On Saturday's AM Joy, MSNBC host Joy Reid lauded guest Jason Johnson of The Root for lecturing the ACU's Matt Schlapp earlier in the week about racism. Johnson touched off a tense exchange with Schlapp when he insisted that "You don't get to tell other people what racism is." On Saturday, Johnson renewed his attack on Schlapp as he snarked; "I think he was angry and intimidated about the fact that an African-American man told him that he is not the arbiter of racism. And I think that's what it boils down to."
Notably, it was just recently that Johnson provocatively used a racist quote from an anonymous political pundit trashing the presumptive future mayor of St. Louis as a "f****** white woman" to bolster his article in which Johnson whined about black candidates losing the Democratic primary to a white candidate in spite of the city being majority black.
At 11:54 a.m. ET, as the show ended with each panel member declaring a choice for who "won the week" in politics, Reid began praising her liberal guest:
I have a few nominees for who won the week. My first nominee -- and we'll put it to a vote at the end -- is a guy named Jason Johnson -- Johnson -- Jason Johnson -- who I think won the week with -- what they are calling in the Twittersphere -- the kids are calling it the "Schlapp down." Roll it.
After the clip of Johnson and Schlapp having a heated exchange from a Tuesday segment on MSNBC, Reid added:
We love Matt Schlapp, so, I'm sorry, Matt, don't tweet mean things at me, Matt. I thought it was great. I mean, you really -- what was the issue at hand with you and Matt?
Johnson took aim at Schlapp as The Root political editor responded:
You know, I think the issue at hand -- and, look, I've met Matt before, and I think he was angry and intimidated about the fact that an African-American man told him that he is not the arbiter of racism. And I think that's what it boils down to.
Reid agreed, "Yeah, yeah, absolutely."
Also of note, supposedly right-leaning Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin went along with Reid and Johnson as the three laughed together about the issue. And a bit earlier, Rubin -- who previously declared she is no longer a Republican -- seemed to cheer on the possibility of a Democrat being elected in a special election to replace HHS Secretary Tom Price in a previously Republican-leaning congressional district in Georgia. Rubin began:
The Georgia Sixth Congressional District, that was the district that Tom Price held. Now he is obviously our secretary of HHS. It is an open seat. It has always been a very solid Republican seat. It's in the sort of northern part of Atlanta, and it's the Atlanta suburbs.There is a Democrat running, a young guy by the name of Jon Ossof. Remember that name.
Without making it clear that the reason Ossof is so far ahead in polling for the primary is because there are several Republican candidates dividing up the Republican-leaning vote for the first round, Rubin added:
Right now, he is way ahead in what's going to be a multi-person field. If he gets to 50 percent, they're not even going to have a runoff. Right now, he's at 40. The closest Republican is at 20. The Democrats saw this coming, put a lot of money into his campaign, He's running ads -- he's young -- he's energetic. And he has made this about a referendum on Donald Trump. If he wins this seat, I think you're going to see a lot of nervous Republicans.
Not mentioned is that polling has shown that once the election comes down to just two candidates in a runoff, any of three potential Republican nominees would run about even with the Democrat. The four leading Republicans combined take a total of 48 percent of the vote.
Also not mentioned is that Donald Trump only won slightly more than 48 percent of the vote in the district, so it was hardly a solidly Republican district in the most recent election.
Below are transcripts of relevant portions of the Saturday, April 1, AM Joy on MSNBC:
11:52 a.m. ET
JENNIFER RUBIN, WASHINGTON POST: The Georgia Sixth Congressional District, that was the district that Tom Price held. Now he is obviously our secretary of HHS. It is an open seat. It has always been a very solid Republican seat. It's in the sort of northern part of Atlanta, and it's the Atlanta suburbs.There is a Democrat running, a young guy by the name of Jon Ossof. Remember that name.Right now, he is way ahead in what's going to be a multi-person field. If he gets to 50 percent, they're not even going to have a runoff. Right now, he's at 40. The closest Republican is at 20. The Democrats saw this coming, put a lot of money into his campaign, He's running ads -- he's young -- he's energetic. And he has made this about a referendum on Donald Trump. If he wins this seat, I think you're going to see a lot of nervous Republicans.
JOY REID: Absolutely. And I predict that you will see him on AM Joy very soon, I think. I'm just going to make that prediction because that is a very interesting race. And it's belwether, right? ... It's kind of a belwether, as you said, because it's running against the President.
RUBIN: Right, and this is not a Democratic district at all. This is one that should be a slam dunk for them. You know, Price was there for years.
REID: Issa's district in California, Nunes's district. A lot of these guys in 2018, they think they're safe. They may not be safe.
(...)
11:54 a.m. ET
JOY REID: I have a few nominees for who won the week. My first nominee -- and we'll put it to a vote at the end -- is a guy named Jason Johnson -- Johnson -- Jason Johnson -- who I think won the week with -- what they are calling in the Twittersphere -- the kids are calling it the "Schlapp down." Roll it.MATT SCHLAPP, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION; This is not racism. This is not --
CHRIS JANSING, MSNBC HOST: I spent years sitting in that briefing room --
JASON JOHNSON, THE ROOT: You don't get to tell other people --
SCHLAPP: You don't either.
JOHNSON: -- what racism is.
SCHLAPP: You don't either.
JOHNSON: Yes, I do.
SCHLAPP: No, you don't.
JOHNSON: Because you don't experience it.
SCHLAPP: We love Matt Schlapp, so, I'm sorry, Matt, don't tweet mean things at me, Matt. I thought it was great. I mean, you really -- what was the issue at hand with you and Matt?
JOHNSON: You know, I think the issue at hand -- and, look, I've met Matt before, and I think he was angry and intimidated about the fact that an African-American man told him that he is not the arbiter of racism.
REID: Yeah.
JOHNSON: And I think that's what it boils down to.
REID; Yeah, absolutely.
