Updated
Summary
FOX News announces it will not cover the January 6 hearings on its main network. Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey speaks out at the White House on gun violence. The daughter of Buffalo shooting victim Pearl Young discusses what victims` families want from lawmakers in the wake of mass shootings. Why are some fandoms freaking out over multiracial casting?
Transcript
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: And it goes to a racist double standard.
Now, online, we can discuss this further. I`m @AriMelber. And I ask you, do you think fiction, art and lyrics should be used as criminal evidence or not? Do you think it`s fair evidence or not? We can continue the discussion @AriMelber, because we`re out of time on “THE BEAT.”
And keep your TVs on, because THE REIDOUT WITH JOY REID starts now.
Hi, Joy.
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: How you doing?
I heard “I Shot the Sheriff.” I will just assert that the Bob Marley version is the only version you need. I`m going to leave it there.
MELBER: I agree.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: All right. Boom. Thank you very much. Really appreciate you, my friend. Have a wonderful evening.
MELBER: See you.
REID: All right, cheers.
Good evening, everyone.
We begin THE REIDOUT tonight with a choice between facing the truth or looking the other way.
On Thursday night, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NBC, CNN all will be covering the first prime-time public hearings of the select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. That means pretty much every cable news channel and three of the main broadcast networks will be providing wall-to-wall coverage, everyone except FOX News, which will stick with its regularly scheduled programming of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
They`re devoting their coverage of the hearings to the much-less-watched FOX Business Channel. The network said on Monday that its prime-time hosts will cover the event as news warrants.
The network`s decision might help avoid some awkwardness for Hannity and Ingraham, who were actively communicating with Mark Meadows, Trump`s chief of staff, on that violent day. In the 17 months since the insurrection, FOX News, particularly the folks in prime time, have spent hours undermining the severity of the attack on the Capitol, and even more hours painting the investigation of it as a prime-time — as a partisan witch-hunt against the former president, despite there being two Republicans on the committee, including Vice Chair Liz Cheney.
According to Philip Bump of “The Washington Post,” the reason for not letting FOX viewers see the truth for themselves could simply be that playing any of the January 6 hearing would undermine that narrative.
Bump writes that a group of researchers for the Center for Open Science recently published a study showing how FOX News viewers are influenced by their coverage. And when they are forced to watch a different network, they walk away with a broader sense of knowledge and one that makes them less likely to agree with what FOX is saying.
So I started thinking about that today in the context of stained-glass windows and the church in medieval times. Now, stay with me for a second. Do you know why churches have stained-glass windows? Those windows were the primary way for the church to spread their message about God to the poor.
It was the only way they could communicate a very specific vision to a large swathe of the largely illiterate masses. The pictures literally tell the stories. The church went further in enforcing their preferred narrative. They banned translated versions of the Bible, because they wanted to control and restrict the teachings in order to enhance their own power and importance.
But it was the priests, they were the ones who interpreted the biblical texts. Even after the invention of the printing press, it was uncommon for European Christians to read the Bible for themselves. Sometimes doing so or translating it was literally — actually could get you in trouble. Just leave the reading and the interpreting to the church hierarchy. Thanks.
That is basically what FOX News is doing. They are saying, leave it to Rupert`s folks to tell you what happened and what you should think about it. They have got this. You don`t need to watch it for yourself.
And so FOX News viewers will not hear from Nick Quested, a British filmmaker who recorded members of the far right Proud Boys extremist group days ahead of and on the day they storm the Capitol. What he saw left him shaken and fearful for the future of the United States.
FOX News viewers will not hear from Caroline Edwards, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who had her skull cracked after being assaulted by insurrectionists, including those same Proud Boys. FOX News viewers will probably not hear about how the former president pressured the Secret Service to devise a plan for him to join his supporters on a march to the Capitol or how Trump was cool with the idea of hanging Mike Pence.
And we all know that FOX News does have an appetite for investigations, right? According to Media Matters, FOX ran more than 1,000 segments on the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, all culminating in the 11-hour testimony of Hillary Clinton before a House select committee.
We also know that FOX News will play a central role in the counternarrative message from Republicans. According to Axios, FOX News will host Trump surrogates, because Republicans are looking for networks and social media platforms they feel are more favorable to their cause.
And you can surely count on FOX News returning to rolling prime-time coverage of congressional hearings of pressing matters like Hunter Biden and the 2020 election, which, of course, Republicans have already made clear they will launch if they win the House and/or Senate in November.
Joining me now is Paul Butler, professor at Georgetown Law School and a former federal prosecutor, and Kurt Bardella, adviser to the DNC and the DCCC.
Thank you both for being here.
[19:05:00]
You guys both have a very sort of interesting kind of connections to the way this works.
