Summary:
QAnon-supporting GOP congresswoman under scrutiny. GOP Representative Greene pushes racist, far-right conspiracy theories. Marjorie Taylor Greene harasses Parkland survivor. Reporter booted from Representative Green town hall. Pelosi says, putting Representative Greene on Education Committee appalling. GOP Representative Greene faces growing backlash over incendiary posts. House Minority Leader McCarthy under fire for putting QAnon supporter on Education Committee.
Transcript:
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: Thanks for watching THE BEAT. Joy Reid is up next
with a special interview with Parkland survivor David Hogg.
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, everyone. We begin THE REIDOUT with the
Republican embrace of yet another cult, voters ousted one dangerous
Republican in November, the MAGA cult leader in the White House. But just
as Republicans were complicit in their silence on his antics for four long
years, they`re doing it again with the newest, dangerous right-wing cult
that`s coming from inside the House.
Marjorie Taylor Green, the QAnon-supporting Georgia congresswoman, with a
history of dangerous false claims and Islamophobic and racist comments.
Now, normally, we wouldn`t do this, because, believe me, we want no more
part of amplifying this cult figure than we did with the Florida man. But
for your to really understand who this person is, you need to hear it for
yourself. So just buckle up and take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Q is a patriot. We know that for sure.
There is an Islamic invasion into our government offices right now, okay?
They are -- you saw after midterm elections, what, we saw so many Muslims
elected. I don`t know the exact the number but there were quite a few.
The generations of black and Hispanic men, do you want to know what holds
them down? Gangs, being in gangs and dealing drugs is what holds them down.
The gangs are holding them back. It`s not white people.
How do you get avid gun owners and people that support the Second Amendment
to give up their guns and go along with anti-gun legislation? How do you do
that? Maybe you accomplish that by performing a mass shooting into a crowd
that is very likely to conservative.
Is that what happened in Las Vegas?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Okay. Okay. Now, keep in mind that this person is not just some lady
selling QAnon tracks on the side of the ride. She is a United States
congresswoman with all of the privileges and powers therein. Greene`s
prolific internet trail has come under increased scrutiny. Now, in part
after CNN unearthed old Facebook posts of hers expressing support for
executing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats.
Now, NBC News has not reviewed those posts, which are now deleted. However,
amid the follow-up from that, video has also resurfaced showing Greene
confronting Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg on Capitol Hill in 2019,
a year nearly to the month after the massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas
High School in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: You are using your lobby and the money behind it and the kids to
try to take away my Second Amendment rights. You don`t have anything to say
for yourself?
He is a coward. He can`t say one word because he can`t defend his stance,
because there is no defense for taking away guns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Okay. Now that behavior against a then 18-year-old is disgusting in
and of itself. But on her Facebook post from one year earlier showed her
agreeing with comments that the Parkland School massacre was a false flag
planned shooting.
And while she demanded answers from David Hogg in 2019, last night, a local
news crew was escorted out of a town hall with Greene after a reporter
tried to ask her about her internet posts.
Now, again, this woman has been elected to the United States Congress. Only
12,000 people have ever, ever served in that capacity in the entire history
of the United States as a republic and she was elected by nearly 50 percent
margin last November, which either means that a plastic doll could name
Satan Beelzebub could win in a Republican district as long as it`s got an R
next to its name or her constituents think her views are A-okay, that this
is what they affirmatively want representing them in Washington.
But the real question is for Republican minority leader in the House, Kevin
McCarthy. Is this what he wants? Why would you take someone like this with
these views, particularly on school shooting, who would treat a 18-year-old
kid like that and put her on the House Education Committee? Well, we`d love
to ask Mr. McCarthy. But he is not even in D.C. tonight. He`s down in
Florida where he spent today meeting with his apparently not so former
boss, the retired Florida MAGA cult leader who once labeled Greene a future
Republican star.
A spokesman for McCarthy told Axios that Greene`s unearthed comments are
deeply disturbing and that he`d have a conversation with her. Okay.
While Republicans conspicuously silent as the QAnon caucus extremist in
their midst, and, by the way, she`s only one, several of them in the GOP
House caucus today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi torched Republican leadership,
meaning you, Kevin McCarthy, for watching the T.V., for overlooking
Greene`s past comments when handing out her committee assignment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Assigning her to the Education Committee when she
has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School,
when she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at the Marjorie
Stoneman Douglas High School, what could they be thinking or thinking, too
generous a word, for what they might be doing? It`s actually appalling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Joining me now is David Hogg, co-founder of March For Our Lives.
David survived the 2018 Parkland School shooting which killed 17 people.
And, first of all, David, I have to ask, how are you? How is your family? I
have not seen you in person since 2018. So, how are you?
