Monday night on MSNBC’s All In, all pretenses were laid aside in light of Donald Trump’s newest controversial tweet about several Democratic Congresswomen. Host Joy Reid, filling in for Chris Hayes, opened up the show with a scathing monologue to "clear" the debate over Trump’s apparent racism:
Well, for the last three years there's been this agonized national debate, is Donald Trump a racist? Does he realize that the thing he just said is exciting racists and white nationalists? Does the thing he said this time finally prove he's a racist? But you know who has not been having this big debate? Donald Trump.
Reid supposedly won the debate for MSNBC by stating: “After decades of clear evidence of racism, Trump clearly knows exactly what he's saying and to whom, and as President he has consistently backed up his racist talk with policy. He's putting real racist policy on the table designed to excite racially anxious white Americans and to terrify people who aren't white. So, yes, Donald Trump is really racist, Fini.” She assumed Donald Trump’s policies had everything to do with the skin tone of the people they affect, and nothing to do with those people’s illegal actions.
The host continued: “This weekend Trump added to the ledger targeting four black and brown Democratic congresswomen, representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Presley and Rashida Tlaib…” One wonders if maybe they were targeted for their aggressively left-wing, anti-Trump, and even anti-Semitic stances, but the emphasis remains on their skin color, because that’s all that really matters to the liberal media.
A clip then ran of Trump responding to questions during a White House press conference Monday afternoon:
JOHN ROBERTS [FOX NEWS]: Does it concern you that many people saw that tweet as racist and that white nationalist groups are finding common cause with you on that point?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me, and all I’m saying, if they want to leave they can leave.
Reid interpreted those comments to mean that Trump welcomed support of white nationalists: “Right, I mean, why would it bother him? His people loved it.”
Here is the transcript from the July 15 episode of All In:
All In with Chris Hayes
07/15/19
08:01:55 PM ET
JOY REID: Good evening from Washington, D.C. I'm Joy Reid in for Chris Hayes. Well, for the last three years there's been this agonized national debate, is Donald Trump a racist? Does he realize that the thing he just said is exciting racists and white nationalists? Does the thing he said this time finally prove he's a racist? But you know who has not been having this big debate? Donald Trump. After decades of clear evidence of racism, Trump clearly knows exactly what he's saying and to whom, and as President he has consistently backed up his racist talk with policy. He's putting real racist policy on the table designed to excite racially anxious white Americans and to terrify people who aren't white. So, yes, Donald Trump is really racist, Fini. This weekend Trump added to the ledger targeting four black and brown Democratic congresswomen, representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Presley and Rashida Tlaib, to punish them for criticizing his hideous immigration policies, including locking Central American men, women and children in crowded cages where they are told to drink water from the toilet. Trump pulled the ultimate Barbecue Becky, telling them they don't belong here. Trump in a tweet storm told these four American congresswomen to go back to the countries they originally came from, even though all four are American, born in the Bronx, Ohio, Michigan, and one naturalized from Somalia as a teenager. Today, Trump was asked if it bothered him that white nationalists were high-fiving what he said.
JOHN ROBERTS [FOX NEWS]: Does it concern you that many people saw that tweet as racist and that white nationalist groups are finding common cause with you on that point?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me, and all I’m saying, if they want to leave they can leave.
REID: Right, I mean, why would it bother him? His people loved it.
