Updated
Summary
Former top White House official Peter Navarro is indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress. The lack of gun regulations in America is examined. A member of the Proud Boys pleads guilty to a January 6 felony.
Transcript
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: It`s been a long news week, but we have a special announcement.
This Sunday, MSNBC presents “The Devil`s Advocate,” a serious — a series about a lawyer and a con man who represented everyone from Manson to Saddam Hussein. It should be pretty interesting, “Devil`s Advocate: A Mostly True Story.” That is this weekend, Sunday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, and on Peacock.
THE REIDOUT WITH JOY REID starts now.
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, everyone. We have a lot to get to on a very newsy Friday, including a major development in the January 6 front.
A federal grand jury today indicted former Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who ignored a subpoena from the January 6 Committee. Navarro hasn`t been shy about divulging his role in the plot to overturn the election. He wrote a book and talked to pretty much everyone with a microphone, including my colleague Ari Melber last night. He is now the second Trump ally on contempt — indicted on contempt of Congress charges.
And we will have a lot more on that coming up.
But we began THE REIDOUT tonight with a choice, a choice about the continuation of mass murders and school shootings that are plaguing this country, because it is a choice, not an inevitability, as some might want you to believe.
In fact, one of our political parties has gone to great lengths to make you think just that. Well, at this point, shouldn`t the Republican Party just keep it real and openly admit, at long last, that they believe that a substantial number of dead churchgoers and dead shoppers and dead doctors and, yes, dead children, big kids and little ones, is an acceptable tradeoff for them to have as many guns as they want whenever they want with as little inconvenience as possible?
And no one has said it better than Democratic Congressman Mondaire Jones, who spoke during yesterday`s contentious House Judiciary Committee debate over the Democrats` package of gun safety bills.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MONDAIRE JONES (D-NY): As the youngest member of this committee, I need to address my Republican colleagues on behalf of the generations of young people whom Republicans have condemned to grow up in fear that they will be gunned down at school.
Since Columbine, more than 311,000 children have experienced gun violence at school. There were more school shootings last year than in any year since 1999, the year of Columbine.
And there have been more than 200 mass shootings this year already. The leading cause of death of American children is now gun violence.
Behind every one of those statistics is the story of a person, often a child, who mattered. To the parents who mourn and the children who fear, all you have to offer are more guns, and apparently the ridiculous idea of fewer school doors.
My generation and the generations who have followed know that this epidemic of gun violence is not unstoppable. It is a choice, a choice you can make differently at any time, a choice between our lives and your guns.
Time after time, we have given you a chance to do something, after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Parkland .And time after time, you have chosen to put your right to kill over our right to live.
But your selfishness and your indifference have not killed our hope. You have transformed it. Before, we believed that you might do what the people overwhelmingly support and help advance commonsense gun violence legislation.
Now we know that is it is up to us to save ourselves from you. We did not choose this fight. We had our own dreams for our lives, the same as you did when you were kids. But we can`t let you get away with this anymore. Enough is enough. Enough of you telling us that school shootings are a fact of life, when every other country like ours has virtually ended it.
Enough of you blaming mental illness and then defunding mental health care in this country. Enough of your thoughts and prayers. Enough. Enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Congressman Mondaire Jones of New York joins me, now along with Jim Gard, a math teacher in Coconut Creek, Florida, and a survivor of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Thank you both for being here. I really, really appreciate both of you.
And, Representative Jones, that headline, 311,000 young people, students, exposed to gun violence since Columbine, is a damning statistic for this country.
But I want to play you what Louie Gohmert — we saw that really empty set of seats on the other side as you were speaking. Republicans didn`t seem to have the courage to listen to you in person.
But Louie Gohmert did respond. Here`s what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): To infer by rhetorical supposed questions, who are you here for, we must be here for the gunman, is an outrage.
[19:05:05]
How dare you? You think we don`t have hearts?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: And, to be clear, he was actually not responding to you. He was actually responding to Eric Swalwell, so just to clear up that.
But how do you respond to those Republicans who get all misty and say, we don`t — don`t think we have hearts too?
JONES: Oh, well, the answer is that, no, we don`t think that you have hearts, because you could do that which is required to stop the massacring of American children.
And, time after time, you refuse to honor your oath and you refuse to do the basic things that are required. I mean, these are — these are not aggressive actions that we are contemplating in Congress. We`re talking about universal background checks, raising the age to purchase semiautomatic weapons, in the way that you have to be 21 years old to do any number of other things in our society that are far less deadly than owning a firearm.