DAVID HOGG, CO-FOUNDER, MARCH FOR OUR LIVES: You know, just like millions
of other of young people across the country trying to get through school
online right now. And it`s a challenge but we`re doing it. And, sadly, our
generation has to continue to persevere because of incompetent government
leadership, whether it be because of gun violence happening that easily
could have been prevented or an out of control pandemic, that is more than
basically any other developed country in the world, per capita.
REID: Yes. And, I mean, it`s sad to me that you guys have had to take up
this activism on behalf of all of us given what all of you face. So I got
to ask, what do you make of the fact that somebody like this who denies
that what happened to you and your friends happened at all, things
(INAUDIBLE) false flag because people want to go in black helicopter her
guns winds up on the House Education and Labor Committee?
Let me read you what the chairman of that committee said. His name is
Representative Bobby Scott, Robert Scott. He said, House Republicans made
this appointment and Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy must explain
how someone with this background represents the Republican Party on
education issues. He is sending a clear message to students, parents and
educators about the views of the Republican. He is sending messages to
people like you. What do you make of the fact that she landed that plum
assignment?
HOGG: I think it`s absolutely horrific. And the only person I blame for
more than anything is Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is in Florida,
frolicking around with Trump right now, as one of his congress people that
he has a large amount of control over, had continued to peddle these
conspiracy theories that school shootings don`t happen, that laser beams
came down from space started wildfires in California and incredibly just
horrific and ridiculous conspiracies.
So, what do I make of it? I think it`s disgusting. And I`m calling out
every single Republican, especially people like my father, who was a former
Republican, I know not all of them stand behind us, but you need to come
out and say that. Call on Leader McCarthy to come out and condemn the
actions of Marjorie Taylor Greene and prove that you actually are able to
put politics aside and work towards unity. Because if there`s anything we
should be able to (INAUDIBLE) is the fact that our children should not be
dying in our schools, they should not be dying in our communities and they
should not be dying, period, from a preventable issue, like gun violence in
the United States that takes so many.
One of the things that frustrates me most, Joy, more than anything is the
fact the attention that needs to be brought here are the communities that
never get attention about gun violence that happens on a daily basis as a
result of systemic racism in this country.
What pisses me off about this is the fact that the attention is being
brought to Marjorie Taylor Greene but it`s not being brought to the fact
that there are millions of parents across this country that have to have an
empty bedroom that is permanently left empty and untouched since the day
that their child died from an absolutely preventable issue such as gun
violence.
It is on leaders like Kevin McCarthy and so many others to act and bring
this country together around something that we should all be able to agree
on, which is the safety of our children, both inside and outside of our
school, no matter their zip code or how many figures are in their parent`s
bank account.
REID: And you talk about your dad being a former Republican. And I think
about the state of Florida, where I lived for 14 years and Lived not far
from Parkland, to be honest with you. And Florida is run by Republicans.
Broward County is the county that you lived in, but Florida is.
You`ve got Marco Rubio there. You`ve got Rick Scott. You`ve got people like
Ron DeSantis. They have been silent in the face of the NRA. They feel to me
like they didn`t really react that much to happened to you because of these
fears of the NRA. Do you get the sense when talking to your dad, or does he
get the sense, if you`ve asked him, is this what Republicans want? Is this
conspiracy theorizing, this Marjorie Taylor Greene-style politics, is this
what most Republicans believe in? Do you think that it`s morphed or do you
think that these people are being sort of imposed on the party?
HOGG: I can`t speak for all Republicans but I can certainly say that this
is something that my father does not believe in and it`s the reason he left
the party right after the shooting at my high school. Because he believes,
as a former law enforcement officer, he knows from investigations of
shootings that these gun laws do work, that having a magazine reduction
enables law enforcement to take care of the situation much more easily than
somebody with a hundred round magazine or something 30 rounds. It`s
ridiculous that it`s this way.
And I think there`re a lot of, frankly, generalizations that have gone
around about Republicans right now. But, honestly, it`s understandable
considering the silence. And if they aren`t happy with that, my message to
Kevin McCarthy is to speak out on it and prove that you actually are not
going to stand for someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who believes that
school shootings didn`t happen.
And with that, I would also say that we need people in this fight with us.
And if you`re interested, you can text RESIGN to 954954. That`s RESIGN to
954954 to sign petition calling for Marjorie Taylor Greene`s resignation.
REID: Yes. It did take them a long time to get rid of Steve King and take
him off committee assignments so that -- sometimes they`re a little slow in
uptick (ph).
I do have to ask you, and I hate to send you back to that moment in 2019,
but you are being followed down the street. At this time, she wasn`t a
member of Congress. She was just some lady who is following you with a
camera, who is basically making it clear she`s got guns and that this is
what she`s about. Can you just sort of take us to where -- what did you
think when this person sort of started following you?
