Updated
Summary
Jon Stewart speaks out after Senate Republicans openly celebrate blocking a bill to give veterans critical health care coverage. Information emerges about more missing text messages that could shed important light on the plot to overturn the election. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis steps up his fight against so-called woke companies. New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett discusses why she considers monkeypox an imminent threat to public health.
Transcript
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Tonight on THE REIDOUT:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, COMEDIAN/ACTIVIST: It is despicable to continue to use America`s men and women who are fighting for this country as political pawns for anger you have about separate issues.
There is no pork in it. It is a kosher bill. I`d say halal, but I know how that might play on this network.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Jon Stewart tells it like it is to FOX News after Senate Republicans openly celebrated blocking a bill to give veterans critical health care coverage.
Also tonight, more missing text messages that could shed important light on the plot to overturn the election.
John Wood, who was a senior investigator for the January 6 Committee, joins me.
Plus: It`s not just Disney. Ron DeSantis is stepping up his fight against so-called woke companies, which stands to benefit the companies that help him out politically.
But we begin tonight with a Republican Party gone off the rails. What was once the self-described Grand Old Party advocating small government and national security now seems to be actively rallying against the very issues that just five, 10, 20 years ago were their top priorities.
First, you had the majority of Republicans voting yesterday against the bipartisan CHIPS bill that would create high-tech jobs and make the U.S. more competitive against China, who Republicans keep telling us is the big threat to America`s future. Republicans also in the main are declining to support the Respect for Marriage Act — OK, family values party — or the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that would, on top of helping to save the planet from impending climate disaster, reduce prescription drug costs and fight what Republicans keep telling us is the boogeyman, inflation.
Make it make sense.
Then you have the de facto party leader, Donald Trump, facing major backlash from 9/11 survivors and victims families for hosting a Saudi- funded golf tournament at his New Jersey golf club. When asked about the criticism, he said — and I quote — “Nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11.”
Really, Donald? I mean, you were president, and you do know who the CIA is, right?
At the same time, right-wing Republicans are inviting Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban of anti-race mixing fame to speak at CPAC next week, because America first, right?
Wait a minute. Is Republicans` opposition to the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify interracial, as well as same-sex marriage as legal, is that related to their level of Orban? Say it isn`t so, Republicans.
Well, whatever the source of the affinity, Orban, who, like his American TV sponsor, Tucker Carlson, is big on the whole White Replacement Theory, he will be speaking alongside Trump and some two dozen Republican lawmakers at CPAC. Should be fun.
On top of all that, perhaps the most egregious and unexpected 180 from the Republican Party this week was tanking what`s being called the PACT Act. It`s a bill that would provide health care to millions of veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits and chemicals during their service.
On Wednesday, 41 Senate Republicans blocked the bill`s passage, including 25 who had supported it just one month ago. Immediately upon doing so, video from the Senate floor shows those very senators celebrating, shaking hands and fist-bumping after denying health care to sick veterans.
The outrage from several veterans groups was immediate and completely understandable. They included Susan Zeier, the mother-in-law of the sergeant the bill is named after, who slammed the hypocrisy of those Republicans outside the Capitol yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN ZEIER, MOTHER-IN-LAW OF SFC. HEATH ROBINSON: Every single one has pictures with veterans on their Facebook pages, on their Web sites.
Well, screw that. They don`t support veterans. If you vote no on this bill, you do not support veterans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Joining me now is Susan Zeier, mother-in-law of Sergeant 1st Class Heath Robinson, an advocate for the PACT Act.
Thank you very much for being here, Ms. Zeier. And condolences, of course, of the loss of your beloved son-in-law.
But I want to show you this video again. I played it just a second ago, but I want to show it again. And I apologize for having to make you look at it.
This is senators celebrating, Ted Cruz among them, high-fiving, celebrating the fact that they blocked this bill that 25 Senate Republicans had previously supported. When you see that, these senators high-fiving, fist- bumping, how does that — what does that say to you and how does that make you feel?
[19:05:03]
ZEIER: Well, first off, Joy, thank you for having me tonight.
That`s the first time. I have seen that video. And I`m losing my composure right now, because I felt that fist bump right in my gut. That was a punch in my gut.
And I don`t understand how anyone who`s sitting on Capitol Hill working in the Senate or the House could have the barbaric audacity to celebrate — celebrating, denying VA benefits and disability and survivor benefits to the men and women who willingly went off to war and served our country. It`s unconscionable.
