When it comes to liberals and progressives, this is what the hate in their heart looks like. Early Wednesday evening, amidst the acts of sedition and violence, MSNBC’s ReidOut host Joy Reid went on two rants that served as early entries into our year-end Notable Quotables package.
Over the course of nearly nine minutes, she insisted police officers were almost exclusively concerned about protecting white people to the point that they purposefully allowed the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Going even further, she compared Republicans to al-Qaeda with Donald Trump being worse than Osama bin Laden.
Reid began the first 6:00 p.m. Eastern hour rant by going back to the Baltimore riots by calling it “the Freddy Gray uprising” and that the unrest was caused by police for having brought out “full body armor” and “enormous powerful weaponry” while spoiling for a fight because injuring black people would bring them joy.
“I was never terrified among the marchers. The marchers just wanted justice...I was never afraid of them. I was afraid of the cops,” she added.
Reid tied this into Wednesday by insisting that the mob of insurrectionists burst into the Capitol because Capitol Police and other law enforcement officials saw they were mostly white and thus supported what was taking place.
And on top of Reid’s ghoulish and racist attack on law enforcement, she insisted that conservatives and Republicans thirst for and thrive on denying African-Americans the right to vote (click “expand”):
[T]he reason they could easily and casually with their cameras on film themselves throwing things through the wall of our Capitol, our property, going inside the Capitol, sitting in Speaker Pelosi's office, casually, take pictures of themselves, have that played on Fox News, they know that they are not in jeopardy because the cops are taking selfies with them walking them down the steps to make sure they're not hurt and taking care with their bodies, not like they treated Freddie Gray's body. White Americans aren't afraid of the cops. White Americans are never afraid of the cops, even when they are committing insurrection. Even when they’re engaged in attempting to occupy our Capitol to steal the votes of people who look like me because, in their minds, they own this country, they own that capitol. They own the cops. The cops work for them and people like me have no damn right to try to elect a President because we don't get to pick the President. They get to pick the President. They own the President. They own the White House. They own this country. And so when you think you own it, you own the place, you ain't afraid of the police because the police are you and they reflect back to them. We're with you. You're good. We're not going to hurt you because you're not them.
Guarantee you if that was a Black Lives Matter protest in D.C, there would be people shackled, arrested, or dead. Shackled arrested in mass or dead. Get Brittany Packett Cunningham on here, she'll tell you how they treated her in Ferguson. Put Alicia Garza on here. She'll tell you how they treated her at every Black Lives Matter march. Get Patrice Cullers on. They’ll tell you. They’ll tell you what it feels like to protest peacefully and unarmed and how the police will treat you if you're black. That's it. They're not afraid of the cops cause they know the cops are cool with it.
Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace refused to push back on this conspiracy theory about police officers of all races only caring about white people and thus they purposefully allowed the violence to take place:
It’s a stunning vacuum of information we have and, without any other explanation, it’s certainly the most logical one. Joy. We've spoken to members of Congress hiding in their offices. There are scenes reminiscent of the events we covered, the worst days we have on our jobs covering mass shootings or tragedies where people call us from places where they're hiding because they fear for their lives.
In her second meltdown, Reid called on not only election certification objectors like Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) to resign, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) should as well and that his words meant nothing in both denouncing the President’s false election claims.
She then looped in every single Republican and “conservative media” outlet, falsely claiming they all “played a role” in causing and encouraging the violence.
After chalking up the President’s encouragement of such violence to his reality TV background, Reid made the al-Qaeda and bin Laden comparisons (click “expand”):
But what he's done now is essentially done — you talked about Al Qaeda, what has he done in terms of incitement, right, that Osama bin Laden didn’t do. He simply told people the way to win a war against America is you need to be able to sacrifice your body. These people are saying I’m willing to die for Trump. Some have COVID. They are on airplanes screaming without masks on. They could be spreading a deadly disease while they’re doing this.
So I think what we need now is for Congress, as unsafe and terrifying as it is to step forward and say it’s incumbent, especially on the Republicans who made this monster and who rode with him. Lindsey Graham out there tweeting be safe and nobody be violent. You know what? Please be quiet, Lindsey Graham. You built this with the rest of them. They have to come together and say if we have to stay up all damn night long, we’re going to certify Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. We're going to do it on Zoom. We're going to do it on the phone if we have. But the Constitution says we're doing it. We're doing it. They need to do it.
Remember quotes like these the next time MSNBC insists they want reconciliation and unity.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from January 6, click “expand.”
