On Wednesday morning, Joe, MSNBC again showed that it is the place to welcome left-wing guests who have used incendiary rhetoric as “anti-racism” teacher Ibram X in the past. Kendi appeared as a guest to discuss his latest column on the Democratic Party from the Far Left.
Just a few months ago, allegedly “anti-racist” Kendi spoke out against interracial adoption when he tweeted then-Supreme Court candidate Amy Coney Barrett as a “white colonizer” for daring black children to adopt and care for.
At 8:37 am Eastern, MSNBC showed viewers clips from Democrats Joe Biden and Barack Obama complaining that the far-left’s “Defund the Police” slogan had hurt Democrats in competitive districts, and Mika Brzezinski, Co- Moderator, referred to a recent article by Kendi that appeared on The Atlantic as she built the segment:
Did the term “Defund the Police” harm the Democrats in the 2020 election? If you ask party leaders like Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the answer is yes. However, a new piece in The Atlantic argues that this analysis is far too simple. The piece, titled “Stop Scapegoating Progressives,” states that Democrats need elected officials to do what Trump never did: take responsibility.
With all the Liberal guests on the show – MSNBC staff Errin Haines, Eddie Glaude Jr., and Claire McCaskill along with Kendi – to discuss the issue, Brzezinski first asked Kendi what he meant by the play about Democrats “taking responsibility.” must “” for failure to meet expectations when choosing.
After Kendi complained about Democrats blaming the slogan “Defunding the Police” for some of their voting losses, he suggested that leaving to the left actually helped the Democrats:
We know, of course, that there is no evidence to establish widespread electoral fraud, but what has not been shown we haven’t – Democrats have not established that progressive politics alienated more voters than they mobilized, nor did they with evidence demonstrates that indeed, people in swing states who wanted to vote Republicans who might have voted Republicans anyway.
He added:
In other words, you had a lot of people who would probably vote Republicans anyway. And what we don’t know is that the police defunding was the reason they split their ballots and eventually voted Republicans. And all I ask is evidence to prove it. Elected officials said their constituents told them this was not evidence. And at a time when the Republican Party is built on misinformation and lies to the American people, speaking from the evidence is crucial for Democrats.
Willie Geist, co-host of Fill-in, described the liberal Biden as “moderate” and misleadingly stated that the Democratic candidate received a record number of votes – although that was nowhere near a record in terms of percentage of votes:
Indeed there was Record number of votes Cast for the Democratic candidate for President. 81 million votes to Joe Biden. I think the argument is that it was him moderate. Now Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other abandoned candidates quickly got behind him and said, “You see, the goal here is to get Donald Trump out of office. As soon as we do that, we can talk . ” about our progressive goals here.
How does it look now when you’re progressive? Joe Biden, a man who is temperate and who doesn’t check all the boxes that many progressives expect from them, what is the progressive movement like now with Joe Biden as president?
Nobody bothered to mention that back in the days when Democratic presidents were elected in their first terms, there were typically dozens of relatively moderate Democrats winning in Congressional districts and states that typically voted significantly for Republicans at the presidential level .
The segment appears to be Kendi’s first live interview on MSNBC since his September fire comments, though it appeared briefly in a taped report for the CBS Weekend News in November.
This episode of MSNBC’s Morning Joe was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual. Your contact information is linked.
Transcript follows;
MSNBC
Tomorrow Joe
December 16, 2020
8:37 a.m. East
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Did the term “Defund the Police” hurt the Democrats in the 2020 elections? If you ask party leaders like Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the answer is yes. However, a new piece in The Atlantic argues that this analysis is far too simple. The piece, titled “Stop Scapegoating Progressives,” states that Democrats need elected officials to do what Trump never did: take responsibility.
Its author, Ibram X. Kendi, now joins us. And he’s the founding director of the American University’s Anti-Racial Research and Policy Center and author of the best-selling book How To Be Anti-Racist. Join us for this interview, editor for the nonprofit newsroom The 19th and MSNBC contributor Errin Haines; Princeton’s Eddie Glaude Jr .; and former Senator Claire McCaskill are also back with us. So Ibram, I think I want you to lead us further through your claim that responsibility must be taken. What do you mean by that?
IBRAM X. KENDI; Well, first of all I mean, after the election we had Republicans who said Donald Trump lost, but the Republicans who were voted down won because of widespread electoral fraud. At the same time, we had Democrats arguing that Biden won, but Democrats who were voted down lost because of progressive measures like defusing the police. We know, of course, that there is no evidence to establish widespread electoral fraud, but what has not been shown we haven’t – Democrats have not established that progressive politics alienated more voters than they mobilized, nor did they with evidence demonstrates that indeed, people in swing states who wanted to vote Republicans who might have voted Republicans anyway.
In other words, you had a lot of people who would probably vote Republicans anyway. And what we don’t know is that the police defunding was the reason they split their ballots and eventually voted Republicans. And all I ask is evidence to prove it. Elected officials said their constituents told them this was not evidence. And at a time when the Republican Party is built on misinformation and lies to the American people, speaking from the evidence is crucial for Democrats.
WILLIE GEIST: Ibram, it’s Willie. Nice to see you this morning. In fact, there was a record number of votes cast for the Democratic candidate for president. 81 million votes to Joe Biden. I think the argument is that it was moderate. Now Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other abandoned candidates quickly got behind him and said, “You see, the goal here is to get Donald Trump out of office. As soon as we do that, we can talk . ” about our progressive goals here. Now what about being progressive with Joe Biden, a man who is moderate and doesn’t tick all the boxes that many progressives expect from him, what does the progressive movement look like now with Joe Biden as president?
KENDI: I think the progressive movement of course continues to support higher minimum wages for people, human health care as a human right and the existential recognition of climate change as an existential threat and the corresponding response. Recognize even bigotry as an existential threat to human life and react accordingly. Even push for immediate equality and push for action that can eradicate police violence, eradicate voter repression, that can even eradicate poverty and the raging prosperity gap. And, you know, I think the same kind of politics are really going on no matter who was president. Progressives will push for the same kind of politics.
(…)
Comments are closed.