REID: Yes.
And tell me a little bit about your son-in-law and what he went through.
ZEIER: He was an Ohio army National Guardsman.
In 2012 and 2013, he was the Ohio Army NCO National Guard Soldier of the Year. And it`s a pretty grueling competition and quite an honor. He served in Kosovo at Camp Bondsteel in 2004. In 2006, he was deployed to Iraq. He was in the Baghdad area, Camp Liberty, Camp Victory.
He was a combat medic. He saved lives in Iraq. And he was posted for guard duty for Iraqi construction workers. And he, at that time, had to stand guard. And he was 20 to 30 yards from burn pits all day long for about three months.
And he came home safe and sound. Everybody`s happy you come back from war and you`re healthy and safe. Ten years later, he started noticing — he was very physically fit, never smoked, very health-conscious. He just felt like, when he was working out, he didn`t recover well, he was tired.
He started developing these gushing nosebleeds in late 2016. And it took over a dozen doctors going back and forth. They couldn`t diagnose what the problem was. Eventually, it was discovered he had a rare mucous membrane autoimmune disease that strikes 80-year-old women who worked in toxic environments like a factory with chemicals or something.
And they were told they have — they knew no case where a 35-year-old man has this autoimmune disease. And — but it was — we were optimistic. It was treatable, possibly curable. And then, about a month later, in 2017, in March of 2017, he developed other symptoms not consistent with the autoimmune disease.
And it was determined that he had stage four lung cancer in a very rare form, because he did not have a primary tumor. So he was given six to eight weeks to live in March. However, they did find a treatment that worked, an immunotherapy treatment that worked. And they extended his life for three years.
And he died on May 6 of 2020.
REID: Yes. And, I mean, I`m so sorry. And, I mean, the thing is, is that the your son-in-law did what those members of Congress most — for the most part, didn`t have the courage to do.
It`s easy for them to sit back and say no to something that would help families like yours take care of themselves, take care of the children that are left behind by these wars that they decide on that they for the most part don`t fight. And so I just want to apologize to you. I didn`t — I`m not a Republican senator.
But I think that the nation owes you and your family an apology. We should be able to get this done. Jon Stewart is out there fighting. We`re with you. We`re going to get this done.
Susan Zeier, thank you.
ZEIER: Yes. Yes. I know. Thank you.
REID: Thank you. God bless. Cheers.
ZEIER: Thank you.
REID: All right, let`s bring in Rick Wilson.
Of course.
Let`s bring in Rick Wilson, former Republican strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project.
And, Rick, there is little that is more repugnant than sending a young man off to war, and then refusing to help him or help her when they come home sick because they went to war. I can`t imagine anything sicker than that. And I wonder what you think of the high-fiving senators.
[19:10:00]
RICK WILSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I have to tell you, watching the fist- bumping and the high-fiving at the end, it was nauseating.
These people, they — my old party loved to say, oh, we back the blue, we support our troops. We saw how much they back the blue on 1/6. We saw how much they support our troops in this heinous vote. This is repulsive at every level. Their excuses for it ring completely hollow. They have no reason to do this.
They have taken a shot at our troops as effectively as an armed enemy. They want these young men and young women who were exposed to chemicals in the war zones of many different American engagements overseas — they just don`t give a damn.
And it is — I am — I find myself angry and disappointed and disgusted in equal measures. But there is nothing that these families can do, except stand up this November and eliminate this Republican majority, send Mitch McConnell packing, and bring this bill back, because these folks deserve this.
And a few months ago, the Senate voted for it. But now they have decided to politicize it.
REID: Yes.
WILSON: Now they have decided to use it as a ping-pong ball.
And especially Susan Collins, who`s oh ever so upset about things, she voted against it because of another bill that made her angry that they brought forward.
REID: Yes.
WILSON: This is something where these people should never claim the patriotic imprimatur of saying, oh, we`re the ones who support the troops, because, quite clearly, today`s vote put the lie to that.
REID: Absolutely. They want to punish Democrats for actually being able to work with another Democrat, Joe Manchin.
So they figure out how to work with Joe Manchin, and now Susan Collins and all the rest have to punish them and punish members of the United States military. Let`s be clear. They`re not punishing Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer. They`re punishing people like the Zeier family.
