Joy Reid, host of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, spent a segment of Tuesday evening’s show angrily denouncing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who she condemned for being “bitter, vindictive, and aggrieved.” She also took this opportunity to complain about Alito’s alleged conservative activism in the Supreme Court, especially with the Dobbs v. Jackson case, which he had written, and to once again point how he “really loves favors.”
Reid introduced the matter by calling Alito the Court’s “most outwardly bitter, vindictive, and aggrieved justice,” and inserting a complaint about the Dobbs decision being “the vengeful majority opinion” that she thought it was.
She then cited an opinion piece on Politico by Aziz Huq entitled, “Samuel Alito: One Angry Man,” in which he railed incessantly over Alito’s open conservatism and perceived anger issues throughout his whole career. Reid quoted the line where Huq said that the only way to understand Alito was by looking at “his anger,” and trying to see where it came from.
Reid inserted a comment here on Alito’s 2008 fishing vacation with billionaire Paul Singer, who had several cases that had gone through the Supreme Court at the time, which Alito had not recused himself from. Reid quipped:
It's sort of ironic that Alito seems so angered that his personal and religious views are falling out of favor, considering, this is a guy who really loves favors.
Later on in the segment, Reid brought the Dobbs decision up once more, saying that “it read to me like a right-wing screed that I could’ve read on fox.com or on newsmax.com.” She also described an article in New Yorker “that talked about this evolving rage” that Alito supposedly had, and called Alito “this angry man who hates the modern world.”
A few minutes later, Reid launched on a monologue on Alito’s past dealings, especially his fishing trip to Alaska. She called his behavior after his trip “sort of a victory lap, where he does this sort of snidely whiplash act, mocking those who are enraged and terrified by the decision.”
Reid then disgustedly described Alito’s activities as being nothing more than how “he seems to revel in, like, trolling the libs.”
This may be one of the truest things she’s ever said before. Trolling the libs is quite fun.
After this, Reid complained about Alito’s conservative activism some more, and, of course, brought race into it:
And in undoing the 20th century, where he feels that white men got the lo—the short end of the stick, and women and minorities got too much. And it feels like he's set up to keep doing that, right? I mean, he thinks he should get to take lavish trips, and angrily justify that in a pre-op-ed before this piece even comes out from ProPublica.
“And yet, you just know how he's going to rule on student loans, whether people can get their student loans forgiven and on affirmative action. I just know how he's gonna rule,” she whined.
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Transcript of the segment below (click Expand):
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
06/27/23
7:35:06 AM ET
JOY REID: And there’s a good reason to be nervous. Because while John Roberts is the Chief Justice, the tone of this court is set by its most outwardly bitter, vindictive, and aggrieved justice, Samuel Alito. Alito, who wrote the vengeful majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, has claimed William F. Buckley, the National Review, and Barry Goldwater as the greatest influences on his views, which actually explains a lot.
But Aziz Huq, law professor at the University of Chicago, adds that “the key to understanding Alito is not judicial philosophy or ardent conservatism: it's his anger — an anger that resonates with the sentiments of many voters, especially white and male ones, who feel displaced by recent social and cultural changes.”
It's sort of ironic that Alito seems so angered that his personal and religious views are falling out of favor, considering, this is a guy who really loves favors.
…
And I wanna s—I wanna start there, on the anger. As a non-lawyer, I read the Dobbs decision, and it read to me like a right-wing screed that I could’ve read on fox.com or on newsmax.com. And, you know, reading a very long New Yorker article that talked about this evolving rage against the 1960s, against the, you know, the Warren Court.
Is that how you read Alito, as just this angry man who hates the modern world?
…
7:38:02 AM
REID: Well, and then he took a trip, apparently on the dime of the organization that brought him there, which also is an organization that files briefs before the court. Right? And he—he takes this trip and does sort of a victory lap, where he does this sort of snidely whiplash act, mocking those who are enraged and terrified by the decision. And he seems to kind of revel in, like, trolling the libs, in his view.
And in undoing the 20th century, where he feels that white men got the lo—the short end of the stick, and women and minorities got too much. And it feels like he's set up to keep doing that, right? I mean, he thinks he should get to take lavish trips, and angrily justify that in a pre-op-ed before this piece even comes out from ProPublica. And yet, you just know how he's going to rule on student loans, whether people can get their student loans forgiven and on affirmative action. I just know how he's gonna rule.
