MSNBC’s Packnett Cunningham: MAGA Means Wanting to ‘Return to Days When You Could Lynch or Murder Black Folks’

MSNBC legal analyst Brittany Packnett Cunningham said Thursday on “The ReidOut” that the slogan Make America Great Again reflected a desire to return to “days when you could lynch or murder black folks.”

While discussing a proposed Missouri self-defense law, host Joy Reid said, “As expected, Mark McCloskey, who is running for the open Missouri Senate seat, praised the bill. Because it means that he essentially, and his wife, could have been in their slippers and shoot every single Black Lives Matter person that walked by, legally, and they would not even be detained.”

Packnett Cunningham said, “Joy, I’m so glad you reminded us that the McCloskeys were front row and center to testify on behalf of passing this bill. This was, of course, the couple that was made famous by stepping outside of their restricted Covenant mansion in St. Louis, Glocks in tow, pulling their guns out on unarmed black protestors. But of course, to people like the McCloskeys, black skin is weapon enough, and this is precisely the problem. This is exactly what this bill is designed to do. It is to legitimize seeing blackness as a weapon in and of itself and then justify our murders.”

She added, “I also want to set the proper historical context because back in the day, by 1950, Missouri had the second-highest number of lynchings outside of the deep south. So when folks talk about making America great again, that’s the kind of Missouri grand ol’ tradition that they want to return to. They want to return to days when you could lynch or murder black folks, and there would be absolutely no retribution for it. That’s not hyperbole. I’m telling you as a black Missourian, and as a protestor, that is reality.”

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