For MSNBC’s The ReidOut host Joy Reid, rising urban crime and violence were just things she laughed about and dismissed Wednesday as a “false” “narrative” concocted by President Trump to scare “white suburbs.”
Rather, Reid insisted that Trump deployed “paramilitary” “secret police” across the country as he prepares to ignore the results of the 2020 election and that any such violence (and thus the destruction and loss of life) would be something to endorse since it’s “resist[ing]” a police “invasion” of America.
Six minutes into the show, Reid began another night of ghoulish denials and dismissals of what’s been occurring (like Tuesday’s mass shooting in Chicago) by complaining that federal law enforcement were activated as “part of [Trump’s] narrative...that Democratic-run cities are some sort of hellscape.”
In a section first tweeted by our friend Julio Rosas at Townhall, Reid concurred with Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) asserting that Trump’s been terrorizing cities as a dress rehearsal for using law enforcement and the military to stay in office beyond January 2021, regardless of the election results (click “expand”):
WATERS: The people of this country better be worried about what we're seeing in Portland. We have these paramilitary police officers or whomever they are, they’re federal officers or agents of some kind that's been organized by the President of the United States....Who are these people? Why did they have these kinds of uniforms on where they can’t be identified? We don’t know their names. We don't have anything that identifies them. They have unmarked cars that have been pulling people off the street and throwing them into these cars and I want to tell you, Joy, this is what you see in countries where you have dictators, in third world countries with dictators who have paramilitary that they can call up....[I]t has been suggested that this is a trial run of the President of the United States who may be organizing to not accept what happens when we have the election if he's not elected. Is he going to pull out? His military? Is he going to pull out his military? Is he going to engage us? He has already alluded to there may be a civil war if he's not re-elected. This is dangerous. We are trying to find out more about it. We have set up information, you know, to the FBI, every place, asking all of these questions about who are these people, where did they come from, who’s paying them, and why is it being done in secret?
REID: Yeah. I think those are the questions that a lot of people are asking around the country this evening.
Going to Charlie Sykes of The Bulwark (who, to be clear, isn’t a conservative), Reid continued her grotesque mocking of urban crime by ruling Trump wants “white suburbs to be terrified of Black Lives Matter and to think it’s some sort of revolution against the police” when it’s law enforcement that have been behind the violence.
For someone who rails against Trump as a conspiracy theorist, Sykes agreed with Reid and Waters: “That is actually a pretty scary development and it leads people to believe he might be looking to use this again for the election.”
If people like Daniel Dale, Oliver Darcy, Glenn Kessler, Brian Stelter, Margaret Sullivan, or sites like Politifact and Snopes cared about rooting out conspiracy theories and facts, they'd loudly call this stuff out. But they don’t. Why? Because they probably agree
Sykes engaged with this plot, deeming it part of a “playbook...to turn Americans against one another and to do so in such a dramatic, dramatic way and I do think that people need to be concerned about it.”
In the next segment, Reid continued to show no seriousness about the violence that harmed police officers and cost the lives of children like Legend Taliferro, Secoriea Turner, and Natalia Wallace. Instead, she mocked “Trump’s secret police” “invad[ing]” cities as a ploy to go “full 1960s George Wallace and stok[e] white suburban voters’ fears of violent crime.”
Perhaps Joy should ask the 15 shot Tuesday night outside a Chicago funeral if this is all game.
While interviewing former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, Reid called the Freddie Gray riots an “uprising” and called law enforcement restoring order in 2015 “a provocation.”
After Johnson said Baltimore showed that a federal presence in Portland would “mak[e] things worse,” Reid endorsed violence in cities with federal help: “When it looks like an invasion, the natural inclination is to resist it.”
Reid returned to her barbaric game of mocking crime, invoking the show Portlandia to claim Portland hasn’t been “out of control” or “under siege” to supposedly rebut the Trump administration’s “fairy tale” (click “expand”):
REID: Okay, you know what's crazy? Donald Trump's campaign ads. Who’s producing these things? They're a mix of, like, Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome, and Friday the 13th.
911 OPERATOR [in campaign ad]: You’ve reached 911. I’m sorry that there is no one here to answer your emergency call. Leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
[ON-SCREEN GRAPHIC, in campaign ad: You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America]
REID: Okay, so first of all, almost nothing about that ad is correct. Joe Biden does not want to defund the police, much to the chagrin of many progressives. But that's not the crazy thing. Trump has based his campaign strategy on painting a false portrait of cities under siege.