MSNBC Live
January 6, 2021
6:14 p.m. EasternJOY REID: Well, you know, it's sort of ironic to be on with you and Rachel and Rachel in particular because I can go back to 2014 when I would be on Rachel’s show as a correspondent at curfew time in Baltimore when I was covering the Freddie Gray uprising and these were mass marches that were in regard to police taking Freddie Gray's body and taking it like a rag doll and flinging him into the back of a police van riding around with him unshackled in the van until the rag doll broke and he died and he died alone in the back of a car being brutalized for no reason other than making eye contact with police as he rode his bike and the uprisings that took place after Freddie Gray brought in what — a level of policing that I have never witnessed ever in life. It looked like a war zone. Police brought in tanks. They brought in body armor. They were wearing full body armor where they almost looked robotic. Full gear, enormous powerful weaponry and they were phalanx out all across Baltimore, Penn and North. They were standing menacingly, waiting to anyone who even looked at them funny. The level of force, the level of just almost indiscriminate rudeness, cruelty, hardness of those police officers and at curfew time, which would be 9:00 and then almost every night during that uprising at some point I would go on with you, Rachel, and describe to you what I was seeing and it was terrifying and what terrified me in those moments in Baltimore were not the marchers. I was never terrified among the marchers. The marchers just wanted justice. They just didn't think it was okay to kill a guy because he looked at the police funny. I wasn't afraid of them. I was afraid of the cops because they were menacing. They knew those marchers were coming every night. They knew there was a curfew every night. The great Elijah Cummings would walk people home and get them to go home because he didn't want them out after curfew and there would always be some guys who would stay out after the curfew who would refuse to go home, who claim the right to be in their streets and I was never afraid of them. I was afraid of the cops. The reason, as Claire talked about, that these people were so unafraid of the cops who were sparsely distributed through our Capitol, which hasn't been breached since 1812, when it was burned, the reason they could easily and casually with their cameras on film themselves throwing things through the wall of our Capitol, our property, going inside the Capitol, sitting in Speaker Pelosi's office, casually, take pictures of themselves, have that played on Fox News, they know that they are not in jeopardy because the cops are taking selfies with them walking them down the steps to make sure they're not hurt and taking care with their bodies, not like they treated Freddie Gray's body. White Americans aren't afraid of the cops. White Americans are never afraid of the cops, even when they are committing insurrection. Even when they’re engaged in attempting to occupy our Capitol to steal the votes of people who look like me because, in their minds, they own this country, they own that capitol. They own the cops. The cops work for them and people like me have no damn right to try to elect a President because we don't get to pick the President. They get to pick the President. They own the President. They own the White House. They own this country. And so when you think you own it, you own the place, you ain't afraid of the police because the police are you and they reflect back to them. We're with you. You're good. We're not going to hurt you because you're not them. Guarantee you if that was a Black Lives Matter protest in D.C, there would be people shackled, arrested, or dead. Shackled arrested in mass or dead. Get Brittany Packett Cunningham on here, she'll tell you how they treated her in Ferguson. Put Alicia Garza on here. She'll tell you how they treated her at every Black Lives Matter march. Get Patrice Cullers on. They’ll tell you. They’ll tell you what it feels like to protest peacefully and unarmed and how the police will treat you if you're black. That's it. They're not afraid of the cops cause they know the cops are cool with it.
NICOLLE WALLACE: It’s a stunning vacuum of information we have and, without any other explanation, it’s certainly the most logical one. Joy. We've spoken to members of Congress hiding in their offices. There are scenes reminiscent of the events we covered, the worst days we have on our jobs covering mass shootings or tragedies where people call us from places where they're hiding because they fear for their lives. What do you make of what everything has brought us to today?
REID: I mean, I don't understand how Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley have not resigned. They’re fundraising, tweeting out fundraisers during this. You had Josh Hawley with that infamous photo that Brian showed earlier with his fist raised as if he’s some sort of freedom fighter out there with this mob. You know, and by the way, we speak about this in the media is so important. This is a riot, at minimum. It’s insurrection, as the President-Elect has called it. You know, people don't want to call it a coup but what else is it? If you're trying to replace the President of the United States with your choice because you don’t like that you lost and you think you own the country. I don't know what else you call that if it's not domestic terrorism, a coup, call it whatever you want. But the elected officials who had a job today in the Constitution that they were supposed to do to officially and ceremonially install the new President, to show that we believe in this peaceful transfer of power. We’re completely being thrown over today. Josh Hawley should resign in ignominy. It is absolutely ignominious what he did sparking this today.
But honestly, Mitch McConnell too. They’ve all played a role. Conservative media has played a role. They’ve all played this game because they thought that there was no downside. Why not? And you’ve reported on this, Nicolle, where, you know, people around the president said what's the harm in letting him play it out? He said in December, see ya on January 6th. It's going to be wild. That was December 19 he tweeted that. He knew this was coming. Capitol police knew it was coming. Ms. — it was heartbreaking for this congresswoman reading — making her husband aware of where her will is. Everyone knew what he was going to do. Donald Trump is a showman. He’s a reality show producer. We all knew he was going to produce entertainment today for his followers because he's building his future conservative media enterprise, right? He needs to have all of these people whipped up so he can market to them. They're his marks. They’re the people he's scramming. He's doing exactly what Rupert Murdoch has done his whole career. He's creating a market for himself, for Trump Inc, for Trump Media, and they're the market, right? They’re easy to sell STUFF too. They will buy hats. They’ll buy, you know, MAGA stuff. They’ll buy flags. They will buy it all. They're the marks. But what he's done now is essentially done — you talked about Al Qaeda, what has he done in terms of incitement, right, that Osama bin Laden didn’t do. He simply told people the way to win a war against America is you need to be able to sacrifice your body. These people are saying I’m willing to die for Trump. Some have COVID. They are on airplanes screaming without masks on. They could be spreading a deadly disease while they’re doing this. So I think what we need now is for Congress, as unsafe and terrifying as it is to step forward and say it’s incumbent, especially on the Republicans who made this monster and who rode with him. Lindsey Graham out there tweeting be safe and nobody be violent. You know what? Please be quiet, Lindsey Graham. You built this with the rest of them. They have to come together and say if we have to stay up all damn night long, we’re going to certify Joe Biden as the next president of the united States. We're going to do it on Zoom. We're going to do it on the phone if we have. But the Constitution says we're doing it. We're doing it. They need to do it.