I mean, Paul, you, as a former prosecutor, part of the idea is to tell a story and to get the jury to understand a narrative. So what will it mean for viewers to not see the story, right, not get the evidence? In a court, you have to actually present the evidence. And then you, as the prosecutor, tell a story around that evidence.
What FOX will have is just their story, not the evidence.
PAUL BUTLER, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: So, Joy, the Republicans are counting on January 6 fatigue.
FOX News wants the American people to ignore the fact that, this week, members of the Proud Boys have been charged with sedition, meaning prosecutors believe that they plotted to use force and violence to keep Trump in office, even though they knew he`d lost the election.
They`re trying to divert attention from the federal judge`s opinion that found probable cause that Trump himself committed crimes. The big question is whether Republicans can persuade Merrick Garland that it`s time to move on, because he`s the person who will make the final decision about prosecuting high-level Trump officials for crimes.
REID: You know, it`s interesting.
They`re also — I mean, they`re avoiding, Kurt, having to explain why two of their hosts were actually talking to Mark Meadows at the time, particularly Sean Hannity exchanging lots of messages. So they won`t have to explain that because they`re just not going to do it.
But then the other thing is, they don`t have to explain why the Proud Boys now control the Miami-Dade Republican Party, why they`re now running for office, why they are actually now part of the Republican Party.
And they won`t have to explain this. Let`s show a Nick Quested video. So, Nick Quested is the Brit — you guys remember his lovely British accent? He was walking around. He was actually walking around with the Proud Boys. There they are in the garage, in the Hall of the States parking garage, which will be very familiar to those of us in D.C.
He`s meeting with individuals. If you can see where he`s — what he`s doing there, he`s standing there with Stewart Rhodes, who has also been charged with seditious conspiracy, and others. So you actually now see — if you want to talk about a conspiracy, they`re there together. They`re not going to have to explain that or the violent video that followed the following day.
(CROSSTALK)
KURT BARDELLA, DNC AND DCCC ADVISER: You know, Joy, if January 6 is…
REID: Go ahead, Kurt, Kurt first and then Paul.
BARDELLA: … such a nothing burger — if January 6 is such a nothing burger, as the Republican and propaganda outlets like FOX News would have us believe, then why are they going to such extraordinary lengths to hide the committee proceedings?
If it`s such an illegitimate showing, as they`re going to be telling all of their audience that it is, then why not air it and let it speak for itself? If something is so preposterous and so illegitimate, surely, their viewers are informed and intelligent enough to reach that conclusion independently after watching the proceedings.
FOX is hiding it from their viewers. The Republican Party is hiding it from their audience, because they know that the presentation that is going to be put forward by this bipartisan committee that features two Republicans, one of whom has the last name Cheney, pretty big Republican bona fides there…
REID: Right.
BARDELLA: … they know that this is going to be completely devastating, that all of the straw men that they have put up, all the false narratives and false flags they have tried to advance are going to come crumbling down.
And it will be not by Democrat words, not by partisan words, but through the words and testimony of Republicans, of FOX News hosts, of their text messages, their e-mails, the depositions. It will all be on full display, and it will be irrefutable.
REID: Go ahead, Paul.
BUTLER: So, Joy, while FOX is giving short shrift to the largest federal criminal investigation in U.S. history, we have to note how they love sensational crime coverage of black and brown people.
They went all in when the obscure actor Jussie Smollett was charged with low-level crimes in Illinois, but they`re ignoring, again, this most important House panel report probably since Watergate, probably the most important in all time.
And I think what they`re waiting for is the hope that the House will be re- won by the Republicans in the midterm elections, and then we can expect Republicans to send out subpoenas to Hunter Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci. Again, that would devolve from the most consequential investigation in the history of the House to pure partisan politics.
REID: Right.
I mean, Kurt, if you don`t, for whatever reason, have any emotional connection to the idea of our Capitol being sacked by people who defecated in it and hurt police officers and bludgeoned police officers and cracked one skull and left — at least five people died as a result
If that doesn`t even move you, just as a news story, just as a journalistic — if this is actually a news channel, a news network, FOX, this is the biggest news story in all of our lifetimes. We have never had a president attempt to overturn an election, violently overturn it. We have never had a broad seditious conspiracy, where there are actual charges of that.
[19:10:10]
Since 1814, we haven`t had our Capitol sacked. And that was not — never by a domestic terrorism group — terrorist group. So this is new. We have also never had a president sanction the lynching of his own vice president.
This is “New York Times” reporting. Mark Meadows — on January 6, Mark Meadows walked into his own office after meeting with the president and told colleagues that Trump was complaining that the vice president was being whisked for safe — whisked away to safety. Mark Meadows, according to an account provided to the House committee investigating January 6, then told the colleagues at Mr. Trump had said something to the effect of, maybe Mr. Pence should be hanged.