TRUMP [on 07/19/20] Portland was totally out of control. The Democrats, liberal Democrats who were running the place had no idea what they were doing.
REID: Okay, news flash. Portland is not an urban hell hole. They literally made a show mocking Portland as the land of brunches, veganism, and feminist bookshops. It's called Portlandia, hello. No, no, no. The crazy thing is whoever's responsible for Trump's grim's fairy tale ads keeps making really bizarre mistakes....After weeks spent scaring Americans that liberals want to tear down American monuments, the Trump team vows we'll protect this, But this is not an American monument. It's the very famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. So, that’s crazy. But even crazier? They did it again. In a new Facebook ad, Trump contrasts public safety and chaos and violence. Now, chaos and violence is represented by what looks like a group of protesters attacking a police officer on the ground. Scary. Those damn liberal mobs. Get off my streets and off my lawn. The only problem? That's not America. It's not even 2020. It is a photo from Ukraine from 2014 during clashes to overthrow the pro-Russian government. In other words, it’s as fake as the President's own pledge of law and order and that is the craziest damn thing in the world today.
Interested in fighting back? Here are a few of the advertisers that provided financial support (through advertisements) for Reid’s vile drivel dismissing crime, destruction, and murders in cities across America: Allstate, Ancestry, Chevrolet, LegalZoom, and TD Ameritrade.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from July 22, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
July 22, 2020
7:06 p.m. EasternJOY REID: You know, and what Donald Trump has decided he wants to lead on is sending armed forces, they're not troops. They — they're dressed up as if they are military, but they're not, into Democratic-run cities. It's part of this narrative that he's had really since Barack Obama was president that Democratic-run cities are some sort of hellscape that he needs to do something about. I want to play a piece of video for you that will look familiar to you. This is you intervening in — in a traffic stop of a young black man who was pulled over by police and this is what happened when you showed up. Take a look.
[CLIP OF WATERS AT TRAFFIC STOP]
REID: You know, that — that shows not only the relationship that you have with your constituents, obviously, and really public service. You know, for a lot of black people, that traffic stop can be a terrifying ordeal. What do you make of the fact that on top of that fear, and, you know, kudos to you for intervening for that young man, but now, communities are facing what look like paramilitary troops, sort of secret police converging on you know, cities, Democratic-led cities.
CONGRESSWOMAN MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): The people of this country better be worried about what we're seeing in Portland. We have these paramilitary police officers or whomever they are, they’re federal officers or agents of some kind that's been organized by the President of the United States. He did not contact the local mayors. He did not contact the governors. He just sent them in. Who are these people? Why did they have these kinds of uniforms on where they can’t be identified? We don’t know their names. We don't have anything that identifies them. They have unmarked cars that have been pulling people off the street and throwing them into these cars and I want to tell you, joy, this is what you see in countries where you have dictators, in third world countries with dictators who have paramilitary that they can call up against the — anytime they want. As a matter of fact, it has been suggested that this is a trial run of the President of the United States who may be organizing to not accept what happens when we have the election if he's not elected. Is he going to pull out? His military? Is he going to pull out his military? Is he going to engage us? He has already alluded to there may be a civil war if he's not re-elected. This is dangerous. We are trying to find out more about it. We have set up information, you know, to the FBI, every place, asking all of these questions about who are these people, where did they come from, who’s paying them, and why is it being done in secret?
REID: Yeah. I think those are the questions that a lot of people are asking around the country this evening. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you so much. We appreciate your time tonight.
WATER: Well, thank you for having me, Joy.
REID: And with me now, of course, thank you very much, Congresswoman. Let me now bring in Jason Johnson and Charlie Sykes to pick up on that. You know, there have been questions about — and I’ll start with you, Charlie — about whether or not what Donald Trump is doing — it’s obviously a campaign stunt. He wants the white suburbs to be terrified of Black Lives Matter and to think it’s some sort of revolution against the police, etc. But what he’s doing now is he’s supplementing what were already some violent reactions by some police officers to the protests with his own paramilitary force who are dressed top look like the military as he if he's trying create an image that Black Lives Matter protestors are attacking the military or being attacked by the military, or at war with the military. That is actually a pretty scary development and it leads people to believe he might be looking to use this again for the election.