HOGG: To be completely honest with you, this is something that happens very
often. It`s just that this time, they were dumb enough to post it on
YouTube and then actually got elected to Congress, so it became newsworthy.
There are so many instances like this that are far worse and never make it
on the news, because I refuse to talk about them to give these people
(INAUDIBLE), which I was hoping would avoid someone like her from ever
getting into a position of power. But, clearly, that was not a case.
And I can tell you as well, more than anything, what I was thinking about
was the safety of our staff and my friends -- I mean, most of them were
under the age of 20, that she`s saying that I`m a coward. But she`s the one
attacking at the time a teenager with a gun, and basically, in directly
threatening to kill by saying I have a concealed carry permit, right? She
needs to realize that is a direct threat to us. What do you say to gun
violence survivors when you say that? It`s a threat. It`s intimidation. And
we`re never going to let it stop us.
REID: Well, I have to tell you, David Hogg, this country would be far
better off, Florida will be far better off if people like you start getting
elected as opposed to this person. So, I want to thank you for your
activism, for your intersectionalism, which I think is so important because
you and the Parkland young people always keep that in the forefront. I
personally appreciate that a lot.
So, I just want to thank you. Thank you for spending some time with us this
evening and be safe.
HOGG: Yes. And there is one last thing I just want to say. Thank you to
people like (INAUDIBLE) and others who are Republicans and have stood up
and renounced their NRA membership stood against people like Marjorie
Taylor Greene. We need more people with them to prove that not all
Republicans are like this, because that`s how those (INAUDIBLE) happen.
Thank you for having me on.
REID: Yes, indeed. And, by the way, let`s all remind ourselves, the NRA,
they went bankrupt and they didn`t go bankrupt because politicians stood up
to them. As you just said, it`s because people who are not in politics
stood up to them, including yourself. David Hogg, thank you very much. I
truly appreciate you.
And coming up next on THE REIDOUT, House Minority Leader Kevin -- everybody
is to blame -- McCarthy, as we were just talking about, heads to Florida to
kiss the dear leader`s king, as Republicans defend those who incited the
attempted coup because of their fear of MAGA voters.
Plus, the growing threat of domestic violence from the right and new
information about the planning that took place in the days before the MAGA
crowd trashed our Capitol.
THE REIDOUT continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy along with 138 other House
Republicans voted to object to the certification of electoral votes only to
later call for unity in the face of Florida man`s impeachment, but not
before blaming me, you, and, well, everybody for the mob that stormed the
Capitol armed with pipes and flex cups as a makeshift gallows stood outside
because they brought it with them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I thought the president had some responsibility
when it came to the response.
I also think everybody across country has responsibility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Which brings us to today, when McCarthy showed us exactly where he
stands, because instead of outright condemning Marjorie Taylor Greene for
accosting a teenage survivor of a school massacre, or addressing his
party`s rapid slide toward fascism, conspiracy theories and opposition to
democracy, he spent taxpayer money trotting down to Mar-a-Lago to take the
knee once again and kiss the ring of his unemployed former dear leader.
There they are, looking like they`re at a post-insurrection employee of the
month party. You`re doing a great job, Kevin. Thank you, boss.
Joining me now is Jason Johnson, professor of Journalism and Politics at
Morgan State University, and Michael Steele, former chairman of the RNC.
And, Michael, I have to tell you, we had this whole debate on our team
meetings this morning and it`s a back and forth over whether or not what
the Republican Party has become is something that they are -- have tripped
and fallen into, because, oops, accidentally, we need so many white voters
that it`s going to mix in some -- you know, some QAnon people and some
white nationalists, I guess they`re just there, or whether they`re just
cultivating it, and whether they, like, affirmatively want it.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez kind of weighed in on that today. When Ted Cruz
tried to jump in and jump on her side about the whole Robinhood thing...
MICHAEL STEELE, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Right.
REID: ... she tweeted back, nope. You tried to get me killed. Back off.
Goodbye.
And here she was last night leaning in on that and explaining, in her view,
what the Republican Party has become:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): There are no consequences in the
Republican caucus for violence. There`s no consequences for racism, no
consequences for misogyny, no consequences for insurrection.
And no consequences mean that they condone it. It means that that silence
is acceptance. And they want it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Mr. former chairman, Mr. only black person who`s ever been chairman
of that party...
(LAUGHTER)
REID: ... where is the lie? Where`s the lie?
STEELE: Where`s the lie?
REID: Yes, in what she said.
STEELE: Oh, there is no -- oh, no, no, she`s not lying.