And, of course, we do need to ban assault weapons, which we`re still whipping votes to do. But this is something that is a uniquely and American problem. And I just reject the idea that any of my Republican colleagues have any good-faith basis whatsoever, to continue their obstruction and their opposition to something that is broadly supported by the American people.
REID: Yes, including by the vast majority of gun owners, who also say, yes, this is commonsense stuff. You shouldn`t be able to just go over to a gun show and evade filling out the paperwork and just pick up an AR-15 and go out and do what you got to do.
Jim Gard, thank you for being here.
When Republicans try to put forward a solution, it`s things like, only have one door to go in and out, so no egress, so, basically, one door. God forbid there`s ever a stampede situation or that the gunman comes in that one door. I`m not sure what their plan is there.
You have Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina, saying that he wants to recruit thousands and thousands of military veterans, and have them guard schools, basically turning our schools into military compounds. That`s his solution, rather than deal with the fact that, in the case of the shooting that you survived, a 19-year-old was able to get an AR-15.
Your thoughts on that?
JIM GARD, PARKLAND SHOOTING SURVIVOR: There`s no logic to his solution.
We`re still four years later, and the kids — my own son, who went through that as a middle schooler, were still affected by it. Even with the latest shooting, having a hard time sleeping even through that — the past week.
More guns is not a solution.
REID: Let me ask you about that. And I need to thank you for correcting me that your son went through — when your son, when your family sees these shootings after shooting, it`s got to be re-traumatizing, because I think you add to that 311,000 students who have experienced gun violence the millions of students who are continuing to be traumatized by it, because, even if you survive it, then every other mass shooting of kids your age traumatizes you again.
GARD: Oh, yes.
I mean, these kids are in generation lockdown. I mean, this is all that they go through. And it`s — they`re just so used to it. And that`s one thing. You talk about kids who were murdered, kids who are injured, and it`s the entire — all their friends, all their relatives, their coaches, what have you.
And it`s something that will live with you forever and ever.
REID: And you`re a teacher. What about this idea that you should get a gun, that you should — you were a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Should — would that have been a solution for you and other teachers to have a pistol to be able to fight a person with an AR-15?
GARD: Well, it wasn`t a solution last week in Texas, when you actually…
REID: Fair.
GARD: … had professionals who had guns.
And here I am a teacher of, what, my — I`m just finishing year 41. My expertise is not firearms. It`s mathematics.
REID: There you go.
Representative Jones, there is this other meme from Republicans that laws don`t do anything. Gohmert would go on to say, well, in states that have really strict gun laws, lots of people die in big cities there, leaving out the side that those guns are often trafficked into those states — cities and states, places like New York from places like Virginia, where it`s easier to get guns. He left that part out.
But if laws don`t work, why do they work everywhere else? I just want to put up this chart. Australia, they passed a gun law in 1996. Their shooting rate — their deaths per 100,000 people by a gun are a fraction of ours, 0.19, vs. ours, which is 3.96.
New Zealand, similar. They passed the gun law in 2019. It seems to have worked. They had two major mass shootings. They haven`t had hardly any since. Norway passed a law in 2018, seemed to work there. Ditto the United Kingdom.
[19:10:00]
How do you explain that? Because they`re claiming that gun laws don`t work, but they seemed to have worked everywhere else but here everywhere else.
JONES: Well, they can`t explain it. It is without a basis in fact.
You can identify any number of mass shootings over the past several decades and draw a direct link between someone`s not having to go through a background check that would have been a red flag for them, or their ability to easily access an assault weapon that would have been banned under legislation that we are considering passing through the House.
And that will give just the evidence that you need to conclude that strong laws aimed at ending gun violence would actually be effective at accomplishing precisely what the goal is that House Democrats are talking about here.
I was 11 years old when Columbine happened. And, as horrified as I was in that moment, I never imagined that school shootings would become the norm in this country, to the point where so many folks are now numb to them.
And we have got students doing these exercises alongside their teachers, when they should be studying mathematics. And so I`m just so appalled by the behavior of my colleagues here.
And the entire world needs to see who is responsible, because House Democrats and Senate Democrats are standing up to do the right thing here. And we know that the right thing is what both Democrats Republicans, and, by the way, independent voters support, because the polling bears that out.
REID: Yes.
JONES: It is the NRA with its choke hold over the Republican Party.
And it`s folks like Tucker Carlson, who went on his show last night and, of course, attacked me, as he loves to do, for just stating the facts that we need to abolish the filibuster, because we will not find 10 Republicans of good conscience to do anything meaningful in this moment, because they have failed repeatedly to do that in so many other instances.
