quite explicit promise, and that has paid off for him. He still enjoys majority support among white Americans -- almost six in 10. He is reaping the rewards of that promise.
(…)
10:30 a.m.
REID: Black voters vote for Democrats in overwhelming numbers, and then the Democratic party and Democratic candidates -- they take for granted -- they build it into their number plan that they are going to get those votes, and so there isn't necessarily and urgency to offer something. That's why I opened my questioning with Karine the way I did, is that, you know, overwhelmingly white voters vote for Republicans, but they still make them an offer.
They're like, "This is what I'm going to do." I mean, this is what Donald Trump -- Donald Trump was very clear, "This is what I'm going to do for you -- I'm going to get rid of these brown immigrants."
(…)
11:44 a.m.
REID: You know, Jonathan (Capehart), I still am thinking about the Italian mayors cussing at people and telling them to stay home. They took it very seriously in Italy, and they locked that country down -- first part of it and then all of it -- and they have far fewer deaths than we do. And what Donald Trump has done has not worked. Look at this death toll -- it's shocking and horrifying. Your thoughts?