JASON JOHNSON, MSNBC POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: No.
STEELE: In fact, I would, I would say to the good congresswoman that, if I
were a member of the House, I would work with you on the very thing that
the nation has to move forward, as all good citizens who are elected to
office should do.
So, let`s just be clear about that. And so she`s not lying about it. And
where I would -- where I would change up what she`s saying is not that
those leaders condone it. They condone it and there are no consequences
because that`s where the base is.
This is an extension of a response that runs deep within the party. And
it`s not new. It goes back. I mean, Joy, you remember. You covered me when
I was RNC chairman. You remember the day I gave the speech that said, hey,
guess what, the Southern Strategy is over, baby. We`re not doing that
anymore. This is not what the Republican Party is.
There was a deliberate reason for my saying that in giving that speech at
the time, because I wanted to break that link that links back to not just
Reagan bringing in the Moral Majority into the party in the 1980 campaign,
or not just what Nixon did with the cynical strategy of embracing white
segregationists in the South who had left the Democratic Party, because
Johnson, who was a segregationist himself, by the way, but he embraced the
civil rights movement.
He saw where the country was going and embraced that. And not just there
but going back to the Goldwater speech in the `64 campaign, in which he
very much embraced the John Birch Society and all of that.
So, this is a long line. And along the way, many of us have tried to step
in and break that stranglehold. But along comes Trump, doubles down, and
everyone is on board. And that`s what the fight is, I guess, about right
now.
REID: Yes, I mean, Jason Johnson, Michael Steele and I have talked about
this in religious terms about the golden calf, right, when -- you know,
when Moses and Aaron faced the children of Israel.
And they say, yes, but your God takes too long to give us stuff. We want to
get this calf right here.
STEELE: Right.
REID: And we could see him. And that`s where we`re going to -- that`s
where we`re going to feel affirmed, right?
And so, they -- like, we`re going with the golden calf. Like, Trump is kind
of the golden calf. But it`s not the calf. It`s the worshipers that create
the problem. I mean, you have got -- when AOC tweeted that today, the right
-- people on the right came for her and said, oh, well maybe you should
blame Bernie Sanders for Steve Scalise.
Bernie Sanders and Steve Scalise? Bernie Sanders never said, Steve Scalise
is a threat to the country, and we need to go get him, right? And so, what
happened to Steve Scalise had nothing to do with Bernie Sanders. I don`t
think we have Jason`s audio.
So, let`s get Michael Steele back in on this.
That they tried to -- they tried to make an equivalency. And Senator
Sanders has critiqued, you know, the billionaire class. He never went after
Steve Scalise and said to his followers, he`s a threat to their public, go
storm the baseball game.
So, it`s a false equivalency that`s just fake and phony. If you want to
talk Steve Scalise, he got elected in Louisiana after saying he`s David
Duke without the baggage.
(LAUGHTER)
STEELE: Yes.
REID: There`s something wrong with the voters, Michael.
STEELE: Right. And that`s...
REID: The voters want this.
STEELE: That`s the rub of it right there.
So, you have -- you have -- and you -- just you basically set it up very,
very concisely, because you have shown now how this thing works.
You have got this base that is driving a certain narrative. You have got
the leadership that are not leading. They`re afraid to actually step in and
countermand the thinking and the nonsense the noise from not the entire
base. That`s the other thing. There are a wide swathe of Republicans who
are sitting there scratching their head.
We have seen it. They`re leaving the party in significant numbers. You just
had David Hogg on the show who said: My dad was one of those Republicans
and left after what happened in my neighborhood, in my school because of
the response of his party to the tragedy that befell us.
So, you have this -- you have basically the tail wagging the dog. And
that`s a big part of the problem.
I`m going to turn this over to Jason, because I think he`s back up, because
I think -- I know the brother has got something to say.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: Yes. I know he does.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: Jason, I know we got your audio back.
I`m telling you, the aliens tried to come and get you. But we got you back.
JOHNSON: Clearly, Kevin McCarthy didn`t want me to speak.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
REID: You`re being muzzled. You`re being muzzled in a prime-time TV --
muzzled, you are.
JOHNSON: I`m being muzzled. I`m being censored.
This is cancel culture, cancel culture.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
REID: Stop canceling Jason.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: This is...
REID: Go on, Jason.
JOHNSON: Exactly, like, right here, right now.
This is the thing that`s so crazy about all this. And I think I kind of
overheard part of what you were saying. It`s not just -- it`s not just
pandering to these people. It`s not just doing anything about Marjorie
Wilson -- Marjorie Greene.