This is the biggest news story and the most troubling and disturbing story ever. To not cover it is just — it seems negligent. But there are studies that show that, if even FOX viewers, as read in and in the bubble as they are, when they watch non-FOX coverage, when they`re made to sit down and watch other coverage, they do develop a broader view.
BARDELLA: Well, and this is why, Joy — and I just wrote this in a column that was published on — at “The L.A. Times` — I think it`s time that we reach the point where we stopped treating FOX like a news outlet at all, because it`s clearly not.
They`re making the conscious decision to commit journalistic malpractice by ignoring the biggest story right now, the biggest story of perhaps in our – – in our entire country`s history, actually, when you look at where this is all going. This is a major pivotal inflection point in the fight to salvage democracy, and they are choosing not to cover it.
That`s not the action of a responsible news outlet. That`s not the action of a journalist. That`s not the action of a reporter. That is the action of a propaganda vehicle for a political party that is determined to play a substantial role in undermining democracy as we know it.
Why these people are allowed to have a White House press briefing access, why they`re allowed to have a press credential to cover the U.S. Capitol, I have no idea, because I know this. If al Qaeda created a media outlet, we wouldn`t give them a hard pass to cover our government.
Why in the world would we allow the people who are egging on, fomenting and defending insurrectionists to have that type of access? They shouldn`t.
REID: And here`s the thing, I mean, they`re — it`s a metastasizing scandal, a metastasizing story.
Paul, you now have evidence, new e-mails, e-mails that show that a Trump election employee actually was telling Georgia Republicans to hide their efforts to put forth fake electors, to put up fake electors, and essentially ensure the end result that they wanted, a win for Georgia for Trump. They said, it`ll be hampered unless we have complete secrecy.
So you had a fake electoral scheme in multiple states, that they were — attempted to literally substitute the votes of tens of millions of people for their own decision that Trump should win.
Just as a journalist — I mean, as a legal matter, it`s horrific. It`s hard to ignore that as journalists, as a journalistic matter as well.
BUTLER: Joy, the Trump campaign wanted to ignore the actual voters and install fake electors in seven swing states who would vote for Trump, even though he lost.
And, remember, in Georgia, Biden`s win heard already been certified and reconfirmed after a recount and after court cases. So, secrecy — when this guy tells this — these fake letters, keep it on the down-low, don`t tell anybody, secrecy prompts the question from prosecutors, what are you trying to hide? Who are you covering up for?
REID: And to end here with you, Kurt, I mean, Republicans also benefit from being able to survive bad-faith arguments.
MSNBC, CNN covered the Benghazi hearings because five people legitimately died, members of the diplomatic corps. It was — Hillary Clinton sat for 11 hours, took seriously hearings that Republicans called a pre-impeachment in case she ever became president. They literally said they — they`re going to pre-impeach her.
It was literally — Kevin McCarthy admitted it was purely political in order to stop her from being president. Yet they know that, if they were to be in a position to have those gavels, that Democrats aren`t going to just ignore the subpoenas and say, I have — and invent some executive privilege and do the things that they do.
And I`m wondering if they`re overly benefiting from the kind of — the bad faith that`s allowed, including, I have to say it, even by the way they`re covered in the media.
BARDELLA: Well, this is the thing.
And I remember back in the day when Steve Bannon would refer to this as the Achilles` heel of the Democratic Party and really the Achilles` heel of the media ecosystem, that the Republicans could manipulate the media, because they know that by being bad-faith actors, they will ultimately be rewarded…
REID: Yes.
BARDELLA: … that the media cannot help themselves but view this as a conflict between two sides of the same coin presented in equal weight with equal value, when you and I both know that`s not the case at all.
The extreme of the right and the progressive left are not two sides of the same coin. One is trying to destroy democracy. That`s the end of the story and the end of the conversation. And Republicans continually get away with it because the media lets them.
[19:15:07]
REID: I have to say that I think this could be a turning point.
If this is truly exposed, as we are told by Jamie Raskin and others, as a conspiracy that went all the way to the president of the United States and throughout the Republican Party, including elected officials, to literally turn our democracy upside down and destroy it, hopefully, that bad faith will no longer be allowed. We shall see.
Thank you, Paul Butler, Kurt Bardella. Appreciate you both.
Up next on THE REIDOUT: powerful words at the White House about the Uvalde victims from a native son, actor Matthew McConaughey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, ACTOR: Maite wore green high-top Converse with a heart she had hand-drawn on the right toe because they represented her love of nature.
Camila has got these shoes. Can you show these shoes, please?
