Summary
Al-Qaeda successor Ayman Al Zawahiri was taken out by a U.S. drone strike over the weekend in Afghanistan. Steve Kornacki joins Charles Blow to discuss what to watch in tomorrow`s high stake primaries and how the 2022 elections will test the power of Trumpism. Records show the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General halted the plan to recover Secret Service texts. NBA Legend Bill Russell dies at 88.
Transcript
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST (on camera): Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols, a giant on and off the court any legend on this planet and beyond. Two trailblazers who changed the landscape for Black Americans. And for that, we thank them both. And that is tonight`s "REIDOUT." ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES starts right now.
CHARLES BLOW, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST (on camera): Good evening from New York. I`m Charles Blow in for Chris Hayes. In the last half hour, President Biden just formally announced that the United States has killed the head of al-Qaeda Ayman Al Zawahiri. The terrorist was killed in a targeted CIA drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This operation is a clear demonstration that we will, we can, and we`ll always make good on the solemn pledge. My administration will continue to visually monitor and address threats from al-Qaeda no matter where they emanate from. As commander in chief, it is my solemn responsibility to make America safe in a dangerous world.
The United States did not seek its war against terror, it came to us. We answered with the same principles and resolve that have shaped us for generation upon generation to protect the innocent, defend liberty, and we keep the light of freedom burning a beacon for the rest of the entire world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLOW: This announcement today was rather unexpected, but quite huge in significance. And to understand just how pivotal Al Zawahiri was to al- Qaeda, it is worth looking at some of his history. He was born into a prominent Egyptian family, but in the 1960s, he joined up with the Muslim Brotherhood and was eventually arrested as part of a plot to overthrow the government in the early 1980s. And it is the torture that he experienced in that prison that fully radicalized the young man into the terrorists leader that we know today.
He recounted being beaten, electrocuted, and even terrorized by wild dogs. And he spoke out forcefully back in 1982, about the torture he and his fellow radicals experienced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYMAN AL ZAWAHIRI, LEADER, AL-QAEDA: Where IS Dr. Muharib, who died as a result of negligence to his treatment? Who died as a result of three days of severe torture. Where is (INAUDIBLE)? The one who was included in this case but unfortunately, he is not here. Do you know why? Because they delivered his body to his family, because he died under torture.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLOW: Al Zawahiri was eventually released from prison and he pressed his followers to embrace more violent and brutal attacks back in Egypt, including and especially horrific massacre at the Luxor ruins, which were left more than 60 people dead including a 5-year-old girl. The young terrorist first met Osama bin Laden when he was a (INAUDIBLE) fighter waging war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The two men would quickly become close.
If you recognize Al Zawahiri, it is likely as the right-hand man always sitting next to bin Laden in photographs, as if to show the world how close he was to the head of al-Qaeda. He ingratiated himself to bin Laden becoming his closest confidant as well as his personal physician. Back in 2011, when bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid, Al Zawahiri took over as a de facto leader of al-Qaeda, but he never achieved the notoriety of his predecessor. Al Zawahiri was where was more intellectual and less charismatic than the reviled terrorists who came before him. And he was plagued by ill health for much of his tenure in charge of the terrorist group.
For a while, it was unclear if he was still in charge, or even still alive. Nevertheless, Al Zawahiri spent a decade as the United States most wanted terrorists with about $25 million for information leading to his arrest, the largest bounty the U.S. has ever offered for a terrorist which reflects how eager the government was to get him out of power.
Helene Cooper is the Pentagon Correspondent for The New York Times and Lawrence Wright is a staff writer at The New Yorker who has written about Ayman Al Zawahiri. Both in the magazine and his book Looming Tower. They both join me now. Helene, I`m going to start with you. What do we know about this strike and how they found Al Zawahiri?
HELENE COOPER, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Hi, Charles. Thanks for having me. So, the senior White House official briefed reporters just shortly before or President Biden spoke and told us that several bucks ago, the United States intel sources started developing an intelligence that showed that Zawahiri`s family, his wife, his daughter, and his daughter`s children, so his grandchildren had relocated from Pakistan into his house, a safe house in Kabul that one government official tells me was the house is believed to belong to the member of the Haqqani Network.