It`s not just going down and talking to Donald Trump. It is such a cynical
and despicable way of looking at the country. I mean, for Kevin McCarthy,
he basically says that the majority of America that I actually want to
serve is an America that wanted to kill Mike Pence. The majority of the
America that I want to serve is an America that wanted to kill Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, that wanted to hang Ilhan Omar, that wanted to kill Ayanna
Pressley.
He`s saying, those are the kinds of people he wants to represent.
And one of the things about representative democracy -- Barack Obama said,
hey, we don`t want a world where politicians are choosing their
constituents. We want constituents to choose their politicians.
But politicians can choose their constituents. John McCain in 2008 said,
hey, look, I don`t want people up here voting for me because they think
Barack Obama is a Muslim.
There is a way that you can run as a politician and differentiate yourself
from the lesser and the more despicable elements of your own party. And
none of these Republicans want to do that. And to reward people -- forget
that he didn`t do anything to Marjorie Greene. He basically gave her a slap
on the rear and say, go out and be somebody.
But then he puts her on the Education Committee. It`s like putting Jeffrey
Dahmer to baby-sit your kids. Like, it`s insane. But that`s who they seem
to think that America is going to be going forward.
REID: Well, and that`s because -- and I will say it -- I will say it a
million times -- they want -- they understand that this is where they can
get votes. They are cultivating it.
And that`s as true of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as it is of the minority
leader and that lady, the QAnon lady.
Jason Johnson, see, that`s why -- now I`m about to cancel you, because
we`re going to go to a commercial. I`m going to cancel you with a
commercial break.
JOHNSON: Right.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: Michael Steele, thank you very much. Appreciate you both, brothers.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: Have a good evening. You`re both canceled.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: Still...
(LAUGHTER)
REID: You`re being silenced. Look, I`m silencing you right now. Look, I`m
silencing you right now.
The growing threat of right-wing violence in America is up next, and what
we`re learning about the role of the Proud Boys that they played in the
Capitol rampage.
I`m going to silence myself now, go to commercial break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: The threat of right-wing violence remains a clear and present
danger. That`s according to a terrorism advisory released yesterday by the
Department of Homeland Security, warning that more attacks could follow the
deadly Capitol insurrection.
Meanwhile, new indictments charged three of those insurrectionists with
conspiring to obstruct Congress, including one defendant with apparent ties
to the anti-government Oath Keepers extremist group.
Law enforcement is also scrutinizing the ultra-nationalist group the Proud
Boys to determine what -- to what extent they might have planned the
assault in advance.
The Proud Boys have increasingly found a home in the Republican Party,
according to reporting from "The Guardian," which dubbed them useful thugs
to the now former president.
We`re also learning of a reported gathering at the former president`s D.C.
hotel on the eve of the Capitol siege. "The Alabama Political Reporter"
points out that, according to a former official`s post on social media,
members of the former president`s family were there, allegedly with
loyalists like Michael Flynn and others that night, including Senator Tommy
Tuberville.
We reached out to Senator Tuberville`s office and a spokesman told us that
he did not attend a private meeting with those individuals.
So, joining me now is Congresswoman Val Demings of Florida, who serves on
the Homeland Security Committee.
And, Congresswoman, it`s great to have you here, both because of your
current job, and also because of your former job in law enforcement.
First of all, I have to ask you, as an elected official, what does it mean
to you, having gone through that Capitol siege, that we`re having to ask
questions about whether other elected officials that you serve with either
in the House or the Senate might have somehow been knowledgeable about it
in advance or involved?
REP. VAL DEMINGS (D-FL): Well, Joy, it`s great to be back with you.
And if people are still trying to understand what happened on January 6,
all they have to do is take a look at the video and the images from that
day. As a 27-year-law enforcement officer, I could not believe that I found
myself and several of my other colleagues trapped in the House Gallery on
the floor trying to duck or flee to safety, while the angry mob obviously
broke out glass and were trying to break into the House floor.
Absolutely unbelievable, and then, if that wasn`t bad enough to learn, and
I do believe -- there are multiple investigations going on, but I do
believe that those within Congress or their staff members participated in
making sure that the angry mob was ready that day, knew where they were
going, knew who they were looking for.
We know that information has come out that there were communications going
on about where certain members were. But there are multiple investigations.
We will get to the bottom of it. And I don`t particularly care what
position you`re in. Anybody who participated in that day, whether you were
part of the angry mob, or you enabled them to do what they did, should be
held accountable.
REID: And do you think that investigation should include that January 5
meeting to figure out who was there, if Michael Flynn, who was talking
about using the Insurrection Act and other sort of violence scenarios?
Do you think that meeting should be investigated criminally?
DEMINGS: Joy, it really has to be.