Speaking of that, they`re — the whole Iraq War debacle began with a lie from the Bush administration that connected it to 9/11. And so 9/11 also still burns, like, in the spirit of the American, like, psyche. It`s still painful what happened to those 3,000 people, the horrible way that they died, and the fact that the Saudis have gotten a clean bill of health for it, clean bill of health.
They get to have a golf tournament. Donald Trump is now literally lying and saying, oh, nobody knows. Nobody really knows who did 9 — yes, we do. The same people that you`re golfing with, buddy.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: Your thoughts?
WILSON: Yes.
Look, Trump becoming a — basically a streetwalker for the Saudi golf tournament does not surprise me in the slightest. He is venal, repulsive and morally vacant in every way.
The idea, however, that — you`re right. There`s a long arc of exposure to volatile chemicals and plastics that are burned in an uncontrolled way that cause damage to people who are around them. This is not a debatable thing. The science is absolutely done and settled on this matter.
And the people that believe that the firefighters who served on the pile on 9/11 shouldn`t have been taken care of and the people that believe that the soldiers who were around burn piles in Iraq and Afghanistan and even on U.S. military bases…
REID: Yes.
WILSON: … should not get treatment while they were in service to this country putting their lives at risk, it is absolutely repugnant.
And I`m sorry, but the fact that they went on the floor and thought it was a great thing, and they`re fist-bumping and high-fiving and laughing, it is a display of the absolute moral collapse the Republican Party as it used to be, and it`s been replaced by something grotesque and venal.
REID: And the thing is, you can`t — I mean, Republicans like to say, oh, it`s just Trump. Trump is just the bad guy.
But Trump is golfing for money, as you said, streetwalking for cash from the Saudis. But what they did — put — can you put that up again. I`m sorry, director, my friend, lead director.
They are celebrating, these senators, stripping needed medical health care resources from the men and women who had to pay the price for decisions that were made in that very body, political decisions. Decisions on where to go to war are political. And they think it`s just funny and hilarious and wonderful and something to celebrate that they`re saying, you know what, screw those people.
WILSON: I`m totally unsurprised to see Ted Cruz and Josh “Sprinter” Hawley in that crowd. These people are — and, again, what do they have to celebrate?
Do they have to celebrate some 30-year-old former soldier, some former enlisted man or woman dying of exotic lung cancers or exotic respiratory diseases? Is that what they`re celebrating? Are they celebrating the fact that they owned the libs in some way? Are they celebrating the fact that they`re going to show Joe Manchin a thing or two about how power works?
Those — there`s something broken and sick and wrong with these people. And, again, Joy the only solution for this is to raise the political cost of doing this kind of cruel and horrible thing and vote these sons of bitches out.
REID: And, by the way, when you see there are ads touting how much they love the troops, how much they love veterans, how much they love the soldiers and the troops, just know that it`s B.S. Call B.S. on it.
[19:15:08]
WILSON: Yes, it`s B.S.
REID: Because they`re spending money to lie to you.
WILSON: Yes, it`s complete B.S. It`s totally — it`s a scam and a lie.
REID: It is a scam and a lie.
Rick Wilson, always keeping it real, I appreciate you, my friend.
WILSON: I do my best.
REID: You do indeed. Thank you very much.
Up next on THE REIDOUT: Well, surprise, more text messages are missing. Oh, oh, you wanted me to keep those messages about everything I saw and heard on January 6? Who knew?
The Reid report — I mean, THE REIDOUT continues after this.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:11]
REID: Well, first the Secret Service, now top former Department of Homeland Security officials.
We are learning that more potential evidence for the January 6 Committee has coincidentally gone missing. New “Washington Post” reporting reveals that text messages from former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli from the days leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol are missing.
Much like those missing Secret Service texts that the DHS inspector general was notified about in February, the text messages were wiped as part of an agency phone reset when Wolf and Cuccinelli left their jobs in January 2021.
Despite being informed about the missing texts five months ago, the inspector general did not inform Congress about the information. And as the “Post” report notes, the texts could have shed considerable light on Trump`s actions and plans in the weeks before the attack on the Capitol. Trump had been pressuring both — both men to help him claim the 2020 election results were rigged and even to seize voting machines in key swing states if you try to rerun the election, which, of course, is not a thing that you can do.
For their part, Wolf and Cuccinelli both say they followed protocols and blame DHS for the missing information. It comes as the committee is stepping up efforts to talk to members of the former president`s Cabinet. The panel is reportedly in discussions with former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, as well as Chad Wolf, who resigned in the days after the siege on the Capitol.
