On Monday night, MS NOW host Rachel Maddow used her eponymous show to promote liberal activists who have been harassing Home Depot over immigration raids even though the company has no control over the federal government's law enforcement actions. She also went on to invoke civil rights icon Rosa Parks as she talked up anti-ICE protests around the country.
As Maddow recalled an effort to shut down Home Depot, she proclaimed:
I got to tell you, this is sort of a category of protest that appears to be really taking off. You might remember this time last week we reported on a protest at a Home Depot in Monrovia, California, in the Los Angeles area at which people lined up by the hundreds to buy ice scrapers. So they picked up an ice scraper, and then they got in line to spend 17 cents to buy one of these ice scrapers.
She then added:
And then, as soon as they had bought the ice scraper in line, they then got back in line in a customer service line -- again, by the hundreds. Hundreds of people did this. They got back in line at the customer service line to return the ice scraper that they had just bought and get their 17 cents back. They created these lines that absolutely brought that Home Depot to a halt. They called it a "buy-in."
She then elaborated: "The reason they did this is they want Home Depot to stop letting Home Depot stores and Home Depot parking lots be used by ICE -- be used by Trump's immigration agents for these raids."
Then they wonder why people think protesters are professional time wasters with nothing better to do. But they'll be hailed by Rachel Maddow as brilliant.
By contrast, on the November 24 Fox News at Night, host Trace Gallagher informed viewers that Home Depot cannot refuse to allow federal agents to make arrests on its property: "Home Depot does not work with ICE -- it does not coordinate with ICE. So when the protesters say they want Home Depot to scrape ICE, they're asking a multi-billion-dollar business to violate federal law by siding with illegal criminal immigrants."
After Maddow showed clips of anti-ICE protesters singing a song based on "Feliz Navidad" to promote a boycott of Home Depot, the MS NOW host covered some other anti-ICE protests and then tied in Rosa Parks:
Economic boycotts can often have a much more immediate, a much more lasting effect than typical political protest actions. We know this from contemporary history. We also know this from our history history. Seventy years ago today -- today at 6:06 p.m. -- 70 years ago, Rosa Parks refused a bus driver's order to get up out of her seat on the bus so a white person could take her seat. That act of refusal was the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
She went on to recount the timeline of the boycott that led to an end to racial discrimination on buses as if there were any comparison with an effort to kick criminals out of the country. Segregationists and people advocating for border security are not close to the same thing.
Transcript follows:
MS NOW's The Rachel Maddow Show
December 1, 2025
9:09 p.m. Eastern
RACHEL MADDOW: We keep an eye on these protests every week. I got to tell you, this is sort of a category of protest that appears to be really taking off. You might remember this time last week we reported on a protest at a Home Depot in Monrovia, California, in the Los Angeles area at which people lined up by the hundreds to buy ice scrapers. So they picked up an ice scraper, and then they got in line to spend 17 cents to buy one of these ice scrapers.
And then, as soon as they had bought the ice scraper in line, they then got back in line in a customer service line -- again, by the hundreds. Hundreds of people did this. They got back in line at the customer service line to return the ice scraper that they had just bought and get their 17 cents back. They created these lines that absolutely brought that Home Depot to a halt. They called it a "buy-in."
The reason they did this is they want Home Depot to stop letting Home Depot stores and Home Depot parking lots be used by ICE -- be used by Trump's immigration agents for these raids. And, you know, we saw a bunch of these over the last few days keyed to Black Friday. We saw "Boycott Home Depot" actions and "We Ain't Buying It -- Boycott Home Depot" actions all over the country. We saw it happen at Home Depots in Atlanta and in Snellville, Georgia; and Cleveland, Ohio; out there in the snow. "Boycott Home Depot -- Defend Democracy."
We also saw this one at a Home Depot in Brooklyn, New York, and this one -- you got to turn up the sound. This one you need to hear.
CLIP OF PROTESTERS SINGING:
Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad.
Prospero ano y felicidad.
We don't want no more deportations,
We don't want no more deportations at the Home Depot parking lot.
(...)
MADDOW: That's the Resistance Revival chorus. As people start boycotting Home Depot, demanding that they stop letting Home Depot stores and, in particular, Home Depot parking lots be used by Trump's immigration agents for these deportation raids.
(...)
Economic boycotts can often have a much more immediate, a much more lasting effect than typical political protest actions. We know this from contemporary history. We also know this from our history history. Seventy years ago today -- today at 6:06 p.m. 70 years ago, Rosa Parks refused a bus driver's order to get up out of her seat on the bus so a white person could take her seat. That act of refusal was the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She did that again December 1st, 70 years ago today.
Less than a week later, December 5th, 70 years ago, less than a week after she refused to move to the back of the bus, more than 5,000 people turned out to attend the first mass meeting to plan a boycott of the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, an economic boycott that went on for 382 long days -- more than a year-- 382 days before that act of economic protest and logistical genius and economic sacrifice by African Americans in Alabama forced a change, and public bus segregation was ruled unconstitutional.
