After Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on all counts Friday afternoon in his Kenosha, Wisconsin murder trial, the liberal media were apoplectic and despondent over the verdict. But of all the shows that day, MSNBC’s The ReidOut was must-see TV to behold the liberal lies and serious attempts to divide Americans on political party and race to gleefully spark racial tensions. Of course, they didn’t disappoint.
Host Joy Reid had already jetted off for Thanksgiving, but she joined fill-in host Jason Johnson as a guest in the A-block for a murderer’s row of vile racists, declaring Rittenhouse to be like “slave catchers” of yesteryear that give “white men” extra “freedom” to kill Black people and allies at will with nothing to stop them “legally.”
And along the way, Johnson and other guests warned all Black people and allies ranging from “white suburbanites” to white, woke youth pastors and their students that they should “be troubled,” “concerned,” “startl[ed],” and scared of white people gunning them down under the guise of being “threatened” because, after all, it’s now “open season” on them.
Without any further adieu, below are the worst takes from Friday’s ReidOut, presented in no particular order.
Verdict Was Thanks to Racist ‘Gun Laws,’ Legal System Helping Whites ‘Inflict Violence’
“[W]e have to keep in mind, when we're watching the criminal justice system at work, that it was designed to do exactly what it did today. Gun laws helped to enhance the design to allow this verdict to happen today. This country was built on the idea of — that white men had a particular kind of freedom and a particular kind of citizenship that only they have that gives, you know, from the slave catchers on, the right to inflict violence in the name of protecting property. That's, like, the foundational creation of the United States.”
— Reid, 7:04 p.m. Eastern.
IRONY ALERT: Sharpton Warns of ‘Right-Wingers’ ‘Baiting Violence’
“What you must also factor in is that, even when the George Floyd murder happened, it has now come out some of the violence in Minneapolis was done by right-wingers who pretended to be burning down places in Minneapolis that they were part of the movement and they were not, which means that now we can see people baiting violence to have a reaction to justify doing what Rittenhouse got away with today.”
— PoliticsNation host Al Sharpton, 7:08 p.m. Eastern.
It’s ‘Open Season’ on Blacks, White Youth Groups, Youth Pastors, Anyone With BLM Sticker
“The first that occurred to me after this ruling is, oh, well, okay, now it's open season. Like, if I'm walking around and I’m white nationalist, you know, coward little kid with an AR-15 and I see somebody drive by with a Black Lives Matter bumper sticker and I feel threatened, I can open fire. If I go by a youth group standing outside the local Target chanting “Black Lives Matter” and I feel threatened, I — I can open fire.”
— Johnson, 7:06 p.m. Eastern.
“[W]hen you stand against that position [for Black people], you could be subjected to the same violence used against Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, and, yes, George Floyd. The Rittenhouse ruling isn't so much a warning to Black America...It's a warning to every white suburbanite with a Black Lives Matter poster in their window. Every church youth leader chanting about George Floyd in front of the local Walmart. Every white dad from Lorraine, Ohio to Lubbock Texas who dares to have a BLM sticker on their car. Those people now know that they too can be shot by a white 17-year-old with an AR-15 if he feels threatened by their desire to see America live up to its potential. Too many Americans think they have the complexion for protection against the same forces behind Charlottesville and the insurrection but Kyle Rittenhouse and Judge Schrader [sic] have just blown a hole in that belief. Only time will tell if enough Americans will heed the warning shot that was just fired off.”
— Johnson, 7:25 p.m. Eastern.
“My primary concern about this ruling is that it is now open season and that white nationalists and domestic terrorists across this country are high-fiving. What kind of impact does a ruling like this have for everybody, from the proud boys to militia groups from — from Savannah, South Carolina to Seattle, Oregon — Seattle, Washington?”
— Johnson to MSNBC counterterrorism analyst Nance, 7:26 p.m. Eastern.
‘This Is a Scary Time’ With Terrorist, ‘Violent Storm’ GOP Ready to Kill at Random
“[T]his GOP has mainstreamed white nationalism. Now, they’re mainstreaming and celebrating political violence...This emboldens. It tells people, hey, if there is a Black Lives Matter movement, get your AR, drive over. If you fear anyone, kill them, go on the stand, repeat what Kyle did, cry on queue and you walk and everyone should be concerned there’s a gathering, violent storm. The GOP is seeding and nurturing — it’s right in front of us. Red flags are going off. This is a scary time.”