And as it continues to join forces with the Justice Department investigation, a spokesperson for the committee told Politico that the panel intends to share 20 witness transcripts with the DOJ, at least for the time being.
Joining me now is John Wood, who was a senior investigator for the January 6 Select Committee. He is now an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri.
And, Mr. Wood, coincidences, as my friend Malcolm Nance loves to say, take a lot of planning. It sure does seem weird that text messages from the Secret Service who were with Trump on January 6 and always shadowing Trump wherever he went, and now these text messages are suddenly gone.
And here`s what “The Washington Post” reports. “The Secret Service alerted Inspector General Cuffari`s office seven months ago, in December 2021, that the agency had deleted thousands of agents and employees` text messages in an agency-wide reset of government phones. Cuffari`s office did not notify Congress until mid-July, despite several — multiple congressional committees` pending requests.”
Do you think it`s coincidental?
JOHN WOOD, FORMER SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL TO JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE: It might be. It`s hard to know.
But I don`t want to jump to the conclusion that somebody intentionally deleted information and evidence that can be valuable both to the House Select Committee and to the Justice Department. If they did, that would be a crime, maybe multiple crimes.
But with the government, you can never rule out the possibility of incompetence. But if it was incompetence, it was on a grand scale, because this is information that`s extremely important about the House Select Committee and potentially to the Justice Department as well.
REID: Can you think of a benign explanation for why, if a major event — this is like a 9/11-style event. We have never had our Capitol sacked. And we have never had an attempted coup take place in the United States in our history.
They have been a lot of crazy things happen, but not that. So, if something that big happens, can you think of a benign explanation for any agency resetting their phones to wipe information that could — that literally is contemporaneous with that incredibly unusual thing?
Can you think of a benign reason why any government agency would wipe their phones with that thing having happened?
WOOD: Yes, it really is hard to imagine.
I mean, possibly on the Secret Service side, they say they had a preplanned migration of phones. But, if that`s the case, how is it that nobody thought — after the inspector general specifically asked for communications on January 5 and January 6, how could it be that nobody said, we need to stop this preplanned migration?
So, even if it`s something that they had planned before January 6 or that they planned for reasons unrelated to January 6, it`s hard to imagine why nobody realized, we need to stop this because preserving this evidence is far more important than whatever technological reason they had for doing this migration or the reset in the first place.
REID: Do you find it suspicious that people`s memories also seem to be going?
Kevin McCarthy says, oh, I don`t remember talking to Cassidy Hutchinson. Oh, you don`t remember talking to her? I mean, she is the — probably the only 23-year-old that you probably ever talked to when you were working, Kevin McCarthy, in Congress.
Cassidy Hutchinson had testified that McCarthy — she answered the phone, he sounded rushed, and then said that he`s marching to the Capitol. And you said, it was the — why are you lying to me? Because he`s not supposed to be marching to the Capitol. That`s a pretty big deal. It seems like he was very opposed to Trump marching to the Capitol.
[19:25:02]
Now he says he just doesn`t remember.
If you`re in the DOJ right now, do you believe any of these benign explanations? Or do you start — if you were in the DOJ, would you start subpoenaing these people?
WOOD: Yes, well, I think they want to at least know what he does remember.
And I`m sure that he remembers having talked to the president of the United States on January 6. And he refused to share information with the House Select Committee about that, but I would think the Justice Department is going to want to know, what did Donald Trump say to Kevin McCarthy as the attack was going on?
So, even if he doesn`t remember specifically talking to Cassidy Hutchinson, he should remember whether he had a view about whether the president was going to go to the Capitol and whether he was concerned that the president was going to go to the Capitol. And, absolutely, he must remember having talked to the president on 6th itself.
REID: Yes.
WOOD: So, he — the last thing he wants to do is talk to anybody, but the Justice Department might compel him to do so.
REID: Well, I want to just report for our audience that Ken Klukowski, who may remember in the blizzard of names from the hearings, and who you, sir, you led a lot of the questioning regarding John Eastman`s theories and the attempt to pressure Mike Pence, he is now cooperating with the Justice Department.
His name is Klukowski — Mr. Klukowski. What do you think of that?
WOOD: Yes, I think that`s certainly significant, as far as the Department of Justice piece.
As you know, President Trump came very close to appointing Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general, so Jeff Clark could sent a letter to several states, including Georgia, saying that the Justice Department had found fraud in their state, when, in fact, there was no evidence of widespread fraud in any of those states.
