Closing out Wednesday’s ReidOut, MSNBC conspiracy theorist and host Joy Reid re-upped an ugly, venomous suggestion that Republicans are the modern-day incarnation of al-Qaeda looking to terrorize the United States with former President Trump as their Osama bin Laden in light of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Reid was discussing a Senate hearing on threats facing America and the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan when she warned: “We can’t stay anywhere forever especially when we’ve got home security threats in terms of violent white nationalism that’s threatening our Capitol.”
Adding that Trump had sent “people into violence and pushing them into this violent, white extremism,” Reid remarked that his behavior mirrored “the way bin Laden, you know, did, sort of inspiring people to be this way.”
Going to former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, Reid wondered: “Do you feel as somebody who ran DHS that we’ve got to turn our focus here because we’ve got our own internal terroristic threats to deal with?”
Johnson agreed, saying the “short answer to your question is yes,” though he would add that he’s viewed climate change as the “long-term principal threat to national security.”
Addressing the fear of the far-right, Johnson cited a University of Chicago study to fret that “it’s frightening” to see so many of the January 6th attendees were “college-educated,” from blue and red states, and “all afraid of displacement, this baseless fear over the increasing diversity of our nation.”
He continued: “And what the study points out is that was the tip of the iceberg. And that iceberg did not evaporate on January 20th. In my judgment, that is a principle threat to our very democracy and it represents a national security threat.”
Bringing in former CIA Director John Brennan (who thinks libertarians should face government surveillance), Reid otherized those not on her side of the aisle by decrying a “far-right extremism menace” that’s “far more sort of urgent” than any previous form of terrorism we’ve faced on American soil.
Brennan obviously concurred (click “expand”):
[F]irst of all, it’s very insidious because it is within our midst already. Whether you’re talking about white supremacist groups, neo-Nazis, militia groups, and others, I think this growth of domestic violent extremist is something that is very worrisome and that’s what the challenge is for our law enforcement, our intelligence, and our homeland security professionals. They have to deal with domestic terrorists and those who are prone to conducting acts of violence but they also should be concerned about the types of terrorist threats that emanate from abroad, including from that area of South Asia.
So, I don’t disagree with anything that you said or Jeh said, but United States has these responsibilities both at home and abroad, that they need to ensure that we take — it takes the appropriate steps to protect citizenry from wherever those threats might come from, domestically or abroad.
Sounding more like a spokesperson for the concentration camp-running Chinese Communist Party, Reid argued America now lacks standing to preach about the virtues of democracy because of the Trump presidency:
And you know, Jeh Johnson, when you look at these — all of these reports about the 1/6 attack, they’re more and more troubling and I feel like we’re not in moral standing that we used to be in terms of telling the world that we care about democracy and can protect democracy abroad, when we’ve got people, you know, Capitol police ignoring intelligence and, you know, just the deficiencies on January 6. How much of a hole are we in? How much of a hole does Biden have to dig us out of at this point, morally, around the world?
Johnson wasn’t as direct this time. He instead pivoted to his admiration for Biden’s intelligence leaders, waking poetic about how he felt “refresh[ed] to see our leaders today of the intelligence community, there with Avril Haines there leading the leaders, and John and I both know her well, telling the truth about the threats our nation faces.”
This declaration that Americans right of center are terrorists was made possible thanks to the endorsement of advertisers such as Fidelity, LegalZoom, and Qunol. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from April 14, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
April 14, 2021
7:53 p.m. EasternJOY REID: You know, Jeh Johnson, you would know better than I, because you know President Obama better than I do — far better. You know, he did run on this idea that, you know — of opposition to Iraq war made him rise in politics, and idea that Afghanistan could go on forever. We can’t stay anywhere forever especially when we’ve got home security threats in terms of violent white nationalism that’s threatening our Capitol, when we’ve got our own former President inciting people into violence and pushing them into this violent, white extremism, much the way bin Laden, you know, did, sort of inspiring people to be this way. Do you feel as somebody who ran DHS that we’ve got to turn our focus here because we’ve got our own internal terroristic threats to deal with?
