As everything looks like a nail to the hammer, so does everything look like racism to the racial demagogue. The racial demagogue in this instance, is of course, MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who performed a segment in which she compared calls to secure the southern border to Southern segregation during the ‘60s.
Watch, as Reid smears U.S. Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) over his call to enforce the southern border despite the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing the Biden administration to remove razor wire along the Rio Grande:
JOY REID: And very quickly, this massive resistance, it sounds like the old Southerners who said that we will resist integration by any means necessary, that Chip Roy language. How does that read inside of the Latino community?
PAOLA RAMOS: It's very, it's very simple, no? If you're the Republican party, you're allegedly the party of laws and order. And you're essentially telling local authorities to break the law. So I think once again, going into this image of, you know, who is the party of law and order and who is the party for “democracy”. I think that’s where we have to highlight the hypocrisy regardless of the politics. They're essentially telling people to break the law.
This clip comes from the end of the segment but the whole thing was equally deranged.
The segment began with grotesque disinformation disguised as snark: the old line about “buoys with buzz saws” along the Rio Grande. Buzz saw buoys. This is the nonsense that coastal liberals watch during the 7PM hour.
Reid then tried to impress us with her impressive knowledge, by pointing out that immigration was a top issue for GOP primary voters in New Hampshire, which she notes shares a border with Canada. This is true. Also true is the fact that New Hampshire shares a border with Massachusetts, which is in difficulties due to being a “right to shelter” state . Salem, New Hampshire is about 36 miles away from Logan International Airport in Boston, which has been partially converted into a migrant shelter similar to what has transpired at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. New Hampshire is a part of the Boston media market, so perhaps this is why immigration is top-of-mind there. Couldn’t hurt to do some research ahead of the racial demagoguery.
Reid then introduces her guest, MSNBC fill-in host Paola Ramos, who decries Hispanics’ desire to learn English and assimilate into the United States as “adjacency to whiteness”. There was a rehashing of some of that discourse, and Ramos going back to those old tropes with Reid’s facilitation.
The segment closes with the smear on Rep. Roy, and Ramos equating the preservation of our ravaged southern border to the defense of “democracy”. Par for the course for MSNBC.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on MSNBC’s The ReidOut on Wednesday, January 24th, 2024:
JOY REID: There is no better example of what MAGA World wants for the rest of America than Texas. A total ban on abortion, failing infrastructure, and draconian measures meant to secure the border. Which includes letting migrants, including a mother and her two children, drown. Setting up buoys with buzz saws, barring federal agents from assisting with border control, and passing legislation that makes it a state crime to cross the border. According to Governor Greg Abbott, the only reason they aren't shooting migrants as they cross the border is because evil Joe Biden would, quote, “charge us with murder”. Call me old fashioned, isn't that because it actually is murder? The bare majority of the Supreme Court allowed the Biden administration to order Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire barriers along the Rio Grande river by Eagle Pass, Texas. Texas Republican Chip Roy told Fox News that Texas should tell the Court, quote, “ to go to hell, you defend yourself and then figure it out later. But here's the thing that Congressman Roy conveniently forgets to mention. He's a member of a body and party that could actually do something about immigration. They just refuse to do it because many Republicans now see calling for zero tolerance on the border as the only way to animate their base. Now, let's just be honest. It works for them. Because it came in close second behind the economy as the top issue among Republican voters in New Hampshire, which only shares a border with Canada. While it's an issue that animates Republicans, intentionally, it's also an issue that's animating more and more Democrats in blue states because Republican states like Texas and Florida have sent migrants their way to gin up outrage. All of this happens as Congress continues its unbroken 40-year streak of immigration legislation failure. To that point, earlier this evening, Punchbowl News reported that Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell was backing away from a Ukraine/Israel border funding deal because Trump wants to run his 2024 campaign on immigration. And he doesn't want to do anything to undermine him. Joining me now is MSNBC contributor Paola Ramos, who previously served as Director for Hispanic Media for Hillary Clinton. Thank you both for being here, Paola, and- you know, talk to me a little about that. Because immigration is the issue that's probably been more caught up in just bare electoral politics than any other. Republicans like the issue, they don't want to solve it because solving it doesn't give them the issue.
