It was a tsunami of hate and dangerous rhetoric Thursday night on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, as host Joy Reid and former Republican-turned-liberal and Lincoln Project adviser Kurt Bardella insisted that Republicans are a “radicalized, anti-democratic institution” that’s become “a domestic terrorist cell” that “champions” racism and “violence.”
As for what should be done with tens of millions of people, Bardella only said that, considering the party as a terrorist group, “they should be treated as such.” So, would he be up for mass government surveillance? How about camps? Or would he be in favor of drone attacks, like MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace suggested?
Reid said her peace in the prior segment, concocting a strawman using repugnant comments from Cowboys for Trump’s Gouy Griffin that the only good Democrat was a dead one and, if given the chance to hold “a Second Amendment rally” at the Capitol, it would have resulted in “blood running out the building.”
Griffin was a nutjob and arrested for having participated in the January 6 insurrection, but Reid instead suggested he spoke for everyone on the right, asking Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) if “we need to start having a serious conversation not just about Donald Trump being a bad guy, but about the Republican Party becoming a radicalized, anti-democratic institution” that uses “force” “to seize...power.”
Prior to Bardella’s outburst, former CNN commentator Angela Rye wondered “what” do Republicans actually deem “worthy of impeachment” and Reid replied that the only indiscretions were Benghazi and “consensual sex.”
Welcome back to 1998, where the left and their media allies said the only reason Clinton was punished because he and Lewinsky engaged in acts of physical intimacy.
And speaking of sex, Reid brought that take to Bardella but never asked him what he knew about his colleague John Weaver’s penchant for seeking out young men for sex.
Amazing how much MSNBC (and CNN) will go to the mat to protect their friends instead of young boys and men.
Speaking of humanity, Bardella began his diatribe by insisting that if you didn’t “walk away feeling something” after listening to the Democrats who were impeachment managers, “there is something fundamentally wrong and broken with you” to the point that “you are a sociopath.”
He then uncorked his take about how Republicans writ large are “a domestic terrorist cell” that “champions” racism, “insurrection,” and “violence” that should be dealt with (click “expand”):
What we are witnessing is the full embrace of the Republican Party of the most extreme and radical and racist elements of their base. There is no coming back from this. From this point forward, they are the party that champions anti-democratic values. They are the party that champions the silencing of the votes of people of color in this country. They're the party that champions violence and insurrection and domestic terrorism. The Republican Party, if they allow this to happen and allow no consequences to befall the person who led the charge and literally instructed people to commit violence and mayhem on our Capitol, if they allow that to happen, the Republican Party is basically a domestic terrorist cell at this point and they should be treated as such. The idea that this party that spent year after year issuing subpoenas, holding depositions, holding hearings, select committees, had Hillary Clinton in front of the Benghazi Committee for more than ten hours of testimony, that that Republican Party can't even be bothered to show up and listen to the presentation of these impeachment managers is a betrayal of justice, is — is a betrayal of justice, is a betrayal of everything that this party professed to one stand for and we should never forget that and never let them off the hook for that.
Reid didn’t rebut a single word, but instead lamented to Rye that Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) would dare invoke left-wing violence in Portland and Seattle.
She also callously downplayed attacks on law enforcement during Black Lives Matter protests (read: riots), quipping that the only real violence came when “at some point at night, somebody threw a Molotov cocktail at a police car is exactly the same thing,” and asking producers to fetch video of Black Lives Matter rioters attacking the U.S. Capitol or state capitols.
Rye suggested that invoking acts of violence were proof that those on the right don’t believe Black Lives Matter should have the ability to “protest the right to breathe.”
Sorry, Angela, but Americans support peaceful protests and only took issue with the coronavirus hypocrisy of packed crowds suddenly becoming acceptable and the violence that ravaged cities from coast-to-coast.
Going to break, Reid insisted Republicans talking about Black Lives Matter through the lens of last summer’s violence would prove that they’re a party of “white nationalism.”
And worse yet, Reid claimed that the GOP would thus show their discomfort with the mere presence of African-Americans voting for president and, if they impact the election, the results should be thrown out.
This insistence that more than 70 million Americans are a “terrorist cell” that “should be treated as such” was made possible thanks to the support of advertisers such as Amazon and Fidelity. Follow the links to view their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from February 11, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
February 11, 2021
7:17 p.m. EasternJOY REID: Just in case people think that, you know, that we're being over the top here, I want everybody to listen. If you missed this today, this was one of the most chilling pieces of tape that was played today in the trial. This is a guy named Couy griffin. He is a part of or the head of something called Cowboys for Trump and this is something what he said after the riot. Now, by the way, this was the person that said any good Democrat is a dead Democrat and Trump, you know, name-checked him, re-tweeted him, and gave him a high five on Twitter after he did that. Here is what he said after he participated in the insurrection.
COUY GRIFFIN [on 01/17/21]: You know, you want to say that that was a mob? You want to say that was violence? No, sir. No, ma'am. We could have a Second Amendment rally on the same steps where we had that rally yesterday, you know, and if we do then it's going to be a sad day because there's going to be blood running out of that building. And at the end of the day, you mark my word we will plant our flag on the desk of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
REID: Congressman Schiff, do we need to start having a serious conversation not just about Donald Trump being a bad guy, but about the Republican Party becoming a radicalized, anti-democratic institution? Because the — you can't have a regular party like the Democrats who have their flaws and we can have issue with them and a party that is willing to seize the power by force because that's what that sounded like to me.
CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Oh, no, that's absolutely right. I think the managers they're talking about Donald Trump because he's the one on trial and that makes perfect sense. But the — there are broader, serious problems with the GOP right now as a party. It has really become a cult of personality around the President. It doesn't have an ideology anymore. It doesn't have principles anymore and it's willing to welcome in white nationalists, Q-Anon conspiracy theorists and people who use violence if they don't get their way and that party needs to come to grips with what its become. It needs to be a party once again that stands for something and not just the — the cult around Donald Trump.
REID: Hopefully somebody sane on that side will listen to you.
(....)
7:28 p.m. Eastern
ANGELA RYE: And all I ask of them is what the impeachment managers asked all day. What is worthy of impeachment?
REID: Yeah, apparently, Kurt Bardella, consensual sex because they — a lot of these people were in office and impeached Bill Clinton over a sexual affair, but in this case and they wanted — they were talking about a pre-impeachment of Hillary Clinton over her emails or over Benghazi. They called the Benghazi hearings a pre-impeachment, you know, set of hearings. So they — those are the things they think are impeachable. It sounds to me like what's impeachable is being a Democrat who is elected to office by a diverse electorate and when Republicans get elected, then elections don't matter anymore. They must be installed no matter what. I wonder what you make of what we got a little of this color out of NBC's Julie Tsirkin, who was saying that, you know, a lot of the lawyers weren't in the room, a lot of the members weren't in the room. Graham — Lindsay Graham returned to his seat when Jamie Raskin was making his closing argument, per Julie Tsirkin, around 4:09, when Raskin was uttering the words “put to bed,” meaning they did the whole can we dismiss this trial outright? They had a vote on that. That went down. And he said, so that's been put to bed the constitutionality argument and Graham and Cornyn looked at each other and laughed. So that means they're going to argue something that's moot. Kurt?
KURT BARDELLA: You know, I tell you, Joy, it speaks volumes that there are Republican, juror — right — who cannot even be bothered to attend this from proceeding and pay attention to it. That right there is disqualifying of what their job is supposed to be. Then you add in the layer that they have blatantly said nothing is going to change their mind. And I’ll tell you: if you watched the proceedings and the demonstrations that Democrats have offered over the last couple of days and you don't walk away feeling something, you are a sociopath. There is something fundamentally wrong and broken with you. What we are witnessing is the full embrace of the Republican Party of the most extreme and radical and racist elements of their base. There is no coming back from this. From this point forward, they are the party that champions anti-democratic values. They are the party that champions the silencing of the votes of people of color in this country. They're the party that champions violence and insurrection and domestic terrorism. The Republican Party, if they allow this to happen and allow no consequences to befall the person who led the charge and literally instructed people to commit violence and mayhem on our Capitol, if they allow that to happen, the Republican Party is basically a domestic terrorist cell at this point and they should be treated as such. The idea that this party that spent year after year issuing subpoenas, holding depositions, holding hearings, select committees, had Hillary Clinton in front of the Benghazi Committee for more than ten hours of testimony, that that Republican Party can't even be bothered to show up and listen to the presentation of these impeachment managers is a betrayal of justice, is — is a betrayal of justice, is a betrayal of everything that this party professed to one stand for and we should never forget that and never let them off the hook for that.
REID: You know, Angela, I want you to put on your lawyer hat, your chief counsel — legal counsel hat for a moment, just apparently what the argument is going to be tomorrow. I want you to listen to Congressman Roy Blunt. This is apparently what we're in for tomorrow. Oh, it's a graphic, sorry. “Well, you know,” he's going to say, “we had a summer where all people all over the country were doing similar kinds of things. I don't know what the other side will show from Seattle and Portland and other places, but you will see similar tragedies there as well.” Basically what they'll do is they'll try to say that Black Lives Matter rallies where, at some point at night, somebody threw a molotov cocktail at a police car is exactly the same thing and now I know from my team here, can you guys get me the video of Black Lives matter — Black Lives Matters storming capitols? Just get me the video of Black Lives Matter storming capitols. Oh, I'm sorry. That doesn't exist! There isn't any of that! So, your thoughts, Angie?
RYE: Yeah, you know we're laughing to keep from crying, right, joy? This is one of those things from the very beginning, from its inception when people began to say black lives matter and it was an argument, right? Like this was a point that had to be proven, the fact that Black Lives Matter, by its mere existence and by the fact that people would have the nerve to go and protest the right to breathe is in and of itself violent is the exact problem. Roy Blunt should be ashamed of himself. He should know better. What it's — what it’s — what it’s looking like is that the only way that Donald Trump could have potentially been impeached is if someone, one of their colleagues would have lost their lives because it's not worthy of an impeachment because a police officer or a participant in the insurrection passed away. When Donald Trump stood on the campaign trail and said that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and it would have no effect — I know I'm paraphrasing here, but that's essentially what he said — it's looking like that was right and I just would challenge the United States Senate on a — in a bipartisan way because this is really about morality at this point, to search deep in your hearts and look at the facts. BLM is not on trial hearings. Your President is, and you need to treat him accordingly. There needs to be consequences for his actions or it’s only going get worse.
REID: If they try to put members of Congress of color and Black Lives Matter on trial tomorrow, they're going to prove the point that they don't want made which is that their party has essentially surrendered fully to white nationalism because that's at the base of this idea that black people can't elect a president, that it can just be overthrown. They’ll just be proving that point, so let's see if they do it.