And Ken Klukowski worked directly for Jeff Clark.
REID: Yes.
WOOD: We understand he may have been involved in drafting those letters.
And so this could be an important piece of information for them about the DOJ part of the story.
REID: Let`s talk about what you`re doing. You are running for the United States Senate in Missouri.
The Republican candidate is likely to be Eric Greitens, who most people mainly know him from the alleged incident of tying up a former girlfriend in his basement and potentially abusing her.
What do you make of this? Is he beatable in the state of Missouri? It`s a very conservative state.
WOOD: It is a conservative state. He`s very beatable. But whoever the Republican nominee is. It looks like it`s going to be somebody who`s an extremist and very divisive, whether it`s Eric Greitens or somebody else.
And while Missouri is a generally conservative Republican state, and I am a commonsense conservative and a lifelong Republican, I better represent the views of most Missourians, because, while I`m a conservative, I`m within the mainstream.
And I also believe in defending our Constitution and our democracy. And the Republican candidates mostly seem like they want to just overturn the 2020 presidential election. And there`s nothing consistent with the Constitution or our democracy in that.
REID: Is your — I mean, John Danforth, I know, is a big supporter of yours.
Is your strategy here to run as a third party to give basically Republicans an alternate opportunity, somebody else to vote for, instead of Greitens? Because you would be the third person in a three-way race? And, in a sense, that helps the Democrat.
WOOD: I`m not sure who is going to help. I`m in this to win it, not to help or hurt either of the major parties.
I think what voters in Missouri would be presented with if I were not in this race is two sets of extremes, the extreme left from the Democrats and extreme right from the Republicans.
And not only are they extremists, but they`re…
REID: Wait. You think that Democrats that are running in the state of Missouri are extreme left?
I mean, the heir to the Bush — the Bush fortune, and the other gentleman who we have had on? They don`t seem pretty extreme to me.
(CROSSTALK)
WOOD: Yes, yes, Lucas Kunce, who I think is actually going to get the nomination, he described himself…
REID: You think he`s extreme?
WOOD: He described himself as a hand grenade — he described himself as a hand grenade and said, just roll me into the Senate, so I can blow it up.
He said Senator Wellstone was sort of the model for him. And Senator Wellstone was perhaps the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate when he served in the Senate.
So, Lucas Kunce`s beliefs may be sincere, but they`re very out of step with the average Missouri voter.
REID: I wouldn`t — I think I would hesitate to allow you to call him extreme.
He is a pretty general Democrat who believes that we shouldn`t have assault weapons, like, in the fourth grade classroom. I don`t think that`s extreme. I think that`s pretty mainstream. But we can have you back on. Maybe we will have the two of you on. You guys can debate.
Former January 6 Committee senior investigator John Wood, thank you very much for being here. Much appreciate it.
WOOD: Thanks, Joy.
REID: Still ahead: New York State Health — cheers.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett joins me to explain why she considers monkeypox an imminent threat to public health. Be afeard.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:34:12]
REID: We have some good news today in the war against COVID.
New booster shots are on the horizon, a reformulated vaccine that targets Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, the most contagious COVID variants yet, they could be available in early fall.
Meanwhile, in the other outbreak news, we have monkeypox, not nearly as widespread as COVID-19 and rarely fatal, but still officially a global health emergency, and gaining a more permanent foothold in the U.S. There are now more than 5,000 confirmed cases, most likely an undercount.
And, today, the Indiana Department of Health announced two cases among kids, along with dozens of other cases among adults. Public health agencies from New York state and San Francisco are sounding the alarm. Officials have declared a public health state of emergency in response to the growing spread of monkeypox cases across San Francisco.
[19:35:06]
And New York state`s health commissioner, Mary Bassett, has declared the disease an imminent threat to public health.
And Dr. Bassett joins me now.
Dr. Bassett, please explain what that means. Imminent threat to public health, that sounds very worrisome to me. What does that actually mean in practical terms?
DR. MARY BASSETT, NEW YORK STATE HEALTH COMMISSIONER: Well, first of all, it does highlight the fact that we, as you have just outlined, have a serious public health issue evolving with the monkeypox outbreak.
The practical thing that it does is mobilize financial resources to counties, which have the burden of delivering these vaccinations to the population. And we at least want them to know that they will get some financial help from the state to do that. So that`s what this declaration does.