[20:05:37]
The U.S. continued to follow this and they started developing what they call a pattern of life. They did the same thing, as you`ll recall, with Osama bin Laden when they first started to suspect that he was in that house, in Pakistan. There was some -- there was some surprise that Zawahiri was now in Kabul. He had been believed to be in Pakistan. But few weeks after they found out that the wife and his daughter were there, they became increasingly certain that the al-Qaeda leader was there as well.
And they`ve been developing this intelligence since then. They said that they saw him several times on the balcony where he was eventually struck by these two Hellfire missiles. Apparently, Intel officials and senior national security officials talked to President Biden about this. And President Biden made the decision a week ago to go in, that they would attempt to get Zawahiri with -- using these two Hellfire missiles in an unmanned drone strike.
The administration says that there were no civilian casualties. That`s something that -- they often say those, so we`ll wait to see if there any - - if anything develops from there. And there`s -- right now, there`s an interesting back and forth that`s going on between the Biden administration and the Taliban government in Afghanistan, because the Taliban is pretty upset about this strike. They claim that this is a violation of the U.S. terms -- the agreement to withdraw from Afghanistan. But the Biden administration says that that agreement said that the Taliban wouldn`t let Afghanistan become a safe haven for terrorists.
And there you have Zawahiri staying right there in the capital city in a house in Kabul. So, it`s going to be something that I think will be litigated for a bit.
BLOW: Lawrence, I want you to weigh in on that as well, because that`s what I was struck by. What -- how is he -- was he feeling so comfortable he would move back to the capital city that he would go out onto the balconies? Was this -- what does it say about the conditions on the ground or was he just being reckless?
LAWRENCE WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: As it turns out, he was. But I think that there`s a sense of security in al-Qaeda that they`ve got their training grounds back, Afghanistan is open to them, the Taliban are their allies and to believe otherwise, would be foolish, you know, that he would feel comfortable enough to relocate in Kabul downtown. It`s quite a statement on his part, and he paid for it.
BLOW: So, Helene, Biden was calling him a leader, Bin Laden`s leader. What was his role in al-Qaeda now?
COOPER: He`s al-Qaeda leader. He was the successor to Osama bin Laden. He was Bin Laden`s number two. And when Bin Laden was killed in 2011, Zawahiri became the leader of al-Qaeda. He`s -- he was slightly more low profile than Bin Laden was, but that doesn`t mean he wasn`t lethal. And there are many, many analysts who believe that Zawahiri was more dangerous.
He was certainly involved in the planning of 9/11 as well, as you heard, President Biden talking about the embassy bombings that he -- that some intel sources have traced back to point back to Zawahiri as well. So, in the past few years, the intel community is believed that he`s been sick, that he is -- he`s 71 years old. He was not of great health but he was still making videos according to American officials. He was still making videos calling for attacks on Americans.
BLOW: So, Lawrence, what was the -- what is the bench like in al-Qaeda? What -- you know, what does this do to the leadership structure? Is there someone or several people ready to step into the role that he was playing or does this dismantle and disrupt the leadership of al-Qaeda in a significant way?
WRIGHT: Well, we thought that was true when Bin Laden was killed. And it turned out -- you know, I look at al-Qaeda in some ways as being a religious cult. And as, you know, the charismatic leader starts it, and the big challenge is, how do you keep it going after the leader is dead?
And you have to give Zawahiri credit. When we had 9/11, there were about 400 guys who were in al-Qaeda. And now, there are estimates that it`s more like 40,000. There are al-Qaeda affiliates from Morocco all the way to India. And so, we cannot say that Zawahiri`s leadership has been a failure. He doesn`t have charisma. Everybody agrees.
[20:10:31]
Now, the next step, there are future leaders that had been trained for al- Qaeda. I think the most likely one is Saif al Adl living in Iran now as have several other al-Qaeda leaders been living there for decades. And he may well come out of Iran and take over the leadership of al-Qaeda. I think you`d be the most formidable candidate. He`s smart. He`s a strategist. He`s got great connections and a tremendous amount of loyalty from people that are in the organization now.
