In the wee hours of Friday morning, following former President Trump’s longwinded nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, MSNBC host Joy Reid continued her theme of the week of suggesting that Trump and President Biden were equal in most things from overcoming similar medical conditions (which weren’t) to being bad candidates.
When it was her turn to rail against Trump, Reid first instinct was to paraphrase a black supremacist character from the Marvel Universe, Erik Killmonger: “MAGA, is this your king?”
She followed up by suggesting that if Biden had given that speech, Democrats would be actively trying to removing him from office and not just their ticket:
If Joe Biden had given a rambling, shambling, all-over-the-place speech like that, elected Democrats would be demanding that the 25th Amendment be invoked immediately. They would scramble – even worse than they are now – to jettison him as the candidate for president and we would be questioning his mental acuity.
“That was proof that there is not just one old man in the race. Donald Trump is an old man clearly in decline,” she proclaimed, intending to suggest Trump and Biden were equals.
This was seemingly a continuation of her desperate argument from the previous night when she insanely suggested that Biden getting COVID again was “exactly the same” as Trump getting shot in the head.
Back on Friday morning, Reid ignored the fact that politicians repeat stump speeches at every stop they make and suggested that Trump deviating from the written speech (as he’s known to do) was a sign of an elderly “decline”:
Because Donald Trump cannot stay on message for even 5 to 10 minutes, even telling a story about the most dramatic moments of his life. He still eventually got to sharks. He got to Hannibal Lector. He can’t stop doing it, because if, you know – And I say this as somebody who absolutely adores senior citizens, they’re my favorite people. But one of the things that happens when they begin to decline is that they go to safe places in their mind, stories that they are comforted by, that they remember, and that they can recite, and they do it over and over again.
“Donald Trump is not a candidate that Democrats should be terrified of. Their terror is embarrassing tonight. MAGA, is this your king?” she chided again.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MSNBC Republican National Convention
July 19, 2024
12:15:25 a.m. Eastern(…)
JOY REID: To paraphrase Erik Killmonger, ‘MAGA, is this your king?’
[Rachel Maddow laughs]
If Joe Biden had given a rambling, shambling, all-over-the-place speech like that, elected Democrats would be demanding that the 25th Amendment be invoked immediately. They would scramble – even worse than they are now – to jettison him as the candidate for president and we would be questioning his mental acuity.
Donald Trump went off that script for more than half of it. We had the text in front of us. He clearly was bored by the text.
RACHEL MADDOW Yes.
[Laughter]
REID: And then became an old vaudevillian who would much preferred his own shtick and therefore reciting the sticks to the dainers [sic].
That was proof that there is not just one old man in the race. Donald Trump is an old man clearly in decline. And we must start talking about him the same way that we are questioning Joe Biden. Because Donald Trump cannot stay on message for even 5 to 10 minutes, even telling a story about the most dramatic moments of his life. He still eventually got to sharks. He got to Hannibal Lector.
[Rachel Maddow giggles]
He can’t stop doing it, because if, you know – And I say this as somebody who absolutely adores senior citizens, they’re my favorite people. But one of the things that happens when they begin to decline is that they go to safe places in their mind, stories that they are comforted by, that they remember, and that they can recite, and they do it over and over again.
Donald Trump is not a candidate that Democrats should be terrified of. Their terror is embarrassing tonight. MAGA, is this your king? That’s what I've got.
(…)