Wore these every day, green Converse with a heart on the right toe. These are the same green Converse on her feet that turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting. How about that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: This as the Senate appears to be moving closer to a deal on guns, but will it really address what victims families want?
I will ask the daughter of Buffalo shooting victim Pearl Young.
THE REIDOUT continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:32]
REID: As the country faces an epidemic of mass shootings, how much do the lives of the shooting victims actually matter to our lawmakers?
That is the exact question that Garnell Whitfield asked senators this morning. His 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield, was gunned down in the Buffalo mass shooting at Tops supermarket.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARNELL WHITFIELD JR., SON OF SHOOTING VICTIM: What are you doing? You elected to protect us, to protect our way of life.
I ask every one of you to imagine the faces of your mothers as you look at mine, and ask yourself, is there nothing that we can do?
My mother`s life matter? My mother`s life mattered. And your actions here today will tell us how much it matters to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: It`s the same question that has been asked time and time again as mass shootings are followed by thoughts and prayers and no meaningful actions to prevent the next one.
We`re being told that this time will be different. A bipartisan group of senators continue negotiations over what, if any, reforms can muster 60 votes from a Senate that includes at least 50 lawmakers who seem to spend more time cowering in fear of the NRA and its supporters than legislating solutions.
After meeting today with President Biden, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told reporters that he remains optimistic that a deal can be reached by the end of the week, and that it might even include some of the items that the president laid out during his prime-time address on gun violence last week.
Republicans, by and large, have come out against almost everything the president asked for. Yesterday, the lead negotiator for Senate Republicans, John Cornyn of Texas, tweeted that making gun laws more restrictive wasn`t going to happen, and that he doesn`t even want expanded background checks, something nearly 90 percent of Americans, including most gun owners, support.
Some states are stepping up to do what Congress is failing to accomplish, however. Yesterday, New York`s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation that not only raises the age to buy semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, but also bans most civilians from purchasing bullet-resistant body vests and revises the state`s red flag laws.
Meanwhile, some red states want to ignore the gun problem altogether. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and Brian Kemp of Georgia are implementing new school safety plans that somehow do not mention guns at all.
With me now is Pamela Pritchett, who lost her mom, Pearl Young, in the Buffalo shooting, and Ben Crump, attorney for the families of Pearl Young and Ruth Whitfield.
Thank you both for being here.
Pamela Pritchett, thank you for being here. And my deepest condolences on the loss of your mom.
But I think I`m with all of you who say that enough thoughts and prayers. We need action. What do you make of the list of no`s that seems to be on the table?
And this is three for my producers.
That it seems to me that, on the table, we have red flag laws, limited background check reforms, school security funding and mental health measures. But off the table appear to be assault weapons bans, universal background checks, limiting high-capacity magazines and raising the age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle. Those seem to be the things that would help the most.
What do you make of what`s off the table in these negotiations?
PAMELA PRITCHETT, DAUGHTER OF BUFFALO SHOOTING VICTIM PEARL YOUNG: Well, let me say this, beginning, Joy.
I`m coming on here to say that, for me, I want to speak to the American people, not America, but the American people, because the people who were killed in the Tops massacre were the best of American people.
I think The Senate needs to begin to see us in humanity and not just see along their own bipartisan lines, because that — the Buffalo 10, these were educators. These were — Joy, it`s like this. You would want to tell your daughter or your son, grow up to be like this person.
My issue is that we have a Congress that does not see humanity. They want – – they see lobbies. They see what they consider facts, but they do not see the humanity in people that — and, to me, if they don`t see the humanity in people, then we`re going to have difficulty moving forward. And I think that`s where — that`s where I stand.
And…
(CROSSTALK)
PRITCHETT: Go ahead.
REID: No, no. Please continue. I didn`t want to interrupt you.
[19:25:00]
PRITCHETT: And so that`s where I stand.
And one of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou, where she says that, of the human family, we are more like my friends than we appear to be unalike.
I believe that. I believe that your average, everyday American thinks very similarly to the way I think. I believe that they want commonsense gun laws. I believe they want things where you don`t have to experience what I had to experience.
I have said this story, and I will continue to say it, Joy, because it actually gives me some level of therapeutic healing, but when you have to be caught by the funeral director, because a person is so full of hate and using a weapon so destructive that the funeral director calls me — I`m the I`m the only daughter — and says, you need to bring a hat for your mom`s head, because of what this person did, I need Congress to feel that level of pain and heartache, to experience touching your mother`s hair, and it`s riddled because the blood, no matter how much the funeral director tried to do the best that he could, he couldn`t do anything.
