On Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke at the “Defend The Vote” protest in Washington, but instead of taking issue with the premise that voter suppression is real, MS NOW On The Line guest host Eugene Daniels brought in journalism professor Jason Johnson to claim Democrats need to be tougher against “this kind of extreme white nationalist, authoritarian regime.”
Daniels began by trying to analogize the current state of affairs to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s before appearing to backtrack, “Jason, what's your first reaction to what we just heard from Hakeem Jeffries, who talked about Fannie Lou Hamer and talked about Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks. Pulling on the ancestors, as we would call it in this moment, because they were standing up in a time where it was just as or maybe more dangerous to stand up for your rights.”
MS NOW's Eugene Daniels suggests that the 1960s were almost as dangerous for civil rights as today before catching himself, "We just heard from Hakeem Jeffries, who talked about Fannie Lou Hamer and talked about Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks. Pulling on the ancestors as we… pic.twitter.com/zi2fuQ15yb
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 28, 2026
When Daniels appeared to recognize his analogy was a terrible one, he should have ended the conversation, but instead he decided to keep going and tried to still claim things are terrible while also portraying the rally as a giant pep talk, “And they had their backs up against the wall in a real serious way that we frankly do not have our backs up against the wall like that. And so it feels to me that he and other Democrats are constantly trying to remind all of us, the younger generations, that, actually, we have more tools at our disposal to fight back against what we're seeing.”
Johnson began his response by hammering Jeffries from the left for talking to Jared Kushner and smearing the administration, “My first thought, Eugene, was, were the extremists in the room with you when you were meeting with Jared Kushner? Was the good trouble in the room with you when you were meeting with Jared Kushner? Because this is the problem, right? You cannot speak against this oppression. You cannot speak about the importance of pushing back against this kind of extreme white nationalist, authoritarian regime and then have private meetings with people where you don't appear to be in control of what the narrative or seem to have any leverage.”
He continued, “So, I am glad that he's up there speaking. I'm glad that anybody is up there speaking. But the key, which is what he ended with, is you've got to have power and control. You have to win in November. You can talk about Fannie Lou Hamer, you can talk about Shirley Chisholm. You can talk about Reverend Al. I mean, look, we've got an entire history of people—you can talk about DeRay Mckesson, right? We have a lifetime of people who've been fighting for black rights and justice and peace for everybody in this country.”
However, Johnson then returned to his original theme of attacking Jeffries for talking to somebody from the administration, “But if you are not willing to take the fight to the people who are causing the problem, if you're willing to always break bread with them privately and then call them out publicly, the people in the crowd are not willing to run through a brick wall for you. And that's the problem that Democrats sometimes have after these speeches. Because when the speeches are done, people have to know that you're willing to be in the fight, not just in the fight in public.”
It is obvious that what activists like King and Parks went through in the 60s is worse than today because no matter how many times MS NOW tries to claim otherwise, nobody’s vote is being taken away.
Here is a transcript for the August 28 show:
MS NOW On The Line With Alicia Menenedez
8/28/2026
12:17 PM ET
EUGENE DANIELS: Jason, what's your first reaction to what we just heard from Hakeem Jeffries, who talked about Fannie Lou Hamer and talked about Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks. Pulling on the ancestors, as we would call it in this moment, because they were standing up in a time where it was just as or maybe more dangerous to stand up for your rights.
And they had their backs up against the wall in a real serious way that we frankly do not have our backs up against the wall like that. And so it feels to me that he and other Democrats are constantly trying to remind all of us, the younger generations, that, actually, we have more tools at our disposal to fight back against what we're seeing.
JASON JOHNSON: My first thought, Eugene, was, were the extremists in the room with you when you were meeting with Jared Kushner? Was the good trouble in the room with you when you were meeting with Jared Kushner? Because this is the problem, right? You cannot speak against this oppression. You cannot speak about the importance of pushing back against this kind of extreme white nationalist, authoritarian regime and then have private meetings with people where you don't appear to be in control of what the narrative or seem to have any leverage.
So, I am glad that he's up there speaking. I'm glad that anybody is up there speaking. But the key, which is what he ended with, is you've got to have power and control. You have to win in November. You can talk about Fannie Lou Hamer, you can talk about Shirley Chisholm. You can talk about Reverend Al. I mean, look, we've got an entire history of people—you can talk about DeRay Mckesson, right? We have a lifetime of people who've been fighting for black rights and justice and peace for everybody in this country.
But if you are not willing to take the fight to the people who are causing the problem, if you're willing to always break bread with them privately and then call them out publicly, the people in the crowd are not willing to run through a brick wall for you. And that's the problem that Democrats sometimes have after these speeches. Because when the speeches are done, people have to know that you're willing to be in the fight, not just in the fight in public.
