What is MSNBC’s The ReidOut if not a vehicle for some of the most unhinged race rants on cable TV? Tonight’s bitter rant, delivered by host Joy Reid and contributor Elie Mystal, also had a dash of hypocrisy along with its usual unhingement.
Watch as Elie Mystal suggests that Clarence Thomas, Tim Scott, Byron Donalds and Candace Owens “exist” because “there’s a lot of money in telling white folks what they want to hear”:
JOY REID: So at this point, Elie, I guess they just take all the 30-year-old right wing college graduates from Liberty University and send them on fancy trips and then (unint).
ELIE MYSTAL: Yeah, right? I mean, look. I think it’s important for people to ask what are these people paying for, right? What are they getting for their $4 million they have given to Clarence Thomas over the past 20 years? And what they’re getting, just to link your last segment together, what they’re getting is what Byron Donalds wants. What they’re getting is Jim Crow, right? What they’re getting is a guy like Clarence Thomas who like Byron Donalds’ entire judicial philosophy is that, well, there- some Negroes are magic, right? No matter what the white man does to us, we can just rise above as long as they don’t shoot us or kill us or rape us or drown us, right? And if you tell people that, if you’re black, if you’re Donalds, if you’re Thomas and you tell white people that, they will give you money. And that is what’s happened to Clarence Thomas for 20 years. He has told white folks exactly what they want to hear, ruled exactly as they would like him to rule. And done it as their black friend, and so the money is just pouring out, and you see it in these reports where, again, Clarence Thomas — in the figures that we saw today, you know, Sam Alito made like $200,000 disclosed gifts over the past- you know, disclosed gifts over the past 20 years. Antonin Scalia, the hero of their movement, again around $200,000. Clarence Thomas, $4 million.
REID: It’s wild.
MYSTAL: That’s why Tim Scott exists. That’s why Byron Donalds exists. That’s why Candace Owens exists, because the grift is good. There’s a lot of money in telling white folks what they need to hear.
Pot, meet envious kettle. What is MSNBC, if not a vehicle for liberal white people to be told what they want to hear (albeit by a diverse collection of talking heads)? And who exactly reads The Nation? Is there some vast, multiethnic readership coalition that we’re unaware of? The hypocrisy of these two seriously unself-aware individuals is amazing to behold.
In addition to bashing minority conservatives by trotting out disgusting tropes, the segment served to further the left’s ongoing campaign to intimidate and pressure sitting Justices of the Supreme Court into recusal ahead of two important opinions on obstruction and presidential immunity, which will have an effect on the ongoing lawfare against former President Donald Trump. In so doing, they promote the work of “Fix the Court”, a leftwing dark money pit that wants to lecture the Supreme Court on ethics while engaging in its own ethics lapses. Fixers, fix thyselves.
Beyond the bitter race banter, which reasonable people could conclude is a grift wherein big money is made by telling white (liberal) people what they want to hear, this segment constitutes an attack on a free and independent judiciary. Keep that in mind ahead of the next lecture on Democracy™.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on MSNBC’s The ReidOut on Thursday, June 6th, 2024:
MSNBC
THE REIDOUT
6/6/24
7:38 PM
JOY REID: Today was yet another day that the Supreme Court chose not to issue key rulings on abortion access, guns, or presidential immunity. And it’s been roughly two weeks since we learned that the Alitos foisted an inverted flag and an Appeal to Heaven flag, both of which were carried by insurrectionists outside the capitol on January 6th, 2021. Recently, we’ve received regular reminders of how Donald Trump and Leonard Leo, a long time pal of Clarence Thomas, have successfully built a conservative federal judiciary with a deep bench and feeder system supported by a big donor network that regularly wines and dines these judges. Leo’s stated goal with all of this corrupt, incestious behavior is to defeat unchurched and vile, immoral current day barbarians, secularists whom the devil is moving to use society away from its natural order. Unquote. Huffington Post uncovered the latest example of that rotten playbook in action. Down in Florida back in 2022, during the tail end of the Covid pandemic, an underqualified Trump-nominated judge issued a ruling against mask mandates. This judge used a weird never-used legal theory that you could word-search, like, key phrases and apply the old-timey meanings to provide legitimacy to the ruling. And guess where this judge got this legal theory? At a Koch-funded all expenses paid luxury trip where the primary mission was persuading federal judges to adopt this arcane theory. And guess who the judge clerked for? You guessed it, Clarence Thomas. Today, Fix The Court reported that according to their tally, Justice Thomas has received the most gifts of any, dating back to the Antonin Scalia era during his time on the Court, by a mile- with 193 gifts totaling more than $4 million. I’m joined by Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation. So at this point, Elie, I guess they just take all the 30-year-old right wing college graduates from Liberty University and send them on fancy trips and then (unint).