He could only do what he could do. I have often said I wish that I had the courage of an Emmett Till`s mom, because I think that`s what we need. We need people to really see and feel and understand that this is beyond laws and lobbyists. This is about people`s lives. This is about the humanity of our nation.
This is about the fact that we are better than this. And I believe most Americans are better than this, and that we need to tell our representatives that you represent us, and we are better. And you need to do the right thing by us.
And I`m going to say this one thing. I said two things today. Every tear I cry is going to be fuel for my action. When I cry at night, I`m not just crying and ending it there. I`m crying, and I`m telling you, if I have to start in Western New York, where I live, and go throughout other parts of the communities, until they make — until the Senate makes decisions that they should make, that I`m encouraging every person that has become a part of the family that I`m a part of.
REID: Right.
PRITCHETT: I never imagined right, out of 135 million people, that I would be a part of a family that — of those who are grieving from a massacre.
But I want to encourage everyone who`s been there. Let`s pick up the mantle again.
REID: Yes.
PRITCHETT: Let`s not just have memorials, but let`s pick up the mantle and hold them accountable for their actions.
REID: Ben, as somebody — and amen to that.
And, Ben, as somebody who, unfortunately, you have spent a lot of time with families who are in this type of grieving. But it kind of hits different. It`s not — it`s not a random encounter. It`s literally somebody who deliberately decided to massacre people based on the color of their skin in this case, or to walk into a school in the case of Uvalde.
What would you say to lawmakers who say, yes, but we love — we love — our base loves AR-15s, and we need to have them, and they need to have free access to them, even if they`re 18 or 19?
BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR FAMILIES OF BUFFALO SHOOTING VICTIMS: Joy, I will say what Pamela has described that it is time, far past time, to put people over politics.
When you think about it, Joy Reid, this hearing — and I commend Senator Dick Durbin — was about dealing with white supremacy. And this was a young man, not a boy, who wrote a 130-page manifesto on why he was doing it. And the experts talked about we got to get to the root of the problem.
We are rewarding — many people in our society are rewarding this race Replacement Theory. And until we have serious conversation about not rewarding that, it`s going to continue to happen.
REID: Yes.
CRUMP: And Senator Durbin said the previous administration stopped the mandate for the Justice Department to investigate and report on white supremacy. And we have to have that path.
REID: Yes.
CRUMP: The Senate must vote, at least vote.
REID: Pamela Pritchett, you preached a sermon tonight. Thank you for being here and being with us.
And, again, I`m sure your mom was an amazing person. She obviously raised an amazing daughter.
Ben Crump, my friend, you thank you for always being here for us to help make sense of the senseless. Thank you.
[19:30:05]
Still ahead: “Star Wars” — the “Star Wars” universe faces a new phantom menace, no, no, not a new attack from the Federation. It`s fandom freak- outs over multiracial casting.
But, first, the war over Ukrainian grain that`s worsening a global food crisis.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:35:00]
REID: More than 100 days into Putin`s unprovoked assault on Ukraine, Russia is absolutely bombarding Severodonetsk, a key city in Russia`s efforts to take over the entire eastern region of the Donbass.
And Putin is not solely focusing on the east, with Russia launching airstrikes on Kyiv over the weekend, claiming they were targeting tanks sent from abroad. But a plant that was struck was where freight cars that carry grain were being prepared.
This comes as the world is in a food crisis because Russian warships are blocking ports, preventing Ukraine, one of the world`s largest breadbaskets, from exporting its grain.
Yesterday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken confirmed reports that Russia is stealing grain to sell for its own profit. The Russian ambassador to the U.N. walked out of a Security Council meeting yesterday after the E.U. president accused Russia of selling food supplies as a stealth missile against developing countries.
Today, Russia said two ports in the Azov Sea were ready to resume those grain shipments, but only if Ukraine de-mines its coast.
Joining me now is retired Army Major John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies with the Madison Policy Forum.
So, the use of food and grain as a war weapon, just to look at the increase in food prices that`s already resulting from this, sugar is up 21-plus percent, meat, dairy, cereals, oils, et cetera. The Food Price Index is up 58.5 percent. This is especially hurting developing countries.
Talk a little bit about that, because Russia, per the Associated Press, with Ukraine, the two of them produce almost a third of the world`s wheat and barley and half of the sunflower oil. So this is a true, true crisis.
MAJ. JOHN SPENCER (RET.), MADISON POLICY FORUM: Yes, Joy, it`s not becoming a crisis. It is a global crisis as we talk.
I mean, there`s over 20 million tons of grain sitting in the Ukrainian silos and ports ready to go out now. This will be felt globally. I mean, it has the potential of killing thousands — hundreds of thousands in places like Somalia and Ethiopia that rely on this grain. But, as you just noted, this will impact the entire world.