PAOLA RAMOS: It doesn't but it creates a lot of feelings among the electorate. And that's why they're leaning into it, right? There's a reason why the fear mongering and the language keeps getting more aggressive. And that is because Republicans have understood that they're doing something right. And that is weaponizing the humanitarian crisis at the border to create this image of chaos to the point that a person in New Hampshire that is 2,000 miles away from the U.S./Mexico border is scared of those images that they're seeing at the border. Right? Why? Because all we hear is “a migrant is a criminal”. “An asylum seeker is an invader”. “The humanitarian crisis is chaos”. And that’s because they're tapping into this sort of visceral tribalism. No? Visceral xenophobia anyone can actually believe that the Other, these immigrants are fundamentally destroying that American Dream. And that feeling I think is, you know, transcends politics, no? It transcends race, it transcends geography and it’s very powerful, and it works.
REID: Right. I mean, look. I come from an immigrant family. It also, as you said, transcends race and color. I mean, you’ve got immigrants who begin to look at the newer immigrants as the Other, who begin to say, “look, I'm fine but I don't want those people coming here”. And so you’re starting to see even Latinos, even Hispanics, you’re seeing, you know- even immigrants who come from Africa and other places saying, “whoa, I'm equally anti-the new immigrants”.
RAMOS: Completely, and I think, like- that's a larger discussion but I think the majority of immigrants, the majority of Latinos see those images that you showed. And you- there's some connection, no? There's solidarity, there’s empathy, you can connect with the story. Now. I have met the other small but growing segment of Latinos and immigrants that see that image and it's a reminder of everything that makes them not American enough for White America to sort of make them feel like they belong. That is why I think we have to understand that the disinformation, the culture wars, Trumpism, the nativism, that doesn't just work in a vacuum. That all of that sort of feeds into some immigrants’ and Latinos’ very complex relationship with white supremacy, right, to the point that some Latinos have come to understand that in order to belong to America, there's nothing more patriotic and nothing more nationalistic than sort of rejecting your own roots, you know? And convincing White America that you're not them and in fact, you're as American as them and that goes beyond politics, right? It’s sort of the psychological exercise that we all have to do.
REID: Yeah. And to be very clear, before people come for me on social media, the majority of immigrants, people who are themselves immigrants, particularly immigrants of color are very pro-immigration.
RAMOS: That’s right.
REID: As you said, it's a minority view. But it is a view that is out there. Just some of the polling, you know, because there is some concern on the Democratic side about whether or not Biden is hanging on to- you know, Latinos are a huge core part of the base. 42-41 between Biden and Trump with a huge 17% “don't know” in the latest Siena poll. Even though, if you look at immigration, it polls pretty low in this same Siena poll in terms of what Latino voters think- or what Latino and Hispanic voters think is the most important thing. It's mostly the economy. These are voters that actually are economy voters. They vote on how much is the price of bread. How much is the price of gas.
RAMOS: Definitely. I think what's interesting is that that is accurate. But I think immigration does expose the sort of moral conundrum that Joe Biden is wrestling with, right? Because it is true that there is a majority of Latino voters that are still waiting for Joe Biden to sort of, you know, enforce those immigration promises that he said in 2020, right? They’re still waiting on Joe Biden to sort of have the same resolve that he’s had with other issues like Israel- to have that same resolve with DACA, with the humanitarian crisis, you know- with DREAMers. They're still waiting for him to be that, like, antithetical image to Trump's cruelty.
REID: Yeah.
RAMOS: I’ve met those voters in Nevada, I’ve met them in Arizona, and they're still waiting on that. However, there is still also that small segment that wants him to lean into that sort of fear mongering. And I think that’s the moral conundrum. Which one will he be? You can't be both.
REID: Yeah.
RAMOS: You just can't.
REID: And very quickly, this massive resistance, it sounds like the old Southerners who said that we will resist integration by any means necessary, that Chip Roy language. How does that read inside of the Latino community?
RAMOS: It's very- it's very simple, no? If you're the Republican Party, you're allegedly the party of laws and order. And you're essentially telling local authorities to break the law. So I think once again, going into this image of, you know, who is the party of law and order and who is the party for “democracy”. I think that’s where we have to highlight the hypocrisy regardless of the politics. They're essentially telling people to break the law.
REID: yeah. A fantastic reporter, Paola Ramos. Please come back. A lot. Thank you very much for being here.