ELIE MYSTAL: Yeah, right? I mean, look. I think it’s important for people to ask what are these people paying for, right? What are they getting for their $4 million they have given to Clarence Thomas over the past 20 years? And what they’re getting, just to link your last segment together, what they’re getting is what Byron Donalds wants. What they’re getting is Jim Crow, right? What they’re getting is a guy like Clarence Thomas who like Byron Donalds’ entire judicial philosophy is that, well, there- some Negroes are magic, right? No matter what the white man does to us, we can just rise above as long as they don’t shoot us or kill us or rape us or drown us, right? And if you tell people that, if you’re black, if you’re Donalds, if you’re Thomas and you tell white people that, they will give you money. And that is what’s happened to Clarence Thomas for 20 years. He has told white folks exactly what they want to hear, ruled exactly as they would like him to rule. And done it as their black friend, and so the money is just pouring out, and you see it in these reports where, again, Clarence Thomas — in the figures that we saw today, you know, Sam Alito made like $200,000 disclosed gifts over the past- you know, disclosed gifts over the past 20 years. Antonin Scalia, the hero of their movement, again around $200,000. Clarence Thomas, $4 million.
REID: It’s wild.
MYSTAL: That’s why Tim Scott exists. That’s why Byron Donalds exists. That’s why Candace Owens exists, because the grift is good. There’s a lot of money in telling white folks what they need to hear.
REID: It is- it is amazing because when I looked at the chart, it was like, I thought that Clarence Thomas’ was the total because it was so much bigger. Antonin Scalia, like you said, is six figures. He’s in the two, the three, the four — this guy, you’re right, it is a thing that the right is willing to pay extra to get women and especially black people to tell them what they want to hear about women and black people. Tell them that black people don’t want to be able to have a Fearless Fund. They shouldn’t be able to give 20– I wanted if I had time to ask if he supported the Fearless Fund being not able to give grants out. I’m sure he does because that’s what he’s supposed to say.
MYSTAL: It makes me some- look, I looked at that chart today. I look at people like Donalds and think, man, I made the wrong financial choices in my life. Right? Because there’s money out there for these people, but always remember, and I just want folks to remember this. They’re getting something for their money.
REID: Yes, they are.
MYSTAL: This isn’t charity, right? They’re getting rulings. They’re getting opinions. They’re getting the kind of return to not 1950s, but to the 1850s that they want for their funds. And if we, the rest of us who are not making — the other funny thing is that you saw the liberals like Sotomayor had like a bunch of guests but they were all like $5. Like, here’s a flower, Sonya. Like that’s what she was getting, right? So all of us who don’t have the money to buy our own Supreme Court justices, what we need to do is use what power we have, the power we didn’t have during the Jim Crow South, and go out and vote for people who are going to hold the Supreme Court justices to heel through ethics legislation and other reforms. Hank Johnson, congressman from Georgia, my man, he’s got an ethics bill right now on the House floor. We need to vote for people who are going to support that bill and ask our political leaders when we go to vote- are you going to support ethics reform?
REID: Yes.
MYSTAL: No more nice letters, all right? No more, like, oh, we’re not- no more of that stuff. Are you going to support the bills to stop these people from graft?
REID: Amen, my brother. Elie Mystal, who understands what Jim Crow was and also what the grift looks like ‘cause the grift is good for Clarence and them. Thank you very much, Elie Mystal.