This is why Putin — this isn`t about Ukraine. Putin is a global terrorist. He`s using the world`s food as a weapon.
REID: And stealing the grain that — where the money rightfully belongs to the Ukrainian people.
I mean, as this thing drags on, I mean, not only the theft, but the violence — we`re reporting today that more than 1,000 Ukrainians, they are prisoners from Mariupol, one of the most besieged cities in the world right now in Europe, at the least, have been sent to Russia for investigation.
Zelenskyy, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, is warning that this winter is going to be extremely difficult. You have the possibility of everything, inability to sell gas, inability to feed themselves. What`s going to happen as this thing just drags on and on?
SPENCER: It`s a — literally, it`s almost genocide. We have known that from photos of like Bucha and things like that.
But, just like you said, the thousands of people, the children, Joy, that have been removed out of Ukrainian — and put into Ukrainian — or to Russian homes. This is global. I mean, there`s not been a greater global threat to the world since Hitler. And much of what Putin and his military is doing in Ukraine is very similar to the Nazis, although he called the Ukrainians Nazis.
This is — this is only going to get worse. And this is why we have to continue our support at a very large scale. I mean, I don`t even — I don`t know why Russia is on the U.N. Security Council. They`re the biggest threat to global security in — since World War II.
REID: Or why the newly reelected president of France, Macron, is saying, don`t humiliate Putin.
Well, why not?
SPENCER: Absolutely.
This isn`t a normal dispute. This is total war, and using war crimes as a method of war against the Ukrainian people. This isn`t coming to the political table and negotiating terms. Russia needs to stop. It can stop at any moment. It can open those ports up and let a U.N. force get that grain to the world economy. It has no military purposes.
Putin is evil. And an evil unchecked leads to global impact. And that`s we`re seeing.
REID: What can we do about it?
SPENCER: I mean, there`s a lot we can do about it. We can continue to support the Ukrainians` fight.
And they`re not asking for anybody to fight with them. But these systems that we hear about, the long-range rockets, the steady support, opening those ports, I think the U.N. can pressure, and it can be a coalition of nations to say, look, this is not about your illegal invasion. This is about the world`s food supplies that you`re holding ransom.
That can stop with a coalition of U.N. members saying, we`re going to — not militarily, but we`re going to open that port up for that food that`s the world`s.
[19:40:02]
And like the reports have shown, the stealing of their grain — the credible reports, Joy, just so you know, are photos of Russian trucks taking grain out of Ukraine into Russia. I mean, that`s like blood grain. It`s really soaked in Ukrainian children`s blood.
And that`s theirs. I mean, it`s horrible.
REID: It is. And, hopefully,the world will figure out some way of making Putin back down.
Major John Spencer, always a pleasure. Thank you very much, sir. I really appreciate you being here.
Up next: Republicans go all in on questionable efforts to sway minority voters with pop-up community centers spreading misinformation and free giveaways aimed at drumming up votes.
More next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:18]
REID: Over the weekend, at an Atlanta gas station, a political action committee handed out $25 gas vouchers, along with flyers promoting Republican Herschel Walker, the former football star who will take on Senator Raphael Warnock in the November election.
According to “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,” outside the gas station, volunteers held signs declaring, “Warnock isn`t working.” The message was clear. Gas prices are through the roof and that it`s somehow Warnock`s fault. Now, here, take this money.
A spokeswoman for Walker said he didn`t know about the event before it happened, despite Angela Stanton-King, a Walker campaign volunteer, at the voucher giveaway crediting Walker for the idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA STANTON-KING, WALKER CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER: Herschel Walker decided, you know what? We`re going to do this free gas giveaway for the community. I want you to know that I care. I`m coming with gas vouchers for everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
REID: With me now, Jason Johnson, professor of journalism and politics at Morgan State University and host of the Slate podcast “A Word With Jason Johnson.”
You know that was — you know who that was. You saw that, that little clip, Jason.
Last I checked, I`m old enough to remember it being illegal to hand out water in the state of Georgia when it comes to elections. Offering food or water waiting in line, you now risk misdemeanor charges. And also there is a story in “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution” about a state representative named Bee Nguyen recalling out the office of Georgia`s top election officials sensitive investigator to a metro Atlanta precinct in 2020 with firearm on hip and demanded that all food and water be removed.
And yet Herschel Walker can hand out gas cards? What`s happening?
JASON JOHNSON, MSNBC POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, Capri Sun when you want to vote, that`s a violation, but trying to buy you off with gas cards, that is a capital offense.
Joy, this is the part that always sort of galls me about this. I contacted a colleague who is an activist and organizer down there. And she said, quite candidly, this is what shows you the people who are running Herschel Walker`s campaign have no real connection to the black community.
