During MSNBC’s coverage of the RNC on Monday, MSNBC host Joy Reid stated that there is a fear that in the wake of the assassination attempt against 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, “the media will acquiesce to trying to convince people that the things they’ve been experiencing for the last five, six years didn’t happen, that the greatest purveyor and promoter of political violence really since anyone can remember, since George Wallace,” will be able to “rewrite himself as both a hero and a victim,” “And the people that I have been talking to don’t accept the rewrite.”
In response to a question on the reaction to the attempt, Reid said, “I think it depends on what audience, obviously. There are still a lot of like conspiracy theories, a lot of doubt, a lot of things that are going on sort of in the ether sort of around what happened.”
She continued, “But, I have to say that I actually experienced that breaking news while I was at a wonderful thing called Blerdcon, it’s the black nerds, of which I am one. … And that’s when it started to pop into everybody’s phones. And so, I had a chance to actually talk to a lot of people in real-time and to get sort of people’s first instant reaction, and then, of course, more reactions have been coming in. I always talk about whether it’s the official people or the civilians and whether it’s civilians or officials, and then, on top of it, then the news today out of Miami about what Judge Aileen Cannon did.”
Reid further stated, “I will say that the kind of universal kind of reaction that I’m getting, whether it’s civilians or professionals, is really a deep concern and lack of confidence in, not us at this table or us at MSNBC, but us as the media writ large and a fear that what’s going to happen now is that the Republican Party will do what they do. They’re in the middle of a campaign. The convention started today. But the media will acquiesce to trying to convince people that the things they’ve been experiencing for the last five, six years didn’t happen, that the greatest purveyor and promoter of political violence really since anyone can remember, since George Wallace, I think, that we just haven’t experienced that kind of open sort of incitement of violence, or sort of luxuriating in the idea of violence. It’s just not something we’re used to anymore in American politics. And then, we had to get used to that being a thing. And people are concerned and expressing concern that we won’t be the guardians of memory and that we will allow Donald Trump, as he is bathed in the glory and grandeur of his party, to rewrite himself as both a hero and a victim, that people who are the most vulnerable to, not just the things he’s done, but the things he’s promising to do, and that that will then happen without a guardian saying, wait, stop, and that the media will acquiesce to this rewrite. And the people that I have been talking to don’t accept the rewrite. They still remember that this person said, get them out, get them out, I’ll pay your legal fees. They still remember that Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) did ads where they had long guns and were firing at pictures of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and have been promoting the idea that the Democrats, the left, the liberals, it will be peaceful, said the Heritage Foundation leader, if the left allows it. People haven’t forgotten those threats, and they don’t want us to forget them either.”
Fellow host Rachel Maddow then said that “for all the using the idea of victimization as a political trope, he is legitimately the victim of this attempt.” And Reid agreed. She also agreed with Maddow that violence is wrong.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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