And I`m going to keep speaking truth. You also mentioned, Joy, the fact that, in states like New York, for example, which has the iron pipeline, where the vast majority of illegally possessed guns are coming from states that have far laxer, far weaker gun laws, that that is largely responsible for the gun violence that we are seeing in the communities that my Republican colleagues like to vilify and talk about, like Chicago and New York City.
REID: Exactly. It`s a pipeline that comes from easy — states where it`s easy to get a gun.
And, by the way, we have a history, Jim Gard, of doing something about this. When the assault weapons ban passed in 1994. I believe about four Republicans voted for it, but it didn`t get filibustered. That`s the bottom line. It didn`t — the assault weapons ban that was a part of that crime bill in 1994, it passed without a filibuster.
So there`s a history of regulating guns. We have had firearms regulation for a really long time. New York has just passed a law that would raise the minimum age to buy a semiautomatic rifle to 21, banning most civilians from purchasing bullet-resistant body vests, and would revise the state`s red flag laws.
In the case of the shooting in Parkland, this — it seems to meet everything that happened to your family and your son`s friends and your fellow teachers. Somebody who can get a semiautomatic weapon who`s under 21. Check. These guys go in wearing body armor, so that, even if there is a police officer, there`s very little they can do about it, because they have got on body armor.
And red flag laws. If someone is concerned about a younger person who, by the way, who just did the drills themselves, so they know where the kids are going to hide, and they`re having a psychological issue, you can`t even red flag them to stop them from getting a gun.
What do you say, Jim Gard, to those who say laws won`t do anything?
GARD: Well, they do things. I mean, you just proved it yourself.
One excuse they often use is mental illness. Well, you have the rest of the planet can`t have a significantly different mental illness rate than the U.S. Yet here they are. We`re just killing loads of kids, hundreds of kids a year and, I mean, adults, cetera, et cetera.
But they have to respect life a whole lot more than they do, and a lot more than — a lot more than the dollar, a lot more than the millions of pieces of silver…
REID: Yes.
GARD: … over the 30 that they have pretty much traded for.
REID: Well, I have to say — I have said it before and I will say it again — pro-life is not a real thing. It`s a made-up thing, and it isn`t real, because, if they were pro-life, they would want more kids to survive the school day without being shot dead in class.
Congressman Mondaire Jones, thank you for speaking. Never stop doing that.
Jim Gard, thank you very much, sir. Really appreciate you both.
Coming up: The government has lots of regulations about things like ladders and lawn mowers and baby cribs. So, why are AR-15s, which can blow your face clean off and shatter your bones like jelly, so ridiculously easy to buy?
Plus, if you missed it, one of Trump`s top henchmen was indicted today. We will discuss with our friend Glenn Kirschner.
And stick around for “Who Won the Week?” because, believe it or not, some folks actually did win this week.
[19:15:02]
THE REIDOUT continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: One of the major features of the gun debate is Americans` easy access to all kinds of guns.
And nothing exposes the ease with which one can buy a weapon of war more than what happened in Tulsa on Wednesday, when a man who blamed his doctor for his ongoing pain purchased an AR-15-style rifle just hours before heading to the hospital, opening fire inside, and killing his doctor and three other people.
[19:20:04]
According to police, the gunman specifically targeted Dr. Preston Phillips, the orthopedic surgeon who had treated him. Among his many roles. Dr. Phillips also served on a board of directors for Tulsa`s John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, a group working to address the area`s tumultuous past of racial violence.
The rampage that killed Phillips came one day after the 101st anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, when a white mob pillaged a black neighborhood in Tulsa, killing hundreds.
These weapons of war are designed to kill people quickly and in large numbers. That`s literally their design purpose. And it`s arguably easier to buy an AR-15 than to purchase Sudafed or a beer.
Meanwhile, we regulate cars, toys, detergent pods, swimming pools, food. We regulate ladders, because ladders are dangerous, a primary cause of serious, even fatal injuries for workers.
And yet we do nothing about assault weapons, even as the violence continues, with separate shootings in the Midwest just yesterday, and even as families in Uvalde bury their precious loved ones.
Joining me now from Uvalde is Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino. She attended the funeral of one of the victims in Uvalde today, and will host a call to action in San Antonio — San Antonio tomorrow.
And, Maria, I cannot imagine what it was like to be at one of those funerals, but if you could give us some sense of how that family is doing and how the community is doing.
MARIA TERESA KUMAR, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VOTO LATINO: The community is crushed.
Before attending the funeral, I went over and I actually went to the school and spent some time there and spoke to a lot of the local folks, and then was — spent a lot of time with state Senator Roland Gutierrez, who is grieving as much as everyone else, went into the funeral, to the service.
