Longtime MSNBC host Joy Reid came out for Wednesday’s ReidOut with more of same from key tenets of her second attempt at a weekday show: conspiracy theories, deranged lunacy, and a fundamental unhappiness with American life. Specifically, she used the Russian bounties story to claim Trump’s still “grotesquely solicitous of [Vladimir] Putin,” could possess more loyalty toward Russian than America, and might even view Putin as a father figure.
“Well, today was one of those days, just packed with absolute insanity, including two major stories that speak to the complete abdication of leadership in both the White House and the Republican Party,” Reid stated right off the top, linking the bounties story to Trump’s “dereliction of duty” and the second (Congressman Louie Gohmert’s positive coronavirus test) to Trump’s “failed leadership.”
Reid spent much of the A-block on the former, insisting that Trump’s ghoulishly “shrugging...off” the notion of dead U.S. troops in Afghanistan in order to continue “being grotesquely solicitous of Putin.”
The bounties story continues to be disturbing and would be unsurprising given Russia’s decades-long history with Afghanistan, but as sites like our friends at The Federalist and National Review have noted, it’s not an open-and-shut case. Within that pushback, many have cited intelligence leading up to the Iraq War.
In that case, ardent lefties like Reid would say it’s a reason to distrust them, but since this story could make Trump look bad, they are more than happy to make servicemen and women their pawns.
After Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) claimed that Trump won’t accept the bounties story in the same way he won’t accept the Union having “won the Civil War,” Reid threw to the thesaurus-emptying Steve Schmidt, who could be viewed of as a real-life Brick Tamland (click “expand”)
Vladimir Putin is a hostile, geopolitical foe of American interests all over the world. And the President of the United States is enthralled to him. First off, you saw the device that Trump uses. Some people say, people are saying, what people are saying? He lied about it, reaching his desk. In fact, it did reach his desk. We know from John Bolton that this issue was briefed to the President of the United States in the President's daily brief. Over and over again, he has refused to confront Russian aggression. He has allowed Russia to become a primary power again in the Middle East and everywhere Russia operates, it's contrary to America's interests and the interests of freedom-loving people. We've never seen an American commander in chief who is so utterly faithless to their constitutional obligations and responsibilities.
(....)
We have a faithless commander in chief. The commander is so amoral that he does not have the backs of the men and women that he sends into harm's way. This is a despicable and cowardly betrayal of the ethos of the United States military, and any commonsensical understanding of the obligations of the job and it just goes to proves that President Trump is incapable — incapable of functioning and serving as President and fulfilling his responsibilities. That's what this is. So, whether it's COVID, whether it's Russian aggression, whether it's the shattered economy, he stood yesterday on a stage with a woman who was worried about alien DNA — nah — didn't stand on a stain, but retweeted a woman that is worried about alien DNA and worried about demonic sexual interactions as an expert on coronavirus. He's just — he’s just incompetent at a supernatural level across the board and he's just utterly faithless.
Before pivoting to Gohmert, Reid asked Swalwell if he had ignored the intelligence because his “loyalties” lie with Russia instead of the U.S. Of course, Swalwell stated in the affirmative.
It’s a hot take, but one that won’t be fact-checked by so-called fact-checkers since they don’t actually care about, well, facts. If it’s not about owning Trump, forget about it.
In the first of two segments hawking “excellent storyteller” and “writer” Mary Trump’s book, Reid ran by her a theory about the President seeing Putin as a father figure like he did his late father Fred Trump Sr. (click “expand”):
REID: Thank you very much. Appreciate that. I want to start on something that we talked about a little bit in our previous block. This — this — this fascination that President Trump seems to have with Vladimir Putin. You actually write about Donald Trump’s, you know, sort of attachment to and being drawn to people that are like, I guess that are like his father. You write this: “Fred,” which is your grandfather, “had also primed Donald to be drawn to men such as [Roy] Cohn, as he would later be drawn to authoritarians such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un or anyone else, really, with a willingness to flatter and the power to enrich him.” In your mind, is Donald Trump's fixation with Putin about some material gain he thinks he can get with him, or does he maybe see him as a new Fred Trump?
TRUMP: You know, I can only speculate about the former. I think there are plenty of reasons to believe that's the case, but, you know, I — I can speak to the resemblance that Putin may have to my grandfather. You know, one of — one of the things my grandfather did was, you know, through neglect, abuse, and pressure, was turn Donald into somebody who was eminently useful to smarter, more powerful men and I think part of the charm, although, again, I — I am not privy to any conversations between them, but I imagine Putin understands exactly how to manipulate Donald, you know, whether or not there are financial incentives.