I mean, everything -- whenever a crime occurs, we go backwards, right? We
go back, and we review what was going on during the days, weeks, months
leading up to that event. And so, it is critical that we clearly understand
the meetings the day before, any tours that were taking place, try to find
out what those conversations were.
It is critical to the investigation. And, as I said, while it may take a
while to get there, I do believe that every person who was involved or
enabled must be held accountable and brought to justice.
REID: Let`s talk a little about the Proud Boys.
Enrique Tarrio, who is the leader of the Proud Boys, is a Floridian. There
seems to be quite a bit of Florida sort of connection. We have seen the
Proud Boys verbally attack the speaker of the House when she was in Miami.
So, we know that they are active in the state of Florida.
Are you concerned that, because Florida is also attracting so much of this
right-wing politics, so many of the people, including the retired former
president, are you concerned that Florida is going to become a base for
this kind of really anti-democracy sort of crypto-fascist activity?
DEMINGS: Well, I think that every state in our union should be concerned
about this type of negative entity, if you will, setting up shop in their
state.
The president -- if we go back to the presidential debate, the president
said, "Stand back and stand by." And, apparently, the Proud Boys have done
just that. The president had 49 other choices for where he could set up
shop. He chose Florida.
And so, we know that the Proud Boys participated in the insurrection, the
violent attack those who lost their lives on January 6. We know that they
were organized. We know that we have had arrests that were here in the
state of Florida.
And so, we certainly need to continue this investigation and certainly look
within Florida to see how much they knew, again, who assisted them.
REID: Yes.
DEMINGS: But we can`t just stop at Florida. We have got to look at every
state.
REID: Yes.
I got to put your -- got to put your law enforcement hat on one more time.
Enrique Tarrio, we now hear reports that he has been an informant, that
he`s been a police informant. That puts him in a very awkward position in
an organization where there are factions inside the Proud Boys that would
like it to be a more openly white nationalist organization, and he is Afro-
Cuban.
If you had that information on hand as a law enforcement officer, how would
you use that? And can that be used to sort of crack open this organization,
to the benefits of the public and law enforcement?
DEMINGS: Well, I really think we have to use every tool that we can and
every bit of information that we can.
It was interesting to see him move from being someone who apparently
cooperated on a regular basis with the FBI, for example, and now finds
himself in the situation that he is in.
But I do think, again, it is critical that we use that information, every
tool that we have, to really get to the bottom of what happened on January
6, so we can set up a place -- or come to a place where it will never
happen again.
REID: Absolutely.
Congresswoman Val Demings, if you decide that you want to trade up to a
statewide office, and maybe challenge one of the Republicans that is in
place right there statewide, can you come back and let us know first,
please?
DEMINGS: Well, let me just say this, Joy.
There is clearly a lack of leadership on the GOP side in the House and in
the Senate.
What was once a place where, like Adam Schiff said, giants stood, we now
have mere shadows of men. And so there is a leadership void. We will see
what happens.
REID: That sounds like a maybe.
Congresswoman Val Demings, thank you very much. Really appreciate you. Be
safe.
DEMINGS: Thank you.
REID: And before we go to break, I have some sad news.
Thank you.
I have some sad news to share, really heartbreaking news.
Groundbreaking actress Cicely Tyson, known for her Oscar-nominated role in
"Sounder" and for "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," a classic,
which you will see here in this photo, passed away today at the age of 96.
We are so sorry for the loss, really a loss to us all, and also to her
family.
We will be right back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: President Biden`s predecessor tried and failed to destroy the
Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately for the orange man, Obamacare lasted
longer than he did.
Today, President Biden signed two executive actions that would strengthen
the ACA and Medicaid. He also expanded access to reproductive health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, we`re about to sign two
executive orders to basically, the best way to describe it, to undo the
damage Trump has done. There is nothing new we are doing here other than
restoring the Affordable Care Act and restoring the Medicaid to the way it
was before Trump became president, it was by faith. He changed, made more
inaccessible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Because of the pandemic, Biden instructed HHS to open the federally
run health insurance marketplace for a special enrolment from February to
May, to help potentially millions of Americans acquire health insurance
coverage, badly needed.
Joining me now is Dr. Vin Gupta, critical care pulmonologist and global
policy expert.
Okay, I`ve got a couple questions for you. To start with Dr. Gupta, thanks
for being here as always. We are now hearing through "The New York Times"
the Pentagon may be sending troops to help distribute vaccines through
about 100 vaccine sites that maybe set up as early as next month.
We are also hearing from Reuters the Biden administration wants to allow
retired doctors to also be allowed to give COVID vaccines, creating more
vaccinators. Good ideas, those two things?
DR. VIN GUPTA, GLOBAL HEALTH POLICY EXPERT: Good evening, Joy. Good see
you.