CHARLIE SYKES: Well, he is using it for the election right now. I mean, he's already weaponizing it. I mean, watch the way that he is already using it on television ads. He's going to put $10 million into campaign ads showing this kind of military force. And of course, the irony is that what he appears to want is more scenes like we saw out of Lafayette Park in — in June which I think was a real inflection point as Americans recoiled from the use of force against innocent civilians who are protesting, but this is clearly one of his narratives and frankly, I don't think that Thomas Friedman is going too far when it's kind of a wag the dog scenario, but it's not wagging the dog by coming up with a war against an enemy — the foreign enemy. It is against the American public, so the playbook here is to turn Americans against one another and to do so in such a dramatic, dramatic way and I do think that people need to be concerned about it and I am going to be interested to see how Republicans react. How small government Republicans react to this federal intervention in what is really a state and local matter.
REID: Yeah, well, they've been pretty quiet so far.
(....)
7:20 p.m. Eastern
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end. Today, I'm announcing a surge of federal law enforcement into American communities plagued by violent crime. [SCREEN WIPE] We just started this process and frankly, we have no choice but to get involved.
REID: In a — in a bid to save his flailing campaign by going full 1960s George Wallace and stoking white suburban voters’ fears of violent crime, Donald Trump announced today that he's deploying more federal forces to cities around the country and he hopefully said the quiet part out loud by pointing out the cities that will be in a sense invaded by Trump's secret police are led by Democratic mayors. Albuquerque, Chicago, and Kansas City, but Trump is not pulling his pretty blatant campaign ploy off without dissent, including from inside his administration over the paramilitary forces that he's already sent to Portland. As Politico reports, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper expressed concern that those law enforcement were being confused with troops. That's because Trump's forces in Portland are dressed up in camouflage combat fatigues, the very same ones worn by the U.S. military in war zones overseas, but those are not — to repeat — not U.S. troops. They're agents from various agencies under the Department of Homeland Security. And as the founding secretary of that department has said, they were never intended to be used for this purpose. Here's Tom Ridge yesterday.
TOM RIDGE: The department was established to protect America from the ever present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be president's personal militia.
REID: He also, now that personal militia will also consist of agents from the FBI, the DEA, ATF, and the U.S. Marshals, according to Trump's announcement today. I'm joined now by former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. Secretary Johnson, your thoughts on this. Do you agree with Tom Ridge because Ridge also said that while he welcomed the opportunity to work with any federal agency to fight crime, that it would with a cold day in hell before he would consent to an unilateral, uninvited intervention on one of his cities. What are your thoughts on these sort of faux military troops invading Democratic-led cities?
JEH JOHNSON: Well, first, Joy, congratulations on the new show.
REID: Thank you.
JOHNSON: [INAUDIBLE] That’s quite a start. Congratulations.
REID: Thank you.
JOHNSON: I could not agree more with my predecessor, Tom Ridge. If I were in office now, it's hard to imagine being in office in this administration, but if I remember in office right now, I would probably be saying to my subordinates within DHS, a surge like this would probably be unnecessarily provocative and actually make matters worse. Those who don't know lessons of history are bound to repeat them. One of the things we learned from Ferguson in 2014 is that a militaristic approach, a militaristic presence on the treats of the United States in our cities during moments of high tension can actually make matters worse and be provocative and so, I was pleased that in congress right now, there's legislation working its way through to limit the sale of defense department equipment to civilian law enforcement in our cities because provocative. You see those images of people who used to work for me in camouflage who look like a military? And it's provocative. It's making matters worse and so I was pleased that, in Congress right now, there is legislation working its way through to limit the sale of Defense Department equipment to civilian law enforcement in our cities because it is provocative. You see those images of people who used to work for me in camouflage of people who look like the military? And it’s provocative. It’s making matters worse. And frankly, the whole thing does smell like politics. This smells like trying to play the law and order Richard Nixon card from 1968 but the national mood is very different now and Donald Trump is not the challenger. Donald Trump the incumbent. This is happening on his watch. He owns this and so if I were Joe Biden, I’d actually be saying what Ronald Reagan said in the 1980 debate against Jimmy Carter. Are you better off now than you were four years ago and are you ready to say let's have four more years of this? The national mood is very, very different right now.