We will happily take your $25 gas card and still vote against you. That`s not new.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: And I don`t know why anyone thinks, other than abject racism, that black people can be so easily bought.
Barack Obama had a whole stimulus package. That didn`t mean white people voted for him. Joe Biden put shots in arms and put $2,000 in the bank for everybody. It doesn`t mean white people like him.
Who thinks we are that cheap? That`s what galls me about these kinds of plans by Herschel Walker.
REID: What`s interesting is, it does — as you said.
And it also shows that they`re not trying to win black voters over with, I don`t know, ideas. They`re not saying, here`s a better plan for your life.
JOHNSON: Right.
REID: They`re just saying, take this money. You going to vote for Herschel?
(LAUGHTER)
REID: It is sort of an interesting thing.
I mean, but it isn`t just black people. I`m looking at all these stories that my wonderful producers put together for here. You got the stories in “The American Prospect” of RNCs opening community centers. They`re trying to go after the Lumbee Indian population in North Carolina.
JOHNSON: Yes.
REID: They`re going after Asian Americans, trying to court nonwhite voters all over the country.
They`re pursuing indigenous voters. They`re pursuing — they`re doing all of these things to try to get into the community. But they`re not actually speaking about the community as if they have humanity. They still talk trash about these communities, but they go in with — what`s in the community centers?
JOHNSON: You have to have — and, Joy, you know this. You have done organizing campaigning. You have to have community validators.
I don`t care if you put in a gigantic Chick-fil-A with a balloon room and free cars and everything else like that and raffles. If you don`t have community validators, nobody believes it. And what`s important about this – – I think this is always key. Everybody always says, oh, my gosh, they`re going to put these community centers in downtown Cleveland, everything else like that. It`s going to peel away African-American voters.
If Democrats are doing such a bad job of appealing to African-American, Asian American and Latino voters, then it`s their fault if somebody can be bought with a Big Mac and a sandwich.
I think the bigger issue here is, what are Democrats doing to respond to that?
REID: Right.
JOHNSON: And, second, not scapegoating particular communities.
I mean, that`s — Latino men are much more likely to move towards voting for the Republican Party than African-American men. But I swear the moment Ice Cube or Snoop Dogg says something, it`s like oh, my gosh, black men are going to vote Republican.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: Pay attention to policy and people`s basic lives. That`s the part that`s necessary.
REID: Before we move to the next segment, because I know we got some other stuff to talk about, what — you got any predictions what`s going on in L.A.?
Because that was a situation where they`re like, look, Snoop Dogg likes this guy. So, therefore, there`s all these think pieces about how all the black people are going to vote now for Caruso.
JOHNSON: I don`t mean to insult any particular writers at “The L.A. Times,” but if you want to talk to black people, you got to go to something other than Leimert Plaza, OK? Like, there`s other places. You can go to black yoga studios in the city.
Look, if it`s an issue of black endorsement, you have got Magic Johnson, Donald Glover, Tracee Ellis Ross who are endorsing Karen Bass. You have got Caruso, who was basically a Republican until five minutes ago, who spent $43 million to Karen Bass` $3 million, and he`s still going to lose by 6 percent.
[19:50:05]
REID: Right.
JOHNSON: This is what tells people that getting organized on the ground is way more important than the money that you spend.
REID: Yes, and I love Snoop.
So, listen, I think — would I listen to — I mean, I think it`s important that he`s voting, and I`m excited that he`s involved in politics. I`m going to leave it there.
JOHNSON: Right.
REID: Jason`s going to stick around, because we got more that`s coming up, because we`re going to talk about this overly — this overtly, weirdly creepy racist reaction to a new “Star Wars” character and what it says about the current state of a genre known for pushing the boundaries on social issues.
We`re back in a sec.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:55:08]
REID: From space exploration, time travel and extraterrestrial life, there`s something inherently forward-thinking about sci-fi.
It is indeed one of the most political genres from “Star Trek” depicting one of the first interracial kisses on television, to literally any Octavia Butler book, to “Star Wars,” a space allegory for imperialism.
But a subset of “Star Wars” fans never got the memo, as racism ripples through the galaxy over Moses Ingram, who plays a Sith Inquisitor on the new Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
Ingram revealed on Instagram that she has received hundreds of racist messages that included degrading racist insults, threats and slurs.
Jason Johnson is back with me. And I know a secret, that you`re going to be at Comic-Con. I`m superduper jealous.
JOHNSON: Yes. Yes.
REID: King of the black nerds, Jason Johnson, yes.
So, what do we make of this, because…
JOHNSON: So, as part of my credibility…
REID: Go ahead.