REID: So, initially, the way that public health professionals talked about monkeypox, even the way I have heard about it in other media, it sounded almost like it was an STD.
The conversation was about it spreading primarily among MSM, men who have sex with men, gay and bisexual men. But now it doesn`t seem like that. We have two cases of children, one of whom, I think — I believe was infected in the nation`s capital.
The Associated Press is reporting that people can catch monkeypox from touching items that previously touched an infected person`s rash or bodily fluids, such as towels or bedsheets. That`s thought to explain the infections of those kids.
That scares me. I stay in a lot of hotels. Should I be worried about doing things like staying in a hotel?
BASSETT: Well, monkeypox is not new. It has been endemic, as I call it in, about a dozen countries in Central and West Africa.
And, there, children got monkeypox. Adults got monkeypox. And, as you point out, people got monkeypox, not — mostly from skin-to-skin contact, but also from sharing beds, sharing bed clothes where somebody who had monkeypox had been using it.
It`s not casual touching. And the hygienic practices of hotels should make you assured that you won`t catch it in the hotels that I expect to stay in.
But people who share beds with somebody who has monkeypox are in fact at risk. But the vast majority of transmission identified in this current ongoing global outbreak has been through skin-to-skin contact related to sexual activity, intimate activity.
REID: If you could just explain, though, because I know people who are very nervous, very, very worried about it, but not because they`re even sexually active.
I mean, can you get monkeypox if someone has it, and they, let`s say, have a sweaty — they have sweaty hands, for instance, and you shake their hand and you touch their hand, and then you touch your eyes or other orifices where that fluid could then get into, let`s say, your eyes or you touch your nose? Like, can it spread through that kind of contact?
BASSETT: Let me just make clear that this is an evolving outbreak, and we`re seeing it transmitted in ways that we haven`t seen before.
So we`re all learning about monkeypox, but everything that we know about monkeypox suggests that it is not that sort of casually spread, not a brush of the hand, rubbing shoulders on public transport. It`s more prolonged skin-to-skin contact.
And the main way and what we really have to talk about is that it`s being transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, is through sexual encounters.
So, I think everybody is at risk for getting monkeypox. Skin-to-skin contact is something that everyone can experience. But the main way that we`re seeing this transmitted in the — some 18,000 cases that have been identified around the world so far, and in New York state, where we have identified close to 1,400, is a report of a sexual encounter.
So I understand that people will be nervous. But the main message that we need to get out is that we are seeing it transmitted principally in a group that has been previously marginalized and may — has many bad memories, but we have to communicate that we need to support them in getting access to vaccine, to treatment and to preventing exposure.
So I sympathize with what you`re describing, but it is not a — it is not the way we`re seeing this outbreak spread.
REID: OK, well, thank you very much for disabusing me of my many fears.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, thank you very much. We really appreciate you. Have a great weekend.
All right, “Who Won the Week?” is still ahead.
[19:40:00]
BASSETT: Thank you.
REID: But — first cheers — welcome to the grift shop.
Do not be fooled by Governor Ron DeSantis` so-called populism. It is all just a scam aimed at punishing his political enemies and lining the pockets of his corporate allies. I will explain after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: The governor of the free to do whatever Ron DeSantis tells you to state of Florida is at it again, with America`s Sunshine State Viktor Orban taking aim at what he refers to as woke corporations.
[19:45:07]
This time, he`s proposing new rules on which businesses can get Florida investments, prohibiting those that take into account what is called ESG factors, environmental, social and governance, a common practice to screen a company`s behaviors for crappiness before investing in them.
Now, you see DeSantis is anti-big business, but only when that business does not agree with his policies and ideology. Let us not forget earlier this year when he moved to strip Disney of its self-governance privileges simply because they dare to push back on his hideous don`t say gay law.
He even went after the Special Olympics for requiring its athletes to be vaccinated, prompting California Governor Gavin Newsom — Gavin Newsom to run ads in Florida denouncing him.
These rules aren`t just about going after his adversaries, but also helping potential donors, especially as he looks to his reelection campaign and a likely run for president, because his new rules would also prohibit banks from discriminating against customers for their right-wing political and social beliefs.
It just so happens that Daughters of the Confederacy-style activist group Moms For Liberty has complained that the organization and some of its members have seen their accounts frozen by PayPal, a company DeSantis called out by name at his announcement earlier this week.
Joining me now is Florida state Senator Shevrin Jones.