While she’s established a show that won’t be challenged as filled with conspiracies (e.g. Daniel Dale, Glenn Kessler, Brian Stelter, or Jake Tapper), it’s continued to tumble in the ratings. According to Nielsen Media Research, The ReidOut lost 30 percent of its viewership between its July 20 pilot and July 26.
On Friday alone, the show fell under two million total viewers while its FNC competitor The Story with Martha MacCallum stayed above that threshold. After coming in first place on July 20, Reid’s numbers have fallen precipitously with MacCallum maintaining a 30 percent advantage in the 25-54 demo.
Reid’s obsession with conspiracies and Russia were made possible by advertisers like Kraft, Liberty Mutual, and Life Alert. Follow the links to the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from July 29, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
July 29, 2020
7:00 p.m. EasternJOY REID: Well, today was one of those days, just packed with absolute insanity, including two major stories that speak to the complete abdication of leadership in both the White House and the Republican Party. The first is the dereliction of duty from President Trump when it comes to one of our fiercest adversaries, Russia. The second is an offshoot of the President's failed leadership on the coronavirus. One of President Trump's biggest supporters and fellow doubter when it comes to the efficacy and the importance of wearing masks, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert has tested positive for the coronavirus and you won’t believe his explanation for how he came down with it. We'll talk to something in the room with him just yesterday. And to help us unpack all of this, I'll talk live with someone who can take us into the mind of President Trump, his niece, Mary Trump, who will be here to discuss her best selling new book. But first, I want to start where President Trump always seems to lead us: Russia. In an interview with Jonathan swan of Axios, Trump was pressed on whether he ever confronted Vladimir Putin about reports that Russia paid the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. And here is what he said.
[CLIPS OF TRUMP-SWAN]
REID: Did you hear that? The President of the United States, who has a constitutional responsibility to protect and defend America's interest at home and abroad, is shrugging it off when it comes to Vladimir Putin. It's been almost five months since, according to The New York Times, the President was made aware of the allegations, and not once has he defended America or demanded answers from the Kremlin. Now, mind you, he's had seven calls with the Russian leader, seven since these reports emerged. And not one word about it. And it would be bad enough as some sort of one off, but this kind of behavior is part of a pattern with Trump, a pattern of being grotesquely solicitous of Putin.
[TRUMP CLIPS]
REID: Okay. Now if all of that is not outrageous enough, today Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced the removal of 12,000 troops from Germany, a long sought-out ambition of Putin's, that undermines our NATO alliance [INTRODUCES PANEL] Congressman, congressional privilege first. I'm going to have you go first. I want to let you listen to one more bit of this interview and this is a question that he was asked by Jonathan Swan about Russia arming the Taliban.
[CLIP OF TRUMP-SWAN]
REID: Congressman, ruminate on that while you also think about the fact that The New York Times is reporting since the disclosure of these bounties, no new National Security Council interagency meetings on the topic have been scheduled, adding that “officials who were alarmed about the” bountless — “bounties intelligence — and the lack of a response — that [they] have essentially given up, because the White House's narrative made it politically impossible to reverse course and treat the intelligence as a serious matter.” Your thoughts, congressman?
CONGRESSMAN ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Joy, it's see no evidence, hear no evidence, and speak of no evidence, that's the way the President works, right? He still can't accept that the north won the civil war. He won't accept that Russia interfered in our election and with overwhelming evidence, he won't accept credible evidence that Russians are putting bounties on U.S. troops. And so, Joy, there are blue star families across America right now who just want the President to defend our troops, and he needs to stand up to them. He needs to — he needs to stand up to the Russians and tell Vladimir Putin we're not going to tolerate it, we’re going to work with other countries who are a part of the coalition in Afghanistan to make sure that he pays a price for this, but he won't do it, joy. He's not going to do it. He's not going to change. We just need to change what is the commander-in-chief who oversees the troops that these blue star moms worry about every night.
REID: Steve, this is a President who, when he was a civilian, disdained Ronald Reagan in 1987, put out op-eds saying he could be better at negotiating with the then-Soviet Union than him, put out a coin with himself and Reagan having a familial hand shake and got rebuked by the Reagan foundation for it, and now he seems to be saying, hey, Reagan legacy, flush. I don’t even understand this. But do you? Can you make sense of what he's doing here, and pulling the troops out of Europe — of — of Germany — of Europe?