JOHNSON: Well, as part of my credibility, I have to point out that Reva is actually not a Sith, because of the rule of two. That`s my nerd rule.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: You always got to one-up me.
JOHNSON: She`s just an Inquisitor. Here`s the thing.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: It`s what I do. It`s what I do.
But here`s the thing. It`s — the racism is so ridiculous. I was so excited for this segment to point this out. Behind me, with all my Funko POP!, I have got all the black women from “Spider-Man,” to “Star Wars,” to “Ghostbusters” to “Batman,” all these African-American women.
Our friend Yvette Nicole Brown was the host for the Star Wars Celebration last weekend in Anaheim.
REID: Yes.
JOHNSON: So anybody who has a fundamental problem with black women being in science fiction ain`t really reading science fiction, and they`re just bigots who would be unhappy with anything.
It`s like going to a WNBA game and say, why are all these women playing basketball?
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: Have you not been paying attention? That`s what`s been there.
REID: It`s crazy, because you can go all the way back. I mean, “Star Trek” was so forward-leaning on race and trying to make ecumenicism in terms of race and all different species all being and all the different races being on that “Star Trek” Enterprise in both iterations. We`re going to give “Next Generation” their share.
But I`m an original O.G. Captain Kirk era fan. “The Twilight Zone,” which was super forward-leaning in terms of social issues, like, this genre, sci- fi is — it is the genre that is the most woke, to use a term that the right has turned into a bad word.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: And that`s the thing, Joy.
They want to call it woke because they want to try and change what`s already been happening.
REID: Right.
JOHNSON: Remember, we had Uhura doing more than taking calls 50 years ago. We now have her with a natural being written on “Strange New Worlds,” which is a great new “Star Trek” show.
African-American women, African women, black Caribbean women have been a key part of science fiction from the very beginning. What has happened, Joy, is that people who aren`t fans of these genres simply glom onto them. We have seen this happen with Rotten Tomatoes, where you have a bunch of bigots come in and knock down any movie that`s got an African-American star.
REID: Yes.
JOHNSON: They want to lock black people and brown people and Asian people out of these areas, because, for them, it`s the last place that they can hold onto sort of all of their whiteness.
And it`s not true. There have been black people from the beginning of science fiction, and you`re not going to be able to keep us out.
REID: And, by the way, and women, too, because, remember, Doctor Who was a woman. They — you would think that they should burn the genre to the ground.
It`s like any change in trying to sort of update these stories…
JOHNSON: Right.
REID: … even if it`s not science fiction, God forbid 007 be black.
I mean, it is this sort of holding on, as you said. They`re fictionalized worlds. They can be anything. And Santa Claus is black. Just sorry.
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNSON: Yes. And — right. Santa Claus is black.
And if you convince me that 100 years ago that a white man named Lord Greystoke could go into the jungle and teach black people how to handle nature better than we already have for 1,000 years…
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: … I think we can deal with a black woman in outer space who`s got Sith powers. I think we`re good with that.
REID: And, I mean, the other question is, they — the threats are always that they`re going to boycott them.
But, as you said, these are people that are not fans of the genre anyway, so it`s a boycott leading to what?
JOHNSON: Right.
And, also, and a boycott for what purpose? Look, if you want to watch right-wing science fiction, you`re perfectly happy to do that. “Starship Troopers” is right-wing. You have got things being made by Ben Shapiro. If you want to watch whatever Gina Carano is doing now, you can do that.
But, for the rest of the planet that simply enjoys content, Obi-Wan Kenobi, for all the people who said that they were going to boycott because they didn`t like this African-American woman who was an Inquisitor, it`s the highest viewed Disney+ “Star Wars” show that`s ever come out.
REID: Right.
JOHNSON: So, clearly, the majority of the country in the world is happy with seeing science fiction reflect the world that we live in and the world that we want, not the world that some people want to hold onto that never really existed.
REID: Well, you know why they don`t want to watch the Ben Shapiro one. Because it`s not good. Like, they want the real one.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: Right.
REID: Like, what they crave is the real culture to be on their side.
They don`t want to build their own. It`s the reason that they don`t want to have Twitter without liberals, because they just want to scream at the people that they hate.
JOHNSON: Yes. Exactly. Exactly.
REID: And they don`t want to be in their own universe, right?
JOHNSON: And for all of the…
REID: If they could create their own universe, they wouldn`t, because they don`t want to be there anyway.
Anyway, Jason Johnson, I`m jealous. Take me to Comic-Con with you.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: Thank you very much for being here tonight.
That is tonight`s REIDOUT.
I will be going to Comic-Con with you. I`m not even playing. I`m going.
“ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES” is going to be next, but I`m going to Comic-Con, you all. Just watch.
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