Apparently, more and more in the liberal media seem to think that not only was rising crime in major U.S. cities not happening, but it’s also something to joke about! Such was the case on Tuesday’s ReidOut as NBC News legal analyst and former Obama Solicitor General Neal Katyal laughed and mocked this “silly narrative” to MSNBC host Joy Reid’s approval.
After having spent much of the segment on Pennsylvania judicial rulings concerning post-Election Day ballot counting, Reid complained that “[t]he Justice Department has done a thing that is pretty alarming and seems, I don't know, how it could be legal” by designating New York City, Portland, and Seattle as “anarchist jurisdictions.”
Reid explained that meant the DOJ has “order[ed] review of federal funding to locales where violence has occurred during protests” and, in the case of Seattle, they’ve pointed to the city council’s vote to defund their police department.
She further explained the DOJ’s case for the designation before audibly kvetching: “The refusal to prosecute protesters on charges like disorderly conduct and the rejection of federal intervention and injuries suffered by law enforcement officials as reasons why they can designate these anarchist jurisdictions. Whuh? What is happening here?”
Katyal began laughing off the facts (see here, here, here, here, and here) and called the DOJ pronouncement “absurd, both factually and legally.”
“Factually, the idea that the attorney general of the United States is furthering this silly narrative about our cities calling them anarchist is preposterous to me,” a still-giggling Katyal exclaimed.
He again showed his ghoulish elitism by remarking about how he saw “image after image on Instagram yesterday in Central Park and all over New York with people, like, walking their dogs, like, this doesn’t seem like anarchy to me or the people getting parking tickets and the like.”
Dismissing the DOJ’s need to bring law and order to places where it’s lacking, Katyal claimed that Barr and Trump should “be...cheerleader[s] for America instead of trying to tear it down, but that's what they seem to be bent on doing and then, legally, what they're trying to do is say if you're a so-called anarchist city, we get to cut off federal funds to these cities, you know, including for health care, policing, all kinds of things.”
They pair concluded (click “expand”):
KATYAL: That is flatly unconstitutional every day of the week. They tried that with sanctuary cities and I had the privilege of representing the City of Philadelphia and challenging that and, honestly, that was a lay-up. That wasn't a hard case to argue. The Court of Appeals with conservative judges on it said Barr and Trump acted unconstitutionally. They haven't learned their lesson. They're doing the same thing again and the most telling fact is in their 1,500-word memo in trying to justify this thing, not a single legal citation, not one. That tells you all you need to
REID: [INAUDIBLE], Portlandia, the coffee city, and, like, New York, where it’s — yeah, I was just there a couple weeks ago. It's fine. Um, wow.
Whether it’s Politico’s John Bresnahan, CNN’s Josh Campbell, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon (here and here), and Brian Stelter, NBC’s Scott Foster and Garrett Haake, Katyal, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, or Washington Post’s Dan Zak to name a few, this is all a game to them. Just think about that. Talking about rising numbers of crimes like assaults, murders, and robberies is funny to them.
And yet, they don’t like it when President Trump calls them the enemy of the people.
Reid’s hatred for those that disagree with her and Katyal’s ghoulish mockery of rising crime was made possible by advertisers such as Allegra, Chevrolet, ClearChoice, and Fidelity. Follow the links to the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcript from September 22, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
September 22, 2020
7:48 p.m. EasternJOY REID: Let’s move onto New York. The Justice Department has done a thing that is pretty alarming and seems, I don't know, how it could be legal. They decided to deem New York City, Portland, and Seattle, three American cities, to be anarchist jurisdictions ordering a review of federal funding to locales where violence has occurred during protests. The Justice Department has cited city council's voting to cut police funding. The refusal to prosecute protesters on charges like disorderly conduct and the rejection of federal intervention and injuries suffered by law enforcement officials as reasons why they can designate these anarchist jurisdictions. Whuh? What is happening here?
NEAL KATYAL [LAUGHS]: This is absurd both factually and legally. Factually, the idea that the attorney general of the United States is furthering this silly narrative about our cities calling them anarchist is preposterous to me. As you know, image and after image on Instagram yesterday in Central Park and all over New York with people, like, walking their dogs, like, this doesn’t seem like anarchy to me or the people getting parking tickets and the like. You know, I would expect the attorney general and president to be a cheer leader for America instead of trying to tear it down, but that's what they seem to be bent on doing and then, legally, what they're trying to do is say if you're a so-called anarchist city, we get to cut off federal funds to these cities, you know, including for health care, policing, all kinds of things. That is flatly unconstitutional every day of the week. They tried that with sanctuary cities and I had the privilege of representing the City of Philadelphia and challenging that and, honestly, that was a lay-up. That wasn't a hard case to argue. The Court of Appeals with conservative judges on it said Barr and Trump acted unconstitutionally. They haven't learned their lesson. They're doing the same thing again and the most telling fact is in their 1,500-word memo in trying to justify this thing, not a single legal citation, not one. That tells you all you need to
REID: [INAUDIBLE], Portlandia, the coffee city, and, like, New York, where it’s — yeah, I was just there a couple weeks ago. It's fine. Um, wow.