They are wonderful ideas. I mean, this is exactly what we need. We need a
whole society approach. And, frankly, Joy, the military, I say this as a
reservist, I suit up in the Air Force, we have a ton of skills when it
comes to setting up triage clinics on the play, pop-up clinics to do
vaccines, where you can monitor people after they get their shot. There`s a
lot of capabilities that have not been used. I`m glad we`re using this,
and, frankly, we need more public/private partnerships.
We are seeing health systems partner with industry to scale -- have mass
vaccination clinics. A great example here in Seattle this past weekend. We
need more of this. I`m glad they are starting out with this type of
approach, because this is a race against time, Joy.
REID: It`s a race against time, but it also feels like it`s a race against
variants. So, I think of the coronavirus vaccine as the alien in the movie
"Aliens", right? It jumps in your body, use your body to reproduce itself,
but then it morphs into like other kinds of aliens, like the movie -- like
in the movie, right?
So, now, we are seeing this South Africa variant, which is scary. We`ve now
seen it in South Carolina. I believe it`s in South Carolina, we`ve now seen
it. It may be deadlier. It may be scarier and riskier.
So, in fighting that, I want you to give us a little bit of advice on what
we need to do in terms of mask. So, I never leave home without my masks,
OK?
GUPTA: Yeah.
REID: But I want to show you a few different kinds and tell me whether or
not one is better than the other. So, I brought props here. So, I have this
one, I have a KN95. So, this is the KN95 mask, right? Then, I`ve got the
N95 mask. So, that`s this one. This is the N95 mask. And then I have what a
lot of people wear, which is the cloth mask.
I like Black Panther. If I`m going with this, instead of the KN95, do I
need to pair it, double it up with this mask? This is the other mask that
people wear.
GUPTA: You know, I brought my own props. I`m going to answer your props
with my own.
REID: Surgical mask.
GUPTA: If you`re wearing cloth mask --
REID: OK.
GUPTA: So, if you`re wearing a clothe mask, wear one with at least a few
layers with them, and ideally, that have some type of zip tie or ability to
actually -- if you have ear loops on the mask, have something where you can
tighten the ear loop so you have a tight, snug fit, and then you can put
that three-ply little mask on top. That`s great.
A KN95 mask, we think, is potentially non-inferior. So, a KN95 mask is
good, but the problem there is the fit, because it still has those ear
loops. So, I would say the cloth mask, the thick cloth mask, multilayer
where you can tie -- the ear loops that you can make them tighten, followed
by one of those guys, these three-ply medical type mask, that`s a nice --
bang for your buck and a one-two punch of quality, where you have
filtration and a tight fit which we know is key.
N95s are just in short supply, unfortunately, and theirpeople keep them on?
Because sometimes people have difficulty breathing in them. So, N95, you
know, more in the health care we`re seeing. Since we don`t have as much
access to that, I would say you want a tight cloth mask with a blue mask on
top and try to tighten those ear loops.
Joy, if I may something real quick --
REID: Yes.
GUPTA: --you were bringing up something that`s vital, transmission
reduction, Joy. We are focused on vaccination because that is the way out
of the pandemic. But we don`t have to lose 200,000 plus Americas. Here are
the things that we should focus on.
Still, 47 states in our union have indoor dining with a concerning variant,
as you mentioned, 4,000 deaths a day. We really need to revisit the wisdom
of that. Why are we doing that right now versus pausing for eight to 12
weeks until we approach herd immunity. That`s one.
High risk teachers, they are forced to get back in schools, at least let`s
get them a vaccine, at minimum, to protect them. And then, finally, I will
say, for those who had mild to moderate symptoms and diagnosis of COVID-19,
that had mild to moderate symptoms in the last 10 days from COVID-19, go to
covid.infusioncenter.org. Potentially, you might get access to a monoclonal
antibody that might save your life.
GUPTA: Wow. This is great information.
All right, everybody. You heard Dr. Vin Gupta. Do all of this, don`t wait
on the vaccine, mask up, double up, get the mask with multiple layers.
Listen to this man. He knows what he`s talking about.
Dr. Vin Gupta, thank you very much. Be safe. Appreciate you.
All right. And coming up next, it is a long overdue populous -- is it a
long overdue populous uprising or an unwelcome insurgency? Reddit investors
take on the Wall Street giants in a no-holds barred cage match.
And that is straight ahead on THE REIDOUT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: Remember that time barely anyone showed up to the former president`s
rally after his staff claimed to have registered more than a million
tickets? At the time TikTok users took partial credit for it claiming to
have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets as a prank.
That`s just one example of the power of the Internet, something we`re
seeing again this week after a group of traders on Reddit came together to
disrupt Wall Street.