BLOW: Helene Cooper and Wright, thank you both for joining us on this breaking news.
In a normal political world, you might think that a national security success of this magnitude would translate into a huge political win or at least a push for President Biden and his party, but that is not at all clear what the effect of anything including the killing of al-Zawahiri will have on the midterms. There are primaries in five states tomorrow. The midterms are just nine days away. So, we`re going to check in with Steve Kornacki on the latest on the big races next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:15:00]
BLOW: The Final Countdown to the all-important Midterm Elections is on. Today marks just 99 days until November 8 when Americans will go to the polls to determine the balance of power in Congress and set the stage for the next two years of Joe Biden`s presidency. In the lead-up to the 2020 elections, we began to see some seismic moments in politics.
Many people were utterly exhausted by four years of Donald Trump`s presidency in particular, white suburban women, and that helped to lead to Democrats big victories, winning the White House and the Senate and holding the house. But as almost always the case, after one party wins big, momentum swung to the other side, and Republicans figured out a way to take advantage of that swing with a highly effective messaging strategy focused on parental rights.
This took many forms in the early days of the pandemic. Republicans focus their ire on COVID restrictions in schools. They argued that parents should decide if they wanted to send their kids to schools in person and whether or not to wear masks while doing so. They engineered a full-on scare campaign about critical race theory or CRT telling parents that schools were teaching their white children that they were racist.
They were hateful, anti-trans elements to this as well with Republicans whipping up a panic about boys playing in girls sports and men in dresses reading to kids in our libraries. The broad message was in all sorts of ways against your will your children are being taken by the liberal machine and they`re being indoctrinated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST, FOX NEWS: Entities from schools to corporations to entertainment. They`re engaged in an indoctrination campaign with the kids.
SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): You want children to be taught facts in school. You don`t want them indoctrinated.
CAROL SWAIN, POLITICAL ANALYST: They`re not being taught at all, they`ve been indoctrinated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS: The woke left continues to try and indoctrinate our children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Indoctrination from the left.
TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, FOX NEWS: Anti-American indoctrination, race-based indoctrination, pure indoctrination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLOW: With some help from the Fox News echo machine, this message became the vehicle that was going to deliver massive victory for Republicans in the Midterms. Poll after poll showed that education was a key motivating factor in how people plan to vote. Last October, a Fox News poll found that 73 percent of voters were very or extremely concerned about what is being taught in public schools.
And early this year, 55 percent of parents` surveyed said education has become a more important political issue to them than it was in the past. 82 percent even said that they would vote for someone outside their party that candidates educational agenda matched their own. And this remained the case until the Supreme Court decision that changed everything.
When the Court overturned the right to an abortion, all those white suburban women who were outraged about the liberal indoctrination of their children suddenly had a bigger issue to worry about whether or not they would have body autonomy. 64 percent of Democrats say that and of course decision overturning Roe made them more likely to vote November according to a new -- to new polling. And while we have to wait 99 more days and see how that turns out, we may get a preview of how the wind is blowing tomorrow when voters head to the polls for several key primaries in five states.
NBC News National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki joins me with the latest. So, Steve, I just want to note that first, you know, I have this theory that we were just chugging along this issue of parental rights was going to -- was going to win. And Roe comes in and changes the dynamics a bit. How much do you think Roe changed what`s going to happen in the Midterms?
[20:20:18]
STEVE KORNACKI, NBC NEWS NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think tomorrow is potentially an interesting test to that question because Kansas is the state where you`re going to have the first post-Dobbs decision referendum on the subject of abortion. And now, what`s on the ballot there in Kansas tomorrow is a constitutional amendment that would say there is nothing in the state constitution of Kansas that enshrines the right to abortion.