And I have to say what was so striking was that the funeral was in English; 99 percent of the pews were Latino, hardworking Latinos, blue-collar workers, and they were grieving. And I have to tell you that the hardest part was when they — at the very end of the service, they brought down the casket of a little girl that was painted in these bright red and white colors.
And I think it hit all of us.
REID: Yes.
KUMAR: I had a brief conversation with one of the (AUDIO GAP) who was her teacher, but also her aunt.
And we were all devastated. And I think that, when you see these individuals who are from such a small town, Joy, such a small town, with what you can see our limited resources — the school is dilapidated. It`s not — it`s not a fancy school, by any means. The neighborhood is not fancy.
They`re all trying to get by. And they`re all supporting each other. And that is, I think, what is the most striking, is that — how much strength they`re finding, but, at the same time, a lot of grief. And they`re very private and wanting to make sure that we continue remembering them, that these children are not — that their death is not in vain, but that we respect their privacy at the same time.
It was hard, Joy. It was very difficult.
REID: Yes, I`m sure.
And the thing is, is that you do have — what`s shocking and sort of depressing about all this is that you do have a political party that`s decided that this should just be routine, that we should just get used to it, think and pray for the people who are grieving, they should just go on grieving, because they`re not changing a damn thing.
They`re not going to stop it. It doesn`t matter how many children die. It doesn`t matter how many little caskets have to be lowered into the ground. They just don`t really care.
And this statistic in “The Washington Post” really struck us here at the show today. There have been more than 200 mass shootings so far in 2022. And that is defined, a mass shooting, by where four or more people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed.
Therefore, we have averaged more than one per day so far this year. There has been not a single week, not one week has passed in 2022, without at least four mass shootings, four per week.
I wonder if you get a sense just from talking to people there if we have reached a tipping point where people have said, it`s so bad now that I`m going to do something, that I`m going to take action?
KUMAR: I have to share with you, one of the things that I think is striking was that I spoke to state Senator Roland Gutierrez.
And he was very honest with me. He said: “I — this is a very large district. I haven`t traveled here as much, but I am here now.”
And the amount of people coming up to him saying “Thank you” and “Give them hell” was so many — at the service, at the park, at the clinic that we visited, everywhere, everybody is looking for that leadership to step in because they recognize that their grief has to turn and mean something.
REID: Yes.
KUMAR: I often say it`s not that Texas is a red state. It`s that it`s a nonvoting state.
There are five million people of color in this state who are eligible to vote, and they`re sitting it out. We need everybody here. And the reason I think that this is such an important moment is that I remind folks, Texas has a minimum of 48 electoral votes. They can change the trajectory, not just of this country, but literally save democracy. And I think people are fed up.
[19:25:02]
But, more than anything, it was the space that people were grieving and holding each other and recognizing that they need each other right now.
REID: Yes.
KUMAR: And the outpouring of support that I witnessed from all over the country, at the elementary school, from packages, to flowers, to signs, is showing that there is incredible solidarity here.
REID: And Texas is disproportionate — it disproportionately impacts the country, not just in textbooks, but in laws as well. It influences the rest of the country, because it`s just so big and so populous.
And I will now note that Maria Teresa Kumar has an event called Stand With Uvalde. It is June 4 — that is this weekend — from 10:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. It`s at Travis Park in San Antonio, Texas. Joaquin Castro, the congressman, will be there, Beto O`Rourke, who is running for governor, there.
Brandon Wolf, who we know, very much, a friend of the show, activist and Pulse nightclub survivor, shooting survivor, will be there, and Julian Castro. So both the Castro brothers will be there, former HUD secretary.
Thank you so much, Maria Teresa Kumar. Really appreciate you braving it through the tech issues to be on with us tonight. And we will be paying attention to what you do this weekend. Thank you, my friend.
Still ahead: Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro becomes the second member of Trump`s inner circle slapped with criminal charges for stonewalling the January 6 Committee.
More next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:31:08]
REID: Peter Navarro, one of the key authors of the plan to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election, was arrested today and charged by the Department of Justice with two counts of contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with the January 6 Committee.
The first count was for failing to appear for a deposition. The second was for failing to produce documents that the committee requested. Navarro, who was represented by a public defender, did not enter a plea during a court appearance today.
Outside the courthouse, the man who seems to love the camera launched into a litany of unhinged claims against the DOJ and the January 6 Committee. That`s sort of a thing with Navarro. He loves to talk. He isn`t shy about the plan that he and fellow indictee Steve Bannon cooked up, which they dubbed the Green Bay Sweep.