— SiriusXM host and NBC News columnist Dean Obeidallah, 7:29 p.m. Eastern.
Nance: Watch GOPers ‘Carry Out’ Their Own ‘Massacre’ in the Name of ‘Self-Defense’
“[A]t some point, someone is going to weaponize the self-defense and when I say weaponize it, I mean, they're going to have a designated Kyle Rittenhouse. And when you can anticipate or precipitate an attack, whether it’s bottles thrown at you, then not only can that person go back and defend himself, others can turn their weapons and carry out a massacre and say it was in defense of another person. This is going to get out of control.”
— MSNBC counterterrorism analyst Malcolm Nance, 7:28 p.m. Eastern.
Be ‘Very Afraid!’ There’s ‘Nothing...Legally’ to Stop Right-Wingers From Murder!
“[W[hat we need to worry about is that we have nothing in place legally. We have nothing in place culturally or socially to stop the next group of white nationalists, proud boys, MAGA people, whoever they want to take from this verdict when they want and to use it as permission to attack Black Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter ain't just Black people as we just saw...[A]nyone who supports Black Lives Matter should be very afraid tonight.”
— Reid, 7:18 p.m. Eastern.
Rittenhouse Was ‘Spoiling for a Fight,’ Will Inspire ‘White Men’ to Murder
“Rittenhouse will be the pollster child for reactionary white men who want to take the law into their hands, who want to bring assault weapons to Black Lives Matter protests and who think that violence is a legitimate form of political discourse. In the eyes of the law, Rittenhouse is now actually the victim who the three men he shot even though the evidence suggests that Rittenhouse went to Kenosha spoiling for a fight — that’s why brought that semi-assault gun...I think we should all be troubled that other people who want to take the law into their own hands might view this verdict as an invitation.”
— MSNBC and NBC legal analyst Paul Butler, 7:03 p.m. Eastern.
‘Jury Sent the...Loudest Warning’ About ‘White Nationalist Terror’
“Kyle Rittenhouse killed two white men protesting on behalf of Black lives and got away with it. That’s the single most important thing to understand about today's ruling. By allowing him to go free and potentially commit other crimes, this jury sent the final and loudest warning to white America about the dangerous rise of white nationalist terror in this country, one I suspect will be ignored by leaders, politicians and the press. Kyle Rittenhouse was able to kill Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and face no consequences because those men were race traitors.”
— Johnson, 7:27 p.m. Eastern.
Whites Will Use Verdict to Go ‘Out of State’ to Conduct Mass Shootings
“[W]hat I am concerned about is the precedent this sets for what people will believe that they can do under law when Black Lives Matter protests happen in the future and that people may use this as an excuse to go out of state and doing what this teenager did, believing that they’ll get away with it and, in some cases, getting away with it.”
— Reid, 7:05 p.m. Eastern.
Rittenhouse Went ‘Across State Lines’ (So What) to Help Business He Wasn’t Asked to (He Was)
“This is a very, very serious problem for activism because now we're being told that someone can cross state lines with a semiautomatic rifle and kill people and say it's self-defense and they have this case to cite as saying I'm like Rittenhouse. Let's remember, Rittenhouse is now being offered internships by members of Congress like he's some hero. So, in the frame of one week ministers go to — to Brunswick, Georgia to — with Bibles in their hand and we're condemned and he goes with an automatic weapon and he’s given offers of congressional internship. This is America tonight. It is startling. Not surprising, but startling and it brings a real threat to those White and Black that want to stand up against systemic racism in this country.”
— Sharpton, 7:09 p.m. Eastern.
“[W]hat he did, by his very action of going out, going to a protest across state lines, being within a group of armed men performing what they call the Korean on the rooftop — right — defending a position, whether it's a business or other where they were not invited and then getting into this fight where he killed two men and wounded a third that is now the template on how to protest against Antifa or Black Lives Matter or any other person that they consider, in the white supremacy world, race traitors.”