So, if this referendum passes tomorrow, it would then open the door potentially to the legislature in Kansas having severe abortion restrictions or maybe an outright ban, something like that. So, it`s sort of a two-step thing that could potentially be initiated tomorrow. It`s interesting, this has been on basically the same ballot measure has been in four other state ballots in the last eight years, all red states, all pre- Dobbs. It did pass on all of them. It was close in one of them, West Virginia.
There`s some polling in Kansas that shows this might be a close vote tomorrow. You look at it as a deeply red state, Kansas is an interesting state. In terms of abortion laws, I think it`s been a little bit more liberal than some of the other states around it. The polling suggests this could be close tomorrow. And you know, if you go to the Kansas City suburbs, Johnson County, Kansas, Overland Park, sort of that area, you find a lot of voters who they were Democratic voters in the 2018 Midterms, they didn`t like Trump that much. They`re moderate to liberal on social and cultural issues.
And it`s one thing I`m going to be looking for tonight. You know, is there unusual turnout? Is there unusual interest in that part of the state? Because I think if there is and this does end up being a close vote, if it ever failed, if the referendum ever failed and you could look at those suburbs and say, wow, those voters really tuned in and turnout at the polls here because of that, I do think that would suggest something that might be -- you know, Democrats might be able to work with nationally but it`s a big-if odds.
BLOW: So, how predictive could it be, though? I mean, it`s kind of odd that it`s on a primary night rather than a full election night. And because of the breakdown of how many registered Republicans there are in the state versus Democrats, is it predictive or is it even more predictive that if it`s tight and they had the registration advantage that says something even more important?
KORNACKI: Yes, that -- I think that`s the interesting thing here. If the opposition to the referendum gets real close to this thing or ever defeats it. Look, there`s more interest in the Republican primaries, I think, in Kansas overall, and there are in the Democratic primaries if you`re an unaffiliated voter or a big part of the Democratic sort of strategy here is independent voters, essentially.
If you`re an independent voter in Kansas, you can go and you can vote just on this referendum and not in the primaries. And as you`re saying, it`s unusual to have states to have referendums in the primaries.
BLOW: Right.
KORNACKI: So, yes, no, I think it would show sort of an extra engagement and an extra interest if you`re finding, you know, unaffiliated voters in Johnson County, Kansas turning out in very large numbers, disproportionately large numbers, and you happen to see Johnson County maybe be, you know, strongly against this. If you saw something like that tomorrow -- again, there`s a lot of ifs here, but if you saw something like that tomorrow, it would pique my curiosity about the effect this could have in November.
BLOW: So, we also have -- you know, I`m taking a more broad look, there are a lot of MAGA election denying candidates running across the country in statewide elections, secretaries of state, governors even, some senators races. Before it was more of a discussion around whether or not you`re going to vote for these anti-Democratic candidates or not, were you going to vote for Trump-backed candidates or not, how does the Roe decision play into that? Because now that you`re locked in, right, these are the candidates you have, this is a primary tomorrow where you`re going to have to lock in a person. But at that point, they`re going to lock in, and the Roe repercussions will still be rolling all the way until November.
So, what impact -- which one of those things weigh more heavily, the Trump idea and the Trumpism or women trying to reassert some power and say you cannot do this to us?
KORNACKI: Well, I think we could have an interesting test here in Arizona, because Arizona is the state tomorrow were three major -- Republicans going to pick nominees for three major offices. It`s going to be the U.S. Senate where Donald Trump has endorsed Blake Masters and where the polling shows that Masters is ahead out there. There`s the gubernatorial race where Donald Trump`s indoors Kari Lake, former TV anchorwoman who is all-in on his claims by the 2020 elections. And again, Secretary of State -- we never really used to talk about the secretary of state elections on national TV, but Trump has endorsed a candidate who`s also all-in on his election views on 2020 in the Secretary of State`s race.
There`s the potential in Arizona for the Republican Party out there to field the most Trump-aligned when it comes to 20 the most -- 2020, the most Trump-aligned slate of candidates in any battleground or any swing state in the country. I mean, Arizona, remember, Joe Biden won it in 2020, but it was close. The margin was about 9,000 votes in 2020. So, on paper, you look at a Midterm Election, White House Party usually does pretty bad. You would have put Arizona at the top of the list of, you know, hey, this is where Republicans are going to make some gains in the year like 2022.