My colleague Ari Melber asked him about that last night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELBER: So you`re risking going potentially to jail not to talk to them, but you`re out here talking in public.
You do realize these investigators can hear you when you talk on TV?
PETER NAVARRO, FORMER DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: What we`re talking about now, Ari, is the case law itself and the constitutionality of executive privilege, testimonial immunity.
A second key issue in the case is the separation of powers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: The plan was to keep Trump in office by pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of the electoral votes from key swing states.
Again, Navarro and Bannon wanted to force the vice president of the United States to ignore the results of a free and fair election. And, by default, they wanted to Congress to ignore the will of the people as well, because their guy lost by seven million votes.
In refusing to appear before the January 6 Committee, Navarro claimed over and over again that he is exempt because of executive privilege. But here`s the thing. He ain`t got it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Navarro then appears to fall back on the vague assertion that the executive privilege here belongs to former President Trump, which is not only dubious, but entirely irrelevant, because our committee has not been given any attempted invocation of executive privilege by Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Navarro and Bannon are just two of the four individuals that the House committee referred to the Department of Justice, which leaves us with this question: What about former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Trump aide Dan Scavino?
With me now, Glenn Kirschner, former federal prosecutor and an MSNBC legal analyst.
So, Glenn, before I get to Peter Navarro, can you answer that question for me? Because it does seem like Mark Meadows and Scavino, who was Trump`s social media guy, they were actually closer to Trump in their jobs. They were White House aides and closer to Trump on the day of the insurrection.
Do you — can you explain to us why Navarro, who was trade secretary, and others, that the Meadows and Scavino are not being arrested and indicted?
GLENN KIRSCHNER, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I can`t explain it, Joy, because we don`t know what we don`t know about the way the Department of Justice is going about investigating these men or pursuing these contempt of Congress referrals.
It seems like Navarro is more in the Scavino sort of mold, right? They kind of held comparable positions. But Mark Meadows, of course, as chief of staff, to then-President Donald Trump, I can see how that would be a little bit more of a challenge for the Department of Justice to make sure, if they`re going to do it, they get it right.
But it could be also a product of the fact that they`re talking with and negotiating with a Mark Meadows, because he`s a big criminal fish. He is well up there…
REID: Yes.
KIRSCHNER: … on one of the higher rungs of the criminal ladder.
So it could be that they`re working out cooperation with Meadows. We won`t know until we know.
REID: And so there`s all this stuff with Navarro.
Let`s go back to him for a second. So he came out of the courtroom today and gave a sort of grandiose sort of presentation to reporters, claimed that the January “60 Minutes” is acting as judge, jury and executioner and saying the Constitution was violated, it`s coercion, and it`s terrorism and all this stuff.
[19:35:06]
I mean, this guy actually filed a civil case. He actually sued. He sued. He filed an 88-page complaint, listing the U.S. attorney that`s involved it for D.C., the select committee, Nancy Pelosi, and others, and again trying to claim that he can act under executive privilege that Trump hasn`t claimed, just because Trump was president at one time.
Please unpack this argument for us.
KIRSCHNER: You know, it`s a bunch of nonsensical word salad that Peter Navarro offers every time he`s on TV running his mouth, and he also offered it to the judge in that suit that he filed.
Judge Randy Moss basically said, you don`t know what you`re talking about, go away and try again, and gave him until June 17 to try again.
He doesn`t have an executive privilege claim for multiple reasons, Joy. One, Joe Biden is the holder of the privilege at this moment. And he`s waived it. He has chosen not to invoke it. Two, he was not really a member of the executive branch at the time. There are a number of ways you can defeat Peter Navarro`s claim of executive privilege.
And at the end of the day, Donald Trump has never asserted it, as members of the J6 Committee have explained. So, Peter Navarro has got nothing but word salad.
REID: Yes.
KIRSCHNER: But I`m just very pleased that he`s finally going to be standing in court, and 12 jurors are going to make this decision, as opposed to us all speculating about, what should we do with Peter Navarro?
REID: Right.
And the fact that he sued means he does have a lawyer working for him in some capacity. Does it surprise you that he had a public defender for this case?
KIRSCHNER: You know, it doesn`t surprise me that the court insisted on a public defender standing in at least for his arraignment on the indictment. He may continue to insist to represent himself.
And he has a constitutional right, an absolute constitutional right under the Sixth Amendment, both to have counsel represent him and to waive that right to counsel and represent himself.
REID: Yes.
