During Monday’s Morning Joe, white liberal Lauren Leader, the founder of All In Together, implicitly accused Republican presidential candidates former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott (SC) of being race traitors and trying to appeal to the racist Republican Party. She also had snide remarks for Haley about using her gender during the first Republican primary debate.
Leader was teed up by Way Too Early host Jonathan Lemire, who began by taking issue with Haley and Republicans for questioning President Biden’s advanced age and mental acuity (with NBC having found 68 percent of voters share that concern).
“It’s invoking President Biden's age, suggesting that really this next election is about his vice president, Kamala Harris. You’d be putting her in charge. But Haley has been doing this by far the most explicitly. What is your read of the strategy?” he asked her.
As if it was a bad thing, Leader huffed that Haley was “certainly trying to play on the low approval ratings” Harris earned and accused her of using sexist “tropes” against women:
I do think there is a lot of irony there, and some of what Ali was going to before, is that on the one hand, Nikki Haley is willing to invoke her gender. She did it, it was one of her first sort of first comments on the debate stage. Right? Invoking Margaret Thatcher that if you want something done right, ask a woman. And then on the other hand, sort of playing on this idea that Kamala somehow is secretly the shadow president, which is also disinformation and has some gender tropes there too.
MSNBC weekend host Al Sharpton decried pointing out Biden’s mental problems as “a very cynical play.” He went on to accuse Haley of trying to appeal to racists by stoking animosity against Harris, again teeing Leader up:
As also, she's also playing to certain elements of the Republican Party on race. That you talk about President Harris, which who is she? A black woman and a woman. And I think for Nikki Haley herself having being a woman of color, I think it's very cynical on all ends that she's making some implicit appeals to some biases that I feel she has to be intelligent enough to know what she's playing into. Lauren.
“I think this has always been a complicated line for Republicans of color,” Leader lectured in response. She also took aim at Scott and brazenly lied about what he’s publically said about racism in America. She falsely asserted that he claims “he has never been a victim of racism” and “that he doesn't experience those things.”
In 2021, when he was trying to get a police reform bill passed in the Senate, Scott took to the Senate floor to describe how he’d been pulled over 18 for “driving while black.” “I've been stopped several times in the last three years in the Capitol and on the streets throughout the country. So I'm not having a conversation about some theory or philosophy," he said another time.
Leader continued by falsely suggesting “you see Nikki Haley doing some of the same things” when it comes to race. She went on to argue that Haley was walking “a really tight line” and trying to pull off “a complicated act” to appeal to those racist Republicans as a person of color herself.
MSNBC’s condescending lectures to Nikki Haley and Tim Scott about race were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Centrum and Consumer Cellular. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
August 28, 2023
9:19:33 a.m. EasternJONATHAN LEMIRE: So, Lauren, a lot of Republicans are sort of subtly making this argument. It’s invoking President Biden's age, suggesting that really this next election is about his vice president, Kamala Harris. You’d be putting her in charge. But Haley has been doing this by far the most explicitly. What is your read of the strategy?
LAUREN LEADER: Yeah. I mean, it's fascinating. She’s certainly trying to play on the low approval ratings which we’ve talked about on this show before, that Kamala continues to hand – deal with. Which is she has had these sort of historically low approval ratings relative to other vice presidents. And I think Haley is banking on the fact that Kamala, just her name is galvanizing for folks on the right –they loath her – and that that is going to be a winning strategy.
I do think there is a lot of irony there, and some of what Ali was going to before, is that on the one hand, Nikki Haley is willing to invoke her gender. She did it, it was one of her first sort of first comments on the debate stage. Right? Invoking Margaret Thatcher that if you want something done, right ask a woman. And then on the other hand, sort of playing on this idea that Kamala somehow is secretly the shadow president, which is also disinformation and has some gender tropes there too.
And so, in a way she’s trying to get it both ways. I think that’s what Ali’s been pointing out really consistently.
Also, about her abortion stance. It's a really difficult path, in a sense, for Nikki Haley. She's operating and running in a party that is overwhelmingly male that has a history of, you know, lots of sexist talks, etcetera. But also trying to appeal to the Republican women who will be vital in the election and are certainly vital primary voters, while also playing down her gender and playing up her gender and also lobbing gendered attacks against the first woman vice president.
It's not a simple knot to untangle.
AL SHARPTON: I also think that it is a very cynical play to try and play on the fact that she's trying to imply that President Biden will not be there for all four years if he's reelected, which I think is very cynical to suggest.
As also, she's also playing to certain elements of the Republican Party on race. That you talk about President Harris, which who is she? A black woman and a woman. And I think for Nikki Haley herself having being a woman of color, I think it's very cynical on all ends that she's making some implicit appeals to some biases that I feel she has to be intelligent enough to know what she's playing into. Lauren.
LEADER: I think this has always been a complicated line for Republicans of color. And I think you see Tim Scott on these issues too where, you know, he is obviously – talks about his childhood and his race, but yet completely doubles down in the other direction, which is that he has never been a victim of racism, that he doesn't experience those things, that the country is not racist, et cetera.
And I think you see Nikki Haley doing some of the same things. On the one hand, playing her gender, focusing on trying to connect with Republican women who do need a home in a sense. And I think that's not the wrong calculus. We've had mostly Republican male candidates just completely overlook women's issues – as we talked about the abortion stuff – is leaving them at odds with a growing number of Republican women.
And it's a really tight line and a complicated act. And I think people are calling it out because it's really difficult.
(…)