But if that -- if Republicans put up this slate of candidates, that`s what Democrats think they can beat. That`s what Democrats think can offset the disadvantages they have in this climate. So it`d be an interesting test.
[20:25:45]
BLOW: And why do they think they can beat them? Do they think that they can beat them because of the drag of the January 6 Committee, or of the Roe ruling or some combination of factors that they working in favor? Because, you know, the President is not doing so well in his polling. That generally would have been considered a drag.
KORNACKI: I think they`re trying to make Donald Trump a player in this campaign. Because one of the things Democrats have been doing, and I think controversially here a little bit is some of these Republican primaries all around the country, Democrats have picked what they think is the weaker Republican candidate, the one they think they can beat more easily in the fall. Generally, this is a very pro-Trump candidate, and they`ve gone in and they`ve spent money, millions of dollars, in some cases trying to elevate those candidates. And obviously, the question is, first of all, you know --
BLOW: Which is tricky.
KORNACKI: Well, first of all, it raises a question you`re saying, these are -- these candidates are threats to democracy. You could potentially be playing a role in elevating them to power because there`s no guarantee if they get a Republican nomination. You know, if a guy like Mastriano in Pennsylvania gets the Republican nomination, which he did, there`s no guarantee he`s losing in November. So, Democrats I think are playing with fire a little bit here.
BLOW: There is a dangerous game being played. Steve Kornacki, thank you so much. Steve, will be back in just a -- later -- it`s just tonight actually, breaking down all the key races in a special hour program. Don`t miss decision 2020, Countdown to the Midterms tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern only on MSNBC.
But first, new details about those missing Secret Service texts from January 6 and how the department`s watchdog stop investigators from looking further. All the details from the reporter who broke that story is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): I`m also concerned about the actions of the Inspector General. He sat on this stuff for months and months and months as well. And now he has ordered the Department to stop the forensic analysis of the phones which we need. We need that to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLOW: That was January 6 Committee member Zoe Lofgren voicing her concerns about the Department of Homeland Security`s inspector general after it was revealed that he knew of the deleted Secret Service texts for months before he reported it to Congress. Now, we are learning new revelations in The Washington Post that earlier this year, "staff at the Inspector General`s office plan to contact all DHS agencies offering to have data specialists help retrieve messages from their phones, according to two government whistleblowers who provide reports to Congress.
But later that month, the Inspector General`s office decided it was not collecting any or reviewing any agency phones, according to three people briefed on the decision. This has led to top Democrats renewing their calls for the DHS watchdog to step down in a new letter sent today by Congresswoman Carol Maloney, the head of the Oversight Committee, and Congressman Bennie Thompson, the head of the Homeland Security Committee.
Joining me now is one of the reporters who broke that story about the DHS Inspector General, Washington Post Investigative Reporter Carol Leonnig. She is one of the foremost experts on the Secret Service and the author of the book Zero Fail: The Rise And Fall Of The Secret Service.
So, help us understand this. It gets down into the weeds because I was trying to understand, you know, at what point was, you know, the message to preserve the call to preserve this synth, and at what point was the committee asking for things, and at what point had they already been deleted? And he, you know, he`s sent the message saying, well, we`ll no longer look for this. Because all of that, you know, the relationship between those dates is, I think, incredibly important here. And it`s getting a little muddy in the telling of this. So, explain that to us.
CAROL LEONNIG, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: Sure. And Charles, you know, I think it`s really important as a -- as a lawyer, as a prosecutor, as an investigative reporter, everybody should be thinking in terms of timelines, so it`s really smart to focus on that. Every day, we`ve had another story, another revelation. But when you put it all together in one place, it`s really shocking.