— Nance, 7:27 p.m. Eastern.
Race Hustler: ‘Black People Don’t Care About Race’ (But He Does)
“Black people don't care about race. They care about justice. We — we want justice to be done. This person came outside of his community, armed himself with a legal weapon, and shot two people...Yes, we care. It doesn't matter the victims are white. Not to Black people. It doesn't matter that the victims were white. It matters that justice was not done...Like, there is a pall of permissiveness towards white violence and Black people, regardless of the wick — victim of any white instance of violence, Black people know that, overall, white people armed with guns patrolling the streets being able to shoot whatever they want to doesn't work out well for us, right? So, there is a concern about justice. There is a concern about fairness.”
— The Nation correspondent Elie Mystal, 7:11 p.m. Eastern.
Support the Verdict? You’re Probably a QAnon Person!
“This is a problem white America has to...look inward and don't look for a Black lady [like Kamala Harris] to come zooming in and on her white horse to fix it and fix your feelings about it. Because the problem is there is a LA Times reporter that talked about the far right groups from the Proud Boys on who were just absolutely licking their chops today. They were acting like they won the Super Bowl, according to this Los Angeles Times reporter.”
— Reid, 7:18 p.m. Eastern.
“Well, let me confirm for you that they are high-fiving. They view this as a major victory. For some time, you know, the Free Kyle t-shirts and Kyle Did Nothing Wrong types of t-shirts have been going on for, you know, have been inside the white supremacy movement and had mainstreamed itself into the Republican Party world and by doing that, what they’ve done is that steeped Kyle Rittenhouse in the tea of white supremacy iconography, whether he wanted to be there or not.”
— Nance, 7:27 p.m. Eastern.
Want a House GOP Internship? Go Out and Shoot People Like Bernie Goetz!
“And to think I tell my students that, you know, the key to an internship is being a good person and moral citizen. Apparently, you just have to go out and murder people you disagree with.”
— Johnson, 7:10 p.m. Eastern.
“[T]his is all basically Bernie Goetz, right? You’re — you’re going looking for trouble and then you’re going to try to claim self-defense...[T]he thing that concerns me is not just violence, not just what this says about democracy, but now you’ve got members of Congress, Republican members of Congress doing whole tweet threads offering this kid everything from internships to an opportunity to hang out with them at the House. You literally have members of Congress who are now saying forget an application, forget being a candy striper, who cares about your grades, go out and kill people in the name of white supremacy and you can get an internship[.]”
— Johnson, 7:28 p.m. Eastern.
Can’t See Systemic Racism? You’re an ‘Uncouth Idiot’ ‘Cow’ Eating Rosemary
“[T]he people who kind of can't see [systemic racism], who can’t see the bigger picture, there are like people who are chewing on rosemary like a cow and saying, “ew, this rosemary tastes bitter.” And it's like shut up, you uncouth idiot. It's supposed to go in the soup. There’s a whole soup here. There’s a whole soup of racism and if you only pull out one bit or another bit like you might miss the whole — the whole meal here and Black people care about the whole meal.”
— Mystal, 7:12 p.m. Eastern.
The Men Rittenhouse Shot Are Like John Brown, White Allies in the 1960s
“[W]hat we have to think about is not only the families of the two men who died and the family of Mr. Grosskreutz, they are — you know, they should be in our minds now because they suffered and there have been a lot of white people who have, you know, defended Black lives and paid for it with their lives. That goes all throughout our history, going back to John Brown and you go through the civil rights movement.”
— Reid, 7:05 p.m. Eastern.
This Judge Was So Bad That Johnny Cochran, Law & Order Lead Wouldn’t Have Won
“There is not a prosecutor on the planet, okay, Johnnie Cochran mixed with McCoy from Law and Order couldn't win a case when you have a judge behaving in this particular way...[I]f he is that common, what hope is there for any future cases that have to do with Black Lives Matter, that have to do with criminal justice if you have guys like this planted throughout the country who are able to basically completely put their thumb on the scale of justice when it comes to a case?”
— Johnson to Butler, 7:14 p.m. Eastern.
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