Posted on 12 July 2020
On her Saturday morning show, MSNBC's Joy Reid alleged that the Republican Party is turning into the National Party, the party of apartheid in South Africa. According to Reid and the assembled panel, this can be seen in President Trump running ads highlighting the consequences of defunding the police.
Reid's comments came in response to former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci claiming that it is "clear" that defunding the police does not actually mean eliminating the police, despite that being the meaning of the word and some people really do mean eliminating police departments. He claimed that in order for Trump to win in November, "he has to go full-on racism, full-on racist, nativist tropes and you'll see more ugly, disparaging ads like that."
Responding to Scaramucci and the ad, which showed crowds of people demanding the defunding of police departments juxtaposed to people committing acts of violence while a 911 answering machine plays, MSNBC's newest prime time hoast claimed, "that the Republican Party is sort of morphing into the National Party in South Africa in the 1980s, it’s 'we'll defend white America's privileges, but you have to be really afraid that the black people are coming for you, so you have to stick with us and stay with the team.'"
Apparently, not wanting a brick thrown through your window or having your city set on fire is proof that Republicans are the party of apartheid and scared of black people.
Reid then hypothesized that this supposed strategy of igniting a race-based culture war will not work in the end, because Trump's niece wrote a book, showing him to be a sociopath and a clown, among other things.
This segment was sponsored by Lexus.
Here is a transcript for the July 11 show:
MSNBC
AM Joy
11:04 AM ET
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: Well, I hope he has, but let's go back to that ad that you just showed about defunding the police. He's trying to let people know that defunding the police means elimination of the police, which we all know clearly it doesn't mean, and so the strategy, Joy, he got 62% of the white vote last time. He needs 7% or 8% increase in voter participation from his base to be competitive in those swing states and so he has to go full-on racism, full-on racist, nativist tropes and you'll see more ugly, disparaging ads like that. There's nothing unifying coming. It's going to get darker and darker. What he's hoping to do is it will compel people to be fearful and vote for him because he will be the, quote, unquote, protector in the cultural war that's going on in this society and so we have to convince those people he's just going to make things worse and they can live a great life under a Biden administration, he is a false prophet and false promise, but that’s the move. He’s going to go way uglier than he is right now.
JOY REID: Yeah, I mean you know David, it does strike me, I’ve said this before, that the Republican Party is sort of morphing into the National Party in South Africa in the 1980s, it’s “we'll defend white America's privileges, but you have to be really afraid that the black people are coming for you, so you have to stick with us and stay with the team.” It's a strategy, but that strategy is playing against a lot of truth coming out with Donald Trump. Running for president and the way he has been president has prompted his own family member to come out, Mary Trump, his niece, and NBC news has a piece called "Sociopath, clown, 8 unflattering anecdotes from Mary Trump's new book." “The only reason Donald escaped the same fate as Mary’s father Freddy is that his personality served his father Fred's purpose. That's what sociopaths do: they co-opt others and use them toward their own ends, ruthlessly and efficiently, with no tolerance for dissent or resistance.”