KIRSCHNER: He will have a fool for a client. But the good news is, he cannot make an ineffective assistance of counsel claim in the event of conviction if he chooses to represent himself.
REID: Yes.
Let`s go to this other stuff, because you do have a Proud Boy that pleaded guilty today, admitting that he nearly reached Senator Schumer during the Capitol siege. There was considerable violence at play that we all saw live on television on January 6.
But there`s also this new reporting from Maggie Haberman at “The New York Times” that, before January 6, an aide to Vice President Pence was warned and warned by the Secret Service of a security risk to Pence
Here`s what the reporting says: “The day before a mob of President Donald J. Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, Vice President Mike Pence`s chief of staff called Mr. Pence`s lead Secret Service agent to his West Wing office. The president was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence because of it.”
We know that “Hang Mike Pence” was chanted. People brought a noose. People were hunting Mike Pence. What does it do for all — to all of these defendants? And does it creep closer to the White House to know that people knew that Mike Pence`s life was likely in danger?
KIRSCHNER: Yes, it absolutely does creep closer to the White House and makes its way directly into the Oval Office.
All of these insurrectionists who are being tried and convicted, they can claim, I was only following my president`s orders, but that`s not a legal defense. It may be relevant to their sentence in the event of conviction, but it is not a defense.
But when we hear reporting, Joy, like Donald Trump saying things like, perhaps Mike Pence should be hanged — and that was reported by the — one of Mark Meadows` own aides, related that information — that really does sound like Donald Trump levying war against the United States. And that`s the very definition of treason.
If you owe an allegiance to the United States, as the president does — he took an oath — and you levy war against the United States or assist their enemies, aid and abet their enemies, then you have committed the crime of treason.
And Donald Trump launched the attack by telling people that the folks in the Capitol stole their vote.
REID: Yes.
KIRSCHNER: Go down there and fight like hell, or you won`t have a country anymore.
REID: Yes.
KIRSCHNER: And then he refused to put a stop to the violence. And we now know, on top of it, he said maybe Mike Pence should be hanged?
REID: Should be hanged.
KIRSCHNER: That will support a treason charge.
REID: Two people and — said it, and knowing that there were people like the Proud Boys and the 3 Percenters and the Oath keepers out there who were ready to do violence.
Glenn Kirschner, always appreciate you, man. Thank you.
“Who Won the Week?” is coming up, but, first, more on that Proud Boy pleading guilty to a January 6 felony, plus how members of that extremist group are now infiltrating Florida politics.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:44:25]
REID: The Justice Department has zeroed in on the far right extremist group the Proud Boys` participation in the insurrection.
Today, a member who stormed the Capitol pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding. Joshua Pruitt also admitted in court documents that he nearly contacted Senator Chuck Schumer. Pruitt appeared in videos with the Proud Boys` most prominent member, Enrique Tarrio, who`s in jail awaiting trial. A federal judge denied his request for release, citing the threat of dangerousness he poses.
Tarrio has been known as a political entity in Florida long before he was the head of Latinos for Trump, sitting behind the former president at speeches and later visiting the White House. He led a mob — a mob-style attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2018 at a protest organized by the Miami- Dade Republican Party at an event for congressional candidate Donna Shalala.
[19:45:16]
The Miami-Dade Republican chair had to apologize at the time. But fast- forward four years, a chilling “New York Times” report details how that chapter has essentially been taken over by the group, infiltrating the formerly normcore Miami-Dade Republican home of Jeb Bush.
Joining me now is Fernand Amandi, MSNBC political analyst and pollster, and Dean Obeidallah, host of “The Dean Obeidallah Show” on SiriusXM.
Thank you both for being here.
Fernand, my friend, let`s start with this Enrique Tarrio take over. I mean, those of us who kind of had seen him kind of operating the way he was operating within the Miami-Dade Republican Party always thought, wow, this is — this seems dangerous.
How did the Proud Boys basically do a hostile takeover of the Miami-Dade Republican Party? And what does it mean?
FERNAND AMANDI, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Joy, do I want just want to emphasize your point.
Enrique Tarrio today is in a federal prison for committing conspiracy to overthrow the United States gunman as the head of the Proud Boys at the national level, not an insignificant charge.
REID: Correct.
AMANDI: And the other thing I think needs to be made clear, the Proud Boys is not like the Tea Party. It`s not an ideological fringe group.
This is a domestic terrorist organization that uses violence and intimidation as its means. So, when you think about the fact that Enrique Tarrio, of course, from Miami, and what we`re now discovering that Miami is the mecca for MAGA, it should be no surprise that there has been an overt effort to little by little take over the largest county in the state, which is, of course, Miami-Dade County.