First off, the first time any congressional committee asks for texts of Secret Service agents and other national security, Homeland Security officials is January 16. And in mid-January, the Secret Service begins basically deleting texts in a reset of a series of agency phones. You know, here, we`re going to update your phones. Turn them in. And when you do that, you can choose to archive your telephone texts that are government business. But unfortunately, many, many Secret Service agents don`t do it, and this stuff starts vanishing being deleted, essentially. Auto -- a robo deletion, I guess is the best way to put it.
Then the problem with the government watchdog who`s asking for this information is he learns James Cuffari at the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General`s Office, that individual, James Cuffari and his front office, learn that the Secret Service texts and many other important Department of Homeland Security phone texts for the January 6 time period, right, an important moment in history.
The IG learns that that stuff is missing in December. That`s the first time he learned it, but does not mention that to Congress, or the committees that he that he reports to, or even to the Secretary of Homeland Security. He doesn`t alert the public. His staff proposes a management alert which would be, hey, this is serious and it`s something that goes to Congress and is made public. But he decides that he doesn`t want to do that and he kills that effort.
And then finally, in February of this year, one Department of Homeland Security Office offers, hey, we can`t get our texts restored from our phones because of this reset. But you know, Inspector General, if you with your cyber forensics team, if you want to go through our phones, we`ll hand them over to you. And the staff at the Inspector General`s office thinks this is great. Let`s get the phones and let`s also ask the Secret Service for their phones.
But again, James Cuffari, the Inspector General and his front office halt that plan and tell their staff no, do not take possession of the agency phones and do not ask the Secret Service or anyone else for their phones. We`re not going to try to reconstruct this evidence.
BLOW: All right, so the big question is why. I can`t figure out the why here. And also, if they could have done it then, can they not do the same thing now? Can they not take possession of the phones now and run the same forensics?
LEONNIG: It`s a great question. You know, we don`t have a full answer because we don`t have subpoena power at this moment here at The Washington Post. But I`ll tell you that the most innocent and ideal answer for the inspector general, if this were true, would be that they made a decision they didn`t think they could reconstruct them, although that would be a rather hasty decision.
We don`t know the answer of why. We only know that the staff made recommendations, and he killed those recommendations. We know that a unit of the Department of Homeland Security offered their phones, and he said no, I don`t want their phones even though they`re offering to let us try to reconstruct the texts.
I will say that I`m not a techie, but our team at the Washington Post that really specializes in this did a great story this weekend that basically said a lot of people are suspicious who are experts in this world about the claim by the Secret Service that these texts can never be recovered. And yet, if it`s true, as the Secret Service has claimed that they blocked their phones from getting any backup, then tech experts say it is going to be very difficult to reconstruct them now.
BLOW: This mystery gets deeper and deeper every day. Carolyn, thank you so much for joining us tonight. I really appreciate it.
Still ahead, the death of basketball legend Bill Russell, and the reminder that the work still has to be done next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:40:00]
BLOW: From the moment Black athletes were allowed to play in mainstream professional sports leagues in this country, they have been racial targets. From Fritz Pollard, the first black football player to play in the Rose Bowl and to coach an NFL team, to Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier in baseball. And many of these courageous athletes became civil rights activists and icons in response to the way that they and other Black people were treated. Legends like Muhammad Ali, 1960s baseball star Curt Flood, and NBA star Bill Russell who died yesterday at age 88.
As Russell recounted it, he was forced to develop courage and tenacity as a young age when he was harassed by a group of older men in his neighborhood.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL RUSSELL, NBA HALL-OF-FAMER: These five guys run by. One of them slept as he went by. When I was 9 years old where I did 9-year-olds is supposed to do, I told my mother. And she said what? She grabbed the keys to the house and grabbed me. We would all go to projects looking for those five guys. And so, she says these are the guys, I say yes, ma`am. I don`t know what she`s going to do. I thought she`s going to take care of it WITH the way she took care of it was, OK, you`re going to fight everyone of then, all five of them one at a time. Thanks, mom.