STEVE SCHMIDT: Well, Ronald Reagan was famous for teaching the American people this Russian phrase доверяй, но проверяй, which means trust by verify. We don't have a relationship with the Russians, and we never have, where we take their word for it. Vladimir Putin is a hostile, geopolitical foe of American interests all over the world. And the President of the United States is enthralled to him. First off, you saw the device that Trump uses. Some people say, people are saying, what people are saying? He lied about it, reaching his desk. In fact, it did reach his desk. We know from John Bolton that this issue was briefed to the President of the United States in the President's daily brief. Over and over again, he has refused to confront Russian aggression. He has allowed Russia to become a primary power again in the Middle East and everywhere Russia operates, it's contrary to America's interests and the interests of freedom-loving people. We've never seen an American commander in chief who is so utterly faithless to their constitutional obligations and responsibilities. The American president is unique in all the leaders of the world. He's the leader of a political party. He's the head of government, the executive branch of three co-equal branches of government. He's the head of state, and he's the commander in chief. We have a faithless commander in chief. The commander is so amoral that he does not have the backs of the men and women that he sends into harm's way. This is a despicable and cowardly betrayal of the ethos of the United States military, and any commonsensical understanding of the obligations of the job and it just goes to proves that President Trump is incapable — incapable of functioning and serving as President and fulfilling his responsibilities. That's what this is. So, whether it's COVID, whether it's Russian aggression, whether it's the shattered economy, he stood yesterday on a stage with a woman who was worried about alien DNA — nah — didn't stand on a stain, but retweeted a woman that is worried about alien DNA and worried about demonic sexual interactions as an expert on coronavirus. He's just — he’s just incompetent at a supernatural level across the board and he's just utterly faithless.
REID: And one last question on this, Congressman Swalwell because there's incompetent and faithless, or he's doing what he wants to deliberately. Are you concerned about President Trump's loyalties to, you know, the U.S. versus whatever strange loyalty he seems to have to Mr. Putin?
SWALWELL: Yes. When it matters, Joy, whether it's defending the integrity of our elections or the lives of our soldiers, he chooses Vladimir Putin over America, so Vladimir Putin has something personally, politically, or financially on President Trump. We don't know what it is. He was impeached for putting his own interests over the country's interests and Joy, if it wasn't clear when President Trump was a candidate or when President Trump became President and trashed the Mueller Report as to what the cost was for his relationship with Russia, if these allegations are true, we know what the cost is now, and he will not stand up for American soldiers. So what we can do in Congress, because we're not helpless anymore, is to make sure we do stand up for them, whether it's sanctioning Russia or making sure that our troops are able to defend themselves on the battlefield.
(....)
7:20 p.m. Eastern
REID: Joining me now is Mary L. Trump. She’s the niece of President Donald Trump, and the author of Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man. And Mary Trump, thank you so much for being here. I — I read this book, I am a very slow reader, so I got through this book in 24 hours. And it is, I have to tell you, you are an excellent writer, an excellent storyteller, so congratulations on the success of the book.
MARY TRUMP: Thank you, Joy. It's an honor to be here on your primetime show. Very excited for you.
REID: Thank you very much. Appreciate that. I want to start on something that we talked about a little bit in our previous block. This — this — this fascination that President Trump seems to have with Vladimir Putin. You actually write about Donald Trump’s, you know, sort of attachment to and being drawn to people that are like, I guess that are like his father. You write this: “Fred,” which is your grandfather, “had also primed Donald to be drawn to men such as [Roy] Cohn, as he would later be drawn to authoritarians such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un or anyone else, really, with a willingness to flatter and the power to enrich him.” In your mind, is Donald Trump's fixation with Putin about some material gain he thinks he can get with him, or does he maybe see him as a new Fred Trump?
TRUMP: You know, I can only speculate about the former. I think there are plenty of reasons to believe that's the case, but, you know, I — I can speak to the resemblance that Putin may have to my grandfather. You know, one of — one of the things my grandfather did was, you know, through neglect, abuse, and pressure, was turn Donald into somebody who was eminently useful to smarter, more powerful men and I think part of the charm, although, again, I — I am not privy to any conversations between them, but I imagine Putin understands exactly how to manipulate Donald, you know, whether or not there are financial incentives.