And that`s exactly what the Proud Boys have done. They have, in essence, taken up the leadership positions and start to have a controlling interest, so that now the Miami-Dade Republican Party is the Miami-Dade Republican Party overseen by the Proud Boys.
And, incredibly, Joy, no one in Miami politics at the Republican level has resigned. No one has called this out. They have accepted it as such, because MAGA is the normal for the Republican Party in Miami and in Florida.
REID: It`s wild.
Let me read just a little bit of this “New York Times” piece.
And it says: “At least half-a-dozen current and foreign Proud Boys have secured seats on the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee. Their ranks include adherents who face themselves criminal charges for participating in the Capitol attack.”
One is Gilbert Fonticoba, has been charged with obstructing Congress. Gabriel Garcia has been charged with interfering with law enforcement officers.
Dean, can you imagine any Democratic political organization surviving two days in the news cycle by — after recruiting and being taken over by a group associated with a terrorist attack on the United States?
DEAN OBEIDALLAH, MSNBC DAILY COLUMNIST: I would hope not.
And just to remind people, if they didn`t know this, in Florida, in that county, there were Muslim Americans who wanted to get involved in politics, and Republicans years ago smeared them, saying they`re involved in terrorism simply because they`re Muslim.
Now the Proud Boys that are literally designated a terrorist group by the government of Canada, literally, and they are accepting them.
Look, Joy, no one should be surprised. Look at recent polls. Nearly 60 percent of Republicans view January 6, not as an act of domestic terrorism, but as an act of patriotism. It`s an act defending freedom. That`s literally the CBS poll. That`s what we`re dealing with.
So, of course, remember, Donald Trump said, stand back and stand by? Well, now they`re welcome in the GOP, because the GOP, as we have talked about, Joy, is a fascist movement. It has gone from a political party to one with a military wing. And they`re embracing that military wing, so if they lose another election, they could do another January 6, because, if they didn`t want them there, they`d be gone.
So we have to assume they want them there, or they`d be denouncing them.
REID: Well, I mean, they see them as useful.
I mean, look, I`m old enough to remember, Fernand, when the majority of Muslim Americans and Arab Americans, whether Muslim or not, in Florida voted Republican. This was the era of Jeb, Bush when this was — they were generally a Republican cohort. And then, as Dean said, after 9/11, there was this demonization that drove that group into the Democratic Party, really for self-protection.
But now what you`re seeing is, it kind of doesn`t matter where people vote, because Ron DeSantis is creating essentially a Republican super state, where it doesn`t matter how you vote, where it`s controlled completely by Republicans.
We now have the Florida Supreme Court backing down and saying that his congressional map that deletes black representation in the same part of Florida, in Central Florida, where they`re also attacking Disney and putting $2 billion their books to pay for, they`re now going to lose political representation.
Is there any way out, when the Republican Party has this stranglehold? He`s gone after everyone. He`s gone after this the Tampa Bay Rays for daring to go against his — him on guns, so speaking out against him.
[19:50:03]
The man is on a tear. He`s gone after the Special Olympics. Is there any way to stop this? He`s gone after trans kids. It`s a full-on war at this point against anyone who opposes him.
AMANDI: Joy, you ask the most important question, because, for 246 years in this country, the answer to that question, is there any way to stop this, would have been well, yes, you can stop it at the ballot box this November.
I`m not so sure that, even if the will of the voters calls to end this madness that`s happening in Florida, it would come to pass, because Florida, I don`t think, is a democracy anymore. I think that Florida is truly an authoritarian state modeled after Hungary, Orban, where, by the way, the Conservative Political Action Committee had their conference this here, because, in Ron DeSantis, they are trying to establish that type of authoritarian leader who will eventually run for president of the United States.
REID: Absolutely.
And, Dean, I mean, it — there`s a model for that, and it`s called Texas, which is also not a small-D democratic state, even with — it is very hard to vote. It is very hard to dislodge this minority rule leadership.
And it almost doesn`t matter what the people there want. Florida is the same thing. And the Republican Party is trying to roll that out nationwide.
OBEIDALLAH: We`re going to be seeing refugees from Florida seeking freedom coming to New York. And you`re welcome here. We`d like to have you here in our state.
Look, they`re making it to DeSantistan.
REID: Yes.
OBEIDALLAH: It`s going to be the worst Disney ride ever, where he runs it. He is banning books, banning black history, banning saying the word gay, banning hormone therapy for transgender teens, which is just cruelty, because parents have to agree to it.