The traders noticed that the big hedge funds were shorting or betting
against the success of companies like video game retailer GameStop and AMC,
the theater giant. So, they decided to band together to buy stocks in those
very companies, driving up the price and causing the people who bet against
those attacks to lose a lot of money.
The app that many were using aptly named Robinhood restricted any further
trading in the companies after causing big losses for the hedge funds. That
led to outrage to both sides of the political spectrum. Democratic Senator
Brown of Ohio, the incoming chair of the Senate Banking Committee,
promising an investigation into the situation noting that people on Wall
Street only care about the rules and they`re the ones hurt.
Late today, Robinhood said they`ll allow limited stock buys of the
companies starting tomorrow.
And joining me is Taylor Lorenz, technology and internet culture reporter
of "The New York Times".
And, Ms. Taylor Lorentz, thank you so much for being here. One of my
favorite quotes about what happened here comes from an evangelical pastor
in California. He and his wife apparently made 117 bucks off GameStop doing
this Robinhood training, and he described a sense of frustration, according
to your reporting, at how well those in the financial sector have done
since 2008, and he told you there`s a catharsis to actually making money
off their pain a little bit, he said. His wife said more bluntly, eat the
rich. That was your reporting today.
Can you give us a background, who started this and why? Is it that? Was it
just an "eat the rich" game?
TAYLOR LORENZ, TECH & INTERNET CULTURE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES:
That`s part of it. It was started by an online company on Reddit called
Wall Street bets and this is a community with millions of users that`s been
pretty popular for a couple years at this point. It is basically a
community of day traders. So, these people that use Robinhood, they`re not,
you know, licensed financial brokers, most of them, their whole kind of
ethos is like we, the people.
You know, we -- the people who decide the value of the stock market kind of
we`re going to decide what companies have value and they kind of -- with
GameStop kind of adopted it as this kind of, you know, I guess face of the
broader movement to kind of take a swipe at the hedge funds.
REID: Yeah. And, of course, GameStop being at least for my big kids that`s
the favorite thing of young people, right? They`re sitting at home. They`re
playing video games or buying stuff off GameStop.
Let`s listen to Elizabeth Warren who`s talking a lot about this issue today
and she is talking about their needing to be rules of market manipulation.
Hedge funders make money betting against companies to fail and when they
get burned, they`re like, wait a minute, don`t do that.
Here`s Elizabeth Warren.
LORENZ: Right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): All of a sudden, the billionaires and some
hedge funds are yelling because they`re not the ones, the only ones, who
make money when the manipulation works, but remember the other half of
this. There are going to be a lot of people who are going to lose money
around this, a lot of money that they can`t afford to lose.
This is why we need an SEC that has clear rules about market manipulation
and then has the backbone to go in and enforce those rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: I think that`s the concern that I have, too, Taylor, that a lot of
people that played this game won in the short term but ultimately lose a
lot of money and out money that they need whereas the super-rich just re-
fix up the market again and they`re going to get richer.
LORENZ: Exactly. There are people that were putting really just all of the
money they have into this. Whether it`s $200, $1,000, even $15. That`s the
beauty of robin hood is to invest the really small amounts but, of course,
allowing everybody into the market can end up with some pretty bad
consequences.
REID: Yeah. Are there -- have you already seen sort of seeds of sort of a
backlash to the way that it`s played out? Are the Reddit community saying
this didn`t work out for us and what might they do next?
LORENZ: There`s a huge backlash. I would say the Internet exploded when
Robinhood announced they were halting trades, and some showed up at the
headquarters in California and protesting outside the SEC in D.C. and
they`re very angry. They feel totally slighted and able to get a piece of
the pie where they had kind of collectively manipulated the stock price and
maybe were going to make money from the system and feel like Robinhood
flipped and caved to the big banks and ultimately screwed them over.
REID: Because they did. I guess that`s the other bigger picture here. Was
the lesson that it is rigged? The thing that`s rigged is not politics and
necessarily the elections. That is not rigged. Wall Street is rigged, for
the rich.
LORENZ: Absolutely. This is what we keep seeing time and time again is
that, you know, when the big banks need a bailout, they get it. When the
little people need just maybe few hundred dollars back they might not have
invested quite so wisely or the market fell out in a different way, they
don`t have that and also people struggling, some gambling stimulus checks
because they would rather buy a lottery ticket in terms of investing than,
you know -- spend that money in different ways.
REID: Yeah. No. Absolutely. It`s definitely a lesson learned. Taylor
Lorenz, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate you.
That is tonight`s REIDOUT.
"ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES" starts now.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END
Copyright 2021 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are
protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced,
distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the
prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter
or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the
content.>