So, I go into five fights, and I lose three and win. I say, we`re going back to our place and I`m crying. And she says, don`t cry. You did what you`re supposed to do. It doesn`t matter whether you win or loss. What matter is you stood up for yourself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLOW: Russell went on to make a name for himself as a high school basketball star before leaving the University of San Francisco to two NCAA championships and winning eight consecutive NBA championships with the Boston Celtics. But Russell, who was initially the only Black player on the team faced widespread racism from Boston fans, including the vandalism of his home.
As NBC Sports reports, "racial epithets had been spray painted on the walls. Russell`s trophies had all been smashed. The burglar is even defecated on the bed." This harassment caused Russell to withdraw from interacting with Boston fans, including a well-known refusal to sign autographs. And when the Celtics retired his jersey in 1972, Russell insists it`d be done in a private ceremony.
But his chill relationship with the New England sports fans did nothing to curb Russell`s drive for excellence. For his final three seasons as an NBA player, he simultaneously served as the first Black head coach in the association`s history. He remains the only player-coach to win an NBA title. In fact, he won two. On the night of that second victory in 1969, his final game with the Celtics, Russell let the world know just how much the team meant to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSSELL: I told these guys the point of the game, I don`t care what happens. I wouldn`t trade you guys for any guys in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was fairly obvious. But the leadership has to come from you, Bill. And to bring a team from fourth place during the regular season to the world`s title, the 11th title in 13 years, you got the respect of everybody in the country.
RUSSELL: Well, Jack, it`s my guys. It`s just my guys. These guys play ball for me and it`s just great bunch of guys. I just can`t say enough about the guys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLOW: As that interview put it, Russell had the respect of everybody in the country. He wanted to fight the racial targeting that he faced with the excellence in his field. And this is true of many Black athletes. Right now we have yet another Black athlete being targeted by racial power structures, WNBA player Brittney Griner. She remains in prison Russia for the possession of marijuana while the U.S. negotiates a deal to secure her freedom.
But the twice impeached ex-President Donald Trump`s simply cannot help himself. Over the weekend, Trump appeared on a podcast where he launched racist attacks against Griner. He called her spoiled and overstated the amount of marijuana that she says she brought accidentally into the country. He basically said that the U.S. should not engage in a prisoner swap for her release.
Targeting Black athletes is ingrained in our reactionary system and a predictable part of Trump`s personality. These attacks are weaponized against Black athletes if they rise to the political level beyond the entertainment confines of anything other than shut up and dribble as one Fox News host put it.
There is a lengthy history of this happening from Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick. And we will discuss that lengthy history and how it applies today next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:50:00]
BLOW: As the country mourns the loss of NBA legend Bill Russell, who passed away yesterday at age 88, Donald Trump is publicly taking swipes at another basketball star, a gay Black woman. On a podcast released over the weekend, the ex-president went after WNBA player Brittney Griner who currently faces imprisonment in Russia for possession of marijuana, which she says she accidentally brought into the country.
Trump sided with Russia in the dispute and says that the U.S. should not consider a prisoner swap for Griner, a decision that would almost certainly lead to her lengthy incarceration in a Russian prison. So, how does Griner fit in with a long line of Black athletes attacked by the political right? And why does she have to take a second job playing overseas in the first place?
Kavitha Davidson is a sports writer and co-author of Loving Sports When They Don`t Love You Back. And Etan Thomas is a former NBA player and author of We Matter: Athletes And Activism. And they both join me now. Kavita, just in a nutshell, just wrap up for us what the legacy of Bill Russell is both as a player, but for this discussion, as an activist.
KAVITHA DAVIDSON, CO-AUTHOR, LOVING SPORTS WHEN THEY DON`T LOVE YOU BACK: Well, as a player, you don`t really have to say very much it hasn`t already been said. He completely revolutionized the way defense was played in the NBA. He likes to say he turned the horizontal game vertical. And he was the best champion and the most winning a player and coach combined that we`ve ever seen. Off the field -- off the court rather, he also revolutionized and helped to be part of a -- of an era of civil rights activists who realized that their part on the court was so much more than what they could offer the game.
He was there with Muhammad Ali at the very famous Cleveland Summit. And he also refused to kind of back down. He didn`t play into an ideal of what white Americans thought that he -- that Black athletes at the time should play into. And I think it`s really important that we remember that.