Studies have shown that teens who are transgender who get hormone therapy 40 percent less likely to commit suicide or a suicide attempt. He knows that. He doesn`t care. It`s cruelty. It`s the idea — like Trump, the idea, let`s prey on those who are vulnerable, instead of helping them.
And the base, which talks about being pro-life — hah-hah — doesn`t care about the sanctity of life. They don`t care about children. They don`t keep up people in need.
So, look, I`m worried. I look at Florida, I look at Ron DeSantis being groomed to be the next grand wizard of the GOP on a national level, and we should all be alarmed by what they`re trying to do in Florida nationally.
REID: Yes.
OBEIDALLAH: Very alarming.
REID: A hundred percent. And…
(CROSSTALK)
AMANDI: Joy…
REID: Yes, very quickly. Go ahead.
AMANDI: Just very quickly. You mentioned Jeb Bush earlier.
Jeb Bush, if you`re watching this, speak up and don`t be a coward, because he lives in Miami-Dade County.
REID: Yes.
AMANDI: In that article, he said he`s not involved in partisan politics anymore…
REID: That`s right.
AMANDI: … unless it`s calling Ron DeSantis one of the 100 greatest leaders.
REID: Yes.
AMANDI: Step up and don`t be a coward, Jeb. Call out this madness in our county.
REID: Jeb represents what`s wrong with the Republican Party. They`re too afraid to say anything, because they think there might be a side benefit for them in the end if the fascists take over. Sorry to say it, but I think that`s true.
When we come back, we are going to do “Who Won the Week?”
But I will say, before we leave the segment, 390,000 jobs created in may, that could win the week.
But we`re going to find out who we think won the week. For moi, it could easily have been Anita Baker`s epic onstage shout-out to Chance The Rapper for helping her regain ownership of her original master recordings.
But, believe it or not, I actually found something even more win-the-week- ier. Stick around and find out what it is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:53]
REID: Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. We have made it to Friday. And you know what that means. It`s time to play “Who Won the Week?”
Back me are Fernand Amandi and Dean Obeidallah.
We can thank Allah and Jesus. I like to be ecumenical.
But I`m going to start with Fernand Amandi to tell me who won the week.
AMANDI: Joy, there`s been such tragic news out of Texas recently.
A feel-good Texas story, the winner of this week is 14-year-old Harini Logan, who won the National Spelling Bee with one of the most incredible spell-offs I have ever seen, Joy.
Oh, OK, wait. We actually have a clip of this, I`m told.
Let`s play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ornithorhynchus.
HARINI LOGAN, SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE WINNER: O-R-N-I-T-H-O-R-H-Y-N- C-H-U-S.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nandubay.
LOGAN: N-A-N-D-U-B-A-Y.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Moorhen.
LOGAN: M-O-O-R-H-E-N.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: I love spelling bees, and she is amazing. I love that. I love it, love it, love it. She`s amazing.
You go, girl, Ms. Harini. Love that so much.
OK, Dean, you got big shoes to fill, my friend.
Who won the week?
OBEIDALLAH: Does it have to be a competition, Joy? Can`t we just be friends here?
REID: No.
Everyone wins. You`re right. It`s all even. It`s all fair. Yes, it`s all fine.
(CROSSTALK)
OBEIDALLAH: Moses Ingram, Moses Ingram, a very amazing actress. She is on Disney`s new series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
But she`s a black woman playing a fictitious character, and it triggered the right. And they were spewing hateful garbage. And she went on Instagram and said: Some people think I`m going to grin and bear it, but I`m not built like that.
That`s right, because she`s from Baltimore. And she`s like, bigot, please. Come on.
(LAUGHTER)
OBEIDALLAH: And then Ewan McGregor, who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi, he stepped up.
And my nickname growing up was Obi-Wan Kenobi.
And he said, if you`re a bigot, don`t join “Star” — don`t like “Star Wars.”
So I liked it very much. She wins.
REID: Amen. Love her, love her, love her, and love “Star Wars.”
I like “Star” — I`m a “Star Trek,” rather than “Star Wars.” But I do love “Star Wars” too.
OK, my who won the week is Coco Gauff. She is the newest tennis phenom. She won her French Open semifinal and signed the camera: “Peace. End gun violence.” She said she was influenced by the great Naomi Osaka and by Colin Kaepernick to speak out.
Tomorrow is her first ever Grand Slam final match. She`s the youngest finalist in nearly 20 years. She`s amazing. She is my “Who Won the Week?”
I want to thank Fernand Amandi, Dean Obeidallah, my buddies.
Appreciate you all.
That is tonight`s REIDOUT. “ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES” starts now.