And, Shevrin Jones, Representative Jones, it`s good to see you, Senator Jones.
Ron DeSantis really wasn`t too pressed about trying to get the money that`s invested in companies related to Russia or for the state pension fund. But he`s now decided to pick through and decide, you can get money because you are in favor of my policies, and you can`t get money if you don`t like the Moms For Liberty that wants to get the black people books out of the schools.
Your thoughts?
STATE SEN. SHEVRIN JONES (D-FL): Well, first, it`s good to be with you also, Joy.
And, for Governor DeSantis, it`s clear he`s only focused on his own political ambitions and future, and not the real concerns of Floridians.
Obviously, Joy, big companies and employers, even small employers and companies, they`re just like our families, and oftentimes have ideological differences internally. With that being said, the issues we face right now as a state and as a country today are truly between life or death for millions of Americans.
I think we`re seeing this trend constantly with Governor DeSantis, just like you said, that I — if you don`t agree with him, then he`s coming after you. He has come after Disney.
And I can tell you this, that if this is the trend that the governor plans on going on, I think that we`re going to see more businesses deterred from coming into Florida because of this — what the governor is doing and because their fear of, who`s next?
REID: Well, I mean, the thing is, he`s micromanaging Florida, as if it`s like a board game where he controls all the pieces, right?
I mean, he`s going after a single restaurant in Miami. He`s going after a restaurant. This is the governor of the state of Florida going after a restaurant because they had a drag show where kids were there. This is not — his job, I thought, was to run the state of Florida and have a fiduciary duty to the citizens.
He`s literally targeting individual restaurants because he doesn`t like the shows they have. That is fascism on steroids.
JONES: Yes, it`s fascism and it`s authoritarianism at its best.
It`s the same party who calls out for parental rights, but yet and still, you want to dictate what parents can and cannot do. And with his attacks on this wokeness, it`s clearly a play for his 2024 presidential playbook.
He decided to take a scorched-earth approach in his quest for power. And we have real issues that need to be addressed. And the governor is chasing boogeymen.
And, Joy, here`s the clear thing. We have an affordable housing crisis with exuberant rent hikes of up to 30 percent that people can`t afford. We have surging property insurance rates. We have a health care crisis with 22,000 Floridians with disabilities who are on a wait-list to get the services that they deserve.
But they can`t, because the governor is running for president and not being the governor of Florida.
REID: Well, he`s running for president also running restaurants and making sure that they have — don`t have shows he doesn`t like.
I mean, this is a — you have neo-Nazis demonstrating and chanting “Vote for DeSantis.” He doesn`t say anything. He doesn`t seem to be bothered by neo-Nazis marching around, but he`s bothered by schoolbooks that he thinks might say slavery was bad or might make white children feel uncomfortable because it talks about race.
But he doesn`t mind the neo-Nazis. They demonstrated outside of Turning Point USA`s Student Action Summit this weekend and called — and had flags that said “DeSantis Country.” That doesn`t bother him at all.
So his — the things that have sent him are pretty specific, right? He doesn`t want people to be vaccinated against COVID, but he`s like, go ahead and get COVID. I`m going to not have any mask mandates, but you need to go to my donor`s little pop-up shop here and get the treatment, because my donor makes the treatment.
[19:50:03]
Everything he does seems to be about his personal ideology, his personal piques, and money for himself and his future election.
JONES: Absolutely.
And I think we have been seeing this for the past two years. And I have said it once. And I say it again, that, when Governor DeSantis came with H.B.1, when he wanted to measure how blacks went out to protest, I think that should have been our first sign to see what direction that Governor DeSantis was going in.
REID: Yes.
And yet a lot of national Republicans are literally shoving Donald Trump over a bridge to grab DeSantis. I mean, he`s leading — he`s losing ground to DeSantis. Poll after poll is showing him gaining on Trump. It seems that he`s the replacement.
Does — is he acting at this moment like he`s already looking past the state of Florida, ignoring now his current job, other than managing what restaurants are doing? Is this guy running for president?
JONES: Well, he is definitely running for president.
And it`s clear that Governor DeSantis has totally already looked past the needs of the state of Florida, looking at the needs that I just — the laundry list of needs that I just made mention of, it`s the culture wars that he and his — that he believed that works, because it plays into his base.
And they utilize the culture wars as a tool to distract from the bigger issue of that impact people every single day. And the fact that we`re pushing back on this is really ridiculous.