JEH JOHNSON: My short answer to your question is yes. I was very pleased to see in the intelligence assessment released by intelligence community that we are focused on non-nontraditional, unconventional threats as well as traditional threats from Russia, and China, North Korea, and Iran. In my judgment, long-term principal threat to national security is climate change. In the short-term, of course, it’s COVID-19. In midterm, it is what we saw vividly on January 6th. There’s a study out from University of Chicago by Professor Robert Peyton (ph) that does a study of the demographics of those who launched the attack on our Capitol on January 6th, and it’s frightening. They tend to be college educated. They came from blue states as well as red states. They’re all afraid of displacement, this baseless fear over the increasing diversity of our nation. And what the study points out is that was the tip of the iceberg. And that iceberg did not evaporate on January 20th. In my judgment, that is a principle threat to our very democracy and it represents a national security threat. On Afghanistan, I agree with John, there were no good options after 20 years. In perfect world, we would have structured a deal that would have included the Afghan government but it was clear a decade ago, which John knows, that the Taliban attitude was you Americans may have the watches but we have the time, and we’re going to wait you out.
REID: Yeah. They did it with the Soviet Union. They just — a dozen years gone, you know? And it’s — it’s an intractable issue. Let me let you all listen to Avril Haines. She’s a director of national intelligence and this is on the domestic threat that we’re facing. Take a listen.
DNI AVRIL HAINES: Domestically, lone actors and small cells with a broad range of the ideological motivations pose a greater immediate threat. We see this threat manifest itself in individuals who were inspired by al Qaeda and ISIS, often called homegrown violent extremism, and those who commit terrorist acts for ideological goals stemming from other influences, such as racial bias and anti-governmental sentiment.
REID: To add to that, John, Brennan, since 2015 for The Washington Post, right-wing extremists have been involved in 267 plots and attacks, 91 fatalities. At the same time, attacks plots described to far left incidents accounted for 66 incidents and 19 deaths. It’s far right extremism menace. It feels to me like of a piece what we used to think of terrorism that was most fearful for us, this just feels far more — so prescient to me or far more sort of urgent to me. Does it to you?
JOHN BRENNAN: Yes. Well, first of all, it’s very insidious because it is within our midst already. Whether you’re talking about white supremacist groups, neo-Nazis, militia groups, and others, I think this growth of domestic violent extremist is something that is very worrisome and that’s what the challenge is for our law enforcement, our intelligence, and our homeland security professionals. They have to deal with domestic terrorists and those who are prone to conducting acts of violence but they also should be concerned about the types of terrorist threats that emanate from abroad, including from that area of South Asia. So, I don’t disagree with anything that you said or Jeh said, but United States has these responsibilities both at home and abroad, that they need to ensure that we take — it takes the appropriate steps to protect citizenry from wherever those threats might come from, domestically or abroad.
(....)
7:58 p.m. Eastern
REID: And you know, Jeh Johnson, when you look at these — all of these reports about the 1/6 attack, they’re more and more troubling and I feel like we’re not in moral standing that we used to be in terms of telling the world that we care about democracy and can protect democracy abroad, when we’ve got people, you know, Capitol police ignoring intelligence and, you know, just the deficiencies on January 6. How much of a hole are we in? How much of a hole does Biden have to dig us out of at this point, morally, around the world?
JOHNSON: A famous American said, Joy, once, God did not appoint you to be policeman of the whole world. That was Martin Luther King in 1967. There’s a larger point that I want to make and I know John is going to agree with. For four years, the leaders of the intelligence community had to look over their shoulder because they were afraid that their boss was going to say something — that they were going to say something their boss wouldn’t like. It was, frankly, refreshing to see our leaders today of the intelligence community, there with Avril Haines there leading the leaders, and John and I both know her well, telling the truth
REID: Yeah.
JOHNSON: — about the threats our nation faces and we know full well that they did that and they were shooting straight without any notion of any repercussion from the White House.
REID: Yeah.
JOHNSON: That’s a big picture that should not be lost today.
