Nikole Hannah-Jones, of the NYT’s 1619 Project, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Tuesday, to join the panel in attacking Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, as well as the 74 million Americans who voted for President Trump this past election as evil racists akin to the KKK. Panelist Eugene Robinson from The Washington Post even demanded “millions” of Americans needed to be “deprogrammed.”
The disgusting segment began with co-host Joe Scarborough posing to Hannah Jones that Trump supporters were actually well-educated and wealthy Americans (such as these two Senators), and not blue collar rubes, as the narrative goes. This led to an obnoxious condescending sermon from Hannah Jones:
It has been a soothing narrative for us to believe that only disaffected people, only those who have some economic anxiety, only those who are too ignorant to know better would support somebody like Trump. I think we needed to believe that in a sense that intelligent people, powerful people, that thinking people, would know better.
She went on to say that there weren't enough poor whites to get Trump elected and rich white Republicans had used the poor whites to stoke violence and get their agenda across. She compared Trump supporters to the Klan and Republicans in Congress to klan-condoning white citizens councils in the South during Jim Crow:
I mentioned in the tweet thread, the white citizens councils. What those councils did, those were the most economically advantaged, most powerful citizens in the South. And they kind of pulled the strings behind the scenes. They worked up lower class white Americans. They have stoked that racial divide in order to get their larger agenda. They tried to manage the violence. I think what we saw on Wednesday is what also happened in the South during Jim Crow.
MSNBC political analyst and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson loved that gross comparison and stoked the hateful rhetoric some more, asking how they could “deprogram” the “millions” who supported the President:
It’s absolutely true the differences between the white citizens councils and the Klan back, even in the days of Jim Crow. The klan was lower income, the white citizens councils were the Josh Hawleys and Ted Cruzes of their day. Here's the situation, though. We have -- there are millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans who somehow need to be deprogrammed. They’re--it's as if they are members of a cult, the Trumpist cult and they have to be deprogrammed. Do you have any idea how we start that process? [chuckling] Much less complete it?
Following this, co-host Joe Scarborough laughably claimed that tax cuts, deregulation and Trump's economic policies actually "screwed over" working class Americans and only helped the rich.
MSNBC’s race-baiting, Republican bashing propaganda was paid for by advertisers Allstate, TD Ameritrade, and Sleep Number, whom you can contact at the Conservatives Fight Back page here.
Read the transcript below:
Morning Joe
1/12/2021
NIKOLE HANNAH JONES: Absolutely. It has been a soothing narrative for us to believe that only disaffected people, only those who have some economic anxiety, only those who are too ignorant to know better would support somebody like Trump. I think we needed to believe that in a sense that intelligent people, powerful people, that thinking people, would know better. But Trump does not get to be Trump by simply getting the support of poor and disaffected white people. They don't have the power to make a Trump. They don't have the power to donate to the campaign, certainly to turn an entire election. When you look at the polling numbers, Republicans consistently supporting Trump, there aren't enough poor white people in this country for him to pull that high in the Republican party. But this has always been the case.
I mentioned in the tweet thread, the white citizens councils. What those councils did, those were the most economically advantaged, most powerful citizens in the South. And they kind of pulled the strings behind the scenes. They worked up lower class white Americans. They have stoked that racial divide in order to get their larger agenda. They tried to manage the violence. I think what we saw on Wednesday is what also happened in the South during Jim Crow. Sometimes the violence would go too far and then it would turn the tide. It would actually make enough Americans sit up and say, okay, this is enough. It's gone too far.
But I think we really need to do some serious soul searching why we needed to believe this myth that these were just white people who didn't know better when really Trump is radicalizing but also we understood for those at the kind of peak of power, this was about deregulation, this was about tax cuts for the wealthy. This is about using the veneer of disaffected white Americans to push a larger agenda that was going to be to the benefit of them. And the reason that that has worked is that the racial divide has always been since the American revolution, when the British exploited the racial divide against the colonists, the sharpest tool in the arsenal. We have almost a primal reaction to the stoking of that racial divide and it never benefits low income white Americans. It only benefits the elite. And we saw what happened with that this past week.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Let's go to Gene Robinson. Gene?
EUGENE ROBINSON: Nicole, that story you just told is a familiar one. It’s absolutely true the differences between the white citizens councils and the Klan back, even in the days of Jim crow. The klan was lower income, the white citizens councils were the Josh Hawleys and Ted Cruzes of their day. Here's the situation, though. We have -- there are millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans who somehow need to be deprogrammed. They’re--it's as if they are members of a cult, the Trumpist cult and they have to be deprogrammed. Do you have any idea how we start that process? [chuckling] Much less complete it?
HANNAH JONES: [chuckling] Yeah, I don’t, I'm a journalist. I certainly don't know how we can stop people. I know we can look to history, though. What ultimately breaks that power structure in the South is enforcement, right? There has to be consequences. And then once you get those consequences, I think people have to take a second look at their actions. And they have to be much more afraid to do the types of violence that we saw last week. The violence that we have seen building with what happened in Michigan, the violence being threatening now. What has long been the case in this country is we have wanted to quickly move on to reconciliation when it comes to this sort of divide. We have always been afraid if you actually punish those white nationalist element in our society, it will only make things worse. In fact, what history shows, is not reacting, not forcing accountability only emboldens the people and those movements. I think there has to be some real accountability, there has to be enforcement of the laws. And then after that I think is when you can start trying to build reconciliation. I think what’s clearly the case is not doing anything is only emboldening this to expand.
