On MSNBC’s Inside With Jen Psaki, the eponymous host dedicated the portion of her program where she appears to go off script and gives her often delusional opinions on the news of the week. This Sunday was no different as the former Biden administration Press Secretary concocted a bizarre conspiracy theory that the Republican Party is rehashing the so-called “southern strategy” (which itself is a debunked conspiracy theory) to “recruit” Muslim Americans to “go after” transgender people.
“So, lately, I’ve been noticing the reemergence of a very old GOP playbook that harkens back to President Richard Nixon's infamous southern strategy,” Psaki proclaimed at the top. She then regurgitated the myth of the Republican Party appealing to white southern Democrats by “playing to their fears of African Americans and the civil rights movement.”
Tying that fact-free history lesson to present day, Psaki claimed "the GOP is trying to recruit Muslim Americans, a community that makes up less than two percent of the U.S. population, against another tiny marginalized group of Americans, transgender people."
She based this on the fact that in the 2011/2012 Republican presidential primaries some of the candidates expressed concerns over sharia law being practiced in American courts.
Therefore, according to Psaki you can "fast forward eight years, and the right-wing has focused their fear mongering on trans people. And who better to go after the new enemy than the old enemy?"
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The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Inside With Jen Psaki
7/2/2023
12:42:29 p.m. EasternJEN PSAKI: So, lately, I’ve been noticing the reemergence of a very old GOP playbook that harkens back to President Richard Nixon's infamous southern strategy. During his campaign for president in 1968, the Republican Party made a concerted effort to reach white southerners, who used to vote for Democrats by playing to their fears of African Americans and the civil rights movement. And it worked by pitting one group of Americans against another, the GOP successfully managed to split off southern whites from the Democratic Party. Now, decades later, the right-wing is reviving in that same playbook. This time, with Muslim Americans and trans people. Hear me out, here, the GOP is trying to recruit Muslim Americans, a community that makes up less than two percent of the U.S. population, against another tiny marginalized group of Americans, transgender people.
It's important to remember that back in 2011 during the Republican primary, the right-wing had designated Muslim Americans as public enemy number one. No surprise, given that conspiracy theorists, remember the birthers? I do! Had been trying for years to portray President Obama as a trojan horse for sharia law. Republican after Republican candidate ginned up fear about the fabricated threat posed by an Islamic legal doctrine debated by scholars for centuries. To them the imaginary prospect of sharia law in this country was scarier than gun violence, climate change, and more important to discuss than, say, millions of people who didn’t have health care.
[cuts to video]
HERMAN CAIN: I do not believe in sharia law in American courts. I believe in American laws, in American courts.
MICHELE BACHMANN: If we think that there is an undermining now, just wait if sharia is adopted or utilized by justices in the United States.
NEWT GINGRICH: Accepting sharia in the United States would be the end of our civilization as we know it. No jurisdiction will tolerate having sharia imposed in the United States of America.
[cuts back to live]
PSAKI: The end of our civilization as we know it, so he says. Of course, there was no chance sharia law was going to be implemented in the United States. Now, Trump's origin story is the birther movement is a part of that. But all of this also set the stage for him to make this declaration as a candidate in 2015.
[cuts to video]
DONALD TRUMP: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
[cuts back to live]
PSAKI: Now, fast forward eight years, and the right-wing has focused their fear mongering on trans people. And who better to go after the new enemy than the old enemy?
