Princeton Prof. Eddie Glaude Jr. joined MS NOW host Chris Hayes on Thursday’s edition of All In for another segment of election fear-mongering as the duo tried to analogize the Trump administration with the violent Mississippi Plan of the 1870s.
Hayes declared himself to be a student of history when he proclaimed, “You know what, one of the things that has been struck, and the second time I'm mentioning sort of reading back in history, but I've been immersed in the 19th century. And one of the things that really has kind of struck me, and I didn't quite realize, we talk about the violence of that era sometimes, and particularly the racialized violence that happens sort of before, during, and after Reconstruction in the Jim Crow South against black voters trying to exercise their votes.”
Eddie Glaude Jr. invokes the 1870s when warning about November's election, "But we need to understand the importance, the significance of, say, the Mississippi Plan and how the Mississippi Plan, which involved, you know, not only disenfranchising black folk, but in so many, so… pic.twitter.com/gh9YuB2h1Q
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) September 4, 2026
Against a wildly misleading chyron that read “DHS chief says ICE could make arrests at polling places,” Hayes continued, “But I didn't quite realize is that, like all elections during this period are pretty violent. Like, even different factions of armed white folks in the Democratic Party are sending, like, young men with bats and guns, sometimes to polling places or the Know-Nothing, or trying to stop the immigrants from voting. Like we have—we have a very violent history around conducting elections. And, and it's easy to take for granted, actually a very orderly, peaceful electoral process that we have had for a while.”
What Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin actually said was, “ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places. We’re there to enforce specific threats," and “The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down."
As for Glaude, he added to the historical analogies:
That's a very important point, Chris, because I think we lose sight of the fact that there's been this kind of illiberal underbelly to the history of the country. And, you know, we've talked about, you know, the coup in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. But we need to understand the importance, the significance of, say, the Mississippi Plan and how the Mississippi Plan, which involved, you know, not only disenfranchising black folk, but in so many, so many ways, a kind of violent overthrow of the state government, running the governor basically out of the state, and how that was then duplicated across the South.
Trying to tie it back to present day, Glaude claimed, “So, that illiberal dimension of American history is actually evidenced right now. This is homegrown. This isn't Donald—coming out of Donald Trump's head like Athena out of Zeus's head. This is homegrown, Chris.”
When November’s elections come and go without Trump administration officials chasing black voters with weapons or forcing state and local officials to flee to other states, will Hayes and Glaude apologize for excessive fearmongering? Of course not. They will simply wait a couple of years and resurrect them again in 2028.
Here is a transcript for the September 3 show:
MS NOW All In With Chris Hayes
9/3/2026
8:38 PM ET
CHRIS HAYES: You know what, one of the things that has been struck, and the second time I'm mentioning sort of reading back in history, but I've been immersed in the 19th century. And one of the things that really has kind of struck me, and I didn't quite realize, we talk about the violence of that era sometimes, and particularly the racialized violence that happens sort of before, during, and after Reconstruction in the Jim Crow South against black voters trying to exercise their votes.
But I didn't quite realize is that, like all elections during this period are pretty violent. Like, even different factions of armed white folks in the Democratic Party are sending, like, young men with bats and guns, sometimes to polling places or the Know-Nothings, or trying to stop the immigrants from voting.
Like we have—we have a very violent history around conducting elections. And, and it's easy to take for granted, actually a very orderly, peaceful electoral process that we have had for a while.
EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: That's a very important point, Chris, because I think we lose sight of the fact that there's been this kind of illiberal underbelly to the history of the country. And, you know, we've talked about, you know, the coup in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. But we need to understand the importance, the significance of, say, the Mississippi Plan and how the Mississippi Plan, which involved, you know, not only disenfranchising black folk, but in so many, so many ways, a kind of violent overthrow of the state government, running the governor basically out of the state, and how that was then duplicated across the South. So, that illiberal dimension of American history is actually evidenced right now. This is homegrown. This isn't Donald—coming out of Donald Trump's head like Athena out of Zeus's head. This is homegrown, Chris.