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BLOW: Etan, talk to us about this long history of attacks on these Black athletes especially when they rise above entertaining, right? So, as long as you`re just doing the job of entertaining, dribbling, shooting, passing, catching, tackling, you say nothing, you get beat up, you win a game, let us cheer and let us go home even if you were going home into a racial structure that disadvantages people who look like you, were OK with that.
But the moment that the person rises as a political figure, they become the subject of attack. Talk to us about that long history of that.
ETAN THOMAS, FORMER NBA PLAYER: Well, first and foremost, and honoring the legacy of Bill Russell, we have to be very honest about who supported him and who doesn`t and who didn`t. You know, we don`t want to lose ourselves in histology. Donald Trump, Trump supporters, the conservative right, they wouldn`t have wrapped their arms around Bill Russell in his heyday, just as they wouldn`t have supported Muhammad Ali or John Carlos and Tommie Smith or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, or Craig Hodges, I can keep going and going. These are the same people who don`t support the modern day athlete activists like Kaepernick and LeBron.
So, they are exactly who we thought they were. You know, they`ll actually - - you know, they`ll cast Kaepernick as being disrespectful to the veterans or, you know, for taking a knee. But they will applaud the, you know, the Senate Republicans who block a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burns.
So, you know, again, I don`t expect Donald Trump and his cult following to be anything other than exactly who we know them to be.
BLOW: But Kavitha, what impact do you think that this will have, if any, on Brittany Griners case in Russia? I mean, Trump is not the person negotiating here. President Biden, is the person negotiating here. It does -- it is not inconsequential, however, that an ex-president says to the Russian government, this is a bad deal, and we shouldn`t be doing it. You know, and also it probably erodes some support that it was -- that is building for Brittany to be released in some sort of way from some corners that support Donald Trump. What impact do you think this will have on her - - you know, her family`s attempts to get her out of it?
DAVIDSON: I don`t honestly think it`s going to have a hugely consequential impact on the actual negotiations going on because as you said, Donald Trump is not in those rooms. Now, he is also a publicity opportunists and something that we have seen with Brittney Griner, with Colin Kaepernick with LeBron James, is that he will take any opportunity, especially when a Black athlete is in the spotlight to denigrate them to score political points with his base.
And I think that that`s really what`s happening right now. You see some fans and some pundits on the right who are saying that she should be so happy that she has America behind her as an athlete who has protested police brutality in this country and it`s a very gross, very cynical message to be sending.
But Etan is exactly right. The exact people that we see today denigrating these athletes are the people 10 years ago, 20 years ago who are denigrating the athletes that we now rightfully lionize. And we are -- I`m glad that we`re having this conversation in the context of Bill Russell without whitewashing the treatment that he had. But when Henry Aaron died, whenever we celebrate Jackie Robinson, we seem to forget exactly what the contemporaneous treatments of these athletes was. And we`re seeing that today.
BLOW: Etan, I`ll give my last question to you because, you know, I just want to talk about how unfair it is. I look at it, when I discuss it, I talk about how heroic it is that they became activist and they became icons because of the tough positions they took in the time that they took them. But no one else has to take those positions, right?
So there are other athletes that exist and they just get to focus on their careers. Racism consumes so much of our energy as people. Energy that we could be spinning loving our families or neighborhoods or loving our communities or practicing our sports. But these athletes, all heroes for doing it, but also there`s a toll that it takes that they have to do it. Talk to us in the last minute about what that means for Black athletes in particular.
THOMAS: Well, you know, Bill Russell has pretty much, you know, laid the groundwork for athlete activists to follow. I mean, he could have easily been quiet. His life would have probably been a lot easier if he was quiet. But the fact that Bill Russell wanted to take upon his role, his platform, his position to be able to speak for all Black people, it`s why he`s so special and why we`re celebrating him today.
BLOW: Kavitha Davidson and Etan Thomas, thank you both.
That is all for us tonight. "THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW" starts right now. Good evening, Rachel.