But, here, let`s take — even take this a step further. You have a teacher shortage of 9,000 teachers, 9,000 teachers. And it`s — what they want to do is exactly what`s working. They want to create this confusion with our classroom. They want to create this confusion with our teachers and parents, so parents can put their children in private schools, so he can continue to grow his base.
This is all playing out now in Florida. And it hasn`t — and we haven`t even gotten into the real issues that Florida needs to deal with.
REID: Yes.
JONES: We have hurricane season the other end that the governor has not addressed, that we`re not doing anything about.
But yet and still we have this issue is now the new issue for the state of Florida under Governor DeSantis in the free state of Florida.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: Supposedly free state of Florida.
Meanwhile, he`s torching the tourism industry, going after and getting in lawsuits with the cruise ship industry, going after Disney.
This is the bread and butter of the state. And, apparently, he wants to destroy it because he wants essentially everyone to be white Christian nationalist in ideology, or at least pretend to be. Otherwise, he will get mad. And if he gets mad — if he gets mad, then he just decides to hurt you.
That is not being governor, Ron DeSantis. That`s not being governor, sir.
JONES: No.
REID: You could probably just be a pundit and do that.
JONES: Florida State Senator Shevrin Jones, thank you very much. I appreciate you. Have a great weekend.
JONES: Thank you.
REID: Up next, it`s a very special edition of “Who Won the Week?” You do not want to miss it.
Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:30]
REID: Now, normally, about this time on Friday, I`d ask “Who Won the Week?”
But, this week, there is a pretty clear-cut winner. And no, it`s not every song about running, per Josh Hawley. No, it could have been Beyonce. That`s a good guess. Some folks on Twitter are guessing Beyonce. There`s been a lot of other great guesses.
But, clearly, the answer is Olivia Julianna, who appeared on this very show Wednesday night, for her efforts to raise money for abortion rights groups after she was verbally attacked by America`s most juvenile and allegedly juvenile-dating congressman, Florida`s Matt Gaetz.
And, Olivia…
(music)
REID: Ah, yes, the music.
She joins me now.
Olivia, you won the week.
OK, sister girl, I`m going to put the ticker up, but tell us how much money you have raised. When did you start this fund-raiser? I think it was Tuesday, right?
OLIVIA JULIANNA, GEN-Z FOR CHANGE: Yes, we started this fund-raiser Tuesday night.
REID: And there it is. There it is. Look at that.
(LAUGHTER)
JULIANNA: Yes, I`m in complete shock. I never realized it would take off as much as it has.
But I`m extremely happy that it has. We have seen an outpouring of support from across the country. And funds that have received funds are expressing their support online. I`m just — I`m extremely happy with how this is all turned out.
REID: Did you — when you started this out — I mean, you wrote that very adorably snarky thank you letter to Matt — “Mattie” Matt Gaetz for being just a jerk to you on social media and really to all activists who actually weirdly believe women should actually own our own bodies.
Did you expect the outpouring to be what it has been?
JULIANNA: I absolutely did not. I thought we`d raise a couple thousand dollars.
I had no idea that it would blow up as much as it has. A million was a big goal. But now we`re shooting for two.
REID: Yes.
JULIANNA: So, hopefully, we can get there in the next couple days.
REID: Oh, girlfriend, you will be at two in like an hour. You`re at 1.686899. I mean, you will be at $2 million in like an hour or two. By the time the 9:00 is on, you will be at $2 million.
Tell us very quickly, where`s this money going to go? You`re going to help a lot of people. Where does the — where`s the money going to go?
JULIANNA: This money is going to go to 50 different abortion funds across the country, including Indigenous Women Rising, which is the only indigenous-led abortion fund in the country.
So there are a lot of amazing funds that are going to be able to help the people who need health care because of these donations.
So, thank you so much to everyone who has donated.
REID: Well said. I`m so proud of you.
Olivia Julianna, you are the woman. Excellent, excellent job.
You won the week. Great job.
And, by the way, that is tonight`s REIDOUT, but, next week, I know a lot of you all are talking about this crime bill thing that is sort of rolling through the House of Representatives. We don`t know where it`s going.
Next week, we`re going to do a little:
(singing): I`m just a bill. Yes, I`m only a bill.
We`re going to explain how the sausage is made and why this sausage might not be so tasty.
But I`m going to leave you with that tease, as I now pass you along to “ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES,” which starts right now.