In the past few days, two MSNBC regulars have aimed the kind of race-obsessed vitriol at Republican voters that the liberal news network has long been known for, claiming that the 77 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump are racists.
On Monday's Deadline: White House, during a discussion of President Trump's tariffs and the court battle over whether the administration can be forced to retrieve a deported illegal alien who was sent to a prison in El Salvador, contributor Eddie Glaude began ranting against the 77 million who voted for Trump in 2024:
I've gotten to the point where I'm asking myself this question. Wide aperture for a quick second. I don't know what it's going to take for the American people -- for 78 [sic] million Americans to deal with what motivated them to make the choice that the -- to elect this man again -- to make the choice that will allow these people to undermine every fundamental assumption we have that you can just be disappeared, and then they could argue that, you know, a court is getting in the way of their ability to exercise, you know, foreign policy in some ways, right?
He continued:
I don't know what it's going to take to get 78 [sic] million Americans to deal with what motivated them to make this choice. And the choice that they've made is to literally throw the republic into the trash bin. And this is just one example. The tariffs is another, right? They're -- they made the choice. Now, what is behind it? I -- we have to grapple with it because it's the snake -- it's -- it's the -- it's the beast coiled up in the heart -- in the bosom of the country as Fredrick Douglass said. And the fact that they are doubling down on this shows you what kind of human beings they actually are.
After host Nicolle Wallace prodded him, "Say more," he added:
We chose a felon who is more interested in loyalty -- who's more interested in retribution -- who's more interested in grift than in democracy. And we chose a felon because we didn't want to elect a black woman. So to read that -- to actually explicate that is to say, "We would rather destroy the republic than for that to have happened." And until we grapple with that, there's no amount of protesting I could do -- there's no amount of -- of resistance that could come into play to actually force 78 [sic] million people to grapple with what motivated them to put themselves in this position.
A few days earlier on Saturday's The Katie Phang Show, The Nation's Elie Mystal casually labeled Trump voters as "white supremacists" as he promoted his desire to allow any eligible voter to vote without having to register first:
I'm focused not on the 77 million white supremacists that voted for Donald Trump. I'm not -- I can't help them, right? That is between them and their God. I'm worried about the 90 million people who sat on their couch -- the 90 million eligible voters who sat on their couch and didn't take a stand on fascism or no.
Transcripts follow:
MSNBC's Deadline: White House
April 7, 2025
5:28 p.m. Eastern
EDDIE GLAUDE, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: You know, I think, ultimately, you know, they, they follow the rule that, "Don't own a mistake -- double down."
NICOLLE WALLACE: But they already did -- they said it was a mistake.
GLAUDE: That was the mistake -- that was the mistake, right? So I -- I -- I'm just -- I've gotten to the point where I'm asking myself this question. Wide aperture for a quick second. I don't know what it's going to take for the American people -- for 78 million Americans to deal with what motivated them to make the choice that the -- to elect this man again -- to make the choice that will allow these people to undermine every fundamental assumption we have that you can just be disappeared, and then they could argue that, you know, a court is getting in the way of their ability to exercise, you know, foreign policy in some ways, right?
I don't under -- we -- I don't know what it's going to take to get 78 million Americans to deal with what motivated them to make this choice. And the choice that they've made is to literally throw the republic into the trash bin. And this is just one example. The tariffs is another, right? They're -- they made the choice. Now, what is behind it? I -- we have to grapple with it because it's the snake -- it's -- it's the -- it's the beast coiled up in the heart -- in the bosom of the country as Fredrick Douglass said. And the fact that they are doubling down on this shows you what kind of human beings they actually are.
WALLACE: Say more.
GLAUDE: We chose a felon who is more interested in loyalty -- who's more interested in retribution -- who's more interested in grift than in democracy. And we chose a felon because we didn't want to elect a black woman. So to read that -- to actually explicate that is to say, "We would rather destroy the republic than for that to have happened." And until we grapple with that, there's no amount of protesting I could do -- there's no amount of -- of resistance that could come into play to actually force 78 million people to grapple with what motivated them to put themselves in this position.
(...)
MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show
April 5, 2025
12:33 p.m. Eastern
KATIE PHANG: And, you know, something that you said that also resonated with me, Elie, is you said the left has to take a page from the right's playbook and to bring in the hammer. I would actually amend that a little bit and say we have to bring in the sledge hammer based upon what you just said that the Republicans do. What does that look like, though? Because there's a big game and a big talk with messaging, and yet the actual implementation of something always seems to be lacking.
ELIE MYSTAL, THE NATION MAGAZINE: Democrats always say they want to protect voting rights, right? And that's great. I also want to protect voting rights.
PHANG: Why not?
MYSTAL: Your previous guest, Marc Elias, has dedicated his life to protecting voting rights, but I want to do more than that. I want to expand voting rights. I want to make voting. I want to make voting actually easier for people. So one of the -- the first chapter in my book is about repealing voter registration laws -- not voter eligibility requirements. I'm not crazy, right? We should have eligibility requirements, you know. If you have, let's say, an age limit, right -- you got to be 18 to vote -- I'm generally cool with that. I don't want my nine-year-old voting -- that would be a bad idea. I've talked to him, right? However, once you are eligible -- once you have met the eligibility requirements, there is no need to have a secondary hurdle to pre-register before you go vote. If you're eligible, you should be able to walk into a polling booth and vote. It's that simple.
And it's so simple that this isn't my idea. This is the idea of most democracies around the world. Everybody else besides us either has automatic registration, mandatory registration, or same-day registration. We're the only ones that have this archaic, asinine system where you have to register -- pre-register 10 days, two weeks, a month in advance of the actual election, right?
So I'm kind of, with that suggestion, I'm focused not on the 77 million white supremacists that voted for Donald Trump. I'm not -- I can't help them, right? That is between them and their God. I'm worried about the 90 million people who sat on their couch -- the 90 million eligible voters who sat on their couch and didn't take a stand on fascism or no. Right? And I'm thinking that one of the ways to motivate them is to make it just a little bit easier, and getting rid of pre-registration requirements makes it just a little bit easier for people who, again, are already eligible to vote -- have already met the eligibility requirements. We're not talking about noncitizens voting -- we're not talking about undocumented people voting. We're talking about eligible American citizens. Why should they -- why should you have to pre-register in order to exercise your franchise inside this alleged democracy?