REID: You know, and I can recall being in — in Baltimore for the Freddie Gray up — you know, uprising and that's an absolute truth. You know, the — the tanks on the streets were a provocation and the, you know, and these were police officers who were dressed up like they were in the military with this sort of uniform on that made them look almost like they were military people and that was indeed provocative, but I want to let you listen to what retired lieutenant general Russel Honore has had to say. He was speaking last night with Brian Williams. And this was — this was his reaction as a military man, to see these troops dressed like they were military people. Take a listen.
RUSSEL HONORE: And that uniform is designed to blend in to terrain, not to make you look like a warrior. They’re wearing this uniform as a function of intimidation, to look like warriors. Real soldiers just don't walk up to people to start beating on them. [SCREEN WIPE] They're acting like uncontrolled mob on the street with uniforms and badges that they don't show, as you see right here, they beat this man up. You can't — you shouldn’t — police don't do this. Watch this. What kind of [EXPLETIVE] Is that?
REID: I mean you've had Thomas Friedman in The New York Times call this a wag the dog war. Essentially, Donald Trump seeming to invade these cities with these false military troops as if to make it look like Black Lives Matter is at war with the military. You know, as somebody who's got a son in the military, how do you feel about that? About them sort of borrowing the prestige of the military and putting that on this warrior culture that they're inculcating in the DHS?
JOHNSON: Joy, one of the reasons why our military enjoys such tremendous trust and respect in our society is because we keep the military cabinet in this free and open democracy to overseas conflicts. You saw the reaction after Lafayette Square from the retired generals and admirals to this site of a four star general, the chairman of the joint chiefs in camouflage walking across Pennsylvania Avenue and heavily armored personnel on the streets dealing with civilians who don't have guns and we react accordingly to it and this current event in Portland is creating much the same crisis and much the same environment and it's wholly unnecessary. I used to say to DHS component leaders, let's avoid controversial one off missions that are away from our core mission. In so far as DHS is concerned. There's the Federal Protective service, which their core mission is protecting federal buildings. I deployed the Federal Protective Service in times of high tension to protect federal buildings, but you apparently also have components of Customs and Border Protection, those are border — those are border protection people, port security people, and ICE, immigration enforcement. People that enforce our immigration laws engaging in this and I used to say to people within DHS, let's not let sideshows, ancillary like this derail our core mission and discredit us in the communities where we need to operate and plainly, no one is making that calculation right now and it's actually probably making things worse, not better.
REID: Yeah. Indeed. When it looks like an invasion, the natural inclination is to resist it.
(....)
7:48 p.m. Eastern
REID: Okay, you know what's crazy? Donald Trump's campaign ads. Who’s producing these things? They're a mix of, like, Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome, and Friday the 13th.
911 OPERATOR [in campaign ad]: You’ve reached 911. I’m sorry that there is no one here to answer your emergency call. Leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
[ON-SCREEN GRAPHIC, in campaign ad: You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America]
REID: Okay, so first of all, almost nothing about that ad is correct. Joe Biden does not want to defund the police, much to the chagrin of many progressives. But that's not the crazy thing. Trump has based his campaign strategy on painting a false portrait of cities under siege.
TRUMP [on 07/19/20] Portland was totally out of control. The Democrats, liberal Democrats who were running the place had no idea what they were doing.
REID: Okay, news flash. Portland is not an urban hell hole. They literally made a show mocking Portland as the land of brunches, veganism, and feminist bookshops. It's called Portlandia, hello. No, no, no. The crazy thing is whoever's responsible for Trump's grim's fairy tale ads keeps making really bizarre mistakes. Now, I guess it makes sense. After all, the trump's aren't exactly known for their detail. Don Jr.’s can't even get the apostrophe right on the cover. I guess grammar counts a liberal privilege. But for Team America First, they also seem to have a real problem with the concept of American geography. Like thisonline ad. After weeks spent scaring Americans that liberals want to tear down American monuments, the Trump team vows we'll protect this, But this is not an American monument. It's the very famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. So, that’s crazy. But even crazier? They did it again. In a new Facebook ad, Trump contrasts public safety and chaos and violence. Now, chaos and violence is represented by what looks like a group of protesters attacking a police officer on the ground. Scary. Those damn liberal mobs. Get off my streets and off my lawn. The only problem? That's not America. It's not even 2020. It is a photo from Ukraine from 2014 during clashes to overthrow the pro-Russian government. In other words, it’s as fake as the President's own pledge of law and order and that is the craziest damn thing in the world today.
